Omaha daily bee., 1898-09-16

most money and that rates will be lowest
where the deposits are greatest. There Is
not the slightest difference between the
/ lending the notes OF a bank and lending the
/ deposits, or granting credits. except so far
as the habits OF the people require one in
stead OF the other.
Cuts the Fiatists out.
After MIR Fowler concluded Horace White
OF New York took the floor for a few min
utes to deny the statement attributed to him
the day previous by Senator Allen. From
this time on the discussion was in the ma
ture OF a three-cornered debate with the
fatists somewhat in the cold.
The first speaker OF the afternoon session
was President Thomas L. Wills OF the Kan
sas Agricultural college. His position was
an argument In favor of pubric control of
money as public utility as against private
| control. Thine was" he said when
money might have been left to private con-
troll. Then the people were serfs, and a
few aristocrats owned all the land and even
the highways and the machinery of produc-
ton. That day is past The social move
ment at present is away from private con-
troll of all public utilities. In the past in
dividualists opposed public control Of edu-
cationar institutions. Highways were once
under private ownership. The postofice is
an illustration of the advantage OF public
control. Shall we say that the most i'm
portant of public utilities, money, shall still
remain under private control?'
He arraigned the banking element for
legislation inimical to the interests OF the
people, and with expanding and contracting
the money vorume at will He charged the
bankers with the destruction OF the green
backs, demonetizing silver, producing the
panics of 1873 and 1898 and with being en-
gagged in a scheme for an international gold
standard and the destruction of all gov
ernmenU paper money. He hoped a stats
tical determination of prices would be made
authoritatively by the government and some
process be found for their regulation. The
banking element, he said further is welded
to the old aristocratic notion OF exclusive
control by the few of the interests OF the
many and, he concluded, the time had come
for the whole banking system, as now con-
stituted to be routed from its dictatorial
position in the affairs Of the people and Its
menace to the producing masses OF the great
west and south
"CnInmity" Weller's Argument.
L. II. Weller of Iowa followed for twenty
minutes with an arraignment of the money
power and, taking the Declaration OF lnde'
pendence for his text, he declared 1t to be
the fiat on paper of the American people
|
the people and asserted that he is proud
of his position as a fatist from the govern
mental point of view. "All money" hi
said, "s fat" He dwelt upon the preamble
, of the Declaration of independence as be-
! ing a prelude to the United States constitu
} ton and labored to show that what 1--WE
the people," had declared is in direct con
tradiction to what the bankers insist upon
The bankers he accused of being welded t
British aristocracy. Then going on with hi
discussion he said
Gold is not money per Sc. VIII my friend
: the enemy, from the village of New Jerse!
deny this? Silver is not money per Sc. vii
the advocates of the gold standard deny this
Paper is not money per Sc. The constltu
ton expressly conferred upon congress th
power to create money and regulate it
value.
The remainder Of his speech, which h
] read very rapidly so as to get as much o
, Il as nossble before the audience in hi
limited time, was devoted to his contention
, for the legal tender function of money ant
his claim that the monetary function wa
: entirely dependent upon its legal tende
potency, conferred by the expressed will o
the people through legislation.
To demonstrate that value could be leg
: islated into things Weller produced tw
= I nal1 uOllar COINS, Sldnudru uOlIdT anu
T trade dollar The two half dollars com
S bined, he said, contained only 3S4 grain
OF silver. the standard silver dollar 412l
grains and the trade dollar 42O grains Ye
|, the 3S4 grains in the two halves were equa
under the law to the 4121A grains in tn
Z standard dollar and worth more than tn
I 400 grains of the trade dollar.
e Kept busy Answering Questions.
t 1t was expected that Congressman Jane
= 7. McCleary o: Minnesota would expai
he provisions of the currency bill gener
ally known as the McCleary bill reporte
n at the last session of congress by the com
mittee on banking and currency, whe
0 he was called to the platform. He had I
e answer many interrogatories fired at hir
by the fatists in the audience that he di
not get to it during the forty-fve minute
allowed to him in the program order Thes
queries, though, brought out some view
, from Mr.. McCleary on the subject OF coin
I age. His views may be best given in hi
d own words as follows:
! AS to the statement that silver has bee
{ | demonetized, it is not true. Silver ha
y never been demonetized in any proper sens
y Of that term. To demonetize means to re
fuse to use it as money. What has take
place? There has been a change in tn
policy of coinage. Coinage may be on gov
ernment account or on private account. w
0 can take for illustration the old method {
d converting wheat into -four by the crud
4 | custom grst mill or the present method {
5 buying it up and grinding it by the moder
r | immensely capitalized merchant mill, Yo
r | observe the parallel between this and III
= methods of coinage.
d Here Mr.. McCleary gave history Of tn
i coinage system OF the country and eS
: planned why the ratio between silver an
gold was changed in 1884. Said he:
= How did 81 IA grains OF pure slve
II come to constitute a silver dollar? TIL
4 fathers Of our country found that the weigh
: of the old Spanish milled dollars varied, S
= they put number OF them in the scale
= and took the average weight. Then the
= | based their mint ratio upon the markt
ratio. This was Is to l. 1t never dawne
on them that the mint ratio would cover
the market ratio. In 1884 1t was found thf
=, silver was falling in price so the amount {
. pure gold constituting the dollar was CT
down to 1872. After this silver rose
. price; that is, sixteen ounces Of silver be
i came worth more than one ounce OF golt
e and so the people bought it up and sold
e by weight because they could make a prof
e by doing so. The men who owned the sill
d yer would not take it to the mint and hay
= 1t coined into dollars, so congress establishe
y the coinage of gold one dollar pieces in 1874
s But gold is not a fit metal out of which
e make dollars and the smaller change, there
e fore the people said Give us silver dol
t lars" Uncle Sam, acting on the principl
a of Miles Standsh, that "if ever you want
| hf,,nr ,tsnl do oil safI .