Daily capital journal. (Salem, Or.) 1896-1899, 1898-05-04
oEER ON FINANCE
Extract From His OPsning Speech at
Toledo Nav 4.

Extract rom his OPen-nB SpeeSn a.
Toledo May 4.
LAS q vote getting DrOpOsiti.in. II
would De- difficult 10 find anything
more effective than two 50 called I'm
sncial pisnss m the fusion platform.
one declares far the free coinage Of
silver at the ratio Of Is TO ], and the
other Tor national money, safe and
sound. The free coinage proposition
. is tobait those republicans who always
opposed pOpulism because Of its fiat
notions about money, aud who now
say they are a. good republicans as
they ever were. nc nearer pOpulism
than they ever we're. OF course, that
plank will catch them. The other
plank. which demands a safe and
sound money. issued by the govern
ment. is reproduction Of the Omaha
platform, slightly sugar-cOated. This
is supposed 10 make room for the pop
ulists, who really care DC more for free
silver than they do for any other the
ory which they deem fallaty.
"The demand for the retention Of
the ratio OF 10 10 i is a recognition
OF the intrinsic value Of money. be-
cause it has reference to weight, 10
quantity. II there is 10 intrinsic
value 10 silver or gold the quantity
or weight Of them might as well he
entirely disregarded. Indeed, the
silver man contradicts himself, be-
cause if,as be says, money derives its
sCle value from the law, then the
weight or quantity should have no
consideration whatever. There is no
escape from the proposition that the
recognition Of the ratio Of IS to / rec.
ognizes the value Of the material
without the law because, under that
ratio or any other ratio, the law does
not determine the value until the
scales determine the weight. If the
law gives the sole value to gold and
silver, why consult the scales at all ?
Cannot A l0-year old child see the ut
ter absurdity Of the whole proposition
that the commercial ratio OF the two
metals can be ignored as long as the
theory Of any ratio is recognized
The sheer falIacy of setting up the
law theory Uf money and still contend
ing for ratio that refers to weight
only is 50 apparent that thinking men
are rapidly abandoning it altogether.
In all ages the ratio between gold
and silver. in all countries, has been
the number Of ounces Of silver it. re-
qlired to buy one ounce of gold.
There has never been a time when
silver was not growing cheaper. If
this were not true, the ratio, / tol,
which prevailed ia early ages would
still be the recognized ratio. OF
course, the first change from that
ratio could have been for no other
reason than to prevent the coinage Of
too many silver dollars from a given
quantity Of silver bullion. No other
reason has ever been given, or ever
can. From tne beginning silver has
gradually grown more abundant, and
therefore cheaper, until in order to
sufficiently restrict the number OF
silver dollars, the ratio of Is to was
reached. l have never heard that any
legislation caused the
ratio to change from / to
l to l6 10 l, although many centuries
elapsed during that time. 1t is so
well understood that the discovery of
increased quantities of silver as COM
pared with gold made it desirable to
restrict the number of silver dollars
that tue silly cry of 'unfrlendly legis-
latiOn' was never heard. The neces-
sity for limiting the number of silver
dollars has always been recognized.
That end has heretofore been reached
by changing the ratio TO keep pace
the relative production of silver and
gold, but during the last 30 years, it
has been done by closing the mints
instead of changing the ratio"