THE CENTRE DEMOCRAT, DBE LLEFON TE, PA THURSDAY. SEPTEMBE R17. 1396 SILVER MUST BE RESTORED Evils of the Single Gold Standard Portrayed. ADDS TO DEBTORS' BURDENS, Purchasing Power of Gold Has In. creased Fifty Per Cent Since 1872, Congressman Charles A. Towne of Minne- sota Makes a Memorable Speech In Fae vor of the Restoration of Sllver-—-Any Great Commercial Nation Can Maintain the Parity of Gold and Silver Burden of the Gold Standard Can Be Measured Only In A Falling Standard of Value Is Preferable Rising One Blood and Tears to a Legislation, Not Overproduc- tion, Has Lowered the Price of Silver. MR. CHAIRMAN—If it were not for a profound, an almost overpowering, sense of duty, I should not on this occasion vex the ear of the house nor venture to do violence to that feeling of embarrassment which I assure you is most oppressive and, I fear, all too evident to my auditors, particularly when I must follow the dis tinguished and eloquent gentleman from Iowa [Mr. Hepburn], whom the he is ays glad to hear. Ung ws I am reminded of Shakespeare to myself ET who he Lies on the part 3 surgery to abstr om the blood of th body politic its white o andl to al low to atrophy one of the ventricles of it great central he rt whose harmonious pul ¢hergy an will not eight ory w hod afrald to arralgn his king onal esnctions of ship m Adams a Patrick soqulously silent as to the wr hesitated to affirm the great no taxation without repre sentation’ had Thomas Jefferson permit ted himself to entertain politic doubts whether ‘all men are created equal;’’ had Washington deemed it safer to submit to British tyranny than to defy it; had Gar- rison, Lovejoy and Phillips been frighten- ed from thelr high purpose by the calling of Lard names and threats of personal vio lence; had Sumner, Seward and Lincoln thought it indiscereet to denounce the treatment of Kansas ns a crime, to assert that the conflict between freedom and slavery was *‘irrepressible,”’ and to make as new application of the old proverb that ‘a house divided against itself cannot stand No, sir. Let us not abandon our duty, Let us stand to it like men. Said Daniel Webster In answer to a similar argument 60 years ago “If any evil arises vo destroy or endan ger this medium or this currency, our duty is to meet it, not to retreat from it remedy it, not to let is alone. Wo are to control and correct the mischief, not to submit to it." An Era of Investigation. Moreover, a question of this magnitude and significance ought to be discussed in a spirit and manner appropriate to so high an theme. To treat 18 as if it were the claim of a small private Interest seeking an avenues for self aggrandizement at the expense of the general good 1s to show a grave inocompetencs to welgh and handle the momentous concerns of the people. That so many In this huuse are tnable to grasp the higher and only real issues In volved Is not complimentary to the stand. ard of Amerioan statesmanship. Similar but much severer strictures must be drawn stamp duty « principle of wi) upon a considerable part of the publio | To oall one's opponent in an argu. | ment “fool,” “erank,'’ lunatic,’ "tral | | it will not be pronounced under any mis proas, tor," is as unprofitable as it is impolite, People are apt to suspect one who “doth protest too much.’ Dotter answer your antagonist’s argument than abuse him, and if he really be a fool his argument ought to bo ensily answored. Nor can you esoapo tho ordeal of critical examination by merely pasting a label on your faith, Calling it “*honest’’ and “sound’’ does not by any means make it so. It only bogs the question. Nobody contends for un- sound and dishonest money. Iwill permit no man to call me dishonest, nor shall he attix such a brand upon any propusal of mine The people cannot be deceived. They are studying this question as never before, Epithets cannot deter them from penetrat- ing to its mystery. The ‘‘eraze’’ may have passed, but the ern of sober and de- liberate investigation has begun--nay, is already far advanced—and I warn gentle men that there never has been so much in terest in this great question as there is now. “What is "honest money? "' men are asking. ‘Have we it now? If not, now shall we obtain it?" These questions must be answered by arguments, not by od ju tives Nor, sir the other hand, does this discussion give proper place to wild talk of rev and bloodshed Sir, th Justi flon other ir the | verninent of the pe known of that kind of government which A great commentator has called ment by discussion,’ and it is by or sane, passionless though earnest discussion in the presence of the Intelligent publie opinion of the United States that we must Ducl on ution, secession it kind of declaratic n in this forum or nited States n has no in any This is a g It is the highest form yet settle all large questions of policy sald, In reference to publie o man in power commands in intelli gent govern, because time they form public opinion, and that sooner or later | subjugates every kind of despotism." bow to the We reign of law, and he who advo cates any other way of settling differences is preaching anarchy and will find no sympathy in this eountry tho first line of demareation should be plainly drawn between the advocates of the single gold standard upon the one side } advoontos « {sm n the other nfu irmiatanll Hmetadl this m is great oo wticeableo ir it is everywh in an whe vi H 1 conviol shall 1 os under banners mean Mr. Maurice sistant treasurer of th ) nt | ‘Monetary | New York, in his rece Systems of the World,"' page 12, says By bimetallism, strictly defined, meant the free and unlimited coinage of both gold and silver Into coinsof full debt | | of this earth to say that the Bepublican paying power I refer to Mr. Muhleman's definition be- cause he speaks with authority upon mat ters of fact, and because his book alms not at theoretical discussion, but at a clear statement of settled and existing conditions let me cite another authority: The royal commission appolnted in 1888 by Queen Victoria '‘to inquire Into the causes of the recent changes in the values of the precious metals’ reported In 1588, and the report was published by our gov- ernment in 1880, I quote from page 69 of that report, section 116: ““ A bimetallic system of currency, to be completely effective, must, in the view of those who advoeate it, include two essen tial features: (a) An open mint ready to coin any quantity of either gold or silver which may be brought to 14; (b) the right on the part of a debtor to discharge his liabilities, at his option, in either of the two motals at a ratio fixed by law.” That, sir, is bimetalllsm, snd if a man do not believe in it let him say so, but let him not believe in something else and label it“ bimetalllsm'’ for purposes of de ooption. The statement that the present system is bimetallio, Hf not ignorant, Is not candid. The attempt to substitute for the well understood meaning of bimetallism a now definition, whereby it Is appiled to any monetary system in which both gold and silver aro “used” without reference to the manner of the use, is a subterfuge unworthy of the honesty and dignity of Amerioan politieal discussion and one that will not lmpose upon the aroused intelll gonoe of the American people. If their final fudgment is for gold monometallism, take or delusion. You cannot promise them both silver and gold and satisfy them with gold alone. Until recently 18 never entefed Into any- body's hond since the word blinetallism waa coined to have a doubt about what is meant, There can be no question as to the meaning of the word. Bimetallism moans two-metalllsm, It was coined to mean and does mesn a money system where two motals, gold and silver, are treated alike. It never meant adythiog | ancient pledge without | cannot men who | standard and the | In | is | else. It signifies the equal access of gold and silver to the mints at a fixed ratio and the option by the debtor as to the coin in which he shall discharge his debt, This matter Is important, Gentlemen here and elsewhere constantly misapply this word, I do not propose to permit it any longer to the extent to which my little influence may go. 1 here and now challenge any gentloman upon this floor or anywhere elso—nnd this is not a mere rhetorical de flance, but is intended to bring this con- fusion to an end—to produce a definition of bimetallism by any publicist or econo mist of authority or of standing made prior to 1545 which Is not in substantial accord with the definition I have given, Let do me the honor neglect this poin statesinan any man who may to reply to this speech Lot him bo either for or for bimetal let him dis the end and slenn no gentile the single gold lHsm, and if cuss the means of frankly concede that the cannot be permitted to last ing present sy Goldbugs Satisfied, It hans parties ery one of been, sir, only f the United them ulvoeally pledged to bimetallism, and that fact conflicted with the desires of certain people that they have to make a new definition of bi metallism, and under that new definition to hold the pledgers to the letter of thelr spirit Why do in the honest and say sof 1 de impute now, when 1 the word * since the great States have been ev- un sought its believe so | est'" any moral obliquity to any gi discussion of this question the man I should perhaps rather phrase this way: Why shall open and mani; his convictions and stand up and |! inted! Why let not the New Y Evening Post said That great reg itin not ss man have the ournge of him English sition to the M protection ar f Ami re AMG 8 rion limitations that sen They never wet from that initial pro sment pledging the party to the res of the full money functions of sliver so as to clothe It with every dignity bestowed on gold Tradition’ refers to some ancient not the present "Standard money'’ is not token money I am not now discussing the means of reaching it, but 1 defy any man on the top to system, party is not by its platform pledged to achieve bimetallism in some way, and 1 affirm that you must change that platform before a man who believes In a single gold standard can consistently stand upon it If I am wrong on this point, Jet some sub- sequent participant in this debate set me right Single Geld Standard Is Wrong. Now, Mr. Chairman, If bimetallists are opposed, to the single gold standard, what is the reason of thelr opposition? It must be because in some respects the single gold standard is wrong, because In some way it is an evil, beoause in some way it injuri. ously affects the people of the United States or the people of the world. Bi metallists contend that such is the fact They contend that the single gold stand. ard is and has been since its adoption by the leading commercial nations an appre cinting standard whose unit has rapidly inoreased in general purchasing power and must continue so to Increase; that this appreciation ls evidenced by a pro gressive fall in prices throughout the gold standard world not accounted for by di minishing cost of production, and that the inevitable result must be to augment the burden of all debts and fixed charges, to discourage investments and enterprise and to undermine the productive foroes of the countries where it prevails. And they affirm that if these things are so the evil | is so tremendous and prossing ns to call tor some Immediate remedial action, Now, sir, in order to proceed intelligl bly along the Hoe of argument I have laid out for myself It becomes necessary to get a clear conception of certain words ured in the terminology of this discussion, Standard and unit are examples, occurring in the expressions of ‘standard of value and "unit of value. By the Century Dictionary standard Is defined as “a weight, measure or instument by compari- son with which the acourncy of others is determined,” and unit as “any standard quantity by the repetition and subdivision of which any other quantity of the same kind is monsured. us by the expres. sons referred to the mind is centered on | quantity, and thug some the notion that a sterling’ or franc" absolute and definite as to value as ton,” “yard” and “quart” are as to welght, length and capacity. But value is neither “so long'' nor “of such and such contents.’ You cannot see it. Value is nothing ab- solute. Value 1s a relstion, It is the ratio at which one thing exchanges for an- other persons are led to ‘dollar’’ or “pound heavy," ‘so ' or Jess equal two things to pared with the betwix ly rex horse, than greater another thing-that or less value is, cxpross value other, And pros ns in the gentleman the other d 3 as certainly ns nnd if it be tras if they cost $150 | that money is hi two horses for 81 Intrinsic Values, Gentlemen here have ‘Intrinsic value’ and declare ingness to vote f sonebody shall s ¢ them how to mak gold dollar and » dollar equal in ‘Intrinsio value I should lke some of these gentlemen define * value They confuse, it seems the meaning of value and utility may possess qualities that make them use ful, and hence will have utility, but the measure of thelr value Is what they will exchange for y iron. It is use cannot tel to % their much talllsm wh silver i intrinsic to me Things are sustained by pract) ¥y all x ¥omi of recognized authority The follow citations will llpstrate Said Smith, the fathd® of English politics economy id ve however, Hike ry wometin every n their valos MOTE dearer f more diffic f the mines of Amer diminished the value of gold and silver is rope Wealth of Nations, Worthington tion, pages 3 and B.) John Locke, the his treatise on sald By which means it comes 80 pass that the intrinsic value (of gold and silver) * * * ja noth ing but the quantity which men give or re oeive of them, for they having, as money, other value but as pledges to procure what one wants or desires, and they procuring what wo want or desire only by thelr quantity, it is evident that the Intrinsic value of silver and gold used In commerce is nothing but their quantity Principles of Political Economy," by McColloch, and “Essay on Interest and Value of Money,” by John Locke, edition of Ward, Lock & Co., page 25, The same writer declares in another place (Works, volume 5, page 49): For the value of money in general is the quantity of all the money in the world in pro portion to all the trade In his "Principles of Political Keon omy’ (Appleton edition, 1880, volume ¥, pages 26-80), John Stuart Mill declares: che per es famier and tunes cha The discovery « great philosopher, in “The Value of Money,’ The value or purchasing power of money depends on demand snd supply. Money Wn bought and sold lke other things whenever other things are bought and sold for money The supply of money is all the money in eir culation at the time. If the whole money In cireulation was dombled, prices would be dou bled, If there wore money in the hands of the community and the same amount of goods to be sold, less money altogether would bo given for them, and they wonid be sold at lower prices Robert Giffen, the ablest champion of the gold monometallists, holds this lan pgunge in his “Chapter on Standard Money: In this sense to say that the quantity of money regulates prices is only the same thing as 1B say of any article that j= bought or sold that {ts quantity tx a material factor in deter mining its valne, (Case Against Bimetallism, page 218.) It Is no answer to the quantitative ar gument to show, as some do, that the por oapita ciroulation In Turkey is only a small proportion of that in France, and that prices in the two countries are not widely variant. Money is a world sub. stance and adjusts itself to the amount of business, and the method of doing is, In sch country, Let person smitten loss she thought of weight, dimension and the | with this Turko-Frankish fancy answer means something as One thing may be worth as much | a4 another thing, more than another thing | of | to hear questo mining unchanged, prices only the amount of money io each were multiplied by ten. To an "would be foolish, and to answer kill bis argument would No {5 10 Crucity of Monometallism, Thus, sir, attention to the function of vile is strongly drawn measure of discuss this gener t of the gol 1 Birnost but WOney ns Hn Nearly nll wh nl su! | mon w hit they onl value « ind n material in worth of exchanged ch is » the single g proposition is ti | mind J d standard there ha on an appreciatic a rise in value id which the major § ns of the w it mim buy a giv and 10 BAY 2 merienl jel} is going st} y this standard o rtion of the « rid has adopted is affirmed that the ities on the aver n number nati In other words, sir quantity of age required to ‘ grains of id has been and is Inereasing and that m that fact there follow m whi the world meas nil train ' a 1s } that standard ther ided, and if } rices are higher than he stanfiard if the 2,200, prices lower total by the yher of comn pression obtained on the which is conveniently used nder normal o causes make temporary fluct prices of d ing and others falling in the same period without special significanos But when, after allowing for all such variations and offsets, general prices—the average of the whole market—-have fallen, then the oon + » t are nu: in fon §] ndition ations in the ifTerent commodities, some ris clusion is unavoldable that some goneral | cause has operated on all alike, and, as we have seen, such a fall would mean an in cronse in the measure of values, a dollar | which would | that had grown larger, and require more of all commodities to buy it The authoritative figures for Germany are those of Dr. Adolf Soetbeer, a famous economic writer, ns continued by Heinz statistician for Hamburg, They take as 100, or the par for comparison, the aver age prices from 1847 to 1850 of 100 articles in the Hamburg market and 14 of British export. In England two sets of data enjoy groat repute-—those of the London Edono mist and especially those of Augustus Sauerbeck of the London Statistionl socio ty. The former are based on the prices of 29 leading commodities in the London market, using the average prices of 1545 to 18560 as 100. Mr. Sauerbeck’'s tables uso as the par of comparison the average prices of 45 representative commodities on the London market for the yoars 1867 to 1877. In the United States no such selen tiflo and exhaustive study of this subject has been made as In Germany and Eng land. Practioally the only attempt in this direction was that undertaken In 1861 § a committee of the United States senate and whose results ard embodied lo the vo luminous report which is customarily elted as the Aldrich Report,’ afver Senator Al drich of Rhode Island, who was chairman of the committes This document deals with the prices of | 298 articles and uses ns its par or 100 mark | the prices of 1860, Although hastily com. plied and based on the prices of only one oar, and that year one of exceptionally ow prices, and although allowing the samo Influence to n mass of nonstable and unimportant articles as to the controlling and signifioant commodities, and notwith- standing that the operation of our protect ive tariff, by keeping ott forelgn compe: tition and by stimulating home cohsump- tion, has tended during all the period cov. i whether, demand for goods | have alter | | world substan i Inte | inevitabie ¢ 1 IDE the i prices | market They confirm In a most emphatic that primary money is a , ke the atmosphere, and an appreciating standard values is as inexorable ns way the lesson that the law of and measure of Ingenuity may for a thine postpone the catastrophe or mitigate the hardebipy its the end is and n ruin tions that mistakenly sult themselvey ontrol of such a » wiheer's t lew It apg that signal approach, but Waits on ComInOn Klein ars t The arrange: ten year wnporary uo law « AAW TEN YEAR M2) land 22 zor CHART B~ FLUCTUATE YER AXD OOMNO Ww Is ITIES MEAS 1873 a 187% 1875 1876 877 1878 1893 1894 1095 o~ Prices of BE Boonor jet 2 principal comm Average prioos 1848 8 =, Roetheer's index nw 1973 taker I AS Pet index burg articles and 14 British exports prices 1547-80 taken aa 10 -, silver Now, gentlemnen, I eall your attention to the fact that the lines of the two halves of the chart are continuous. Really these aro two diagrams representing one idea They indicate the reciprooal relation of the prices of commodities and the price of gold. For example, starting with 1878 as the woro point, the upper chart shows how gold has with few exceptions gone oon stantly up until it climbs off at the top of the chart and how the prices of commaodi- tion and of silver have, ns a hooessary and reciprocal fact connected with the rise of gold, gone relatively down since 1578 in the percentage Indicated in my remarks. Upon the lower ohart yoo will find the course of prices as shown by The Koono-
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