Iron County register., 1898-12-15
SENATOR ]. ]. INGALLS,.
On the Gold Standard-There Can BE
No National Prosperity
Builded ON Gold.

January last, in a speech upon the de-
ficiency appropriation for the fiscal
year, Hon. William L. Greene, of Ne
braska, in a telling arraignment of the
operation of the gold standard, quoted
speech of Senator ingalls,, which the
| speaker quoted from the Congressional
Record of the Forty-ffth congress, vol.
Z, page 1852, as follows:
If we are to have a monometallic
standard, believe silver to be immeas-
surably preferable to gold. It is less
subject of fluctuation; its production is
more steady, its cost more uniform.
No enduring fabric of national pros
perity can be builded on gold. Gold is
the money of monarchs; kings covet
it; the exchanges of nations are affect
ed by it. Its tendency is to accumulate
in vast masses in the commercial CEN
ters and TO move from kingdom to king
dom in such volumes as to unsettle val
ues and disturb the finances of the
world. 1t is the instrument of gam
blers and speculators, and the idol of
the miser and the thief. Being the OBJ
ject of so much alteration, it becomes
naughty and sensitive and shrinks at
the approach of danger, and whenever
it is most needed it always disappears.
At the slightest alarm it begins to look
for refuge. 1t goes from the nation
at war to the nation at peace. War
makes it fugitive. No people in a
great emergency ever found faithful
ally in gold. 1t is the most cowardly
and treacherous of all metals. It makes
no treaty that it does not break.
It has no friend whom it does not
sooner or later betray. Armies and
navies are not maintained by geld. In
times of panic and calamity, ship
wreck and disaster, it becomes the
chief agent and minister of ruin. No
nation ever fought great war by the
aid of gold. On the contrary, in the
crisis of the greatest peril it becomes
an enemy more potent than the foe
in the field; but when the battle is
won and peace has been secured, gold
reappears and claims the fruits of vic
tory. In our own civil war it is doubt
full if the gold of New York and London
did not work us greater injury than
the powder and lead and iron of the
rebels. 1t was the most invincible en-
emy of the public credit. Gold paid no
soldier or sailor. It refused the ma
tional obligations. It was worth most
when our fortunes were lowest. Every
defeat gave it increased value. It was
in open alliance with our enemies the
world over, and all it's energies were
evoked for our destruction. But as
usual, when danger has been averted
and the victory secured, gold swaggers
to the front and asserts the suprem-
acy. But silver is the money of the
people. It is the money of wages and
retail. It's tendency is toward diffusion
and dissemination. It enters into the
minute concerns of traffic and is ex-
changed day by day for daily bread.
It penetrates the remotest channels
of commerce, and it's abundance, bulk
and small subdivision prevent its de-
portation in sufficient amounts to dis
turb or unsettle values. II it retires
at the approach of danger, or from
the presence of an inferior currency,
it still remains at home ready to re-
spond to the first summons for it's re-
turn. During a late visit to remote
portion of Arkansas was surprised by
the amount of old silver in circulation,
including Mexican and pillar dollars
and American halves and quarters
coined half century ago. Seeking an
explanation, I was told by the mer-
chants that upon the withdrawal and
retirement of the fractional paper cur
rency that these old coins immediate
ly appeared in sufficient quantities to
supply all needs of trade, conclusively
showing that when silver vanished at
the beginning of the legal tender-paper
period it had been carefully boarded
among the people and had promptly
returned to circulation when its pres
ence was required. I have no doubt
that two hundred and fifty millions
of silver would be thus readily absorbed
among the people of the United States,
forming vast, permanent, stable ac-
emulation which would be an endur-
ing basis of prosperity and less liable
than any other currency to the muta-
tions and vicissitudes of financial pam
ics.
A Borrowed Standard.