Omaha daily bee., 1898-09-16
THE OMAHA DAILY BEE. FRIDAY. SEPTEMBER 49, 1895.

That meant 1t was nne-t tenths fine and that
silver was then for sale and not for circua
ton Since the year 1900 Il is hardly an
eXaggeration to say that there has not been
coined solitary silver dollar on private
account for circulation. What becomes then
OF the charge of striking down one OF the
metals and Of the tale OF the demonetiIa-
tion Of silver with all its train Of evis2
Now, my populst friend you say coining
money is COVE! nmental function, yet you
oppose the coinage of silver by the govern
ment (Cres Of mo! No!')
with a Bryan illustration about eggs he
proceeded
The free coinage of silver Is simply the
coinage by the government OF silver on
private account without any charge for coin
ing That's where the freedom comes in
free to the individual private account.
suppose you were to put up dozens of eggs
in sacks and label them "a dozen" would
that affect the price of eggs?
| Weller-Suppose 1t was made legal ten
der?
what Legal Tender" Can DO.
| Mr.. McCleary-Well. suppose 1t was-but
will come to that. The demand for eggs
would not be any greater than the demands
| Of business So free coinage would not in
the slightest affect the demand for silver.
The government simply attests by stamping
how much silver there is in the dollar. My
friend speaks of legal tender. l wish to say
that the legal tender quality can affect
transactions already had, but it is abso-
lutely powerless to affect transactions which
are to be. The law by making thing
/, | other than what the obligation was con-
tracted in legal tender may enable me to
cheat you, but 1t cannot compel you to do
business with me again. Another thing
you can't put quality into thing by just
giving 1t a name. ii you want your boy to
grow up a soldier you can't make him one
by calling him Ulysses S. Grant. The
, meaning Of the word, dollar" depends alb
solutely upon the thing with which it is as
sociated. The United States congress, by
the power vested in it, has full power to
call an inch a foot but that would not add
} single inch to our stature. Again, calling
two things by the same name won't make
them So You can call chip dollar 1t
will be dollar with the purchasing power
of chip.
Weler-But it demonstrates the sover-
eign power of congress.
} Mr.. McCleary-No more than the sover-
; ei2n power Of your mother when she called
you ly your first name.
, | Weller-I have been called by my other
name t"Caamity'D so long that | have al
most forgotten the name my mother gave
me.
Mr.. McCleary-And so has the rest of the
world. (Roars Of laughter at Weller's ex-
pense.)
t Uncle Sam can say a piece of paper is a
dollar, and it will be dollar with the pur-
chasing power OF piece Of paper. An
order for COW is good for the COW, but If
Y you get thirsty win you stop and milk the
) order? cloud laughter and applause)
reference then made by Mr. Nc
Cleary to the hairless Mexican dog to dem
onstrate that because hair is generally as
r sociated with dogs and legal tender with
A | money 1t does not necessarily follow that
by the mere dictum of the government
o legal tender could add anything to the
a recognized value of gold as an accepted
standard He also alluded to the transac-
ton recorded in Genesis of Abraham's pur-
chase OF a burial place for 400 shekes of
| ell wit +ba nbon
which silver Abraham weighed" out. and
y observed that long before money was coined
g gold and silver were current money" with
the merchant, by weight The English
| pound sterling originally meant pound of
:; silver, likewise the French livre. But the
il inconvenience of testing and weighing the
/? metals in every transaction made it neces-
: sary for the people to have their govern
e ing power look after the testing and the
5 coming of the metals into convenient forms
for use as money. That's all there is to
&c coinage he said.
l.; Cross-Examinedb by Williams.
n At this point there was something OF an
d uproar. Mr.. McCleary's time had been ex-
Is tended somewhat to enable him to conclude
~ and several Of the fiatists complained that
IF all the time Of the paper money day was
being frittered away in discussion of the
=, metals and coinage. George Fred Williams
n also came forward with a formidable array
, Of questions which he wanted Mr.. McCleary
l., to answer Others desired to hear Mr.. Nc
% Cleary explain his currency bill. The up
u shot of it all was that Chairman Hartman
- allowed Mr. Williams to PROFOUND a long
II series of technical questions 10 Mr.. Nc
- Cleary concerning the operations of his
"a currency bill. Essaying to answer some of
~ them Mr.. McCleary replied: under our
tbn will m
control the volume of money"
% Willams-In other words. is ii your posi-
III tion that the government shall continue to
+ control the volume of metallic money and
ID that the issue of paper money shall be on
l. private account?
N Mr.. McCleary-The government shall con-
IN tinue to allow free coinage of gold; the
=, coming of silver will be on government
- account. The issue of paper is purely a
III private transaction. (Applause)
% More complaints followed from the fiat
Sc lists about their time. 1t is no fault o
70 theirs, one of them sail, that the gold and
i silver men have failed to state their case
Is and maintain their positions in the two
days respectively devoted to them. Chair
IN man Hartman explained that he is simply
40 40 carrying out the program.
a. w. w. Clay of Chicago took the plat
IN form to say that money Is not money by
le virtue Of its substance, but by virtue Of
v the law behind it, and that he was opposed
- to the free coinage of either gold, silver
le or paper on private account.
OF John Il. Irish's Views.
n short speech from John p. Irish o.
,e San Francisco in support OF the gold stand
ard came next Mr.. Irish said
ne My friend Williams has said that for the
. single gold standard there has not been
=, made any showing of defense. Perhaps il
~ is because the gold standard needs no de-
Tense. Andrew Jackson said, Gold is the
er only UNIVERSAL and honest standard OF
le value" Thomas jefferson, who wrote the
ht Declaration of Independence-and my friend
so Weller loves to quote that document and
es the constitution of our country-said: "I
ey is commercial problem that could not
ct be affected by statutory law, as our stand
I'd ard of value must be the same as that oi
IN the country with which we have the most
at commerce" Now, twenty-seven nations
Oh with which the United States does business
ll have the gold standard, and, according tc
III 'Old Hickory jackson and Thomas Jeffer.
e son, we must have the gold standard. An.
u, u, other OF the fathers OF our country said
81 that for the government to issue paper
y money is the same to steal. Senator
70 70 Allen said yesterday Money is a creature
~ of law" but money is a creature of neces-
- sity. The cannot anforca q