The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1896-09-03

should like to call the attention of every
farmer in the United States to this speech;
an ounce. He said: Notwithstanding
heaven has smiled upon the agricultural
portion of the country, rams have fallen
and the radiant sun has ripened year after
year rich and abundant harveSts, yet the
ana times harder than ever before. Inc
farmers of the United States are reminded
mat N this year of grace 1886 Mr.. Bland
is telling them that. owing, to the faiI IN
the value of silver. it is the competition
OF free-silver countries which is de-
pressing the prices of their products. On
Yer still stood at $129, Mr.. Bland said:
You have by an unexampled contraction
of the currency reduced the value of the
agricultural land and produce one-half in
the last eight years. While you
farmer produces at least one~half, you
have not reduced his debts one cent. His
anus nave come down, ms cattle ana
produce came down. his currency taken
away, but his mortgages and debts of all
kinds remain standing. according to the
amount OF the contract What Mr.. Bland
stood for was imitation OF the currency.
1t was into this peculiar brain that in 1876
was inoculated the silver virus by the
speech of Senator Jones. and behold! the
godfather of the silver child had becn
found.
In July, 1876, Mr.. Bland introduced a free
coinage bill, and in the next two years the
question was eagerly debated. Many mon
In the summer of 1876, when silver was
worth $l.13 an ounce, General Garfield, dis
ccqqssing free coinage, said in the House;
contained as many of the essential ele-
ments of vast rascality or colossal swim
Blaine said: The free coinage of a dollar
containing 41213 grains of silver IS an un-
| eminent has no right to give to the owner
of silver bullion, and which defrauds the
man who is forced to take the dollar"
But the man who most clearly character
lied the influences at work, and whose
words are ~singularly appropriate today,
was Congressman Blair, of New Hamp-
shire, who. in January, 1878, said in the
House: The advocates of irredeemaDle
money having no intrinsic or commodity
value are very numerous and powerful:
The silver movement is one sideshow on
their programme. The attempt to repeal
the resumption act is another. In Jhe
management of these subsidiary exhibit
tons they have secured the service or
many upright men, who do not quite see
the nefarious nature of the great humbug
which they accompany. and to which they
lend an unfortunate degree of character
and prostituted respectability."
1t must be emembered that the first
free-coinage bill was introduced at a time
panic three years before. The community
had not recovered from it's effects. Every
body felt that something was wrong: Many
believed that any change must be for the
better. Panics are the hot beds of financial
delusions. Men were weak. Moral courage
was lacking. The Bland-bill compromise
was agreed to. President Hayes vetoed it
and said in his MESSAGE: "A currency
worth less than it purports to be will in
NilC NiiA USAhoNA - 10y -. 0ANCAE 49, 90
who are engaged in legitimate business,
and none more surely than those who are
dependent on their daily labor for their
daily bread"
SILVER POISONING.
The bill was passed over his veto and be-
came a law Feb. %. 1873. The silver poison
then began to be forcibly injected into our
financial system. The dose was s~mall-only
81. 600. 600 worth per month. Many poisons
taken in small doses act stimulatingIy at
first. The following year, 1879, specie pay
ments were resumed. The American dol
lar. which had been an S7-cent dollar in
1873, was again, after seventeen
years, "a full 100-cent dollar. Trade
revived. American enterprise and energy,
again unfettered, produced wealth in magic
profusion. For four years our crops Were
abundant. European crops were light. Our
exports swelled and a food of gold poured
into the country. The silver men tainted
their opponents who had prophesied that
silver coinage would drive out gold. Even
said in the House: From the time that we
began the coinage of silver. confidence took
the place of d%istrust, prosperity that of adj
versity, and since that time tplease mark
thiS) we have, probably since the begin
ming of our government, never been more
time the farmer was enabled to pay up mis-
back debts and start anew!
Two years again passed by. The outlook
* nv 1oAtS ~ CSS- Nv tlilOdii VI oIl-
YER poison in our financial system had been
slowly but constantly growing larger. The
government dues began to be paid more in
greenbacks and less in gold. On April 7,
1856, Mr., Bland. who only two years before
Va q coinsre .he br Hgsitsrat on{ i in iba 4 % s,l-
There are a million of men out of en-
ployment in this country. because there is
e r31 SHli fbemI" money a nTe b ahe pee aef to
spectacle of millions starving and naked in
the midst of plenty" = 'Of all the
raScaIlV wrongs nprDptr9tad unOn Cljr paO-
pie this limited coinage is the most insidi-
Gus because of its apparent FEASIBILITY"
mine our monetary system and the cure Of
fered was: Poison in larger doses. In 1890,
government was compelled to increase it's
purchases of silver to 1850, 900 ounces per
month. In the twelve years preceding, over
291. 10000 ounces of silver had been forced
into our financial system. 1t had finally
BECOME thoroughly saturated with this me-
tallic poison. Far-seeing economists fore
told the inevitable. AS early as August,
1880, Mr.. Giffen, the English economist,
wrote: The moment it is seen that the
promise to give the people of the United
States both gold and silver as a standard
cannot be kept there will assuredly be a
new agitation, and probably a panic.'
Our exports were enormous. The ball
ance of trade in 1892 was $500, 600, coo in our
favor. but it brought US no prosperity.
The foreign countries, suspicious of our
financial future, balanced their accounts. |
not with gold, but with American securi-
ties, which they feared to retain. In the
three years, 1891, 1892 and 1898, over sl55,-
000, coo of gold were exported. Our own
people began to hoard it. In the spring OF
1898, for the first time in fifteen years. the
treasury gold reserve fell below $10G. 600 coo. |
The ratio of silver to gold in our treasury.
which had only been p per cent. in 1878
had grown to 13 per cent. The fear of
a silver basis suddenly spread, and the
ruinouS panic of 1893 was Upon us. THE |
mills of the gods grind slowly" 1t had
taken fifteen years to make good the
prophecies of danger resulting from our
silver policy.
THE PRESENT SITUATION.
We have had six years of constant bust
ness strain and insecurity. We have had
three years of the most acute business dis
tress. Tens of thousands of men have
been ruined. Want and care have in
vaded countless American homes. Our
poor, distracted Nation, which should he
resounding with the voices of gladness
anu prosperity, has been plunged into the
depths of dumb despair. And now, after
all this sad experience with the limited
coinage of silver, this Nation is asked to
embark into the bottomless sea of free and
unlimited coinage. The same original in
fluences p~ersist-Selish personal interest
on the one hand, imitation on the other.
Some men, intelligent and sincere, but
sentimental and emotional, have joined the
silver ranks and are fighting. as they
think, the battle of humanity. TO the stu
dent of history this is not strange. There
never was a widespread unrighteous cause