Natchitoches populist., 1899-01-06

thelrs-a true prosperity has come,
and they have good reason for rejoic-
ing.
Ex-senator Ingalls, on the Gold Standard.
In the House of Representatives, in
January last, in speech upon the de-
flciency appropriation for the fiscal
year, Hon. William l.. Greene OF Ne
braska, in a telling arraignment Of the
operation of the gold standard, quoted
a speech of Senator ingalls,. which the
speaker quoted from the Congressional
Record of the Forty-ffth Congress,
VOL 7, page 1862, as follows:
II we are to have monometallic
standard, l believe silver to be i'm
measurably preferable to gold. 1t is
less subject to fluctuation; it's produc-
ton is more steady, its cost more uni
form.
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 eff.
fected by 1t. Its tendency is to accumu-
late in vast masses in the commercial
centers and to move from kingdom to
kingdom in such volumes as to un-
settle values and disturb the finances
of the world. 1t is the instrument of
gamblers and spectators, and the idol
OF the miser and the thief. Being the
OBJECT OF so much alteration, it becomes
naughty and sensitive and shrinks at
the approach of danger, and whenever
1t IS most needed 1t always disappears.
AT the slightest alarm it begins to look
Tor a refuge. 1t goes from the nation
at war to the nation at peace. War
makes it fugitive. No people in
great emergency ever found faith
full ally in gold. 1t is the most cow
ardly and treacherous Of all metals.
1t makes no treaty that it does not
break.
1t has no friend whom it
does not sooner or later be-
tray. Armies and navies are
not maintained by gold. In
times of panic and calamity, shipwreck
and disaster, 1t 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 great
est 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 1eappears and
claims the fruits of victory. In our
own civil war it is doubtful if the gold
of New York and London did not work
us greater injury than the powder and
lead and iron of the rebels. It was the
| most invincible enemy of the public
credit. Gold paid no soldier or sailor.
| 1t refused the national obligations. 1t
was worth most when our fortunes
were lowest. Every defeat gave it in
creased value. 1t was in open alliance
with our enemies the world over, and
all OF its energies were evoked for our
destruction. But as usual, when dan
| ger has been averted and the victory
secured, gold swaggers to the front and
asserts the supremacy. But silver is
the money of the people. 1t is the
money of wages and retail. It's tenden-
| cy is toward diffusion and dissemina-
ton. 1t enters into the minute con-
Germs of traffic and is exchanged day by
day for daily bread.
1t 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. If it retires al
the approach of danger, or from the
presence of an inferior currency, it still
remains at home ready to respond tt
the first summons for its return. Dur.
ing late visit to a remote portion Of
Arkansas was surprised by the
amount of old silver in circulation, in.
! Guiding Mexican and pillar dollars ant
American halves and quarters coined
half century ago. Seeking an ex
| PLANTATION, was told by the merchants
that upon the withdrawal and retire
ment of the fractional paper currency
these old coins Immediately ap
peared in sufficient quantities to supply
all needs of trade, conclusively show.
ing that when silver vanished at thu
beginning Of the legal-tender-paper pc
riod it had been carefully boarded
among the people and had promptly
returned to circulation when its pres
ence was required. l have no doub
that two hundred and fifty millions O
silver would be thus readily absorbed
among the people of the United States
forming a vast, permanent, stable &C
emulation which would be an endur
ing basis of prosperity, less liable thar
any other currency to the mutation!