People's voice. [volume] (Wellington, Sumner County, Kansas) 1890-1917, 1897-02-04

Who named it?
While | am not much of silverite |
have always felt that to make light Of
"the crime of 1878" showed very poor
taste, because the history of the country
since that year has been such as to war
rant the most serious consideration OF
what then took place, and also because
I believe with Mr.. Bryan that 1T does
not take very good policy to be better
than theirs"-the gold standard advo-
Gates The facts show that the demon
etization of silver, which lasted five
years and was only partially undone in
1878, was the elimination Of cOnspir-
aCy entered into by the money power to
compel the producers of wealth to hand
over more of their products to those who
already had enough. They seemed to
act on the theory of all interest takers,
$40 him that hath shall be given and
from him that hath not shall be taken
away even that which he hath"
We started with the inquiry as to
who named the demonstration Of silver
''the crime of 1873" l have no positive
information on the subject, although l
know that many congressman, when
they fully realized what had been done,
did not hesitate to denounce it in the
strongest terms. But the following
speech of John G. CarliSle's, delivered
in the United States congress Feb. 81,
1878, has probably done more than any
other one thing to make "the crime Of
1878" a synonym for the demonetiza-
sion of silver:
II know that the worlds stock Of
precious metals is none too large, and |
see no reason to apprehend that it will
ever become SO. Mankind will be for
tunate, indeed, if the annual produc-
tion of gold and silver coin shall keep
pace with the annual increase Of popu-
lation, commerce and industry. Accord
ing to my view Of the subject, the con-
spiracy which seems to have been formed
here and in Europe to destroy by legis-
lation and otherwise from three-sev-
enths to one-half of the metallic money
Of the world is the most gigantic crime
Of this or any other age. The consum-
nation of such a scheme would ulti.
mately entail more misery upon the hu-
man race than all the wars, pestilenCe
and famine that ever occurred in the
history of the world. The absolute and
instantaneous destruction Of half the en-
tire movable property of the world, H.
Guiding houses, ships, railroads and all
other appliances for carrying On the
commerce, while it would be felt more
sensibly at the moment, would not rro-
duce anything like the prolonged dis
tress and disorganizatiOn Of society that
would inevitably result from the perma-
nent humiliation of One-half Of the me-
tallio money of the world"
This speech had been very widely
quoted. But after having watched his
course as secretary of the treasury and
seen him pay out gold for which the ma
ton was running in debt when silver
coin was "a legal tender for all debts
public and private except when other
wise specified in the contract" and
could be had without issuing bonds, I
could hardly believe that Mr.. Carlisle
mad ever used the language he was cred
tied with; so l sent the clipping asking
him if he said what was therein report
ed. In his reply he said:
1.-THE newspaper extract which you
send is taken from a speech delivered
by me in the United States house of
representatives in 1878; but, separated
from the context, it amounts to sub
Stantial Misrepresentation Of my posi-
non. "
As | wished to use the quotation and
certainly did not wish to "misrepre-
sent, " l wrote again, asking for the
speech in full.
Did l get it? No.
What did get? 1 got Carlisle's Chi.
cagO, CoyingtOn, Memphis, Bowling
Green, Louisville, New York and Bos-
ton speeches of 1S93-5-6, and one which
bore the heading, "The Carlisle Speech
Of 1873" This last, instead of being
the speech itself, was a letter written in
explanation of it, but the particular
passage on which information was de-
sired was not alluded to- Certainly l
have done my best to get the context, "
so that l need not "misrepresent" III
his letter of explanation Mr.. Carlisle
says he did not believe in free coinage
of silver" and that some of his opin
ions have undergone a complete
change.
To change his mind is every mans
right, but when a public man whose
acts a6ect the people as do those of our
secretary of the treasury changes his
mind and in accordance with that
change runs the country in debt $262,
100000 directly and collectively-no-
body knows how much indirectly and
individually-he should have most ex-
. oellent reasons for so doing. And the
people have right to know what they
are.
5ohn G. Carlisle has seen-not in his
own experience, for he is tolerably well
ixed-the misery" which he said must
result from "the attempt to destroy by
legislation ##+ from three-sevenths to
ene-half of the metallic money of the
world" He sees the prolonged dis
tress and disorganization of society" 60
ing on as he predicted. Why, then, has
he changed his mind? Yet he seems now
to be in league with the consp;rators ad-
vocating the gold standard 20 establish
which was the object of the "conspir-