Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1898-02-26
SENATOR ELKINS

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The promise % the Government tt
hind H.
Can the United States wiih safety
60 any further ia this direction A.
business proposition we hsve gore
as far as we should toward maintaia
ing and UNFOLDING The value 81 paper
money and silver. II the face 81
large purchases Of silver haliian az
the market price Il gradually De-
clined This decline was in obedi-
ence to higher law than the laws Of
Congress or the wishes Of the friends
of silver. The value declined be-
cause silver became too abundant
and a majority OF the people OF the
world agreed that owing 10 its great
abundance, its inconvenience as mon
ey compared with gold, and its d.
minished value, gold was the best
standard and the best money.
We can by legislation, up to a GER
tain limit, maintain the money equal
ity of gold and silver when there is a
wide difference in their commercial
value. because of the pledged faith Of
the nation; but if the United States
should get into financial difficulties it
could not maintain this equality.
Suppose silver should decline to 20 or
even to 10 cents on the dollar, would
the Democratic party continue to in
sist upon the free coinage of silver at
the ratio of 10 to 1, and the payment
of Io-cent dollars in discharge of the
interest and principal of the public
debt? Would not this be reputation,
conhscation, and violation of good
faith?
There is limit to which legisla
ton can go in creating or maintain
ing artificial against actual values.
If there were no limit, a government
could create wealth by legislation. l
do not deny that comforting the mon
ey use on a metal or commodity gives
it value, and great value, but the ex-
tent of this value depends largely
upon the strength, good faith, and
power of the government that conters
the money use. The strongest gov
ernments can not go beyond a certain
limit. Values depend mainly upon
supply and demand, buyer and seller,
law superior to the acts of Congress.
Congress can not create values,
nor can it make things equal which
are unequal. If the production of
silver increases or remains as it is,
and the demand for it as money
ceases, as it is doing in nearly all
parts OF the world, the United States
can not of itself maintain silver equal
with gold. 1t could do it with the
concurrent action of the leading COM
mercial countries of the world, other
wise it would be impossible. The
Republican party is the best friend
silver has ever had 1t has coined
and put in use nearly $500, ooo,-
600 silver dollars, and it has given
its pledge that these dollars shall be
kept equal to gold
Could anything more in behalf OF
silver be done with safety? l wish as
earnestly as any Senator on this floor
that silver and gold were equal in
value. feel it would be better I'M
der existing circumstances for our
commercial interests; but my wishes
in the premises and my efforts, and
the efforts of all the Senators and OF
Congress, can not fix the value of
these two metals. ! earnestly hope,
with the cooperation of other Gov
ernments, that conclusion may yet
be reached by which silver may be
used as money equal to gold the
world over; but | confess that my
hopes in this direction are not en-
couaged. Surely they sre not as
sanguine aud rosy as those Of the
Junior Senator from Colorado. The
cold, gloomy facts that he produced
in his great speech few days since.
to my mind did not authorize his
sanguine and optomistic conclusions.
The whole world seems to be turn
ing its back on the use of silver as
noney.
Mr.. President, in 1896 the Republi
can party won great victory, after a
most exhaustive debate on this and
other questions raised by the Chicago
platform. The Republican platform
declared explicitly that it was the
r,urnOse of the Republican marty to |