Kansas City journal. [volume] (Kansas City, Mo.) 1897-1928, 1898-09-15
FREE COINAGE ORATORS HOLD
FORTH At OMAHA.
SENATOR ALLEN PREslDEs
c. A. TOWNE SAYS FREE SILVER
WOULD ADVANCE PRICES.
George Fred Williams Tells of His
Conversion to the Cause of Free
COinage-President Will. of
Kansas Agricultural
College, Talks.

| OMAHA. NEB., Sept. H.-In taking the
charge to preside for the Silver day, at the
| national monetary conference to-day. Sen-
| ator w. V. Allen, of Nebraska, voiced q
| hearty welcome on behalf of his state to
| the champions of all sides of the money
| question who had met to discuss the merits
| of their respective claims. Abiding to Hor-
| ace Whites reference to his speech against
| the Cleveland bond issue, he said:
II said then. and say now, that there
was not the slightest authority in the stat
utes of the country for that bond issue,
but American people are too generous as
| well as Just to stand upon technicality,
and they will pay them dollar for dollar for
the money received.
II cannot conceive how man can be
gold monometallist who wants justice and
to see men enjoy the fruits of their labor.
If man desires to see a small volume OF
money and the resultant spoliation of bus
mess by the creditor class l can under
stand why he should defend the gold stand
ard / wish this debate could be repeated
in every city. village and hamlet in the
country. but to me 1t is hard to conceive
that there should be any controversy over
what constitutes money. Money is a crea-
ton of law Qoud applause from the fat-
ists), and this has been the doctrine OF all
authorities on finance from Aristotle to the
present day.
At the morning session. Judge NJ. d.
Crawford, who was to have spoken yester-
day. but did not reach Omaha in time,
read his paper. When Mr.. Crawford had
finished, Chairman Towne, OF the silver
Republican national committee, delivered
an address.
Mr. Towne subdiyided his address into
eleven propositions. as follows: Money is
purchasing power" Stability of value the
test of good money! Failing prices an
evil" "Appreciating money neither sound
nor honest" The gold standard unsound
and dishonest There was every reason
to anticipate the results of. denonetiza-
tion;'' THE effects of demonetization were
foreseen and foretold;' Vain efforts to
break the force of concluslon;" Present
condition intolerable;" THE restoration of
silver the only alternative" The United
States alone can maintain the parity of
15 to L.
On the last subject Mr.. Towne denied
that there is enough silver to replace $780,
10000 of gold in the United States He
held, therefore. that both metals would
circulate and that prices would advance
about % per cent.
The principal speakers of the afternoon
session were George Fred Williams, of
Boston, an ex-congressman and formerly
a member of the congressional coinage
committee and then a believer in the gold
standard, and Congressman c. N. Fowler,
of Elizabeth, n. ].
Williams was1tf1e first TO speak. His
conversion to the silver theory he attrib-
uted to Il philanthropic reason involved
in what was to him a great question. He
pictured a gloomy industrial and agricul-
tural condition in Europe, quoting from the
reports of Secretary Dredge. of the En-
glisk labor commission, and statements
made by Minister Meine, of France, and
others. Briefly, ne said:
THE English royal commission Of 1898
reported decline in farm property Of 30
per cent hegira of farm laborers, and
predicted that, If the general fall in prices
continued, ruination would confront the
agrarian interests. Ten of the fourteen
members of that commission concluded that
the only remedy Is the restoration of the
exchange between the two metals
In this country, the boasted prosperity
of the North and East is based upon the
depression of the farms and plantations of
the West and South. The effect of an ap-
precated money, requiring more products
for a given sum. increases the burden of
debt. Prices had fallen 40 per cent in 1893.
and they have continued TO fall ever since.
In an era of falling prices. believe in a
protective tariff. but the gold standard is
a leveler that passes over every wall.
II IL is not ulSnOnest 10 IO"eT prices Dy
legislation at the expense of the debtor,
is it dishonest to raise them by legislation
for the relief of the debtor? We are
charged with being repudiators but any
system of policy demanded by the best in
terests of mankind is not dishonest.
The congressional records are full of
prophecies of what would follow the estab-
lishment of the gold standard, the con-
traction of the money volume and the de-
probation of the dollar"
Mr.. Williams was followed by Anson VOL
cott, of Indiana, who reviewed financial
legislation with a purpose to show that it
had been destructive of the circulating
medium; Judge Joseph Sheldon, of Con-
necticut, who upheld the quantitative
theory of money, and President Thomas E.
VIII of the Kansas Agricultural college.
who discounted the value of academic
opinions on economic questions generally
VIII said wealth dominated institutions of
learning and he cited the case of Professor
Andrews. of Brown university, to show
that college professors dare not teach views
contrary to the interests of the rich
Then Congressman Fowler occupied the
platform for half hour with a defense of
the gold standard.