The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1900-01-30

Hon. John P. Altgeld ex-governor Of
Illinois. delivered an able address at
Fergus Falls. Mimi last Thursday even
Ing which the G o e Is able to here
with present in full. Mr.. B. f. Partridge
introduced the governor, and in doing SO
said:
Ladies and Gentlemen: In these days
of centralized governmental these DAYS
of trusts and monopolieS-in these. days
when empire lifts its head in our repub-
lie, We are gratifed to, listen to pupnc
man. who, in declaring himself upon cues
tions of public policy, is absolutely rear
less. We admire a public man VINO is
deeply in earnest, who has the courage
record while filling positions OF trust
and responsibility, of having discharged
the trust contided to him by the people,
honestly capably, conscientiously, and
with a high sense of duty to country, 10
humanity, and to God.
i. In the performance OF MS onclal aulles
the statesman who Is about to address
you has met and grappled With dlaboll"
cal forces in government-forces that
weaker minds would have capltulatesd
a.. to; but this man never surrendered.
On the other hand, he has held his own
against these gigantic forces, and has
%, won for himself a name which is known,
honored, and respected throughout this
broad land.
Some of you differ with the speaker of
the evening il political ca belief; that, how
SaSmuehk.aS We are all honest in our be-
liefs, and necessarily view political theo-
ries and policies from different, and vast
ly varying standpoints. Certain | am
that you will accord to the speaker earn
80 est and respectful hearing, and L trust
that when you go away from here after
listening to him you will take with you
larger and better ideals of government
and citizenship.
I now take pleasure In presenting to you
one of Illinois greatest statesmen and
governors, the Hon. John. p. Altgeld
(Applause,)
GOV. ALTGELD's ADDRESS.
Hon. John P. Altgeld spoke as follows
Ladies and Gentlemen: 1 have not come
to deliver an Grafton. My aim is to SIM
ply call attention to some facts that con-
front the American people, and upon
which the patriotic intelligence of Amer
lea must pass judgment Facts which
effect not only the prosperity of our peo-
pie, but which strike at the root of re-
publican institutions.
toysel1 your products in the worlds open
.. competitive market. That always will be
& so; therefore, whatever affects the selling
price Of property and of products will
affect your prosperity and will affect the
social status of your family. l want to
glance for moment at the relation be-
tween money and the price of property.
AT the close of the Civil war we were on
g paper basis A bushel of wheat brought
from $225 to S2SG, and ~ other 9th farm
in communities WHICH the neWness of the
country did not affect, prices raised in
Nprepoitien. Prices in America had ad-
justed themselves to that basis. Accord
sSa ing to the figures given out by the treas
,.,:, ury department. weShad at that time up
wards of $1,000, 100000 of greenbaeks out
standing and in circulation. Then the
government began the policy of calling in
and canceling the greenbacks and re-
-dueingrthat volume, and Issuing interest
bearing bonds instead. That was kept up
down 20 1870 when the volume had been
reduced to about $S0OQOOO00 of paper
money, 1t had been reduced JUS! Just about
years steady fall in the price of prop
erty and products, keeping in close rela..
ton with the shrinkage of the volume of
onto what was called the coin basis
as it then existed in the workmanship
of gold and silver.
Reduce the volume of money one-half-
reduce the price of property one-half.
Wheat went down to 81 and $l,1O and 81
and other farm products ranged in pro-
portion. This Shrinkage naturally
AFFECTED THE PRODUCERS
of the country, and in particular affected
all debtors. The result was the panic of
1873. Our whole industrial system came
down. We went through that panic, got
onto the worlds basis of money-that is
coin, gold and silver and there was about
much gold in the world as there was
silver money and the two were travelling
side by side-the two dollars-and had
been for centuries. You could do exactly
with silver dollar what you could with a
gold dollar, pay debts, pay taxes, and pay
duties, and it necessarily followed that
they must remain at par; and for two
hundred years they had been thus at par.
Then the moneyed interests of Europe,
who were interested in making money
dear, began an agitation in favor of cut
ting down one of the metals and narrow
ing the basis of the worlds money. They
carried that to a point where they got our
government to lead the way in 1873 pass
Ing a law closing the minis to the further
coinage of silver. What silver was in
RI1aNt tod in Ia
circulation, but the mints were closed.
While formerly there had been added
every year to the worlds volume of
money not only all the gold that was
mined, but also the silver that was mined.
This formed an annual increase that kept
pace with the increase in the population.
After that there was added only the gold
that was mined, one-half, while the
population kept increasing more rapidly
than ever. Many countries in Europe inn
mediately followed and adopted similar
laws. Some of them actually demonetiZed
silver, so that the effect was to gradually
reduce the worlds money basis by nearly
one-half, and we find keeping pace with
that movement, going hand in hand with
1t, a steady shrinkage in the value and
fall In the prices of property and farm
products, right on down until We got near
the panic of 1893, when wheat came down
to 90 and go cents and other farm products
ranged In proportion. The monetary
basis having been reduced by just one
half, being one-half as large as 1t for
merry was, prices Of property were re-
duced for us to correspond
AGAIN THE PANIC.
Then came again the panic Again all
debtors were affected. The world, or our
country especially. had done business on
the coin basis for some years. Prices had
adjusted themselves on that level They
had to now come down to the single gold
standard level, and we reached that In
1893. Our country went through the panic
of 1893, a general letting down and read
justment, getting down onto that narrow
basis of money. The dollar kept getting
dearer all the time remember 1t took
more labor to get the dollar than it for
merly did. The bondhoder found how
ever that the interest which had to be
paid on his bond each year over in Eng
land would buy him twice. as much Of
American products as it formerly did
They profted by this The American
people suffered by this.
Now, in 1896 we made an effort to- right
this wrong-not to make new expert
ment, but to undo what We. called great
wrong. We We're defeated, not that at
that time the people declared In favor of
gold standard, for they did not. Both
political parties had declared in all OF
their conventions that a gold standard