Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1898-11-01

81 III 81 @ q
nv countrymen. would YOU believe It. that
this same distinguished gentleman when
the campaign OF 1896 came on, two years
had the e ead 81 GRe ana
Of President Mckinley by declaring that
silver was TOO bulky for money circula-
on i, but n he forgot to inform the people
ious republic he had admitted and
vouched his great ability and long exper-
fience for the fact that neither silver nor
gold would circulate among the people as
money!? Now give us the free and TN
limited coinage of silver at the ratio of
IS to ! with gold, a paper currency re-
silver at the option of the government,
and we will have constitutional money as
the basis of our circulating medium
when WiA be as omnipotent and fesistless
in the uses to which we apply it as our
proves on sea and our arms on land
we're to the gold standard monarchy of
ator Sherman and the gold standard adj
vocates generally, has been TO deceive
the people into BELIEVING that gold only
was precious" In March, 1924, in the
House of Representatives, the clarion
| voice of Henry Clay was heard. Love Of
his country was the lofty inspiring motive
that moved him. He was picturing con-
favorably upon the industries of this
country. He said: everywhere we
should witness excited industry. The pre-
cious metals would rehow from abroad
upon US Clay knew that gold was pre-
cious and silver was precious. and that to-
gether they flowed in and stimulated the
great arteries of trade and commerce.
Think of Sherman or Carlyle, Mckinley
or Cleveland. in comparison with Henry
Clay. The one noble and lofty, the others
wallowing in the mire of filthy lucre: -
| the one the yVatprS of the St1nb-
| back as they go laughing to the seas,
the others with the doors of "Maremma's
| lofty as the peaks of Teneriffe, the others
| like the shifting sand hills of some wes-
| tern prairie.
THE CLAIM OF "ovERPRoDUc-
In years gone by, when the silver men
have complained of the fall in prices, the
advocates of the gold standard have at
tempted to explain it upon the theory of
overproduction They told us over and
over. again that prices have fallen because
we have produced so much There are
two or three answers to be made to this.
First, the best and most conclusive an
sWer IS that 1t is not true. The claim of
overproduction has never been proven and
it never can be. Only a short time ago
the Royal Commission of England, APP
| pointed to investigate the causes of the
agricultural depression prevailing, made
| it's final report. In that report it is stat
| ed, and without contradiction from any
SOuItS, lHdl the pTOQUcUOn Oh wheat, LOT
| example, is smaller in proportion to the
wheat consuming population of the world
| than it was some. years ago. And yet
there is no one article on the entire list,
| the fall of which has been more distinctly
marked than that of wheat. except. of
course, as it is now risen or did rise mod
erately in consequence of crop failures in
other countries. Another answer is that
| the excuse of overproduction is no excuse
at all. No matter how much wheat and
other things have increased in quantity
II the cIlTniy y al iprrea .eH in tn
same ratio, this great fall Of prices would
not have taken place. Henry Clay in that
| same grand address to which l have al
| luded, declared that a nation is most
! prosperous when there is a gradual and
| attempting increase to the aggregate of
us circulating medium and If we had
| we would have had all the benefit of a.
| natural, steady and attempting increase
| IN the volume of our money: The very
| grayamen Of our complaint is that the
| supply of money has been partly cut off
| by the demonetization of silver, while the
| supply of all other things which money
year after year. do not believe that
| there is a single great staple that has
been produced either in Europe or Ameri-
| ca in excess of the capacity of the people
| to consume it. Yet quite generally these
things have beeen produced beyond their
capacity to pay for them, and consequent
ly the prices have fallen.
| INCREASED PRODUCTION OF GOLD
IuGy tel us lHdL we 40 NOT u6eQ SllNGT
money because the production of gold is
largely increasing and there is sure to be
enough of that metal. Upon this point
it is sufficient for NE to say that up to
gold production which at all compares
with the increased demand for 1t. rot
| only is the use in the arts becoming
greater and greater every year until It
now equals perhaps hundred million
dollars annually, but nation after nation
is swinging over to the gold standard,
hive q lEf 4
for monetary purposes. 1t is stated upon
high authority that Russia alone has
| added nearly $50 600 to her stock OF
gold last year, all of which is locked up
and entirely withdrawn from monetary
use. Altogether she has about $500 co.,
COO tied up in her treasury, while Austria
| has about $50, CO.,. AS for the future pro-
| duction, no human being can tell what 1t
! is likely to be. When the gold men talk
about that, they are simply guessing, 1t
| is. however. tolerably safe to affirm, that
| twenty-five years, the production VIII
| relatively diminish rather than increase,
because those portions of the world where
the geological conditions are favorable for
| great gold discoveries to be made, have
been quite generally explored already. We
know that during all the thousands of
| years through which the world has pass
ed since civilization first began TO light
| the horizon of the East, there has never
been too much of either gold or silver, or
| both combined, for the wants of men, and
! we have not the slightest reason to be-
| lieve that there ever will be.
Some newspapers are trying to make II
| appear that the prospects for increased
| gold production is both certain and grand,
| and argue that when this increased pro-
| duction does come that our agricultural
! interests will be greatly benefited. What
| a magnificent concession to the theory OF
| the free silver cause. We would rejoice
to know that our gold production would
| to our supply of gold money, because it
| would establish the views of the silver
| advocates very quickly, as 1t would be
| the increased volume of money that would
| increase the price of farm products and
| advance wages, the very thing that the
| silver men contend for and the very thing
| that did occur by the enlarged use of sill
| Yer under the Sherman silver law as is
| abundantly established by the testimony
| of Mckinley, Sherman and Harrison.
| But, as we have said, there is nothing
| to encourage the belief of an overflow of
| gold. 1t is like the mirage of the desert
| something always seen but never reach
! ed. The very recent report Of the United
| Cook, is to the contrary, and the dis
tinguished Republican Senator from West
Virginia, Mr. Stephen B. Elkins, declared
before the Republican state League at
| Farmont on June 10, 1894, that the peo-
| pie are too intelligent TO permit values
| to be measured by gold alone, the produc-
| ton of which is relatively diminishing in
the world. This would make money dear
er and property cheaper
| The report of the treasury department
presided over for thirty years by gold
| standard secretaries, and issued in 1886,
| completely demolishes the main argument
. -. -T IL