The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1897-02-04

This is illustrated by Rabelais in this
way: A river with two tributary feed
ing streams at its source il less liable
to overflow or to 20 dry than river
with one stream at its source. Why!
Because when one of the feeders was
swollen the other might be dry, and vice
versa, and the fact that both of them
might flow or go dry at the same time
would be so rare an occurrence that 1t
could hardly be taken into consideration.
And that illustrates bimetallism. Here
is volume of money. and it is contrib.
uted TO from two sources, one gold and
one silver History tells us that the pro-
duction of gold and silver has increased
and decreased at various times. Some
times gold has increased, sometimes sill
YER and the use of both metals together
has given us more uniform volume OF
money than we would have had we been
dependent upon one metal alone"
Continuing along this line of argument
the speaker said:
"Now let me call your attention to one
important thing in connection with this
| remember man said TO me once: i
agree with you in your discussion OF Di-
metallism except that don't think the
debtor should have the option and told
him that if he differed with me there, that
he differed with me on everything.
believe that the debtor should be allowed
to select the money in which his debts
are to be paid. Let me show you how
important this part il. Suppose that you
owed a man some money. Suppose that
you had two kinds of money, gold ana
silver. There is no one who Will say
that the creditor has a perfect right to
choose the coin of payment. Suppose
that by his speculation he has succeeded
in running the value of gold up and that
ut the time of payment he demands this
coin from you in payment of your debts.
claim that you should have a perfect
right to choose the money of payment.
am willing TO base it on that. Suppose
that the creditor should choose the higher
money. Would this not result in max
ing this high money still dearer and the
low money still lower? But suppose you
give the option to the debtor. He thinks
the creditor selfish and pays him back in
the cheaper money and gets even with
him for his selfishness.
Right at this point i want to show
you the difference between independent
bimetallism and international bimetal-
lsm. International bimetallists say that
we can't have bimetallism until foreign
nations will join with us. They say to
the foreign fnanciers, if you insist upon
making n silver dollar on Il par with gold,
we will help you do it. What do indie
pendent bimctallists say? They say to
the foreign financier, if you insist upon
your influence to break gold and silver
apart, we shall restore bimctallism, and
we shall make you take the metal that
you purposely degraded. You have tried
to persuade foreign creditors to join you
in taking away an advantage which they
have. And here might say. my friends,
that ! have been very much interested i'll
a recent development in the political stu
alton. The papers announce that GER
tain senator has gone to Europe as an
ambassador by the president-elect to
bring foreign nations to national bimetal-
lsm.
be in vain. Why should they forsake a
standard that hassEielded them so much
profit? 1t is, as Washington once said,
there is no disinterested kindness be-
tween nations. | am afraid that the SEN
ator's trip will avail little but l am conf
dent that when 100000 people over
here rise up and speak the other coun-
tries will have to join in"
Along this line of argument Mr. Bryan
suggested that we must strike out for
ourselves. Where was the sense in adher-
ing to policy that threatened to ruin not
only ourselves but others as we'll He
Illustrated by saying that if there were
two boats capable of holding only three
persons each, and when the last three ar
rived and found three already in one of
the boats would it not be the part of wis
dom for them to get into the other boat
and escape alive rather than to climb into
the boat already containing three and
drown?
Mr.. Bryan spoke at some length after
this in defense as well as in advocacy of
his views on bimetallism. His speech
was warmly received at all times, and at
its close many went on the stage and
shook his hand. Mr.. Bryan will leave
this morning for San Antonio