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DEMONETIZATION OF SILVER.
I do not believe it (the power of regulating the currency) is a safe power
in the hanks. I helieve it is a great power which is capable of being used
for the destruction of the business and interests of ihe people. If confided
to the banlis * * * the banks will issue their notes or regulate the volume of the currency according to their own interests. * * * If it be to
their interest to contract, they will contract. If it be to their interest to expand the currency, they will expand it. * * *
I want n o pet children of the Government and no stepchildren. Let all
her children be treated alike. * * * So long as I hold a seat on this floor
I shall not, under any pressure, cast a vote which will give to any privileged
class, to any pet children of the Government, a privilege or an advantage
denied to the great masses of the people themselves.—Senator George's speech
in the United States Senate, in February, 1881.
OF
HON. JAMES Z. GEORGE,
OF
MISSISSIPPI,
IN THK
SENATE
OF
T H E
UNITED
STATES,
Wednesday and Friday, September 20 and 22, 1893.
WASHINGTON.
1893.
SPEECH
OP
HON.
JAMES
GEORGE.
The Senate haying under consideration the bill (H. R. 1) to repeal a part
of an act, approved July; 14, 1890, entitled " A n act directing the purchase
of silver bullion and the issue of Treasury notes thereon, and for other purposes"—
Mr. GEORGE said:
Mr. P R E S I D E N T : I am well aware that the debate has proceeded to such an extent that discussion is not listened to with
much patience by this body, but as I am a Democrat and happen
to differ from a Democratic Administration upon this very important measure, and as I believe that a large majority of my
constituents concur in the view which I take, I deem it to be
my duty to state with some precision the reasons which compel
me to refuse my support to the bill now before the Senate.
^ There is no question as to the very serious and grave financial
situation in which we are placed, though there are now visible
evidences of improvement. An important and essential part of
our duty is to inquire and ascertain, if possible, the causes which
have produced this unparalleled state of affairs, and then to
enact the remedy. For any action of Congress, taken in ignorance of the true causes would be a leap in the dark, and as likely
toincrease as to diminish the gravity of the evils under which
the country suffers.
Whilst we find that the supporters of the repeal of the
purchasing clause of the Sherman bill agree that the repeal is a
proper remedy, we find them differing widely as to the cause
and nature of the disease itself. The President thinks the
oause is the Sherman law, and very logically recommends its
repeal.
SHERMAN LAW NOT THE CAUSE OF PRESENT DISASTER.
The Senator from Massachusetts [Mr. HOAR] and the Senator
from Indiana [Mr. VOORHEES], whilst differing widoly as to the
true cause, yet agree that our present troubles are not attributable to that- much-abused enactment. The Senator from Massar
chusetts, after depicting in eloquent language the distress of the
present, with equal force and eloquence described the happy condition of our country up to the 4th of March last, which day
seems, in his judgment, to be the beginning of our sorrows.
In expressing his view of the causes of the present distress
he uses the following language:
While I do not attribute our present disasters in any part to the legislation of 1890 (the Sherman law), I do attribute them to a serious extent to
the failure of the present Executive to assure the country and the world that
•he would use the power given him to maintain the two metals at par. This,
with the prevalent dread of what a distinguished member or this body described as a " war of extermination u p o n the protected industries of this
country, 1 ' accounts, in m y judgment, for our existing condition.
48S
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4
Whilst not agreeing with that distinguished Senator in his
affirmation as to the true cause of our troubles, I concur with
him as to his negation on that subject. I am, after the best examination I am able to give, convinced that our present disasters
are not attributable in any part to the Sherman act.
I am in accord with the view of the Senator from Indiana,
which attributes in a large degree the causes of our disasters to
the moneyed classes of the country. If these distinguished Senators are right, no relief can come from the passage of this bill.
UNCONDITIONAL REPEAL. AN AGGRAVATION OF TROUBLE AND NO RELIEF.
My judgment is that the repeal, unaccompanied with any other
remedy, will be an aggravation of our troubles and in no sense a
relief.
Concurring in the opinion expressed by the Senator from Indiana, that the national banks and moneyed classes are largely
responsible for the precipitation on us of our present and recent
financial troubles, yet I think there are causes beyond their action—causes inherent in the money system of the country and
of Europe, which not only make these financial crises inevitable,
but furnish the occasion and opportunity for the banks and capitalists their allies in this country and in Europe to afflict mankind at their will with these constantly recurring monetary
troubles.
Two antagonistic forces $xist in the financial world, engaged
in never-ceasing conflict. One, the great mass of mankind—the
laborers and producers—the other, those who have been fortunate
enough to secure to themselves the greater part of the wealth
of the world; between those who labor and those who have acquired and now enjoy the slored-up results of the past labor of
mankind; between those producing commodities for exchange
and consumption and those who possess the money and other
machinery by which this exchange must be made and wages
paid.
The former class, being the great mass of mankind, the great
mass of our own people, desire an abundance of money for which
to exchange their labor *and their products—they want a rise in
the prices of products. The latter, possessing nearly all the
money of the world, and possessing moneyed obligations of nations
and corporations and individuals to many billions of dollars, desire a scarcity of money—an increase in its purchasing power.
These, whilst knowing that all the gold and silver in the world
are insufficient to carry on even to their advantage the trade of
the world, have invented certain substitutes for money, highly
profitable to them, in order to decrease metallic coinage—real
money. By decreasing the amount of metallic money they have
a larger field for the operation of their monetary devices; they
have the opportunity to manufacture more of the substitutes for
real money, which substitutes the world under the present system must use. They desire just enough of metallic money to
enable them skillfully and profitably to manage their own substitute devices for money.
URGENT NEED OF INCREASE OF MONEY.
As civilization advances, as trade and commerce increase, as
they have done enormously in the last hundred years, so the
necessity for an increase in money becomes more urgent.
Up to the middle of this century, traders, capitalists, owners
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5
of money, all agreed with the great mass of the people that
every increase in real money—gold and silver—was beneficial to
mankind. It could not escape notice that periods of increasing
volumes of money, always accompanied by rising prices, were
periods of enterprise, industrial and commercial activity, of
progress and advancement, and that periods of contraction were
also times of stagnation, hardships, bankruptcies, and penury.
The great addition to the bimetallic money of the world about
the middle of the present century—coming from the gold mines
of.Australia and California—caused a great rise in prices and a
corresponding fall in the purchasing power of metallic money.
Or, in other words, the wealth of the money classes was greatly
diminished; those who had money could only buy a greatly diminished part of the commodities of the world. So it was
gravely proposed to demonetize gold, that being the metal which
was then so rapidly increasing in volume. But that scheme
only partially succeeded. Gold, though very largely produced,
became at length a diminishing production. The production of
silver began to increase beyond all former precedents.
The fear was, not that the world would have too much money
for its monetary needs, but that prices would continue to rise and
the purchasing power of money, that is, its value, would continue
to decrease.
FIRST MONETARY CONFERENCE.
This was the situation in 1867 when the first international monetary conference met in P -"is at the invitation and under the
auspices of the Emperor Napoleon. In the mean time—between
A. D. 1850 and that year—France had exchanged her silver metallic currency for gold, though without demonetization of silver
The invitation to this conference skillfully concealed the design of its author. It invited the nations to confer about the
international unification of coin, and referred to the bimetallic
Latin Union—established in 1865—as the desirable thing to be
followed by all nations;- but it expressed next, if that were not
satisfactory, a wish to confer about other means of unification.
It alluded to the benefits already realized from the bimetallic
Latin Union, and enlarged upon the evils coming "from the diversity of coinage which multiply thefluctuationsof exchanges."
That was the feast to which the nations were invited. The
United States accepted the invitation in this sense and in no
other. The conference met, and without notice to the world,
without notice to the governments which had sent delegates,
they recommended a single gold standard.
This action excited no attention in this country at the time,
for we were then using a forced paper currency.
EUROPE TURNING TO THE GOIID STANDARD.
But soon the effects of the conference began to be felt. As
early as June 17, 1869, Norway, in consequence of this recommendation, began to turn from a sole silver standard to gold.
(See Report International Conference of 1881, page 393.) The
other Scandinavian states joined in the movement. A complete transition in these states from a silver to a single gold
standard was effected in 1872 and 1874. Germany, having conquered France and exacted a billion of dollars as indemnity,
largely in gold, commenced in the next year, 1871, to change to
a gold standard exclusively, completing that transition in 1873.
486
Republican France, humiliated and impoverished, now began
to reap thef ruits of the actionof her late emperor consummated
£ theinternational conference of 1867 deprived largely of her
gold bv her triumphant enemy, she believed that she was to be
mode the dumping ground of the millions of silver which were
b e i n r B o l d T & f n y . She was also induced by the action of
the United States to make that movement.
Riiht here I desire to correct a statement made by the very
a c c u r a t e and learned Senator from Iowa [Mr. A U J S O N ] orL this
subject. In answer to an interruption m his very able> speech a
few days ago, he asserted that there was no such action of the
U n i t e d States prior to the action of France which could influence
or did Influence her action. The record is the other wa^.
I m i S t remark in this connection that in the^ examination
and discussion of this very important, aye momentous question,
to the American people, it seems that statesmen and pubHeists are dwelling inakind of hallucination, by wbich they
m i s t a k e important and well-settled historical as well asi finan3 S •facts The fact is that France took no step toward the demonetization of silver until many months after the action of the
Congress of the United States, m February, 1873. - But as this
point is disputed by so able and accurate a Senator as the Senator
From Iowa,1 deenfit my duty to present to the Senate the evidence which sustains the assertion which I make. I read now
from the proceedings of the international conference of 1881,
w h i c h m e t at Paris for the purpose of investigating this question This is a statement in reference to Franco made oy Mr.
Cernuschi, who was a delegate to that conference:
T h e l a t e l e g i s l a t i o n of t h e G e r m a n E m p i r e p r o d u c e d , a f t e r 1873, a g r e a t
* f f i - S o I S l v e r i n B e l g i u m and F r a n c e . T h e F r e n c h m i n t s , w h i c h m 1872
h a d r e cei v c d l e ss th a n a m i l l i o n of f r a n c s w o r t h of silver t o c o i n , r e c e i v e d
o n o h i t n d r e d and severity-three m i l l i o n s w o r t h of i t i n 1873.
Here is the first step ever taken by the French Government in
reference to a suspension of the coinage of silver:
A m i n i s t e r i a l o r d e r of t h e 6th of S e p t e m b e r , 1873. d i r e c t e d t h a H h e m i n t a g e
of s S r e r £franc p i e c e s s h o u l d h e n c e f o r t h he r e s t r i c t e d t o 200,000 f r a n c s p e r
day.
Our action was in February of that year. About six months
after the United States had demonetized silver France, through
a ministerial order, restricted the coining of silver m tho several mints. It is not worth while to read the extent to which
they restricted it. They made the first order on the 6th of September, 1873. Then they made a second order in November,
1873, still further limiting it.
T h e s y s t e m of l i m i t e d c o i n a g e of silver, w i t h a c o n t i n g e n t f o r e a c h State,
w L i n a u g u r a t e d i n t h e L a t i n U n i o n b y t h e t r e a t y o f J a n u a r y 31,1874, and
h a s b e e n i n f o r c e since then.
So Mr. President, it is a plain historical fact, and a momentous
fact 'so far as we are concerned, that our demonetization of silver antedated any action on the part of France by at least six
months, and was, in fact, the cause of the action of France. How
the demonetization happened here I need not now discuss. By
what influences—through what ignorance oi this action on the
Dart of the great body of members of Congress, including m this
ignorance some of the most eminent statesmen in the Union of
both parties, and including in it also the President of the United
States—I need not now recall. That matter has been sufficiently
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debated. ? It was, however, done in such manner that our Commissioners to the International Monetary Conference of 1878,
speaking through Mr. Groesbeck, felt authorized to say:
F r o m 1792 t o this d a y , w h e n b y a s o r t of i n a d v e r t e n c e i n 1873 the s l i v e r
s t a n d a r d w a s superceded, n o t a m e r c h a n t , n o t a b a n k e r , n o t a m a n u f a c t u r e r ,
n o t an establishment, n o r an interest o f a n y k i n d c o u l d b e c i t e d as h a v i n g
raised a n y o b j e c t i o n t o tlie s i m u l t a n e o u s u s e of the t w o m e t a l s . B i m e t a l l i s m is t h e r e f o r e i n the U n i t e d S t a t e s n o t o n l y a tradit i o n o f t h e l a w . b u t h a s
entered d e e p l y i n t o the habits of the p e o p l e . (See I n t e r n a t i o n a l M o n e t a r y
C o n f e r e n c e R e p o r t 1881, p a g e 21.)
t Mr. Evarts, in the conference of 1881, called the demonetization of silver in the United States in 1873 an "unlucky incident " in the legislation of that year.
CONSPIRACY FOR DEMONETIZATION.
At that time, it is hardly necessary for me to remark, as everybody knows it, that on the ratio of 16 to 1 silver was at 3 per
cent premium; but after these events silver fell rapidly as compared with gold, but not as compared with anything else. Well
was Mr. Carlisle justified in saying that this demonetization was
the result of a conspiracy, and the conspirators, sir, were mon*
archical^ Europe, the money-lenders, the holders of money securities in Europe and in this country. Money was aboiit to be^
come too abundant, as was complained in 1850; the prices of
agricultural and other products were too high. Labor was about
to be too well rewarded. The autocratic control over human
affairs by money was threatened. The emancipation of the
masses of the people appeared to be imminent. God's gifts to
the hujnan race for their progress and welfare were abput to be^
come through their munificence dangerous to plutocratic sway.
So one-half must be destroyed. This work was done by kings
an<J emperors and the holders of money.
This destruction was not demanded, as Mr. Groesbeck stated,
by any single business interest in this country, It had not been
discussed in the newspapers. Our Congress, without knowledge
of what they were doing, by a simple ppovision—an omission
rather than affirmative action—in a very long and complicated
bill, demonetized silver, and the act was approved by a great
President, not knowing at the time what he was doing.
EFFORTS TO REVERSE DEMONETIZATION.
From the time of the discovery of the deed of demonetization
the people of the United States have persistently agitated to secure back what they had thus furtively or, if that term be preferred, inadvertently lost. In 1888 and 1892 the Republican
national convention unequivocally pronounced in favor of the
coinage of both gold and silver, and in the former year condemned
in vigorous language Mr. Cleveland's administration for what
they were pleased to say were its efforts " t o demonetize silver."
In 1884 the Democratic national convention declared in favor
of "honest money," which they declared to be " t h e gold and
silvsr coinage of the Constitution, and a circulating paedium
convertible into such money" (gold and silver, not gold alone),
"without loss."
In 1§88 the Democratic convention, without mentioning gold
and silver specifically, " reaffirmed the platform adopted by its
representatives in the convention of 1884." In 1892, the last utterance of the party on the question, it was distinctly affirmed
486
8
that " W e hold to the use of both gold and silver as the standard money of the country and to the coinage of both gold and
silver without) discriminating against either."
The Populists'convention, in 1392, demanded "the free and
unlimited coinage of silver and gold at the present legal ratio of
16 to 1."
On more than one occasion free coinage, a restoration to the
people of their ancient right, has passed one House and teen
defeated in the other. Three times, in 1890, in 1891, and in 1892,
and if I did not misunderstand the Senator from Iowa in his
speech the other day, at another time has a free-coinage bill
passed the Senate and failed in the House of Representatives.
Once in 1877 a free-coinage bill passed the House and was defeated in the Senate by an amendment which created the BlandAllison act.
RISE AND TALL OP PRICES.
From that fateful day, when in 187,3 silver was demonetized,
the people have suffered and decayed, and money owners and
holders of money obligations have nourished.
Prices rose from 1849 to 1873, 38 per cent; during that period
there were immense additions to the gold and silver of the world.
In 1873, the date of demonetization, prices began to fall. From
1873 to 1885 there was a fall of 30 per cent. This is according
to Dr. Soetbeer's tables.
Mr. Sauberback's calculation shows that, taking the average
of prices from 1867 to 1877 as the basis, there has been a fall up
to 1887 of 68 per cent in the general range of prices; and the
London Economist shows that this fall has continued up to 1892,
for the two years 1890 and 1891, at the rate of 2£ per cent per
annum. These figures are taken from the speech of the Senator
from Nevada [Mr. JONES] in the conference of 1892.
But we need no tables to show the fall in the great agricultural
products, wheat and cotton; both have fallen to a point below
the cost of production.
COTTON AND WHEAT GO DOWN WITH SILVER.
I will, however, insert in my remarks at this point a table
which was printed in the remarks of my colleague [Mr. WALTHALL.] in this body on the 7th instant, from which it appears
that there was pari passu an even fall of cotton and wheat from
1872 to 1892 along with the fall in the price of silver.
The table is as follows:
Year.*
W h e a t . C o t t o n . Silver.
$1.47
1.31
1.43
1872,
1873,
1874,
1875
1876.
1877.
1878.
1879.
1880.
1881.
1882.
1.12
1.24
1.17
1.31
1.07
1.25
1.11
1.19
486
Cents,
19.3
18.8
15.4
15
12.9
11.8
11.1
9.9
11.5
11.4
11.4
$1.32
1.29
1.27
1.24
1.15
1.20
1.15
1.12
1.14
1.13
1.13
Year.
18S4
1885
1886
1887
18S8
1889
1890
1891
Wheat. Cotton.
$1.13
1.07
.87
Cents.
10.8
10.5
10.6
9.9
9.5
9.8
9.9
10.2
7
7.3
Silver.
81.11
1.01
1.06
.99
.97
.93
.93
1.04
.90
9
The evils of demonetization have heen acknowledged toy all
parties. Promises of redress, as I have shown, have been freely
made. False and delusive hopes have been hel'd out for relief
through international monetai'y conferences.
MONETARY CONFERENCE OF 1892.
Three of these have been held. The evil to the world of silver
demonetization has been acknowledged in them, but nothing has
been done. In 1892, November 22, the latest monetary conference met. The delegates fully acknowledged the .gravity of the
situation arising from silver demonetization. The president of
the conference said in his opening address that the delegates
would 4 'investigate the possibility of remedying the condition of
affairs, of which none mistake the gravity."
Another delegate said:
W h a t e v e r p e r s o n a l s y m p a t h i e s w e m a y feel, w e m u s t a d m i t t h a t v e r y f e w
o f u s h a v e b e e n able t o a g r e e w i t h t h e s t o i c o p i n i o n , w h i c h d e n i e s t h e e x i s t ence o f a crisis, and c o n c l u d e s v e r y l o g i c a l l y t h e r e i s n o n e e d o f l o o k i n g f o r
a r e m e d y . * * * I t d i s a p p e a r s b e f o r e t h e reiterated a n d r e c e n t d e c l a r a tions o f s t a t e s m e n , w h o h a v e described t h e e v i l s w h i c h a r e r u i n i n g t h e a g r i c u l t u r e a n d d e s t r o y i n g the i n d u s t r i e s of t h e i r c o u n t r y w i t h a p r e c i s i o n
w h o s e s i g n i f i c a n c e it Is i m p o s s i b l e t o m i s t a k e .
And the president of the conference, on adjourning it, said:
A t t h e m o m e n t w e s u s p e n d o u r l a b o r s w e c a r r y w i t h us, I r e g r e t t o s a y ,
t h e v e r y g e n e r a l i m p r e s s i o n of a n u n e a s i n e s s w;hich c a l l s f o r a r e m e d y .
And Mr. Rothschild, the great banker and monometallist, and
a delegate to the conference, in submitting his proposition that
European nations should join the United States in purchasing
silver as a palliative for what was considered an impending monetary crisis, said:
I n e e d n o t r e m i n d y o u [the c o n f e r e n c e ] t h a t t h e s t o c k o f s i l v e r i n t h e w o r l d
Is estimated a t s e v e r a l t h o u s a n d s o f m i l l i o n s , a n d if t h i s c o n f e r e n c e w e r e t o
b r e a k u p w i t h o u t a r r i v i n g at a n y definite result, t h e r e w o u l d b e a d e p r e c i a t i o n in t h e v a l u e o f that, c o m m o d i t y w h i c h i t w o u l d be f r i g h t f u l t o c o n t e m plate a n d o u t o f w h i c h a m o n e t a r y p a n i c w o u l d ensue, t h e f a r - s p r e a d i n g
effects of w h i c h i t w o u l d b e i m p o s s i b l e t o f o r e t e l l .
Those were the opinions expressed in the conference. The conference adjourned, without action, on December It, 1892, till the
30th of May of the present year, when it was hoped that they
would be reconvened and further consideration of the remedy
would be resumed.
He who will study the deliberations of these conferences will
be struck with the general consensus of opinion, that silver was
a necessary money metal. The failure to agree was upon some
common action to be taken by the principal nations, and not on
the necessity for silver as money.
The response of the European delegates to the proposition of
the United States, being the conclusion of the conference of
1878, stated, as their judgment, "that it is necessary to maintain in the world the monetary functions of silver, as well as
those of gold, but that the selection, for use of one or the other
of the two metals, or of both simultaneously, should be governed by the special position of each state or group of states."
(See Conf. rep. of 1878, p. 163.) This reference to the action of
these conferences is designed to show and does show that whilst
they failed to produce results, it was the opinion of the delegates, after full debate, that silver, just as gold, should continue
to be a monetary metal, and th^t each state was to judge for itself how it would use either, or both, according to its special
condition.
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TROUBLE CAUSED BY DEMONETIZATION OF SILVER AND NOT BY SHERMAN
LAW.
The quotations from tho last conference in A. D. 1892 show
that in the months of December and November of last year the
ablest men in monetary affairs in Europe concurred with the
United States in believing- that the demonetisation of silver—as
I have explained, in and about 1873—was cause for serious alarm
and for apprehension of a monetary crisis of the gravest character, and that no one attributed this condition to the Sherman
law* On the contrary, great weight was given to the view
that silver purchases ought to bo increased—even participated
in by other governments.
It was suggested by no one that purchases under that law
would even contribute to a crisis. It was thought they would
tend to avoid it.
But, Mr. President, the evident disposition of the conference
of 1892 to consider further tho grave questions before it, the general acknowledgment that tlie monetary situation was then,
owing to the demonetization of silver, serious if not alarming,
and the adjournment till the 30th of May for further deliberation, produced a profound impression on those who were interested in keeping money scarce, and thereby giving it more and
more value as compared with commodities. So they conspired
again. As in 1873, as declared by Mr. Carlisle, and as 1 think
the circumstances I have mentioned,conclusively show, they conspired toprocure demonetization. So now, in the beginning of our
present troubles, they conspired to defeat all efforts'to remedy
that great wrong, and even to augment the disasters which had
followed demonetization by a repeal of the Sherman law. The
people of the United States had endeavored, as I have shown,
to repeal the act of demonetization. Their efforts had been
baffled. They had secared partial relief only. In 1878 they got
the small and inadequate relief of the Bland act. Like a sensible and practical people, as they are, they took what they .could
get, with the determination that they would not cease their efforts to gain all that was due them. They persisted from year
to year, but their efforts were futile. At last, in 1890, the Senate passed another bill for free coinage of silver.
It was not passed by the House, but such action was taken as
resulted in a conference between the two Houses. The conference report gave the act of 1890, called the Sherman law, The
Democrats voted against it. The free-coinage Democrats—or at
least I did—so voted, not because it provided for an addition to
the purchase of silver and consequently to the volume of the
currency, but because, taking the whole act together, it was not
deemed as favorable to free coinage as the Bland act, which it
repealed.
VOTE AGAINST REPEAL OR GIVE UP SILVER.
Some Senators who voted against the Sherman act and who
now oppose, not the repeal of the Sherman act, but the repeal of
one clause of it, are criticised as being inconsistent. It is said
as an excuse for Mr. Carlisle^ change of position upon this question, and very properly, that the circumstances differ. How
much, sir, do the circumstances differ now as to those of us who
voted against the Sherman act in 1890? Then we had a choice
between the Bland-Allison act, which gave us certainly $2,000,000
of silver coinage per month and possibly $4,000,000, and the
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1 1
Sherman law. To-day we have no such choice. If Senators who
are advocating; the pending bill desire to place us in an inconsistent position, they ought to bring in a bill repealing the whole
of the Sherman law and reviving the Bland-Allison act of 1878.
But they do not do that. They do not propose even to repeal
the whole act, but one single clause of it, and that clause the
very one which every Senator who is for free silver approved
of, for the purchase of more silver.
We free-coinageDemocrats voted against it for the reasons I
have stated, because we did not regard it as being as favorable
to free coinage as the act which it repealed. It did, however,
contribute to an increase of currency.
NATIONAL. BANKS BENT ON REPEAL OF SHERMAN LAW.
It was assailed by the monometallists and bankers from the
very beginning. The national banks, who had shown their opposition to the coinage of any amount of silver, who had in 1878
immediately after the passage of the Bland-Allison act, refused
to receive silver on deposit, and to use it in the clearing house
and exchanges, and who were only compelled by an act of Congress in 1882 to do that thing, of course opposed the Sherman
law.
It was assailed by the monometallists from the beginning.
They had become enamored of the gold standard of Europe.
The falling prices of commodities, consequent on the increased
purchasing power of gpld, augmented largely the wealth of those
owning money and iponey obligations. Through the insufficiency of the metallic currency, anc( the opportunity thus afforded to increase the devices I have alluded to for supplying
this deficiency, these men had acquired unlimited power over
the finances of the country. It was determined to reverse the
action of Congress in enacting the Sherman law, and thereby
prevent a further increase of the volume of the currency for
which it provided.
Mr. President, it had not been regarded by the national banks,
though they opposed it, that the Sherman act contained the
dangers now ascribed to it. Nor did the business men of the
country have that opinion. Both acted under it exactly as if
it were a safe and sound financial measure free from, danger.
The act went into operation in August, 1890. That the business
men and money-owners had faith in the financial situation as
fixed by the Sherman law is shown by their deposits in the
banks. When trouble and disaster are anticipated money is
hoarded—as we have reason to know in the last few m o n t h s withdrawn from banks, not deposited in them.
The deposits in national banks increased in the year ending
October 2,1890—a date nearly three months after the passage of
the act—over the deposits of the preceding year by $108,300,000;
and i^ the next year the deposits were about the same amount;
and in the next year, ending September 30,1892, they were still
further increased, in addition to the increase of the year ending
October 2,1890, by the sum of $243,800,000.
BANKS HAD NO FEAR OF SHERMAN LAW.
This shows conclusively there was no fear on the part of the
business men. The banks themselves exhibited their confidence
in thefinancesby increasing their capital stock by $G4,000,0Caover
the stock in the year ending September 30, 1889. But more
483
12
than this, as if to show their entire confidence in the monetary
system as fixed by that act, they increased their loans to $2,171 ,000,000 in the year ending September 30,1892, as compared with
$1,805,700,000 in the year ending September 30,1889.
The business of the banks in deposits and loans and the increase of capital stock showed the utmost confidence in the
monetary situation under the Sherman law.
The exports and imports of gold during the year ending June
30,1891, and June 30,1892, exhibit the same confidence. In the
first year nkmed the net exports were $63,590,666, and the next
year succeeding that, having another year of experience under
the Sherman law, the net exports were only $494,873. This
confidence as exhibited by exports and imports of gold continued up to and including the month of November, 1892, on the 22d
day of which month the international monetary conference met.
The gross exports of gold for October, 1892, were only $484,250, and in November only $1,138,647. The imports for these
two months show a net gain in gold to the country of $4,572,645. The imports exceed the exports by that amount. But
suddenly there was a change. The international conference was
in session, with the sentiments favorable to a more enlarged use
of silver, which I have mentioned. They determined to meet
again on May 30, to try to come to an agreement favorable to
this enlarged use. England's delegates, through Mr. Rothschild, had expressed the gravest apprehensions of disaster if no
agreement was reached. The United States had called the conference. A new President had been elected, supposed to be not
favorable to the Sherman law. The banks had the power, in
conjunction with their allies, to absolutely dominate the monetary situation.
The situation itself, occasioned, as I have shown, by the demonetization of silver, increased this power. Apprehensions
had been expressed by the greatest authorities on finance in the
world of. a monetary crisis, certain to come at no distant day,
not from the purchase of silver, but from a too small purchase
of silver. The financial world was thus in a condition in which
distrust could be easily fomented.
THE MONEY POWERS CONSPIRE TO REPEAL THE SHERMAN IIAW.
So, it was resolved that such a condition of affairs should be
produced as would compel a repeal of the^ Sherman act, and
thereby destroy all chances of remonetizing silver, and thus give
to the banks and their allies the profitable business of supplying
the needed currency at their will, contracting or expanding,
raising or reducing prices, as they should see proper.
CRISIS PRODUCED TO PREVENT MONETARY CONFERENCE.
Whilst the conference was in session the exports of gold were
suddenly raised to $12,879,727 for the month of December, the
imports being only $1,540,538.
"Whether this sudden increase in the exports was the result of
a preconceived plan to produce a panic, or whether coming from
the course of trade and excessive monetary demands in Europe
it was afterward seized upon to produce distrust and a consequent
panic, it is difficult to determine accurately. However this may
be, the large exports were at once made the ground for either
inducing or aggravating the seriousness of the situation.
After December. 1892, there was a continuous monthly increase
486
13
of exports of gold to the 30th of May, 1893, reaching $19,148,064
in April, and in May $16,914,317. Then from the day on which
the intsrnational conference was to meet—the conference having
been abandoned—the exports fell suddenly to $2,771,226 in June,
and since then there have been continuous net importations of
gold to the amount of many millions; I believe about fifty-four
millions several days ago.
The Senate will note that the sudden ceasing of the large exportation of gold occurred on the very day when this conference
was to meet, when it was ascertained that the conference would
not meet.
The crisis had been produced and the conference had failed.
During all this time the country heard it announced over and
over again in the metropolitan press and by the banks and their
agents that all this trouble came from the Sherman law; and in
connection with this was a demand not only for the repeal of the
act, but also for the issue of new bonds with which to buy gold,
and, what was equally significant and important, to furnish a
basis for the additional issue of national-bank notes which the
crisis thus produced seemed to demand. They determined to
have the exclusive right to furnish the currency for the country,
and in such quantities as they might see proper.
And thus these corporations, skillfully taking advantage of a
situation made, by the demonetization of silver, favorable to the
success of their machinations, filled the world with a clamor that
the purchase of silver under the Sherman law was the cause of
the disasters which they had themselves produced.
I am glad to know that the able chairman of the Committee
on Finance, Mr. V O O R H E E S , fully concurs in the view I have
expressed as to the cause of the gold exports. He used the following language:
The shipments or gold which took place f r o m this country in the last four
or five months must be accounted for, to m y mind, in a different way. They
were a part of the same plan which attempted to sack the Treasury of its
gold reserve fund, to create distrust, fear, agitation, panic, and a withdrawal,
as far as possible, of all money in circulation; and all this to be accompanied
by a concerted outcry f r o m terror-stricken business circles, and f r o m the
whole national-banking system, that nothing can restore confidence and
save the public credit except the issuance of at least $300,000,000 of interestbearing Government bonds.
To which I will add, and the repeal of the Sherman law.
I add also the testimony of the distinguished Senator from New
York [Mr. HILL] to the same effect.
The Senator, whilst stating that it can not be denied that the
Sherman law has been at least in part, and^ possibly the most
largely, instrumental in producing the existing complications,
also stated, in most graphic and eloquent language, the part that
had been borne by the gold monometallists.
W H A T SENATOR HTTiTi S A Y S OS1 THE PANIC.
I quote from his speech:
Some portion of the present panic may be traced to a concerted effort o n
the part of numerous monometallists t o produce It In order farther t o
discredit silver as a part of the standard m o n e y of the country. That fact
is apparent everywhere we turn.
And among their acts which contributed to this result he mentioned:
,
They encouraged the hoarding of m o n e y ; they inaugurated the policy of
refusing loans t o the people, even upon the best security; they circulated
false petitions, passed absurd and alarming resolutions; predicted the direst
486
14
disaster, attacked the credit of the Government, sought to exact a premium
upon currency, and attempted in every way to spread, distrust broadcast
throughout the land.
He continues. I quote his language literally:
The best financial system in the world could not stand such an organized
and vicious attack upon it. These disturbers, these promoters of the public
peril, represent largely the creditor class, the men who desire to appreciate
the gold dollar in order to subserve their own selfish interest, men who
revel in hard times, men who drive harsh bargains with their fellow-men in
periods of financial distress, and men wholly unfamiliar with the principles
of monetary science.
. ,
.
a
It is not strange that the present monetary panic has been induced, intensified, and protracted by reason of their malign influences.
But it will be objected to this view, that the banks and their
allies would not combine to produce a situation by which they
themselves were to be losers. From circumstances hereafter to
be stated, it is not certain that the great banks in New York
who have the power to produce the crisis and did produce it
have been losers. But if they have, the answer to that view is
contained in the following extract from the same speech of the
Senator from Indiana:
If i t be asserted that some of the banks have therefore suffered and fallen
by the overthrow of public and private confidence which has taken place,
it only adds one more illustration to the well-known fact that a demon of
destruction once raised sometimes escapes the control of its masters and
turns and rends them. * * * In this attempt to force the Government
into the attitude of a borrower, the banks have endangered their own credit,
and in many instances totally lost the confidence of those who trusted them.
Ana the distinguished Senator from New York, immediately
following the quotation I have made from his speech, expressed
a similar view in these words:
Having contributed much to bring about the present exigency, these men—
The monometallists and creditors described in the extract before quoted—
are now unable to control it.
reaping the whirlwind.
They have sown to the wind, and we are now
So it is that the present storm which has been raised will not
be still at the bidding of the necromancers who called it into
being.
As in the outset, on the eve of the bursting of the storm upon the
country the banks were acting, as has been shown, as if there was
to be no trouble which they could not master, so in its progress
they up to a late date exhibited the same confidence in their ability to control it. I mention that as another evidence that they
got it up. They increased their loans so that in nine months
they were $2,141,400,000 from October 2,1892, to May 4,1893, as
against $2,171,000,000 in the preceding twelve months, almost as
much in nine months as in the foregoing twelve. At the same
time there was a decrease in their specie and legal-tender reserve; and their percentage of cash to net deposits was exactly
the same as it was in the year ending September 25,1891. This
proves beyond controversy that the banks had the utmost confidence in their ability to ride the storm which they had raised,
that it would down at their bidding. They were lending and
gaining just as if no storm had arisen.
But, sir, whilst it may be conceded that the contagion of distrust has ~been spreading; that the financial crisis produced, as
I have explained, has gotton beyond the control of those who
evoked it, yet it is by no means certain that it has entailed loss
and disaster on the banks.
486
15
BANKS LOSE NOTHING BY THE CRISIS.
If there has been a want of confidence in their solvency, and,
therefore, a wish on the part of depositors to withdraw their
money, that wish has beeh met by aflatrefusal to pay them. For
the cash deposited and payable on demand, and which the banks
had loaned as their own at a large interest, only the certified
checlcsof the banksare tendered to the depositor. For his money
and the promise of the bank to pay on demand he gets another
promise of the bank to pay, when It shall suit its convenience.
.Lhese checks in many places circulate as money. So desperate
is the condition of the people from want of money that they take
as currency the dishonored obligations of tho banks who are the
authors of their ruin.
But the banks have other resources for maintaining themselves than by refusing to pay on demand their debts to depositors; they manufacture and use without authority of law,
and contrary to law, the currency to help them out of their distress. They resort to the ingenious device of issuing what is
callcd clearing-house certificates, which are not allowed to circulate among the people, but are kept for use exclusively by the
banks, to enable them to persist in locking up the currency by
their refusal to pay depositors. These certificates in New York
amount to over $88,000,000. What is the total amount in the
whole couutry I am unable to say, but it is probably not less than
J
$100,000,000.
The power of the banks for evil, to create monetary troubles,
is so great that even this body of ambassadors from the States,
the great tribunal in which the rights, the dearest interests,
the prosperity and happiness of the American people are supposed to be, and I believe are, the great end of our deliberations
dares not to inquire into these illegal transactions lest their official exposure shall increase the distress which the sinning
banks have brought upon the people.
Nov/, Mr. President, up to this point I have discussed the
agency of the banks and their allies in producing the present
panic, and endeavored to show their power to do it, as coming
from the conditions which were peculiar to the time at which
this crisis commenced.
THE SINGLE GOLD STANDARD BREEDS MONETARY CRISIS AND DANGEROUS
TO PROSPERITY.
Now, I proceed to show that our present monetary system
based on gold as the only money of ultimate redemption, is at
all times and under all circumstances favorable to the production of monetary crises, whether they come from acts of folly on
the part of governments, of traders or bankers, or may be deliberately designed. Sir, I mean to say that the present system
is a constant menace and ever-impending danger to the prosperity of the human race.
SCARCITY OF METALLIC MONEY INCREASES THE POWER OF THE BANKS
Great, sir, as is this power of the banks and their allies tho
moneyed classes, they could not at their will dominate and c o n trol the business of the world unless there was a real and permanen t deficiency in actual or metallic money. The smaller the
amount of real money in circulation or in existence, the more is
the need for paper money and those contrivances and devices for
economy in the actual use of money which are so much relied on
by the monometallists. Bank paper and bank contrivances Iq*
486
16
minimizing the use of money are the means by which the power
of the moneyed classes is made absolute. They are despots with
autocratic sway in the realm of trade and production.
Hence, sir, the proposition is now made openly for the first
time in the United States by any considerable number of men to
dispense entirely with silver as money of full debt-paying power,
to degrade it to mere token or subsidiary money, depending for
its value, like paper, upon its redeemability in gold. And in this
connection it must not be forgotten that as silver money is made
subordinate, as it is now in the United States and in Europe,
dependent upon redemption in gold, as a necessity for its parity
with that metal, gold has imposed on it an additional demand
and duty whereby it is made still mor,e valuable in comparison
with commodities, thus causing prices to fall more and more.
NOT MONEY ENOUGH IN THE WORLD TO TRANSACT BUSINESS.
That there is a deficiency in the amount of gold to do the
world's business is generally conceded, at least in this Chamber.
It is n e e d f u l , however, to a clear conception of the questions arising on this bill that the facts and figures showing this deficiency
and its extent should be set out.
By a Treasury circular dated the 16th of August, 1893, it appears that all the gold coin in the world is $3,582,605,000, say, in
round numbers, three and one-half billions of dollars. This statement refers to countries containing a population of 1,220,000,900.
Deduct the population of China, South and Central America,
and Mexico, aggregating 450,000,000—all now on a silver basis
and also India, which is now somewhat uncertain as to its future monetary policy—we have in round numbers 700,000,000 of
silver-using people to be deducted, which leaves 522,000,000 of
people for the gold-using countries. Then giving these countries all the gold, say three and one-half billion dollars, we have
that sum on which to do the foreign commerce of the civilized
world (excluding China and India) which in 1890 in round numbers amounted with that exclusion to about twenty-four and a
half billions of dollars, or about $7 of foreign commerce in these
countries to one of all gold in the world. In addition it is to
furuish the basis for the immense internal traffic of the nations,
as I will further explain.
In 1890 the total tonnage of the world of sea-voyaging vessels
over 100 tons in burden amounted in round numbers to 24,000,000 In this vessels under 100 tons—canal boats and steamboats—
are not counted. All these great ships making this enormous
tonnage were built with money, are kept in repair by money,
are manned, equipped, and navigated by money. How much, who
can tell?
Then we come to the railroads of the world.
In 1890 the mileage of the railroads (and the mileage has
largely increased since then) was in round numbers:
Miles.
In Europe
In North America
In South America
In Asia
In Africa
In Australia
Total
486
-
-
137,000
183,000
16,000
19,000
4,000
I2,000
371,000
17
These railways cost enormous millions in their building, and
annually cost many other millions in repairs and running expenses.
It is difficult to estimate separately the internal traffic from
the foreign traffic which goes over these roads. There are some
duplications which ought to be accounted for. I have only partial statistics of the tonnage carried over the railroads of other
countries. We can approximate it by comparison with our own
and with other countries of whose traffic we have statistics.
In order to show how insufficient is the world's supply of money
for the world's ^ needs, and that this insufficiency is in itself a
condition in which financial panics are easily created, I proceed
now to state these conditions in the United States, and will then
notice the like conditions of the world.
VOLUME OF MONEY INSUFFICIENT.
The total money in circulation in the United States on July 1,
1893, as shown by a Treasury statement, is $1,601,347,187, or
$24.44 per capita of our population.
Onth is and with this the immense business I shall now proceed to set out must be conducted.
I take the statistics for the United States for 1892, and show
there were in round numbers 170,000 miles of railroad, over
which was carried in that year 750,000,000 tons of freight. There
are no statistics showing the value of this freight. I am informed that Mr. Poor, the author of Poor's Railroad Manual,
values it at $150 per ton, but my informant, a very intelligent
business man of New York, says this is manifestly too high.
I have thought it was nearly correct to put the valuation, at
wholesale prices, at one-third this amount—say $50 per ton.
Then adding the tonnage carried in 1890 in internal commerce, by
steamers, sailing vessels, and canals and express companies, altogether one hundred and ninety millions, we have for total tonnage exclusive of foreign commerce nine hundred and forty
millions, which, at $50 per ton, would be $47,000,000,000 as the
value of freight carried on our railroads and internal water
ways. Deduct for duplications all—no b a part, but all—of our
foreign commerce, which was in the year ending June 30,1892,
little less than two billions—but say two billions of dollars—we
have $45,000,000,000 as the value of the internal commerce of the
United States in one year, as carried on railroads and watercraft; not the whole of it, but only that carried by these common
carriers. If any man supposes these figures too high, let me remind him that the clearings in the clearing houses of fiftyseven cities of the United States, and there are clearing houses
in sixty-one, but I have no returns from the other four, in 1892
amounted to over $61,000,000,000. But this large sum of $45,000,000,000 represents only the wholesale prices, and shows only
the need for money for the one sale from the wholesaler to the
purchaser from him.
It would be a moderate estimate to say that on the average
there are three necessary sales of commodities, from the producer to the consumer; not counting the speculative sales,which
now are immense. Each of these three sales requires money—
or the representative of money based on money. So that it
would be a low estimate to state the amount of sales in the
internal traffic of this country based on commodities transported
by railroads and water craft would annually reach $135,000,000,486—%
18
000, not counting the increased prices charged by < ^ dealer as
profits on sales made by him, the aggregate of which, when
retail trade is transacted on a credit basis, wouldf equal the
wholesale price. This estimate takes no account of those immense transactions embracing commodities and services^ exchanged for monev, and which contribute no part to the»tonnage
S s f o r t e d by railroads and water craft How much this is
S 3 be accurately estimated, but that-it is immense a little
^ T l ^ r ^ m u s t also^be^added taxes-national, State and municipal—interest on public and private and corporate debts.
P The total debt of the railroads in the United States for the
years 1839 and 1890 was $5,352,117 340.
Interest on that at 6 per cent is $321,127,042.40.
The total public debt of the United States-the States and the
counties-in 1890 was over $2,000,000 000
TVPr cent is $120,000,000. In this is not included the debt due by
towns
and
cities,York
which
is p is
r oover
b a b l $157,000,000.
y ^ m ^ h more. Thedebt of
the city
of New
alone
The total mortgage individual indebtedness
^
States as shown bv the census returns is $4,563,433,186, and the
estimate by the Census Bureau for the
States, the returns for which have not been tabulated, is $1,327r
565 A 2 i making total mortgage indebtedness of private individuals $5 890,9987302. The annual interest on that sum at 8 per
c e n t - a low estimate-comes within a small fraction of $480,000,^O^course the private indebtedness of individuals, not covered
bv mortgages, cannot be ascertained, but it would be a low estimate to put it at several billions more, probably exceeding the
m fs t ubmit d he b re
a table prepared at the Census Office i n f l a t i o n
to certain manufactures, in cities containing over 20,000 mhatatants, which I ask to be printed, as Exhibit A m an Appendix.
And it must not be forgotten that these manufacturing statistics do not include business done in towns and cities comprising
less than 20,000 inhabitants. This excluded business would probablv eaual the amount stated in the table.
.
.
It excludes certainly all the manufactures in Mississippi, and
the major part in all the Southern States, and a large percentage
in the other States, and the immense products of handicraft all
over the Union.
,, .
, ,
A .
This table shows the total wages paid m manufactures to be—
For a year — —
O t h e r expenses for the year
— -
- $1,550,065,130
456,877,362
2,015,942,522
Add cost of raw material
3,329,377,893
But these establishments make and pay out large
dividends, which are not less than G per cent per
annum; add this, say
237, 843,877
Making total of
-
5,583,163,392
As the annual need for money in these establishments.
The mineral products of the United States, exclusive of the
precious metals, in 1889 amounted to $587,230,662.
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19
The cost of this would be low at half this amount, sav $293.615,331.
' *
•
U this be added, as it ought, we have a grand total for thp
yearly need of money in manufactories in cities of over 20,000 inhabitants and in mining of $5,876,778,723.
The total agricultural production in twenty-eight States and
Territories in 1889, as shown by the census, is $1,300,000,000.
The returns from the other States and Territories have not been
tabulated, but in 1879 their production was in a small fraction
of $1,000,000,000. Add 20 per cent for increase from 1879 to 1889,
and it makes $1,250,000,00*0; making total agricultural production in 1889, $2,750,000,000.
Nearly half a decade has elapsed since 1889, to which these figures are applicable, and it would be a low estimate to increase
them for the present year by 20 per cent, which would make
them amount to oyer $3,000,000,000.
As it is. known that in the most important crops the value
does not exceed the cost pf production, it would be safe to say
that the wages alone paid in agriculture amounted to 25 per
cent pf the product, say $750,000,000 per annum, which is less
than one-half the wages paid by manufacturers as above stated.
The total gross earnings of all the railroads in the United
States in 1892 was $1,191,867,099. Of this sum $839,039,094 were
paid in operating expenses, very largely as wages, requiring
payment in cashAnd of these earnings, $293,559,476 came from passengers,
which is outside of the traffic of these roads, which I have estimated for as internal traffic of the country.
Sir, these immense sums, relating to the annual and daily use
for money in the principal business operations of this Union,
may, so far as capable of approximate specifications, be stated
as follows:
Commerce carried on over railroads and waterways at wholesale value.
$45,000,000,000
Three sales of these without estimating for
profits
1
135,000,000,000
To this may be added:
Wages paid in manufactures, Exhibit' A - —
Miscellaneous expenses in manufactures
Cost of raw material
Interest on dividends on capital ($3,964,064,627)
at 6 per cent
Total for a year
Agricultural wages
.Railroads in the United State3, expense of running.
Dividends paid
Interest paid
Total, included in gross receipts of ($1,191,867,099)
486
1,559,065,130
456,877,392
3,329, 777,893
237,843,877
5,583,164,292
750,000,000
839,039,694
81,536,811
229,909,292
1,150,485,797
20
I next come to the public debts:
States and Territories of the United States
Debts of counties.Interest on same at 6 per cent
Add one-tenth for annual payments on principal
debt.
Total of annual needs for money on these
debts
$223,107,883
141,950,000
21, 903,572
36,505,788
58,409,350
Mortgages, private debts, total for all States
and Territories
5, 890,998,302.00
Interest on same for a year, 8 per cent
461,279,8tJ4.16
Add one-fifth of principal for partial payment each year
1,1?8,996.660.00
Making
1,639,479,524.00
of annual use for money on these, or more than the whole circulation of the United States.
Then, sir, there is to be added the private debts—not mortgages—created during the year, and not here estimated, but as
I believe to be equal to the mortgage indebtedness, of $5,000,000,000. There are $4,900,000,000, and more, due by the banks
to depositors, and over $4,300,000,000 due to the banks.
Then we must add the revenue—national, State, county, and
C1 The
total gross receipts of the United States Treasury for the
year ending June 30,1891, was $765,821,305. It was for the year
ending June 30, 1892, $736,401,296; say an average of $750,000,000 a year.
The total revenue of thirty-eight States, as shown by the census of 1890, was $164,984,901.
This does not include local taxes—as county, school districts,
poor taxes, road and bridge taxes. I can not get the statistics
of these, but from observation, as to these taxes in my own
State—which has no large cities—and from information derived from residents of other States, it would be a very conservative estimate to place these local taxes at three times the
amount of the State revenues. This would add $494,954,703, or
a grand total of all State revenues, $655,049,604. Add revenues
of United States Treasury, $750,000,000; making total public
revenues $1,405,049,604; about three times the amount of gold
in circulation in the United States, and a sum but little under
the total circulation of all kinds of money of the United States—
and if the city taxation were included it would very greatly exceed that circulation.
If we tabulate all these various items of annual needs for
money, we have a total for the United States alone as follows:
In manufacturing, mining, agricultural wages, and railroad
earnings the amount of $6,579,792,844, not estimating expenditures and receipts in navigation of all kinds nor manufacturing
in places other than in cities of over 20,000 inhabitants.
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21
We have for internal commerce $135,000,000,000, not counting
profits on resales nor estimating the immense traffic hereafter to
be mentioned.
We have for the revenues of United States, States, and counties, not estimating city revenues, $1,405,049,604; payments on
mortgage debts, not estimating individual debts not secured by
mortgage, $1,639,479,524; debts due by banks to depositors, $4,900,000,000; debts due to banks by borrowers, $4,300,000,000;
making a grand aggregate of $153,824,272,565, or about $370, of
needs for money, to one dollar in gold, in circulation, and about
$100 to every dollar of all kinds in the United States. To this is
to be added for traffic and business unenumerated a sum many
times larger.
AMOUNT OF MONET ABROAD ALSO INStrmorENT.
W e have seen how utterly insufficient is the money in the
United States for the needs of the people. I now show that the
world's needs—excluding the silver-using countries—are equally
unsatisfied.
Taking the railroad traffic of Europe—omitting Roumania,
Turkey, Greece, Belgium, Portugal, and Spain, for which I
have no statistics—and the internal traffic of the whole of Europe, estimated on the basis of twice that of the United States,
though the population is five and a half times greater, and the
expenses in manufacturing and mining and agriculture at the
same rate, and counting the taxation as actually returned, with
estimates only as to the local taxes, except as to taxation in
Roumania, Turkey, Bulgaria, Greece, Portugal, Spain, Belgium,
Holland, and Switzerland, which is estimated, we have three
hundred and ten billions for Europe's annual needs for money.
But from this is excluded what was included in the computation for the United States—all local and municipal debts, all
railroad debts, and all private debts.
Adding the above sum to the demand for money in the United
States and we have four hundred and fifty-nine billions as the
annual needs of Europe and the United States for money, leaving out the exceptions before noticed, and the unspecified business hereafter to be alluded to, and also the whole foreign commerce of the world, over twenty-five billions, and the interest
on the public debts of the world seven hundred and fifty millions.
The above specifications shows $130 of needs to $1 in gold, giving Europe and the United States all the gold in the world, and
yet of the three and one-half billions of that gold three hundred
and seven-six millions are in other countries.
In these calculations I have made no estimate for cost of mining the precious metals. Of these, two hundred and twelve millions were mined in 1892, and counting all losses in unprofitable
mining, I believe it is understood that eacli dollar mined costa
dollar in expenses.
Sir, in making these estimates I have designedly been extremely conservative. My object has been to exhibit amounts
certainly needed and at the same time to call attention to the
general subject of the world's needs for money, with such specifications as would tsnd to aid the thoughtful mind to grasp these
great needs for itself, and to furnish suggestions for data (rather
than to give complete data) by which some idea might be formed
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2 2
of the great inadequacy of the money of the world to do the
needed work.
But, sir, in this tabulation we have omitted, as before alluded
to, the immense transactions requiring the use of money, based
on all handicraft manufactures, and all manufactures elsewhere
than in cities of 20,000 inhabitants and over; on all sales of
lands, the lending in the first instance of money by others than
banks, on other securities than mortgages; all transactions in commodities not transported by railroads and water craft; and building houses, barges, ships, steamboats, and repairing the same;
expenses in the immense slaughter and packinghouses; compensation to draymen, truckmen, hackmen, blacksmiths, bakers, saloon-keepers; for work in distilleries; compensation to attaches
of theatrical companies and other exhibitions; in domestic service; to hotel-keepers and servants, restaurant-keepers, lawyers,
doctors, preachers, keepers of lodging-houses, lumbermen, rents
of dwellings and other houses and lands; money used m traveling other than for railroad fares, including money .used in navigating all water craft, ships, barges, canal boats, and in street
cars, omnibuses, hack and carriage fares; to pay sewing-women;
money spent dailv for newspapers and the wages and other
expenses in publishing them, and of books and magazines; speculations in stocks, in futures, and speculation by real purchase
and sale of commodities; and the expenses of running the large
number of colleges and universities and high schools not provided for by taxation.
.
#
To these there are to be added many other kinds of daily expenditures requiring money.
ONLY ONE DOLLAR IN GOLD TO EVERY ONE HUNDRED AtfD TITTY
NEEDED IN COMMERCE.
DOLLARS
And yet, sir, to do all this work, to carry on this specified commerce and business of Europe and the United States, we have
but three and a half billions of gold—one dollar in gold to about
one hundred and fifty in traffic and commerce, without estimating for the unspecified business, which I have no doubt amounts
to ten times as much more.
That the world also uses about the same amount of legal-tender silver, say three and one-half billions, does not help the cause
of the monometallist. For by refusing to coin silver as we do
gold in unlimited quantities whenever the bullion is presented,
we have reduced the gold price of silver at the ratio of 16 to 1,
the largest in any coinage in the world, to the bullion value of
60 cents in the dollar.
This large amount must, therefore, be kept at par with gold by
making it redeemable in gold like paper money,and thus, as Ihave
before shown, increasing the value of gold by requiring it to
perform this new duty. As it is claimed that the trouble now
afflicting us is the fear that this would not be done in the United
States, I might rest this part of the case by transferring this
three and one-half billions of silver to the commodity column,
as before ascertained, for which gold must furnish the exchange.
But if we allow it to stand as money, then, sir, we have seven
billions of metallic money to do the whole world's commerce of
about four hundred and seventy billions, with the unenumerated
billions included in the business I have alluded to, for which we
have no statistics.
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23
Will that do? It seems to he conceded it will not do. W e
hear from all sides nearly that we must have an international
monetary conference to set silver up again as a money metal.
That would he folly if we had money enough without it. That
is unattainable. England, the great creditor of the world,
stands in the way.
GHAIili W E ACT FOB OURSELVES OR W A I T F O R CONSENT OF EUROPE? W H A T
JEFFERSON SAID.
Mr. President, I desire to submit this question to the serious
consideration of the American people. With us all conceding
that there ought to be remonetization of silver, that we need
silver, that it is necessary to carry on the world's work properly,
that there is a deficiency of currency, are we to stop and say we
will not supply this deficiency, as was suggested by the Senator
from Texas [Mr. MILLS] yesterday, without the consent of Europe? Is it a fact that in the most important of all governmental
action we dare not take a single step to supply an acknowledged
want of the American people without consulting Europe? On
that subject I desire to read, for the benefit of some Senators
who profess to be Jeffersonian Democrats, what Mr. Jefferson
said not quite a century ago. I read from a letter dated May
13,1797, by Mr. Jefferson to Elbridge Gerry. Said Mr. Jefferson:
It has been m y constant o b j e c t through m y public life; and with respect
to the English and French particularly, I have t o o often expressed to the
former m y wishes, and made t o t h e m propositions verbally and in writing,
officially and privately, t o official and private characters, f o r them t o doubt
m y views, if they would be content with equality.
They will not have equality. They wish to domineer the
American Republic as to the most important question which
can be submitted to a people.
Of this, they are in possession of several written and f o r m a l proofs in m y
o w n handwriting. B u t they have wished a m o n o p o l y of commerce and influence with u s ; and they have, in fact, obtained it.
I am afraid that is the fact now.
W h e n w e take notice that theirs is the w o r k s h o p t o which we g o f o r all
w e want; that with them center either i m m e d i a t e l y or ultimately all the
labors of o u r hands and lands; that t o t h e m belongs either openly or secretly
the great mass of our navigation;—
I believe that is so now—
that they are advancing fast t o a m o n o p o l y o f o u r banks and public funds—
The great cry is now that if we pass this bill the immense
number of bonds and public securities owned in Europe will be
turned back upon us—
and t h e r e b y -
Said Mr. Jefferson—
placing our public finances under their c o n t r o l .
My God! is not that the situation to-day when American Senators get up and gravely tell the American Senate that silver ought
to be remonetized and they dare not do it except by the consent
of Europe?
That they have in their alliance the m o s t influential characters in and out
of office; when they have shown that b y all these bearings on the different
branches of the Government, that they can f o r c e it t o proceed in whatever
direction they dictate, and bend the interests of this country entirely to the
will of another—
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24
Is not that what is gravely proposed to be done with reference
to the remonetization of silver?
"When all this—
Continues Mr. Jefferson—
I say, is attended to, it is impossible f o r us to say w e stand on independent
ground, impossible f o r a free mind not t o see and to groan under the bondage in which it is bound. If anything after this could excite sunrise it would
be that they have been able so far to t h r o w dust in the eyes
our o w n citizens as t o fix on those w h o wish m e r e l y t o recover 3 e l ^ g o v e r r ^ e n t the
charge of subserving one foreign influence because they resist submission
t o another.
I fear this is true now—
But they possess our printing presses, a p o w e r f u l engine in their government of us.
Further, Mr. Jefferson says:
But I hope we m a y still keep clear of them, notwithstanding our present
thraldom, and that time m a y be given us to reflect o n the awful crisis we
have passed through, and t o find some means of shielding ourselves in future
f r o m f o r e i g n influence.
What sort of foreign influence?
F o r e i g n influence political, commercial, o r in whatever f o r m it m a y be attempted.
And then conies the expression of a wish which, when I hear
it stated that we dare not move in this matter of supreme import to the American people without the consent of Europe, I
confess I feel exactly as Mr. Jefferson did. Said he:
l e a n scarcely withhold myself f r o m j o i n i n g in the wish of Silas Deane,
that there were an ocean of fire between us and the Old W o r l d .
F A L O N G PRICES AND GENERAL DISTRESS RESULTS OF SILVER DEMONETIZATION.
Mr. President, the world's business is carried on in a way,
under the present system of demonetization, but is it well carried on?
Let the low and still falling prices of the great commodities of
the world answer. Let the distress now prevailing everywhere
answer.
.
The insufficiency of the present metallic coinage not only
ruins the people by low prices, but it furnishes the opportunity for
the banks and their allies to produce panic and distress, from contraction and distrust, by which the people are still further robbed
and the m o n e y e d classes grow rich.
Mr. President, hnvi
shown the insufficiency of the money
of the world to do the work of the world, I propose to call the
attention of the Senate to the various devices and contrivances
which have been invented by the banks to supply the wants of
the world for money.
With a traffic requiring many hundred dollars to one in existence of gold, with the superadded dependent silver, there
has come a necessity for such credit devices as are now claimed
to be the substitutes for money, and which are alleged to be better than an increase of money itself.
These substitutes are all based on what is called confidence. In
this way the ingenious devices of men are claimed to bs and are,
as long as a credulous public will give faith to them, substitutes
for money.
2 5
COMMERCE DRIVEN TO SUBSTITUTES FOR METALLIC MONET.
But are these substitutes reliable when carried to the extent
they are no w;'
They may do when there are no clouds in the financial skies,
when credit is in full vigor, when trust and faith are abounding, but when there comes the smallest disturbance anywhere
in the commercial world from any cause, from folly in overtrading, or from that cool and calculating malignity and hunger
for gold so often manifested by those who control the finances
of the world, when panics are produced, and the business of the
world wrecked in order that the fortunes of those who cause
these disasters to mankind may be increased—I say when these
troubles come, these substitutes are of no value.
We have heard something of the trouble coming from the
Barings' failure in 1800, the failure of one banking house caused
by overspeculation in one little country containing only 3,500,000
inhabitants, and with a foreign trade of only $243,000,000. So
these devices are of such a character that the smallest disturbance in one of the most insignificant countries in the world commercially brings disaster and panic over the civilized world.
Let us look for-a moment at the substitutes or alleged economies
in the use of money so far as developed in our own country.
Great stress is laid on the small portion of money used in the
clearing houses, whereby transactions to the amount of over
sixty-one billions in the year 1892 were settled with only about
5 per cent in money.
But, sir, there is an obvious reflection to be made with reference to thos„> clearings. It is that they relate only to large
transactions, which go through banks associated in clearing
houses, having no reference to the daily use of money in small
transactions, in paying wages of all kinds, in retail business, and,
in fact, all the millions of ordinary daily traffic of the 67,000,000 of
people of the United States. Another is that there are more
than fifteen States and Territories in which there are no clearing houses, whilst there are two States which have five each
and two which have four each. This economy is used in a few
localities only. It aids the banks associated in them and no one
else.
THE BANKS HOARD MONEY NOT THEIR OWN I N A PANIC.
But the principal thing on which it is relied to make a small
and insufficient currency do the work of a very large circulation arises from the habit of depositing money in banks, and
the keeping by the banks of that money in circulation by continually lending to others a large portion of the amount deposited for safe-keeping. And, sir. when it shall be noted as I shall
develop it that this is a remarkable assistance in making a little
money go a great way by keeping that little in constant use, it
must not at ths same time be forgotten that this constant circulation ceases when there is a commercial panic. It is worthless to
aid us in afinanci»1storm. It increases its fury by refusing to the
owners of the deposited money the power to use it. Money,
then, is locked up in the banks. It is in all respects, so far as
beneficial use is concerned, hoarded except that it is not hoarded
by the owners, but by the banks, who refuse to let the owners
have it. Then there are also checks and bills of exchange which
in good times perform useful offices. But they, like deposits
4S6
26
in the banks, are worthless in a financial crisis, except so far as
they are drawn on money actually held for their payment by a
trustee, who will not refuse to honor them.
But, sir, I would fail to do justice to the genius of the great,
monometallist capitalists of the world, the banks and their allies,
if I fail to mention another expedient, another device, by which
the world's money is made to support and to carry on the world's
commerce, and by which the commerce is made to fit the currency, instead of increasing the volume of the currency to meet
the demands of commerce. This expedient—this Procustean device—has the advantage over all others in this, that it is not a
fair-weather device only, but becomes more and more efficient as
the financial disasters shall increase in intensity and fury. By
this device the prices of commodities fall as the calls for money
become louder and more exigent.
STRIKING PROOFS OF THE EFFECT OF SILVER DEMONETIZATION ON P R I C E S ENORMOUS LOSS.
To show how this is done, I read an extract from the report of
the gold and silver commission of Great Britain, and it is very
significant and important. Commenting on the effects of silver
demonetization, they say:
The following agures f r o m Mr. Giffen's reports t o tlie board of trade s h o w
that the declared value of our [Great Britain] foreign trade in the undermentioned years was as follows, the progress of the trade t o 1873 having been
f o r m a n y years almost unbroken:
£584,000,000
.1673
£626,000,000 1885
562,500,000
1879
554,500,000 188 6
583,500,000
1833
607,000,000 1887
1884
623,000,000
If, however, the trade of the three latter years be valued at the prices of
1873, it would be represented by the f o l l o w i n g figures:
1879....
1883
1884
£711,000,000 I 1885
861,000,000 1886
844,000,000 1
•
£835,000,000
858,000,000
The average f o r the last f o u r years is—
Declared v a l u e . .
V a l u e at prices of 1873
£609,100,000
849,500,000
showing an average falling off of £340,4C0,000. o r about 29 per cent.
E v e n a more striking proof of the decline in value of British trade as compared with volume Is afforded by the fact that while w e have seen the total
value of that trade decline f r o m £626,000,000 in 1873 t o £583,641,000 in 1887, the
total tonnage employed in c a r r y i n g it advanced f r o m 37,034,422 i n 1873 t o
56,170,447 in 1887.
But, Mr. President, lest it may be asserted that the falling
values of commerce are local to Great Britain, I submit some
figures to show that the same ingenious device to make a small
volume of money do the great business of the world is in full
force in the United States,
I have already called the attention of the Senate and had inserted in my remarks the tables taken f Am the speech made by
my colleague [Mr. W A L T H A L L ] . X will put in one or two more.
LOSS ON COTTON FROM DEMONETIZATION OF SILVER.
The farm value—not the commercial value at New Orleans,
New York, and Liverpool, but the farm value of the cotton crop
of 1890, consisting of 1,313,72G bales, was by an official table
m
2 7
$310,000,000, whilst the farm value of the crop of 1892. consisting of over 9,000,000 hales, was only $270,000,000.
A like result will be found when we come to the wheat crop,
a constantly increasing production and a constantly decreasing
price.
.
The small volume of money did the business of the world because the value of the commodities of commerce were made to
shrink to the competency of the money of the world to carrying
it on.
.
I present some figures on the subject of these devices. Of
course to intelligent, observing men they will not be new, but
possibly they may contain some information to those who are not
so familiar with •this kind of literature as are the Senators upon
this floor.
FIGURES SHOWING EXTENT OF THESE DEVICES.
The total money in circulation of all kinds in the United
States in 1891, as shown by a statement of the Treasury, was
$1,601,347,187.
,
^
, . ..
The national banks had on deposit bn September 30,1892, the
sum of $2,002,600,000, or more than all the money in circulation
by 25 per'cent.
The State and private banks investment and. loan
companies, and savings banks had. on deposit, in
the same year, of Ordinary deposits
- $1,198,825,545
Savings deposits
—~
1,712,769,026
Total—
—
Add deposits of national banks
— — —
Makes total deposits in all banks . . . —
2,911,594,571
2,002,600,000
4,914,194,511
or just about three times the whole amount of all the money in
circulation in the United States and more than all the gold circulation in the whole world.
These banks did not keep this money hoarded; they lent it out
at a good interest, whereby it produced groat profit to them.
The national banks had out in loans in 1S92.__. $2,153,498,829
The other banks loaned
2,202,131,728
Total loans of all banks, - . - *
4,362,630,557
or about $2.70 loaned by the banks alone to every dollar in circulation in the United States. What a wonderful contrivance
of the banks, by which they not only use their own capital profitably, as will be seen, but which enables them to lend at interest
$2.70 to every dollar in the circulation of the United States.
This is a very good showing for supplying the deficiency of
the currency and enriching the banks. It only has this one
trouble, that it is utterly impotent as a substitute for a deficient
currency, though omnipotent for enriching the banks.
When the slightest financial storm shall arise, it would be ho
addition to the circulation, but a contraction, as the banks in
such times refuse payment of their deposits.
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2 8
But all these loans are based on deposits and circulation, and
are payable on demand, as follows:
Circulation and deposits of national banks
$1, 908, 846, 2S1
State-bank deposits, payable on demand
X, 198,825,545
Total
3,107,671,826
nearly twice as much as all the currency of the country.
But these banks do ndtownall,or even nearly all, of the money
of this country. At the same time that they are subjected to
these enormous obligations, payable on demand, they have only
cash as follows:
State banks, cash and cash items (whatever that
may be).
$197,789,384
(What cash items may be is unexplained, but I give them the
benefit of it all as cash.)
Cash held by national banks
$332,941,816
Total held by all banks
530,731,200
This shows demand obligations—which may be presented at
any time, and must be met when presented—nearly six times as
much as cash and cash items to meet them.
In this calculation we leave out the savings deposits, which
practically are demand obligations, in case of a panic, since, if
the banks holding them decline to pay on demand and claim the
sixty or thirty days' notice, as the case may be, it brings discredit and distrust, and but adds fuel to the fire. Adding these,
and we have the result that all the banks have only one-ninth
of the cash and cash items needed to meet their obligations
payable on demand. This view gives them credit for all money
of whatever kind which they possess.
GOLD A N INADEQUATE BASIS F O E BUSINESS.
But if we are to consider that gold alone is to be the money of
ultimate redemption, how utterly insignificant is the amount now
owned by the banks to meet their obligations. The total gold
and gold certificates held by all the banks in the United States
on July 12,1892, was only a small fraction over $191,000,000, and
all the gold in circulation in the United States was only $408,568,824. (See page 96, Coinage Laws.)
In this situation, is it a matter for wonder that we have a financial crisis now; or, rather, is it not a wonder that we are not in
that condition all the time? Whilst everybody has confidence
and faith matters go along, not indeed smoothly, yet without
violent convulsions and without great catastrophies.
Then we have that evenness in business, that absence from
disturbance which comes as often from that dulness and stagnation which are sure monitors of approaching death, as from a
blind faith that the banks will meet their obligations. Governor
Stannard, the president of the business men's convention which
met in this city a few days ago, stated in his speech on taking the
chair that 92 per cent of the business of the country was done
on confidence, and that about 60 per cent of this confidence had
now vanished. In this situation it is in the power of the banks
and the great capitalists to impair this confidence and thus produce the panic now prevailing.
And they did it.
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29
Would it not be better, Mr. President, if for this vanishing
confidence we had an addition of real substance—metallic money?
Eut, Mr. President, notwithstanding the conceded insufficiency of real money, and the necessary substitution for money,
of these devices, all of which are based on confidence, on the
faith of the people in that airy nothing—a mere emotion of the
mind which may vanish in an instant, which can be made to
vanish by capitalists—we are urged to decrease real money in
order that these substitutes may usurp its place.
A writer, the editor of Bradstreet's in the Forum for September, 1893, states we have had nine panics in this century, and,
-with one or two exceptions, they come in periods of about nine
or ten years apart. "These periods," says this same writer,
" consist of from three to five years of commercial activity, succeeded by severed years of depression." He names also five
other intermediate periods in which there were distinct business
disturbances, but less formidable than the panics. Of these five
he names one as the " echo of the Baring crash," in 18U0. So
that under the present system we are nearly all the time either
in a financial crisis or in the depression occasioned T?y one, or
just on the eve of having one to burst on us with all its terrible
fury.
CONDITION OF THE BANKS FAVOR PANICS.
It was said a few days ago in this body by the very able and
careful Senator from Missouri [Mr. CocKRELL], who had fully
investigated the matter, that the condition of the banks in this
country were better than they were in Europe. This being so,
the conditions for world-wide panics exist every where as they do
here.
,
And yet, sir, we are told that the present system of silver demonetization and the single gold standard is the only basis of
financial safety and business prosperity. It is impossible, sir, to
reconcile this position with verity in the operations of the human
intellect. The hallucination can be accounted for only on the
ground that business»men refuse to exercise their reason and
blindly repose in confidence on the interested assertion of those
who, having the power through a deficiency in the currency to
control at their will the business of the world, are unwilling to
surrender their destructive preeminenca.
But, Mr. President, having shown that we are always in a condition to have a panic whenever any considerable part of the
great capitalists of the world want one, and that according to
this writer in the Forum we are always either in a panic or in
the depression occasioned by one, or just about to have a panic
burst upon us, I want to notice some of the palliatives which the
banks have invented for the purpose not of saving the community from the terrible effects of these financial storms, but to
shelter their guilty heads from the fury which they have evoked.
PALLIATIVES FOR PANICS.
But, Mr. President, the great financial genuises who create
these panics, are not without the power to contrive shelter and
protection for themselves against the peltings of the pitiless
storm.
They have invented devices by which the hardships of panics,
resulting to them from an insufficient currency, may be, if not
wholly obviated, at least palliated.
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30
But it will be seen that they are mainly if not exclusively for
the banks. They do not extend to the great mass of the people,
who remain the unpitied victims of these financial necromancers,
who have evoked the angry spirits of disorder ancl distrust. The
banks are permitted to refuse payment of their deposits—not
bylaw, but by the tolerance of the Government, after having
received the money of the people on a contract to return it on
demand—if the payment should be impracticable or inconvenient. It is nearly always one or the other, owing to their having loaned their deposits, to an amount six times greater than
the money on hand to pay them.
DISHONEST PRACTICES OF THE BANKS.
But even then, such is the infatuation produced by wealth,
these embezzlers of the funds of others are claimed tp be- benefactors of the public, seeking only from patriotic and philanthropic motives to advance the public weal by their generous
action in certifying their depositors' checks. If you, sir, or I,
had done these things,, so meritorious in the? banks, we would
have befen sent to the penitentiary. There is all the difference
in the world between the defaults of corporations and the short*
comings of private individuals, "What is a crime in. one is a
merit in the other, t h e banks put off their depositors by certifying their checks a s g o o d , " which mean? "good " when convenient for the banks to pay. The merchant, or other depositor, having debts falling due have no such privUege of certifying checks.
Being unable to get. from the banks the money they have deposited, they must go to protest, and in many instances into bankruptcy. They have no palliatives; they can not certify checks
as "good." Then again the banks, having refused payment of
the money on deposit with them, keeping, hoarding it for such
use ana at such times as they shall adjudge best for their own
interests, have another contrivance, also unauthorized bylaw.
They create a currency for the occasion, and this not only without authority of law, but in express violation not only of the spirit
of the law, but of its letter. The banks, combined in a clearinghouse association, which is not a Federal but a State association,
issue a currency called clearing-house certificates, not based on
United States bonds, but on such collaterals as the "loaning
committee " of the clearing house shall adjudge sufficient, and on
the guaranty of the associated banks.
B A N K 3 PROVIDE CURRENCY FOR THEMSELVES;
BUT NOT FOR THE PEOPLE.
It is said that these certificates are not currency.
one:
I present
L o a n c o m m i t t e e of the N e w Y o r k Clearing House Association No. 31.
"Five thousand dollars " on the right-hand corner.
This certifies that the
has deposited with this c o m m i t t e e security in
accord anCe*with the proceedings of t h e meeting of the association held November 11,1890, o n which this certificate i s issued.
T h i s certificate will he received in p a y m e n t of balances at the clearing
house, f o r the s u m of
000 f r o m any m e m b e r of the clearing house association.
Then there is a memorandum down in the left-hand corner
which reads as follows:
On the surrender of this certificate b y the depositing in the bank above
n a m e d the committee will indorse the a m o u n t as a payment o n the obligation of said bank held b y t h e m and surrender a proportionate share of thc
collateral securities held therefor.
4S6
31
Then here (exhibiting papers) is all the various machinery by
which a bank can get one of these clearing-house certificates.
Here is the obligation of the borrowing bank. It will be noticed
that the bank borrowing this certificate agrees to pay "interest thereon at the rate of
per cent per annum to the said
association." Then it is signed and sealed by the president and
cashier.
Now, that certificate passes as legal-tender currency from
bank to bank. It is a kind of 61ite currcncy, which is never
issued in sums of less than $5,000, and is not brought down to
the wants and necessities and capacities of the average American
citizen.
They are not allowed to be circulated among others than
banks. But that makes them not a currency at all, but currency for the banks only. The people are hungry for more currency; their business is stopped; their debts are unpaid; distress
prevails everywhere, yet they are not to have a share of this
currency created for the especial use of the banks. Nor, sir,
will the banks, so far as they can prevent it, and that is the worst
thing about it, allow Congress to authorize the issue of additional currency for our distressed people. The banks keep the
money of the people deposited with them, and at the same time
issue without authority of law a special and unauthorized currency for their own use, and which by its terms can not circulate among the people. Does it not seem that this is not a government of laws, which our fathers vainly strove to establish, but
a government of banks? And yet we are told that the trouble
is not a deficiency of the currency, but a want of confidence,
60 per cent of which confidence has vanished, as Governor Stannard stated in his inaugural speech to the great convention of
business men which met at this capital a few days ago.
toEFICIENT CUEKENCT CAUSE OF THE TROUBLE.
But a want of confidence in whom? Is it in the banks, which
refuse to pay their deposits and are unable to pay them? Oh,
no. Their refusal to pay their debts is, under' the contention
of the banks and their allies and apologists, no ground for a want
of confidence in them, but of praise and gratitude. According
to them it is the Sherman law which prevents the people
from giving their unreserved confidence to the suspended
banks.
Thotigh the bauks refuse to pay their debts for an alleged want
of funds, which they ought to have on hand, wo are asked to
believe that the Sherman law, which largely increases the currency, is the cause of all trouble. The depositors in the banks
would be glad to get the Treasury notes issued under the Sherman law and put them away, so that they might have a privilege, denied by the banks, of using their own money as they
need it.
Mr. President, may I not now confidently assert that the great
trouble is a deficient currency?
When banks entirely solvent can hot pay their demand obligations because they exceed by 300 per cent all the money in the
country and by more than 1,000 per cent all the money of all
kinds which they hold; when this is their regular, normal condition, into which they voluntarily place themselves in order to
satisfy their greed for gain; when all the devices and contri486
32
vances used for supplying this deficiency prove utterly unavailing, and when there is disaster throughout the land—factories
closed, laborers without employment, crops unmoved, harsh bargains driven by the usurer, property sold at enormous discounts
below its value, and all this for the want of money—is it the true
remedy to further diminish the supply of money?
And yet, sir, this further depletion, this diminution of money,
is exactly what is proposed.
No, sir, I w.is too fast; with convenient inconsistency there is
to be an addition, but of what and to whom? Of the nationalbank circulation and to be issued to the banks and to them alone.
Thus; as if to show our contempt for the rights of the people,
when distress comes we diminish circulation to them and increase it to the banks who oppress them.
This will but increase their power, now already too great.
They can lend it at a high interest or they can hold it as they
are now holding the people's money on deposit with them. But,
sir, we must stand all this in order that silver money shall be
suppressed.
THE REAL CONTEST, SHALL MONEY BE COINED FOR THE PEOPIiE OR- PAPER
MONEY ISSUED TO THE BANKS?
This, sir, is the real contest. It is the question of the day.
As we have had so much talk in the Senate by gentlemen who
are pressing the consideration oI the pending bill that they mean
after awhile, somehow or other, at a date unspecified, to give us
money, I wish to show to the Senate what the real promoters of
this scheme mean. I do not mean to charge any Senator with
not being candid in his statement. I have no doubt that those
who say they are going to give us free coinage or more coinage
at some indefinite and unspecified period mean to do so, but that
is not the object of this movement. The New York merchants
honored me by sending me a circular, which I understand was
circulated all through the State of Mississippi and other States
which happen to have Senators here who do not believe in the
divinity of national banks.
This is rather a formidable paper. The signatures, amounting
to about a hundred, are not put clearly in plain type; they are facsimile autographs, so as to appear as if each had been signed by
the important individual or firm whose signature is attached.
Now what do they say? I will not read it all:
W e believe it t o be necessary f o r the best interests of this c o u n t r y that the
silver-purchasing clause of the Sherman act be p r o m p t l y repealed—
They want it promptly repealed. They are not willing to give
the Senate of the United States the opportunity of debate and
discussion and consideration to see whether this is the best thing
to do. They want it promptly repealed, when uj) to this time,
so far as I have heard, not one single man on this floor who advocates repeal has said that the act of 1890 is the fruitful mother
of our woes—
MACHINE PRESSURE ON SILVER SENATORS.
and feel that every day's delay In arriving at this result delays the revival
of confidence and the return of trade to its n o r m a l volume, "we believe also
that t o insure the necessary legislation, pressure—
Oh, pressure!
Pressure!—
f r o m their sound-money constituents m u s t be brought t o bear u p o n m a n y
Senators and Representatives.
486
33
Oh, sound money! Is this clearing-house certificate sound
money? Is that the pressure for sound money which they desire to be brought to bear upon the Senators of the United States,
or is it the sound money consisting of certified checks of defaulting banks'who, having received the people's money and having
raised a storm which they can safely ride by defying the people,
they give to the people in exchange for their money? Now, let
us go on with this circular:
The advocates—
Now, notice.
The advocates of what?—
of free silver have been organized and Aggressive, have held mass meetings
and conventions, have lobbied in Washington—
If there has been a free-silver lobby in this city since the present
session of Congress it has been my misfortune to be so insignificant that not one member of it has ever approached me on the
subject—
and have used every possible influence to advance their cause and to endanger the unconditional repeal of the silver-purchase clause. It is time
for vigorous counteraction on the part of all who advocate sound finance
and a currency good the world over.
Mr. ALLEN. Will the Senator from Mississippi permit me
to call his attention to a fact?
Mr. GEORGE. Certainly.
Mr. ALLEN. The Washington Post of yesterday morning
contained a dispatch announcing the fact that the New York
banks are already engaged in retiring the new circulation taken
out within the last few weeks. They are doing it, I suppose,
preparatory to another panic, or for the continuation of the existing panic.
Mr. GEORGE. They are retiring these clearing-house certificates?
Mr. ALLEN. No; retiring the new national-bank note circulation.
Mr. GEORGE. There is no accounting for what they will do.
Anything which the devilish ingenuity of man can invent will
be done to oppress the people in order that they may send their
clamors to this Chamber and force us to pass the pending bill.
I proceed with the circular.
It is time f o r vigorous counteraction on the part of aUwho advocate sound
finance and a currency good the world over.
W e therefore indorse the action of the Dry Goods Economist in seeking
t o arouse the sound dry-goods trade throughout the country to work f o r
their own interests—
Ah, Mr. President, to work for their own interests! It would
not do to let it stand that way, and they said it first, and then,
by a sort of afterthought, added—
and, at the same time, those of the whole country. Let each dry-goods man
exert himself to focus popular sentiment in his locality and to secure direct
pressure upon doubtful Representatives or Senators f r o m his State in favor
of unconditional repeal—
I desire to * call the attention of Senators who have said that
they do not mean by repeal the demonetization of silver to the
next four words—
in favor of unconditional repeal and no free coinage.
In this emergency—
This is in capital letterstalking is useless, petitions are of n o value.
Pressure—
Whatis that? If petitions and if talk will not do, then what
486—3
34
is the pressure?
hot do—
They do not disclose that, but say talking will
pressure o n individual legislators f r o m the electors is the only method bf
assuring success in this m o m e n t o u s movement.
There are about 100 names signed to this circular. I am sorry
the capacities of the Public Printing Office will hot allow the
facsimile signatured of these important ihen to go into the
RECORD.
THE REPEAL BILL MEANS TtlAT SILVER COINAGE SHALL FOREVER CEASE.
I do not think anybody doubts now that the issue is squarely
made by this bill between a total cessation of the coinage of
silver forever and free coinage. That is the issue. W e must
nieet it. W e can not evade it. W e must either hereafter have
the money bf the Constitution, gold and silver, as declared in
the Democratic platform of 18S4, or we must turn over to the
banks the great power and the necessary governmental function Of furnishing the currency for the people in such amounts
and at such times as they deem proper. That, sir, is th§ true
issue now made by the bill to repeal the purchasing clause pf the
Sherman lawi
On this issue my opinion has long tbeen made tip: Iti February, 1884, on a bill then pending in this body .to allow the batiks
an"increase in the circulation 6n their deposits of bondSj it ivas
argued in oppositibn tb the amendment offered by the Senator
from Missouri [Mr. VEST]—increasing the circulation of the
United States le£al-tehder Treasury notes—that the regulation
bf the volume of currency should be left to the national batiks.
THE POWER TO REGULATE THE CURRENCY CAN NOT SAFELY BE LEFT TO
THE BANKS;
I ssdd, on the 23d day of that month, in supporting the amendment:
The Question n o w before us is whether it is proper, to leave this p o w e r / o f
regulating tHe v o l u m e qf the currency) in the Government or t o vest it in the
baiik?. I d o not belieVe it is a safe p o w e r in the banks. I believe it is a great
power, Which is fcdpable bf being used f o r the destruction of the business
and interests of the people. If confided t o the banks * . * . f the b^nks will
issue their notes of regulate the v o l u m e of t&e currency, according t o t h e i r
o w n interests. * * * If it be t o their interest t o contrdbt, they will contract. If it be t o their interest t o expand the currency, they will expand it
It was shown then, what ought not to be forgotten how, that
the banks contracted the currency whilst that bill was under
consideration by over $2,000,000 in one week. This was done to
secure the passage of the bill: I also showed on that occasion
that the banks on several previous occasions had contracted their
currency in order to secure political not business ends.
In the same speech, in reference to a statement of the Senator
frdm New Jersey, that the national-bank System was a pet child
of Congress, I said:
I w a n t n o pet children of the Government and no, stepchildren.. Let al
hbr children be treated alike. W h e t h e r they have nioiiey in the National
batiks, o f whether thoy delve in the mines, o r whether they wdrk in the fac*
tories, o r p l o w in the fields, o r pursue any other calling, they are entitled to
equal rights and egual privileges. S o l o n g as I hold a seat on this floor i
shall not, tinder any pressure; cast a v o t e which will g i v e t o any privileged
class, t o any pet children of the Government, a privilege and advantage denied t o the great mass of the people themselves.
, I stand by those sentiments to-day, and standing by. them i
Shall riot votS fdi* the repeal bf the Snermah act, nor Will I vbte
486
3 5
for that other bill which attempts to increase the currency by
giving a privilege to the national banks to issue more of their
circulation on bonds already deposited.
The contest, sir, between the banks and the people, as made by
this bill, involves much of interest, the deepest; interest to the
people on tho one side and to the banks on the other.
If silver is to be suppressed as full legal-tender money, if it is
to be limited in amount to a degree that it may be redeemed in
gold instead of performing its constitutional function of money,
absolute money, with no necessity for redemption, then its place
will be supplied with b a n k p a p e r and other banking contrivances.
For the monometallist will not let the people have greenbacks
or legal-tender notes. This supply will not be full, but only partial. It will not be to the full need of the people, but only to
the extent needful to the interest of the banks,
BANKS W I S H TO SUBSTITUTE THEIR NOTES FOR SILVER AND
THE CURRENCY.
CONTRACT
The business, sir, as I have described it, of lending money of
depositors to the extent shown, so that there shall be $6 loaned
to $1 kept for redemption, is rather a profitable one to the banks,
however hazardous to the community. I have stated the deposits in all the banks to be §4,914,194,511; and the loans were
$4,362,(530,557, being more than $6 loaned to $1 of capital.
But as we have to deal more directly with the national banks,
which are under Federal jurisdiction and supervision, it will be
be best to state their condition and operation separately.
The stock of all national banks on September 30,1892, was
$686,601,000. On that basis, after paying proper dividends, they
had a surplus of $238,900,000; undivided profits, $101,600,000. They
had thus gained $340,500,000 more than their legitimate dividends, or about 50 per cent on their capital.
At the same time they owned also of United States
bonds
— $185,500,000
Stocks and other bonds
154,500,000
Real estate
87,900,000
Due from United States Treasury...
8,200,000
Due from oth er sources
43,000,000
Total
479,100,000
This would seem to be doing very well, as these investments
alone amounted to about two-thirds of their capital. After having invested two-thirds of their capital as I have stated they
lend other people's money to the amount of $2,171,000,000 at interest.
_t
This interest, however, does not go to the owners of the money,
but to the bank. With such profits in the present system, of
course the national banks want more circulation and less real
money, and hence we must demonetize silver; must repeal the
purchasing clause of the Sherman law.
If we had more real money—if gold and silver, the money of
the Constitution, were in abundance, there would be l^ss—very
much less—need for the contrivances used as substitutes for
money, less need for the national-bank notes, less need for putting in peril the business of the whole country by the banks
lending their depositors' money to the dangerous extent I have
486°
3 6
pointed out. So the banks and others who have money to lend
don't want the competition coming from free coinage of silver.
They don't want the money of the Constitution to compete with
their contrivances, their 'ingenious, but unsafe, substitutes for
real money.
PLAN FOR A SATE AND SUFFICIENT CURRENCY.
But it is said that the free coinage of silver would give us
such an abundance of silver money as to cause a great depreciation in it; especially it is said would there be a great difference
in the value of gold and silver coin at the ratio of 16 to 1.
Mr. President, I do not believe it.
First, restrain all national banks from lending any more than
50 per cent of their depositors' money. Let the reserve for depositors be one dollar for every two deposited.
Next prohibit absolutely, under severe penalties, clearinghouse certificates. So that when the banks shall either recklessly inflate credits, or designedly produce commercial crises,
they may not save themselves at the expense pf the people by the
creation of an unauthorized currency for their sole use.
Then there would be no distrust, no want of confidence. There
would be no panics. Besides, this would make room for many
millions of metallic currency to supply the vacuum occasioned
by this necessary provision for safety.
Lest, however, we should create a stringency in the money
market by precipitate action, the result should be approached
gradually.
Next, put the national banks in process of taking the proper
steps for the final withdrawal of all their circulation, which
must come in 1907, when the last United States bonds are paid,
unless Congress so far shall forget their duty to the American
people as to authorize the issuance of further bonds in order to
be the basis of further issuance of national-bank notes.
Let this withdrawal be gradual so as to prevent sudden contraction. Then, sir, as I advocated in 1884 in the speech from
which I have quoted, prohibit the coinage of gold in coins of a
denomination less than $10, and prohibit the issuance of all paper
money under a like denomination except silver certificates.
With these provide for the free and unlimited coinage of silver, equally with gold, at the old ratio of 16 to 1. Coin all silver
wherever produced and all gold as they come to the mints. Coin
not only the new silver and gold that may be mined, but recoin
all the gold and silver coins in the world that may come to our
mints. There will be no inundation of this country by silver.
If silver shall come to us from foreign countries it will scarcely
come as a gift; if so, then so much the better. If it comes in the
way of trade, then it will come only by an exchange for it of our
commodities on terms favorable to us. When we prefer the silver
to the things given for it we can not be injured. Then, sir, there
will be competition with the banks, and no surplus of uncoined
metal, denied the right of free coinage in order to fix a commercial price below the mint value of silver.
There would be no influx of silver coins from Europe to our
mints. For first, Europe has no more silver coin than is required by her commerce, and not as much. The scramble for
gold now going on, as described by the Senator from Ohio [Mr.
SHERMAN], is significant. It means there is in the opinion of
m
37
European financiers not enough gold for the world's use and not
likely to be. Why should there be a scramble for it if there were
plenty? The annual product of gold, counting the half century
together, is a diminishing quantity. The annual consumption of
it in the arts is an increasing quantity.
INCREASE OF SILVER TO KEEP PACE W I T H INCREASE OF POPULATION AND
BUSINESS.
The steady increase in population and in commerce creates
increased demands for gold and silver beyond, far beyond, the
supply. Europe,at least, must keep up their present proportion
of silver coin—subordinate coin. The amount must not only be
kept up, but increased with the population. The waste by wear
of silver circulating so rapidly in everyday life and its consumption in the arts create a constant large demand for the new production. Europe will in this way not only retain its present
silver, but consume in conjunction with Asia and the silver States
in America the annual production outside of the United States.
The Senator from Texas [Mr. MILLS] thought, if I understood
him correctly, that all the silver production is about being consumed in the arts now.
The world's production of silver in 1892 was $196,605,200, of
which the United States produced $74,989,900, about five thirteenths of the whole.
f
Tile consumption in the arts in the United States alone, as estimated by the report of the Director of the Mint for 1892, is
$19,329,000 of gold, and of silver $9,301,000. Dr. Soetbeer estimates the total annual loss of gold in the world by abrasion and in
the arts at $43,503,253, of silver at $23,730,000.
So I think there is little to fear from a superabundance of these
metals. The danger is that there will not be enough of these
metals for the money use of the world, and we shall be driven
to resort to the miserable devices and contrivances to which I
have alluded.
I now come to the special needs of the people of the United
States f o r money supply.
Mr. COCKRELL. Would it interrupt the Senator from Mississippi just to call his attention to the diiference between the
production of gold in the world and its coinage?
Mr. GEORGE.
have
Senator
state that. No; it will not. I should like
, to
. the
__
(.
Mr COCKRELL. From 1873 to 1892 the production of gold
in the world was $2,210,961,206, while the coinage was $2,787,714,679, or over $500,000,000 more of gold coin than the world produced, while the consumption of gold for industrial purposes is
admitted by all writers to be over one-half, or 50 per cent.
' Mr GEORGE. That is, then, the recoinage of old coin.
Mr" COCKRELL. It must have been reeoinage beyond all
Question. No man can to-day come within $500,000,000 of the
amount of coined gold in the world, and I challenge any one to
do it You have no method on earth by which you can determine the exact amount of gold in the world, and I say, taking
the fact of free coinage and the estimate of the product of gold
and the coinage of gold, the amount of gold in the world to-day
is $300,000,000 more than can ever be found.
Mr GEORGE. I am very much obliged to the Senator from
Missouri. He has made a very valuable contribution to my
speech as well as to the general information of the country.
38
Hon. J. H. WALKER, in an address at the World's Fair Congress, states that our c o n s u m p t i o n of commodities has been three
times greater, per capita, than that of Europe; making our market the equal of 200,000,000 of European people. He further
stated, that we consumed over one-third of the goods manufactured in the world, which equals a market for manufactured
goods of over 600,000,000 of average people.
Mr. W A L K E R , I believe, is a member of Congress from the
State of Massachusetts. I thought I had a little pamphlet here
which contained his specch, He is evidently a man of ability;
but I see I have left it at my room and I can not produce it. Ho
is a monometallism &nd it was a raonometallist speech that ho
made.
Mr. GKAY. I have it here. [Handing pamphlet.]
Mr. GEORGE. Yes; this is it:
H o n J. H. WALKEIi, o n c h e a p e r r a t e s and bettor m o n e y . Our bad m o n o t a r y s v s t e m t h o r o u g h l y e x p o s e d . Y o u c a n n o t afford n o t to read this.
Carry It in y o u r p o c k e t until read. F r o m the official r e p o r t of the W o r l d a
C o n g r e s s of 1893. D e p a r t m e n t of C o m m e r c e and F i n a n c e , General D i v i s i o n
of B a n k i n g and F i n a n c e ,
Then there is a preface to it in which Mr. W A L K E R is spoken
of very highly, but not any more highly than hia due as I understand.
Jt .
Mr. COCKRELL. I suggest to the Senator that probably ho
is one of the authors of the Sherman act. I think ho was a member of the conference committee on the part of the other House
that agreed to the Shei;man bill.
Mr. GEORGE. At all evonts, there is a statement made by
this eminent man and monometallist to the cffect that wo consume in the United States three times per capita the consumption of Europe and that we consume as much as six hundred
million of the aterrtge population of the world. These are important facts. I believe he has stated it correctly, and if ho has
m&de any mistake he has understated it, except that I shall be
compelled to show before I get through that there is a little
underconsumption going on just now oh the part of the farmers.
M h GRAY. I hope the Senator will read the whole speech.
Mr. GEORGE. I do not agree with the rest of it, but I wonder that a man should ever start out with such a fact as that and
arrive at the conclusion which he reached.
I say I believe this statement to be under the mark rather than
excessive. This consumption will largely increase under the
prosperity coming from free coinage, as I shall show hereafter.
I shall show that, so far as the farmers are concerned, consumption has been reduced to the lowest point by virtue of the want
and distress occasioned by the falling pHcss, which seem to have
no terror for the Senator from Texas.
Our population is increasing more rapidly than that of any
other nation. It is also advancing more rapidly in intelligence
and refinement than any other. It increased at the rate of very
nearly 25 per cent (24.8G) in the last decade. That rate would
give, in round numbers, an increase for this decade of over 15,000,000 and in the next of over 19,000,000—onp million and a half
a year for this decade, and nearly two millions a year for the
next—or one million seven hundred thousand as the annual average increase for the two decadcs etiding in 1910. To keep up the
present per capita circulation of $25 it woiild require an annual
4S6
39
addition to the circulation of over $42,000,000. Our gold production for coinage is only $13,000,0C0 and a fraction over, lacking
about $29,000,000 to keep up the present per capita. Whence
are we to get it? The banks will answer from bank paper. And
t]iey will answer truly if we get it at all.
France has a per capita circulation of $41.67. Ours is $25, or
about $17 less per head. France has, according to the British
Statistical Abstract, but a little more foreign commerce than we
have; yet her money is not excessive, though about 67 percent
greater per capita than ours.
The population of the United States in 1890 was.
62,662,250
Add three years at 1,500,000 a year - - - - 4,500,000
07,162,250
Say 67,000,000.
Tp have the French pe? capita wo must in round
numbers have tQ-day
— —
- — - - $2,791,000,000
But we only have- — — — — — — — — 1,601,000,000
Making deficit to-day o f — 1 , 1 9 0 , 0 0 0 , 0 0 0
which mijSt be made up in some way.
Our population will increase it} numbers for the t\yo decades
at 1,700,000 a year, or 34,000,000 for the t\yo decades.
For the seven remaining years of this decade we
inust haye7 to give us the French pe? capita to
this increase, 1,700,000, multiplied by 41.67, to
make the iiddition for each year, which is $70,?
779,000, and fpr seven years it would be
S4?5,453, GOO
Add to this the present clefipit o f - . - — - 1,190,000,000
W e have to be made up from now until 1890 — -- $}, 685,453, QQ0
NQW, that is the demand. Let us turn to the supply.
The present silver bullion supply of the United States is seventy-four millions a year, of which about ten millions is used in
the arts, leaving sixty-foUr millions for coinage.
Supposing all this $64,000,000 shall bo coined {and that is a very
large estimate, as shown by the statement of the Senator from
Missouri), it would make but $448,000,000 in silver coinage in seven
years. From this silver coinage alone we would lack, in 1900,
$1,137,453,000 of having enough money to equal the French per
capita. Then, if we resort to gold to make up the deficit, we find
the world's annual production of gold, in ;1892, was $130,000,000, of which the United States produced $33,000,000, a little
more than one-fourth. Of the present gold coinage of the world,
say $3,500,000,000, we had, in 1892, in circulation $408,000,000, or
less than one-eighth of the whole. Our stock altogether was
pver six hundred million, or one-sixth of the stock of the world.
So, whilst we have produced more than one-fourth of the whole
gold production of the world, we have in circulation less than
one-eighth of that metal in circulation in the world.
The world's coinage of gold for the years 1889,1890, and 1891
was $637,306,338, or an annual average of $212,435,446. Deduct
from this annual average the recoinageof two years, $16,234,589,
we have fpr amount of annual new coinage of the world, in
ro :nd numbers, $196,000,000. If we got one-eighth of that it
would be $24,500,000, and according to that we should be short
486
40
of the French per capita in 1900, counting coinage of both gold
and silver, $941,233,000. Bat, sir, while we produce one-fourth
of the world's gold and have gold circulation to the amount of
only one-eighth, I will state the case, by giving us not only the
whole silver production of the United States, but also all the
gold production.
The gold production, we have seen, amounted in 1892 to
$33,000,000; of this sum we consumed in the arts $19^29,000,
leaving for coinage only $13,071,000, and on that basis, coining all
our gold and silver not used in the arts, we would lack in 1900
$1,041,703,000 in having as much money in circulation per capita
as the French now have. In 1910 we should lack $250,000,000 of
having cummcy enough to make us equal to the French per
capita. Then for the next decade, from 1910 to 1920, we shall
find that the total production, if not increased, will not keep
pace with the increase of our population. This is certain, if we
take into consideration the losses by consumption in the arts, by
abrasion, by sinking in rivers and seas and hiding without discovery afterward. In this estimate no account has been taken
of the destruction of the national-bank currency, which must
take place, thank God, in 1907, unless we issue, which God forbid, bonds for their accommodation.
But, sir, we ought not to confine ourselves to the amount of currency per capita which France has. The French are the most
economical people in the world in their living, and we are the
most extravagant.
The two peoples stand at the two extremes of greatest frugality and very liberal expenditures. The people of the United
States, according to Mr. WALKER, as I have quoted, consume
three times per capita what is consumed by the people of Europe
and consume one-third of all the manufactured goods in the world.
Then, sir, it would seem that we ought to have at least three
times the amount of currency of the French, whilst we have a
little over one-half.
I do not hesitate to say that if our currency of real money was
$100 per head it would not be too much, but the greatest of blessings. But free coinage of silver will not give us even the French
per capita, even if we retained all the paper money we now have
m circulation.
But I do not mean to rely on general statements to prove that
our country needs for actual use more money than can be added
by the free coinage of silver and of gold.
We have seen that, though the clearing-houses pass over sixtyone billions of trade every year. These transactions do not enter
into or embrace the ordinary business of the farmer, laborer,
mechanic, and professional man of the country. We have seen
that for actual use, by duplications, the deposits in the banks of
the country reach over $4,900,000,000, and that on them (with only
about nine hundred millions of capital) are based loans to over
four billions, to a mdst dangerous extent, and that all of these
contrivances do not satisfy the whole want of the people for
money, but the wants of those only who borrow from the banks,
and with all this there is an acknowledged deficiency of currency. to the extent that international free bimetallic coinage
is regarded favorably by all our statesmen. So that the need
for more money is acknowledged. It is only disputed that we
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41
alone can maintain the needed increase by free coinage of silver.
W e can maintain it at par with gold.
The value of silver and gold bullion is regulated by the demand
for them, like every other commodity. Of all the demands for
these metals the money demand is not only the most extensive,
but also the most urgent. A deficiency in money to do the world's
business is of all deficiencies the most universal in its ruinous
effects, and at the same time the most exigent for instant removal. Hence, as we have seen, the devices invented as substitutes for money. To say, as those who insist on international
bimetallism admit, that the people of the United States need for
money all the gold and silver possible to fall to their lot—for
coining into money, and even more—with all the substitutes for
money now or likely to be invented, is to say that all such gold
and silver, when coined, will perform usefully needed money
functions. How can there be, under these circumstances, a difference in the value of the metal coinage?
Is there ^uch need for money? I have shown the needs of
France and' compared them with our own supply, and by such
comparison I have shown that every dollar, both of gold and of
silver (without surrendering any of the substitutes), which ca.n
be coined under free coinage would be insufficient; that there is
a demand, and an urgent demand, for more and more money
on which to do the business of the people, even on-the French
rate of money per capita.
But, sir, we need more money than the French have, as has
been shown. And when all the gold and silver in the world
which can come to us is coined, we will still be without enough.
A PLEA FOR MERCY FOR THE PLAIN PEOPLE
But, sir, as this is the very point on which the controversy
turns, I must be indulged in further argument to make this position absolutely impregnable. It can be so made.
There are other business pursuits of greater interest to the
people of the United States than banking, traffic in merchandise,
gambling in stocks, dealing in money and exchanges. Whilst
the devices I have alluded to may, if not obviate, at least palliate the effects of a scarcity of money among these classes, they do
not reach or affect, except indirectly and remotely, the wants—
the necessities—of the great masses of our people. There are fifteen States and Territories in which there are no clearing houses.
They are to be found in a few great cities in the other States far
removed from the great mass of population, and they deal in such
wise as not to touch nine-tenths of the business of the country.
The retail trade carried on in hundreds of thousands of different places, and amounting, as I have said, to more than double
the trade of the country, transported by railroads and water
craft, is not settled for through clearing houses. In this trade
the people need money—cash. Failing to have it, they are
forced to a most disastrous credit system, in which interest in
the shape of increased profits is absolutely ruinous to the producers. However beneficial credit may be in large transactions
in the wholesale business of the country, in foreign commerce,
in building railroads and ships, and carrying on other great enterprises, domestic economy teaches with unerring certainty
that for the ordinary purposes of life—the retail trade of the
country—it is in most cases disastrous; or, to state it differently,
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119
that for such persons so buying it is better, far better, thfit they
use cash.
. .
„.
Under the present system this is a b s o l u t e l y impossible, ana
henco the results, as wo see them every day, of increasing debt
and distress, mortgaging and pledging property, which, under
demonetization of silver apd the consequent, appreciation of
gold, is grinding our people to death.
„ . ,
• To enable the people to have cash to pay for their daily expenditures we must have a largo amount of currency, not locked
in banks and loaned again to other people, as we have seen is
done, but in the actual possession of the people.
Take the case of the farmers, who constitute a little less than
one-half our population, and who furnish by their toil and selfdenial, too often unrequited, three-fourths of the exports of our
country, upd whose products are now relied upon by the bankers
of Ne\v York to bring back to this country tfie gold wmch, by
their mismanagement, has been exported to Europe.
W e have seen that they need ST5Q,000,000 a year to pay for wages
alone. We have seen that their products amount to about
$3,000,000,000 annually, and that this great mass of wealth is created, in a majority of instances, at a loss-cqsting more to produce than it will sell for. This justifies me, at least, in saying
that the necessary expenditures of the farmers, including such
luxuries as tyey "ought to have, including wages, exceed $1,000,000,000 per annum, probably twice that sum.
Friday, September 22,1S93.
THE PRESENT HOPELESS CONDITION OF THE FABMER.
Mr. GEORGE. Mr. President, I desire to present the interest
which the farmers of this country have in the silver question.
To those
have given attention to the matter, it is known
that for the staple markets, crpps raised by our farmers in the
Bouth and West—corn, wheat and cotton—that money is brought
to thd farmers but once a year. At the harvest ho sells and has
money when, as happens in but few instances, his expenses
haye not exceeded the sales.
#
In most cases, however, the farmer, owing to the credit system
imposed bv the scarcity of money, rarely has any money at all,
even at harvest. The process is a year of labor and toil and expense on the high prices of the credit system; then the harvest,
and settlement, and sale on the low prices of a small and contracting currency, whereby no money remains as a surplus. The
next year witnesses the same dreary, despairing, treadmill
round; credit at enormous prices for supplies, charged as a necessity of the system at disastrous, even absolutely ruinous rates;
then an enforced sale of the crop at harvest for whatever prices
the speculators in futures, and others, may fix; an application of
the proceeds to the debts thus incurred, with little or no remainder, and most frequently with a deficit. And then the next
year the same thing over again, and thus continuing year by
year the never ending remorseless system, until a merciful Providence shall remove the victim from the scene of these infernal
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43
operations—operations flowing directly from the action of Congress.
,
, ,
Death, sir, is the end of the troubles, it would seem; but not
so. the inheritance of debts and ruinous finances he leaves to
his children, perpetuates through them the horrors from which
he has escaped.
At this point, Mr. President, I think it right to bring some
evidence to the Senate that the statements which I have made
are recognized as correct by the highest authorities in this country. I want now to show the condition of the farmer in this year
1&)3 and in this month of September, when we are gravely debating in the American Congress whether we shall not take away
from him what I believe is his only chance of ever bettering his
condition.
IT ALL IN PRICES OF FARM PRODUCTS GREATER THAN DECREASE IN COST O f
PRODUCTION.
It has been urged, Mr. President, by two Senators on this
floor that the fall in prices of the things which the farmer buys
is a compensation to him for the fall in prices of the things
which he produces and sells. The argument seemed a little
plausible at first blush, but when we come to look at the matter
in all its bearings it will be found that it amounts to nothing as
an alleviation to the farmer of his present ills.
It is claimed that there has been a reduction in the cost of
producing the farmer's crops. I read from the New York Sun
a very able argument on that stibject, published September 10,
1893:
F o r m o r e t h a n fifteen y e a r s , 1S78 t o 1893, ali t h e g r e a t p r i m a r y a g r i c u l t u r a l
s t a p l e s h a v e b e e n d e c l i n i n g i n Jjrice, a l t h o u g h there h a v e b e e n p e r i o d s w h e i i
t h e p r i c e o f Soiiie b n e w a s h i g h f o r a l i m i t e d timfc, T h i s is m o r e n o t a b l y
t r u e as . r e s p e c t s s e c o n d a r y p r o d u c t s , especiaUy meats, and,.lard\ b u t t h e
t r e n d of the w h o l e s c a l e , h a s b e e n c o n s t a n t l y d o w n w a r d , a n d the g e n e r a l
p r i c e level a t t h e fehd of feach y e a r wa^ l o w e r t M H at i t s b e g i n n i n g . I t i t h e
m e a n t i m e , t h e r e h a s been n o m a t e r i a l r e d u c t i o n i n t h e c o s t of p r o d u c t i o n ,
t h e self-binder, t h e g a n g p l o w , m o w e r , h a y tedder, a n d h a y l o a d e r , and fill
o t h e r g r e a t i m p r o v e m e n t s in a g r i c u l t u r a l m a c h i n e r y , h a v i n g . c o m e i n t o u s e
p r i o r t o 18*8. S u b s e q u e n t m o d i f i c a t i o n s a n d i m p r o v e m e n t s h a v e b e e n m the
d i r e c t i o n of g r e a t e r f a c i l i t y i n o p e r a t i o n r a t h e r t h a n of lessened c o s t .
He further proceeds:
W h i l e t h e c o 3 t o f p r o d u c t i o n c a n n o t hiive taen lessened a s m u c h £ts 5 p e r
c e n t since 1875—
I Bpeak with the knowledge of myself and of other Senators
around me when I say that the cost of productibn Of the great
staple crop of the South has not decreased bne cent—
"While t h e h o s t 01 p r o d u c t i o n c a n h o t h a v e b e e n lessened a s m u c h a s 5 p e r
c e n t since 1875, p r i c e s f o r the staple, p r o d u c t s of t h e f a r m a v e r a g e d 82 p e r
c e n t g r e a t e r d u r i n g t h e five y e a r s e n d i n g w i t h 1875 than n o w .
"then there is d, table j Mr. President, which I will httve inserted
in ?ny remarks; but I will now only state the result of that tabl£
sb far as cotton i<3 concerned. It is stated ih this table that the
average value of the production of an acre of cotton in 1873 was
S^S.Ol; dnd that the average how is $10.60, which I think is
rather extravagant. So it will be seen that there has been a
fall in the value of the production of ah acre of cottohj from the
average for the years between i860 arid 1870} of $28.01 to $10.60—
a rfediietidh b! abdiit 66 jibr cent.
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44
The following table shows, In five-year averages, the gold value per aero
a n tho local farm markets) of the pro luct of tho live staples named, f o r
nuinnuemiial periods, since
and an estimate of the value, with average
^f m i^rfl undflr flanh such stanle in 18^3 at r.resont prices:
Staples.
Corn
Wheat
Oats
Hay
Cot i on
Total
Average
Value of an acre's product—
1866-1870. 1871-1875. 1876-1880. 1881-1SS5. 1886-1890.
1893.
512.84
13.16
10.02
13.-8
28.01
fll.30
11.90
9.81
14.38
28.55
59.62
12.00
8.58
11.57
17.65
$10.25
10.20
9.17
11.15
15.63
$8.81
9.07
7.50
10.19
13.84
$8.35
6.00
5.75
10.00
10.65
78.21
t5.64
75.94
*15.19
59.42
11.88
56.40
11.28
49.44
9.89
40.75
8.15
The writer goes on further to assert that which I can bear
testimony is true, as you can, sir: (Mr. JONES of Arkansas in
the chair.)
If as is altogether probable, the revenue derived f r o m the cultivation ot
each acre of the staples n a m e d -
Cotton—
has not since 1885 been in excess of the cost of production, then it is readily
seen that the workers among the 30,000,000 who inhabit the farms ot the
United States have for eight years received no more than laborers' wages
and could purchase but the barest necessaries.
Any Senator here representing a cotton State knows that to
be true. But it is said, sir, both by the Senator from Delaware
[Mr. G R A Y ] and the Senator from Texas [Mr. M I L L S ] that whilst
there has been a great fall in the prices of those articles which
the farmer sells, there has also been a great reduction in the
prices of things which he has to buy. Let us see whether that
is any sufficient compensation to the farmer who has seen the
proceeds of his farm reduced in every $100 in 1873 to about $33
now.
In 1873, the date of the demonetization of silver, cotton was
worth $94 per bale of 500 pounds. An average laborer, as is well
known, in the South—or rather, an industrious laborer—can produce on average land 5 bales of cotton per annum; so that the
average production of cotton of a good, fair laborer in 1873
amounted to $470.
Mr. FRYE. Was that in gold?
Mr. G E O R G E . The tables presented here do not show. I have
taken thesefiguresboth from the Senator from Texas [Mr. M I L L S ]
and from the Senator from Delaware [Mr. GRAY]. I see that in the
tables of the Senator from Texas he refers to the gold value of
the silver dollar. My figures are taken frOm those statements.
The same laborer now can produce the same number of bales,
which at the present price, $36.50 per bale, makes $182.50 as the
product of his year's labor.
Of course. Mr. President, in that year 1873 and in the year 1893
this laborer produced other things for consumption—not for sale.
He produced some corn, oats, potatoes, and things of that sort
that are consumed on the farm, but this refers to his market crop.
Cotton was then, in 1873, capable of producing $470 for each
laborer. In 1893 it produces $182.50.
Now let us see if the Senator from Delaware and the Senator
486
45
from Texas are right in saying that the reduction of prices in
other things has compensated the farmer. The Senator from
Delaware hvs produced a table showing the fall of prices of agricultural implements. I am talking now solely of cotton farming". I know nothing about wheat-farming. I am engaged
in cotton-raising myself, and have been during all this period.
In fact that is the only business I have, except to be a member
of this body. After looking very carefully over the tables presented by the Senator from Delaware, I can say that I make a liberal estimate when I state that the difference in the cost of
an outfit of agricultural implements for a laborer on a cotton
farm in 1873 and in 1893 does not exceed $15. I do not believe that it amounts to that, but I desire to be fair, and I will
assume that is $15. That outfit, on an average, with some re-'
pairs, will last three years. So that, whilst there has been
this great reduction in the prices of his crops, as to his agricultural implements he has only saved $5 annually. That is a
very inappreciable saving to the farmer as compared to his
loss in the fall in price of cotton. In no other way has there
been the slightest decrease in the cost of raising cotton. On
the contrary, in all that part of our country east of the Mississippi River, except in a very few favored localities, such as
the Yazoo Delta, the long use of the land in the production of
cotton has caused a necessity for the purchase of commercial fertilizers. I do not use these fertilizers myself, though I have
some information upon the subject. The cost is about $3 per
acre. The use of these fertilizers, however—I want that understood—does not go to the extent of increasing the general fertility of the land, but simply to prevent deterioration. So that
in the case of use of fertilizers nearly the whole saving of reduction in the cost of agricultural implements is swept away.
To sum up: Five bales of cotton in 1873 would yield $470 annually; in 1891, 1892, and 1893,. it would yield $182. Balance in
favor of 1873, after giving credit for the decrease in the cost of
agricultural implements, $288, us against a total production of
$182—more than $100 difference in favor of 1873 over the production of 1893.
There are other things to be considered. The farmers' taxes
have not decreased. On a farm of 80 acres capable of producing
one-half of a bale to the acre—and it is necessary that it should
produce that in order that one man may raise five bales, and that
is veryfineland, as the present occupant of the chair [Mr. J O N E S
of Arkansas] knows—worth $1,000, the lowest tax that I am acquainted with, taking the tax of the State, county, school, and
all that sort of thing, is 15 mills. There has been no decrease.
It stands exactly to-day as it did then.
What other decreases are there? The intelligent and able Senator from Texas, who comes from a cotton State, and who, I suppose, has given some attention to this matter, has been kind
enough to furnish me with the proof sheets of his tables, for
which I am very much obliged. As he states it, there have been
some reductions in the cost of the necessaries which the farmer
buys. Recollect—and I hope nobody will forget that—that the
farmer has, in 1892 and 3893, but $182 for himself, his wife, and,
I will say, two children, to invest in comforts and necessaries
not raised on the farm. Let us bear that in mind. He has not
that much after he pays his taxes and after he pays, as unfor486
46
tunately is common in our section of the country, a small bill
for doctor's services, and things of that sort. But leave out all
that and give him $182.
,
..
Tea in 1873 was worth 95 cents. In 1S93 it is worth 2a, a fall
of 73 per cent. How many pounds of tea will a man buy for the
use of himself, wife, and two children having an income of Ub«.
Probablv ti couple of pounds. So that, as compensation for losing the 'difference between $94 and $30, which is nearly TO), on
a bale of his cotton, ho gets about 50 cents reduction in the price
But that is not all. Take his coffee. I want you to boar in
mind that a man who has an income of $182 does not use a great
deal of coffee. He can not, however much he may desire.
Mr. PEFFER. 'Less than 50 cents a day is his income.
Mr GEORGE. Less than 50 cents a day. He will probably
buy 10 pounds of coffee during the year. Thus he is to be compensated by a saving of 81 in the purchase of his coffee for a
loss of $00 on a bale of cotton. You may add in the tea, too.
Now, we will come to drillings and sheetings. It is said that
the percentage of saving was 4S in ono case and oa in the other;
and so on. His whole purchase of these things and other like
(roods will probably bo confined to $100. Suppose ho saves Sot) on
these articles. Then ho saves less on his whole purchases than
he loses on one bale of cotton.
And yet the Senator from Texas, representing a cotton constituency, argued very gravely before the Senate that after all
cotton at G cents a pound, its present price, is not such a terrible thing to the Southern farmer, because ho can save oO cents
on his tea, $1 on his coffee, $10 on his sheetings, and probably
$100 on all of his purchases out of the store. This is the way
that stands.
,
.
. .
w
So Mr. President, if wo put the farmer m this condition—
which I hope he will notbein long, though he is in that position
now—that ho is to use his whole exertion for the purpose of getting a bare subsistence, and has no prospect of ever bettering
his fortune, we find that ho gets, unfortunately, less for his
labor in 1893 in the way of supplies, comforts, and necessaries
than he did in 1873; and he is in fact reduced to tho condition
stated bv tho writer from whom I have quoted—to be working
on his own farm for mere laborer's wages without a cent of compensation for the rent of his land. I want Senators to understand that. I havo not overdrawn this picture. I am not talking about wheat farmers, or tobacco farmers, because I know
nothing about them. I am talking about cotton farmers. , The
Senator who sits by my side here [Mr. BATE], a cotton-raiser,
can testify that I have made a liberal estimate for the production of a single farmer by his own labor, giving him 5 bales to
t h Mr?BATE.
Five and a half bales to the hand.
Mr. GEORGE. But, Mr. President, there is a very great mistake in the tables presented by the Senator from Texas. Idonot
know who furnished him those figures, but I do know, as every
Senator within the sound of my voice and who comss from a cotton
State knows, that tho figures for 1891, where he put the average
price of cotton at* 10 cents, are not correct. The occupantof the
chair [Mr. JONES of Arkansas] smiles, and so do his colleague and
the Senator from Texas; and so does the cotton planter who sits
M
47
at iny left [Mr. BATE] smile. I itould siiiile tbb; i\fr; President,
if I did'riot have some cause to weep on account bf the low price.
Mi*. PASCO. I should like, to asic the Senator from ivhat market report that quotation ifc takeh?
Mr. GEORGE. It was only furnished tb me this mbrnitig by
the Senator from Texas. There is ho statement of the particular market; it is merely a statement of prices.
Mi*. PASCO. It certainly is hot correct so far as Oiir part of the
country is concerned.
Mr. GEORGE. * It gives the prices of certain products from
1873 to 1891. I have a statement here, which was read by my
colleague [Mr. WALTHALL] the other day; find which put the
price of cotton, I will not say at a more reasonable rate; but at a
truei- hite. The price stated in that table was 7 .cents for 1891,
but there is not a cotton farmer within the sound bf my voice wHb
does hbt knbw that for the crop bf 1891 the farmer did not, oh an
average, receive 7 cehts het.
Of course, I do not count the New York price oi? tke New Orleans pbice; we cbunt the price at the home market, at the nearest railroad depot; and then, tob; we count the average price bf
the whole crop, including the meanest cbtton, which every Senator here from the cotton States knows is not worth much over
half of the price of the best cotton. As to the other figures Contained in the table of the Senator from Texas I know nothing.
I can only say that as to the one which is pi-ominetit dhd recent
irk our recollection, the mistake is so great as to bring discredit
on the whole table;
Now, we begin to see how much compensation the farmer derives from the low prices bf the thitigs he buys for the loss He
sustains in the fall in prices of the things which he raises. It
is utterly worthless, it is really no compensation. He isi placed
iti the position* as stated by this writer, of being a ihere lahdter
upon his own farm; withdtit any comperisatibn for the rent.
FALLING PRICES KEEP THE FARMER IN DEBT.
There are some other things to whicli I desire to call tile attention of the Seriate which do not frili ii± price, and rwhibh, unfortunately, the farmer hds tb pay.. I may state this fact—and I
presume without fear, of contradiction—as an economic fact that
the constant falling of prices cin the part of agricultural products
is always followed by a constantly increasing debt, almost necessarily j for, as the farmer's income at the best is a small one, and
h0 is Etpt tb purchase with reference to the fair arid liberal price,
which he hopes for all through thb year, when therb is a constant
fall in the price of his crop hb brought in debt.
So, according to the figures which I redd the bther day, there is
now nearly $6,000,000,000 of debt in mortgages of real estate ih
this country. How much of that is on agricultural land, and
how milch oh town land, I am unable to say; but every Senator
from an agricultural community knows that a very large proportion of it is on agricultural property.
Mr. PEPPER. Two-thirds of it.
Mr. GEORGE. The Senator from Kansds says two-thirds. I
am satisfied it even more than that. With his $182 income and
with a small debt even of two hundred dollars—there is no decrease in that, for, it has to be paid dollar for dollar—with the constantly falling prices the farmer year by yea* is getting inextricably lodged in deep debt; and X am astonished, not sd inuch
436
lb-
at my friend from Delaware [Mr. GRAY], who lives in a city and
who does not represent a very large agricultural interest, as 1
am astonished that any Senator representing a cotton Stata
should argue gravely before tho American Senate that the fall
in tho prices of the articles which the farmer buys is any compensation whatever for the immense fall in the price of the
things which he sells.
Mr. FRYE. Will it disturb the Senator to give me a bit of
information?
Mr. GEORGE. Not at all. Any information I have I will
give to the Senator.
Mr. FRYE. I understand the Senator to s.ty that a bale of
cotton to the acre is all that it will average?
Mr. GEORGE. It will not average that much. The average
is half a bale to the acre.
Mr. FRYE. And that the farmer can not raise over five
bales? That would be cultivating 10 acres.
Mr. GEORGE. Yes.
Mr. FRYE. Does the Senator mean that the farmer s entire
time is taken on 10 acres of land?
Mr. GEORGE. I will explain it. I mean to say that 15 acres
of land in corn and cotton, that is the usual crop, 10 in cotton and
5 in corn, and perhaps 2 or 3 in oats, is regarded as a full crop for
any one man to raise.
Mr. FRYE. I suppose that in certain seasons the farmer
needs more hands, in'cotton-picking times, for instance, and
things of that kind, as we do in the North in hay. If the
farmer had 100 acres, does the Senator mean that it would take
one man for each of the 15 of the 100 acres to profitably cultivate
them?
Mr. GEORGE. I do.
Mr. FRYE. So that really the limit of the ability of one man
in raising cotton is five or five and a half bales?
Mr. GEORGE. That is the full average. I will state to the
Senator that some men of extraordinary industry and energy,
and with land of extraordinary fertility, will do more.
Mr. FRYE. If the Senator will pardon me one moment longer,
what did I understand him to say the average value per acre of
the hind to be, of which he is speaking?
Mr. GEORGE. I would say that a farm of 80 acres, with a
good dwelling house on it and outhouses,that would produce a half
bale of cotton to the acre would be worth $300 to $1,000. I doubt
whether it could be sold for that; but if a man was out of debt
he probably would not take that for such a farm.
Mr. FRYE. One question further. Is the cotton crop taken
at the farm bv purchasers?
Mr. GEORGE. No, sir. In the South the farmer usually
hauls his cotton to the nearest market town on a navigable river
or the nearest railroad town and disposes of it there.
Mr. FRYE. And there he gets his price?
Mr. GEORGE. Yes.
Mr. FRYE. Then it centralizes somewhere else?
Mr. GEORGE. Yes. A few large planters in Mississippi, I
will state to the Senator from Maine, ship their cotton to New
Orleans, Mobile, or Memphis, and it is there sold by a cotton
factor. After charging the planter with all the expenses of the
486
lb-
freight, commissions, and everything of that sort, the factor returns him what we call the net proceeda.
Mr. FRYE. If the Senator will pardon me one moment further, there is one other thing 1 should like to know.
Mr. GEORGE. I will answer very cheerfully any question I
can.
Mr. FRYE. I understand that in the South the owners of cotton land let it out on halves or in some other way. Will the
Senator kindly tell me how many acres are ordinarily let to one
man, and what the general arrangement may he as to the pay
for it?
Mr. GEORGE. I do not know that I can state the general
arrangement. My own experience of that matter is confined to
the Yazoo Delta. It is considered there as a very fair arrangement
for the owner of the land to furnish the team, the plows, and the
land, and to pay the expenses of keeping up the land, repairing
the houses, fences, and all that sort of thing, and divide the net
proceeds with the man who rents.
Mr. FRYE. Divide the net proceeds?
Mr. GEORGE. I used the word " net" wrongly there. I did
not mean after the planter has been reimbursed for his team, and
all that. I ought to have said " gross proceeds," because those
things are not charged to the laborer.
Mr. FRYE. Ordinarily does a man hire only 15 acres?
Mr. GEORGE. That is about the usual amount.
Mr. FRYE. I am obliged to the Senator for the information.
Mr. CALL. An allowance is made for a garden..
Mr. GEORGE. Gardens, potato patches, and things of that
sort are never charged for. That is about the way the business
is conducted. In the poor land districts, in the hills? I suppose
that th§ acreage would be larger, but the proceeds would be
less.
I think I have said enough on this subject, and I shall now,
lest it may be supposed that I have overdrawn this picture, read
some resolutions passed by the farmers in Jefferson County,
Mississippi. They are as follows:
"Whereas the financial condition of our country at present is most deplorable and has been brought about, in our opinion, chiefly by the demonetization of silver, striking down half of the hard money of the country and vastly
increasing the burdens of the debtor classes,inspired by the greed of English
financiers ana assisted by unpatriotic, undemocratic, and avaricious Americans, the effect of which has been, and stiU is, t o rob the American farmer
out of millions each year; and
Whereas we know the Sherman act of 1890 to be in no wise responsible for
the present financial difficulties, and that any law that has added $148,286,221
t o the volume of our currency could not have been otherwise than beneficent in its effect:
Besolved, W e demand that our representatives in Congress cling tenaciously t o the Sherman act of 1890 and steadily vote against the repeal of
same, unless a free-coinage act at a ratio of 16 to 1 be embodied in the same
bill, thus restoring to us the money that the founders of our Government
established as the one most suited to our wants, and which for ninety year^
of our history enabled us to enjoy that meed of prosperity which made our
country the wonder of the world.
W M . D. TORREY, Chairman.
JAS. McCLUN, Secretary.
The resolutions are in manuscript. They are drawn up by the
farmers themselves, prompted thereto by their own feelings and
their own wants—not gotten up on printed forms sent out by
banks and other capitalists and engineered by their agents, who
486
1
lb-
are sometimes their dupes and sometimes their fellow-conSPOh!but
it will be said in tho contemptuous spirit so characteristic of those who are enrichcd by the present financial system. that this comes from "calamity howlers.-'
So did the agents and assistants of Torquomada, as the victims writhed and cried under tho tortureB of tho inquisition, denominate them as " calamity howlers."
The meeting that passed these resolutions was composed of
hundreds of men in one of tho most intelligent and productive
counties in Mississippi. Is their cry to be unheeded?
I tear so And yet I venture to say if the bankers of New
York were to pass similar resolutions demanding the free coinage of silver their demand would be granted as quickly as the
ordinary forms of legislation would allow. I do not mean to
sav-no, not by any means-that Senators or Congressmen are
owned or consciously controlled by the banks, but I do mean to
sav that such is the influence of men possessing the wealth of
the world and supposed to be skilled in finance, that In a matter
stated bv tho Senator from Massachusetts to surpass in difficulty
the subleties of metaphysics, the hair-splitting distinctions and
•profound speculatipns and logical nuzzles of technical lawyers
and of disputatious schoolmen and theologians, the human mind
is apt to defer to thosewho are supposed to be experts, especially
if they have shown an expertness infinanceby getting rich.
TRUST THE C 0 1 I U 0 N SENSE Off THE PEOPLE.
But sir, I had rather trust to the common sense of the American people,as to their wants and their distresses,than to the expert
knowledge^ those who have antagonistic interests to them.
To say we can not trust tho common, average sense of the American people, in a matter of government so essential to their welfare as this, is to assert that the people are incapable of selfffovernment. The plain provision of the Constitution recognizing
as money for coinage in the mint that which has been recognized
as such from the earliest period of human history is easily comprehended. The mystery offinance,so far as it rests on the recognition and coinage of the two precious metals, is easily understood. It is only when we depart from this and enter into tho
mazes of ingenious speculation, contrived to make that appear
as money which is not money but a sham and a trick, and to
make that appear not to be money which is money, that we
encounter tho difficulties suggested by tho Senator from MossaC^These
so-called expert bankers and capitalists are experts only
in contriving devices bv which the wealth of the world shall
accumulate fn their hands. Statesmanship dealing with a financial system for the country is the opposite of this. It is providing, as far as human foresight can provide, that money, denominated by the Senator from Massachusetts as the lifeblood of
trade, Bhall be sufficient in volume to circulate freely among all
the people and not be congested in the great centers of trade
and controlled, absolutely controlled, by a few who have grown
overrich.
W A S T S Off THE PARMER.
But, sir, I go back to the point of the wants of the American
farmers, for an increased coinage, and the ability of that want,
486
lb-
W*th others, to keep silver at a parity with gold. The farmers,
at present, alone need a billion and more of money annually to
carry on tfteir business on the economical and profitable cash
system, rather than on a ruinous credit. They must in the main
keep their money so as to expend it in eight or ten months, from
the end of one harvest to the beginning of another. That money
will not be hoarded, as a miser hoards his gold, with the view
of gloating over it in the secret placos in which it has been hid,
nor as the capitalist hoards his, when in panics he saves his
money for investment when prices shall fall lower and lower.
Tiip farmer does not want it deposited in a bank, which if the
jtorpa comes will refuse to return it to him when he most needs
it. Efe wants it for constant use or for some investment to b3
made when a favorable opportunity offers. He keeps no bank
account. Possibjy there is not a bank in his county or for several
counties around him.
At all events, he knows his money is safe in his own hands.
He doubts its safety with the banks, especially when he knows
t-he banks have demand obligations, payable at any moment, to
an amount from six to ten times as great as they have cash to
meet them? Then, sir, he looks at the laws of his country, and
finds that the national banks are not allowed to lend one dollar
on the only security which he can offer—on real estate. So, sir,
he must layby money, or submit to the ruinous credit system J
have described.
We, sir, his servants—not his masters—his agents appointed
to do the work needful to his happiness and prosperity—we, instead of responding to his calls, made in no equivocal terms,
instead of giving him the opportunity of advancement and prosperity, deliberately (not intentionally, I admit) provide for his
destruction. Instead of giving him, as the Democratic platform
of 1884 denominated it, gold and silver, the money of the Constitution, we destroy half of this constitutional money, whereby,
with depressed prices for his products, with largely enhanced
prices, through the credit system and through the protective
tariff system, for the things he must buy, the farmer must forever tread the dreary path of penury and despair.
Now, Mr. President, if we give the country free coinage the
farmers alone, with the necessary money they must keep to
carry on their business, will consume more than one-half the
1
addition free coinage will make to the currency.
The laborers will consume much of the other half. Do not they
need an increase in the currency? Oh, no, it is olairoed that
their wages will bo lessened by payment in a depreciated currency, as if the present wages of laborers were the voluntary
gift, the philanthropic provision made by capitalists for those
who had made them over-rich instead of being extorted from
them by the firm demand of associated labor. This argument
rests upon the presumed ignorance of labor of its rights.
'
HOW THE LABORER'S WAGES ARE AFFECTED.
Thank Heaven, sir, this presumption is unfounded. Whatever
may have been the fact in the past, the laborer now knows his
rights as to his wages, and knowing them, he, by such associated
efforts as are needed, asserts them. But, sir, is the present
system of demonetized silver the heaven of the laborer? Whilst
gold must be the standard, as the antisilver men assert—whilst
gold must be more, the only money, or the foundation of all subr
m
lb-
stitutes for real money-has the laborer in the past or does he
now receive his wages in gold or its equivalent.
I wish to rend an extract from a letter addressed by Mr. Powderly to the American Congress; which is as follows:
In every State of the American Union where mining or manufacturing Is
carried on worltin^men are obliged to trade in company stores because of
S ^ c a r c ^ y o f m l i T e y The " b a r t e r and trade system " o f barbaric ages
fttfdq i?q ^ u n t c r D a r t in hundreds of m i n i n g towns, where the brass check,
th e s h i ti D?ast e r a r u l t h e s t o r e order compel workmen to bar er labor for
f o o d W e ^ m o n e j p l e n t y this conditlonof affairs would not exist as It does
exist to-day.
.
#
I produce now a book containing facsimiles of the devices
spoken of, and I will read from it. It is the annual report of
the secretary of internal affairs for the State of Pennsylvania
for 1878-'<9. There are about one dozen different kinds of shinplasters given in it. I will read the language of a few specimens
and insert more in my remarks, so that Senators who think that
the laborers are enjoying a heaven under the presentsystem
may know something about how the laborers in this country
are paid. Here is the facsimile of a shmplaster which reads in
this way:
THE KIND OF "HONEST" MONEY PAID TO THE LABORER.
5
10
15
20
25
30
85
40
45
This ticket Is issued by the
P I N E RUN GOALi COMPANY,
On account of the scarcity of small change, and is redeemable
at their store in merchandise.
THE CHECK IS GOOD FOR THE
Amount of tho figures (in cents) opposite the punch mark.
TWO HOLES IN A CHECK BENDERS IT WORTHLESS.
5
0
5
5
6
0
6
5
7
That is the statement of one.
other:
No.
,
rat
0
7
5
8
0
8
5
Then here on page 366 is an-
McClure Station, Pa.,
, 18—.
PAINTER MINE STORE.
Not transferable.
fl.
have merchandise to the amount not punched.
Good when signed by S. B. White.
Then another:
Good f o r all amounts unpunched.
Payable o n demand.
fl.
I n merchandise at the store of
— N o t transferable.
H. C. Frick & Co., Valley Mines, Pa.
Date.
, —80.
To
—;—
No.
. F o r use of
.
And the proof shows that the insertion of the words " n o t
transferable" was a mere trick for the purpose of evading the
tax of 10 per cent. They are nearly all marked " not transferable."
The scrip is markedBays t h e c o r r e s p o n d e n t —
•not transfer able,'* yet they use it the same as money here, the partiesitjUlng itThowever, instead of money d o so at a shave of f r o m 30 to 40 per cent
63
A n y b o d y can purchase with them the same as the party t o w h o m they are issued, and I see them used here iu hotels, saloons, eating houses, etc., every
week.
Then there is another on page 367, which is as follows:
G o o d l o r all amounts n o t unpunched.
$5.
Payable on demand.
In merchandise at the store of
. Not transferable.
Webster Coal Co., Webster, Pa.
To
.
No.—.
Issued
, 18—.
Signed
.
There is another one on page 368:
N o , —.
Not transferable.
Sold t o This check is good (until punched) f o r
One dollar,
I n g o o d s at the store of
B r o w n & Co.,
Mount Vernon, Fayette Co.,
If properly countersigned.
Countersigned.
81.00 (One)
187—.
Then there is another on the same page:
DUNBAR FURNACE STORE.
Good for
91.
In merchandise at m y store.
J. M. HTJSTEAD.
Per
.
Then here is one that is up to the dignity of fine engraving.
It looks a good deal like a bank note:
ENTERPRISE COAL WORKS.
10 cents.
Store
P a y to Bearer
10 cents
ID Merchandise,
and charge t o
, 18—.
BanksvUle,Fa.,
10 cents.
Then there is another on page 370:
Good f o r all amounts unpunched.
P a y a b l e o n demand
In merchandise
A t the store of
91.
Sharon I r o n W o r k s , Sharon, Pa.
To
o r order.
Signed
W E S T E R M A N I R O N CO.
N o . —.
Issued
, 18—.
Then here is another with a picture of the father of the country on it:
25
25
Signed
25
No.—.
California, Pa.,
, 18—.
J. G. Gleason,.
The storekeeper
W i l l pay t o the bearer in merchandise
Twenty-flye cents.
JOS. COATS W O R T H & CO.
25
And still another on the same page:
Good f o r an amounts unpunched
$5.
Payable o n demand,
In merchandise at the store of
W . B. E n o s & Co., W a m p u m , Pa.,
To
o r order.
Signed
N o . —.
Issued
436
, 18—.
.
lb-
And also on page 312 is another one:
This will be received
As equivalent to
F i v o cents,
In exchange f o r merchandise at the store of
L . S. Hoyt.
Clinton Station, Pa.*
, 18—.
5
Also one on page 373:
25
This will be received
A s equivalent t o
Twenty-five cents
I n exchange f o r merchandise at the store of
IJ. S. Hoyt.
Clinton Station, Pa., — — , 18—.
And another one on page 375:
10
A
"William Sharpe & Co.,
of Dubois, Pa.,
"Will p a y the bearer o n demand
Ten cents.
In merchandise.
No. —
Mr. GRAY. Mr. President—^
.
The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. JONES of Arkansas m the
chair). Does the Senator from Mississippi yield to the Senator
from Delaware?
Mr. GEORGE. Certainly.
,
Mr. GRAY. I should like to say to the Senator from Mississippi in this connection that so far as those Pennsylvania pluckme-store orders—as they came to be called in the common parlance of that State and neighboring States—are concerned, I
think I know the fact that their issuance and use was not due in
any degree to scarcity of money. They were a part of a system
of oppression, I grant, and grew out of the greed of some of those
great coal-mining corporations that endeavored to make a profit at
both ends, and by the peculiar situation in which they found themselves in relation to their workingmen the former were enabled
to compel an acceptance of the pluck-me-store orders as a part
of their pay, which were redeemable at the company's stores,
and where it was charged the corporations made an enormous
profit upon the goods in which they were redeemed. I have had
some familiarity with this state of things, and it went to such a
pass that I believe the State of Pennsylvania bnactedalaw which,
in a large measure, broke up that mode of paying wages;
Mr; GEORGE. I have no doubt that there is a good deal of
truth in what the Senator from Delaware says, but still it is a
good a n s w e r to t h e a r g u m e n t m a d e by the Senator himself that
the l a b o r e r was interested in having the gold standard i n order
t h a t he m i g h t have an honest dollar for his wages. I want to
show what kind of an honest dollar is used for the purpose of
pay tog the wages of the l a b o r e r s of this country, showing that
h o w e v e r honest, and good, and gloriouB the gold dollar might be
as between the capitalists and b a n k e r s , when we come down to
the laborer, in whoso behalf the plea is made, they d i d not circuate.
Now, Mr. President, it does not happen m Pennsylvania alone
I have some more of these. Here is one of them from Tennessee:
G o o d o n l y at E a s t Tennesseo C o m p a n y ' s store.
F i f t y cents f o r all a m o u n t s due.
486
lb-
I was instructed not to read out the name of the man to whom
the ticket was given, as he might suffer for it. I will call him
Richard Hoe, though my friend from Delaware may see it if he
wants.
Due Richard Roe or bearer in merchandise, 50 cents.
Mr. GRAY. Payable in merchandise.
Mr. GEORGE. Oh, yes; they are all payable in merchandise.
Here is another from the State of Kentucky:
Beaver Creek Cumberland River Storekeeper.
P a y 10 cents to bearer in merchandise.
They were not afraid of the tax over there, and they did not
put in the words "not transferable,"
Redeemable at the store of Beaver Creek Cumberland River Coal Company
In merchandise.
That is th.e honest dollar that my friend from Delaware pleaded
so hard should be paid to the laborers of this country,
Mr. GRAY. Oh, no; that is not it.
Mr. GEORGE. The Senator was not talking about that kind
of a dollar. He was talking about the gold dollar, and his theory was that the workingman should have the gold dollar, but
in practice he has this kind of a dollar.
Mr, GRAY. I was talking about the gold dollar or the paper,
dollar or the silver dollar as good as gold,
Mr. GEORGE. Exactly. I know the Senator insisted that
the laborers got these good, honest dollars, and I am just showing that whilst such was the theory, and the theory was all
right, the practice was the other way.
Now, I have another one:
Laurel Coal Company will pay to bearer 5 cents in goods at the supply
store.
The Laurel Coal Company does not disclose on this paper
where it is, I suppose they knew at the place.
Miners' order f o r 5 cents.
Merchandise.
J. Pitman & Son.
That is another. Now, I have something on my friend from
Texas. It is not only done by these rascally mining companies,
but here is a very extraordinary paper:
Thurber,
Texas and Pacific Coal Company—
I presume that is in Texas—
Two dollars.
Issued to blank. I am not at liberty to tell his name.
Issued to John Doe. Receipt given for this book and accepted,
as stated on cover.
There are a great many nice things here. The remarkable
part of this one is it is issued in amounts of $2. It has 40 of these
little coupons in it. * I will read one of them,
Texas and Pacific Company,
punched.
*
Good f o r 5 cents in merchandise if not
R. B. H U N T E R , Treasurer.
They did not issue two or three of these. This is numbered
87,530, and all in this book, the whole 40, are numbered 87,530.
Mr. GRAY. Are they all redeemable in merchandise?
Mr. GEORGE. Every one of them. That is the good honest
dollar which these men get, and which my friend from Delaware
insisted they ought to have.
Now, these men were not satisfied with dealing in shinplasters.
They thought they would get up something a little more solid and
486
lb-
substantial. They used a coin. They had a mint.
some of the coins issued to pay the laborers with.
I have here
Miners' check, fifty cents.
It seems that the business of issuing this kind of money to
miners was not only indulged in by tho principal, but even by
the lessees.
,<Etna Coal Company, lessees.
This is the first coin I ever saw that was not of metal. They
have improved on that. This is on pasteboard, but it looks exactly like a half dollar. Here is another:
G o o d f o r 25 cents in merchandise.
see, K y .
Main Jeliico Mt. Coal Company, K e n -
So I have found them in Pennsylvania, and I have found them
in Tennessee, and I have found them in Texas, and also m Kentucky. Here is another beautiful coin:
The P i t m a n Coal Company.
F i v e cents.
Merchandise.
Then there is the American eagle upon it.
Mr. GRAY. And " in God we trust?'*
Mr. GEORGE. No, sir; they were not trusting in God over
there, they were trusting in the other power. Here is another
one. It looks like silver, but I presume it is not. They would
not make it out of silver; it must be tin. It comes from the Peacook Coal Company.
Merchandise check.
Then there is a figure five on one side of it, like the Mexican
dollar, with the rays of the rising sun on it.
Then here is another one good for 5 cents in merchandise. It
is also from the Main Jeliico Mt. Coal Company, at Kensee, Ky.
So, Mr. President, I think the plea set up by my friend from
Delaware for the laborers to have an honest dollar will not stand,
or ought not to stand. I think if we had a good honest silver
dollar it would be better. The rest of them did not deem it
necessary to make an excuse, they just issued these shinplasters
and coins; but one of the companies put across the face of its shinplaster, "Owing to the scarcity of change we issue this check."
I do not think this is exactly under the present system satisfactory to the laborers so far as currency is concerned. I wish
to read another extract from Mr. Powderly's address, an address
which I suppose was sent to all members of Congress. It was
sent to me, and it is addressed to Congress. I read it not so much
for the facts as for the argument.
BANKS AND EXCHANGES USE CHECKS, BUT THE PEOPLE USE MOKEY.
W e are told that m o n e y is n o t actually required in the transaction of business. T h a t is true only of o u r s t o c k exchanges, o u r grain exchanges, and
between banks, men. and concerns having large c o m m e r c i a l and mercantile interests in c o m m o n . The great bulk of the people must have m o n e y ;
they m u s t use it, f o r they are not s o engaged as to effect exchanges through
the use of paper. B u t a few m e n can d o without the actual possession of
m o n e y ; that is, a f e w as c o m p a r e d with the population at large. A gold
dollar, as a basis o n which to transact business o r to point to as a standard,
m a y be suitable a m o n g changers of m o n e y and those whose business interests are s o interwoven that the actual passing of m o n e y is not required, but
a m o n g the masses, w h o must p r o d u c e the d o l l a r b e f o r e food o r c l o t h i n g w i l l
be g i v e n them, the actual, real, tangible dollar m u s t be present and must be
exchanged. T o pass f o o d f r o m hand t o m o u t h the dollar m u s t pass f r o m
hand t o band.
So, Mr. President, I think that the eloquent plea made by my
friend from Delaware the other day in behalf of the laborers for
m
lb-
honest money turns out now to be all moonshine. I have no
doubt that he thought these laborers were actually receiving
from their employers actual hard dollars worth 1G0 cents in gold.
I read now to show how much they were worth. I had better
read a few items to show how they are redeemed at the stores.
I had forgotten about that. Here is a table of the prices.
Company's stores, flour per sack, $2.10.
Other stores, same flour, $1.00.
Sugar per pound, company's stores, 121 cents.
Other stores, 7 cents.
And so on, in every instance there is a difference of from 10 to
25 per cent between the prices charged in the company's stores,
and given in redemption of these tickets, and other stores.
About 25 per cent more is charged than in the other stores in the
neighborhood. That is the glorious kind of currency to which
the Senator from Delaware invites the American laborer and he
insinuates and argues that we Democrats here, in trying to give
the American laborer an honest silver dollar, are doing harm to
him, because we deprive him of these elegant substitutes for
money which I have brought to the notice of the Senate.
W E CAN MAINTAIN THE PARITY BETWEEN GOLD AND SILVER.
Now, Mr. President, the next question is, Can we maintain the
paritv between these metals. I do not think there is a doubt
about our ability to maintain the two metals at a parity on the
^France, with less than 35,000,000 of people, maintained the
parity, at a greatly less ratio, 15* to 1, when the wants of the
world for money were far less than they are now.
Assuming Mr. Walker to be right—I read the other day from
Mr. Walker, in which he said that the consuming power of the
American people is three times that of Europe—assuming Mr.
Walker to.be right, that we are equal to 200,000,000 in Europe,
in consuming power, and therefore in the necessary use of metallic money can we not, with a use for money three times as great
as that of Prance, do what Prance did for many years and does
now? But, sir, in addition to this the population of Prance was
and is now at a standstill; we are increasing in numbers with
the most busy, energetic, and extravagant people in the world
at the average rate of 1,700,000 a year as the average for two
decades.
.
A.
France, when she maintained the ratio of 1 5 ^ to 1, had large
standing armies; was engaged in costly and, to her, devastating
wars, whereby production and consumption were brought to the
lowest point. W e take for our own Army and Navy but an insignificant and inappreciable proportion of our producers. W e
are too strong to be invaded, tod honest, too magnanimous to
give just ground for invasion, too just and fair to invade others.
So that this immense country, the richest in natural resources
in the world, is filling with almost startling rapidity, with the
most productive of all people, with wealth accumulating beyond
all former precedent. With an internal traffic and internal
business requiring money equal to all Europe, what becomes of
the claim of those who assert that we are not able to maintain
at parity the money of the Constitution? The trouble with
us in the future will be, and I wish that to ba noted, as it is
now, that we shall not have a sufficiency of real money, gold and
silver, and how we may by safe and wise agencies supply that
486
lb-
deficiency in money by other means than gold and silver. That
will be our trouble, and not that we will be inundated by silver.
One thought, hitherto unnotcdj will demonstrate this. The
world's need for money is increasing, not only from an increase
in population, but from that ever-augmenting adjunct of a high
civilization, tho division of labor. This tendency is especially
illustrated in the farmer's life. In the early part of the century
each farm or plantation was a littles world in itself. On each
were produced nearly all the needs and comforts of country life,
clothing, shoes, food of nearly all' kinds, fruits, and vogetiibles,
farm implements, and farm animals. There was no need for
monojr to buy them. The surplus only was exchanged for money,
and with a small part of that tho few additional comforts and
necessaries were purchased.
Now, sir, all this is changed. Tho division of labor has been
carried to an extent, in its increased efficiency, in production,
that clothing and shoes and many other necessaries are not made
at home. Many articles following the law of natural selection,
as to climate—once raised on every farm—are now raised only
in more favored localities, and become tho subject of exchange.
This same division of labor, associated with tho greater economy
in production of large establishments, has driven the blacksmith, the wagon-maker—tho maker of all tho implements of
farm life and of domestic life—from tho country and located
them in the cities.
In this way tho exchange of food, clothing, and other supplies with these local factories for their wares has entirely
ceased. Money is required for everything, even for the little
toy with which innocent infancy is amused. This, sir, is tho result of a necessary and inexorable social evolution. Besides
this, our rural population^ who raise a part of their needed supplies, is relatively diminishing, whilst tho urban population,
who sell their labor and their products, and with it purchase
farm-raised supplies, is relatively largely increased. So that
there is a continual day by day, year by year, decade by decade
increase in the demand for money.
Again, in our advancing civilization the standard of living is
being greatly raised. This demand will never be fully and
fairly and justly supplied so long as currency shall be so deficient in amount as to require that rapid circulation, with no
abiding place, essential to tho system advocated by the banks.
Sir, shall money for use, for paying rent, for purchasing daily
food and clothing for the laborer be so doled out an<f so demanded for instant and constant circulation that there may be
no weekly, no monthly, no yearly accumulation with which to
purchase something beyond the daily wants of the poor? Tho
present system requires this. Shall there be no such accumulations, to meet the unexpected calls of sickness, the marriage
of a daughter, or an occasional trip from the crowded and unhealthy cities to the healthy air of the country—and for that
other want more urgent than all these, to buy food durin^ that
period of distress and woo, a panic created by the banks?* And
yet to make the present circulation answer, in any degree, the
dollar must, with the wings of the morning, commence and then
jjursue its daily flight with electric speed, in the marts of commerce, with no abiding place but in the vaults of the banks?
This rapid circulation, the necessary and preordained results
486
lb-
bf the present system, means the keeping of all money, br nearly
all, in the banks, or under their direct control, leaving little if
any with the mass of dur people.
s e l v e r b e t t e r t h a n sha^i m o n e t .
But, sir, I desire to notice now, a little further, the View of th6
bankers that we must demonetize silver on the ground that with
these substitutes and shams to Which I have alluded, the country can get along well enough. We have seen, sir, how this
well-enough is. We have seen that at the first breath of distrust all their fair erections of financial aerial architecture, all
their devices and contrivances to help out a deficient currency,
have fallen, and the banks have closed their doors to depositors,
and for their money have given them certified checks. We are
asked to take these ingenioiiscohtrivancesas substitutes for real
money, and therefor demonetize silver, which is real money.
Sir, we are asked to remove one-half of the foundation bf our
money system, not indeed because the whole is unnecessary*
but in order that we may substitute for it the contrivances of
bankers, which fall at the first breath of the storm. We are
asked to annihilate one of the two legs which support our circulation—both sound and healthy—because there has been invented a qork leg, on which we may hobble about on smooth
roads in fair weather.
But, sir, we are in distress now, sore distress; and it is urged
from many quartets that we> Should pass this act for immediate
relief and then take care of the futtire.
t h e sHerman l a w not
c a u s e ot? d i s t r e s s , A n b i t s
n o t bring r e l i e f .
R e p e a l tvitli
If, as is alleged by the Senator from Massachusetts the Sherman law is not the cause of bur distress; and if, as alleged by the
Senator from Indiana^ the banks brought it about for their own
purposes; and if, as alleged by the Senator from New York, moheyed men and creditors, for their own selfish advancement, bohtHbiited largely to it; and if, as alleged and proven by the Senator from Colorado [Mr. T E L L E R ] , the banks caused it in order tb
secure the repeal Of this law; and if, as I believe, and have endeavored to show, the position bf the Senator frdm Colorado on
that poiiit is entirely; correct, I can not see the grounds on which
we are to act in enacting the repeal.
, . ,
Is this repeal demanded upon the ground that we are to appease the,Wicked and pSttiirbed spirits of the banks so that they
inay grafcibiisly relieve iis from the hdtrdrs they^ have imposed?
Or are we asked to repeal on the still more illogical £rbtiiid that
the banks and not the law have created the distress, and therefore we ought to repeal it, dhd for what other reasohs I know not.
If the Sherman law has not produced the panic* and nobody
has shown, no Senator up to this time has even alleged that it
has, why difctiirb it? I know of ho Other reason than this, that
the banks, the authors of the. trouble, demand it as the price bf
relief. Already we see in the metropolitan jbiirhals that the
action bf the House has had a good effect ih# reviving trade and
business and restoring confidence. Yet, sir, the law remains
on the statute bo'oks in full force and vigor. So that we have
the extraordinary case that the hop i. of relief, in the shape of
repeal, does the work the repeal itself Will do; This satisfies
me more and beyond doubt, if there was room for any, that the
486
lb-
panic is facticious. Tho patient recovers not from the medicine
rescribed, but from the hope thut ho will get that medicine
ereafter. If this hope is so efficacious, then let it alone do its
good and perfect work.
But, Mr. President, I have no doubt that repeal can be made,
by the authors of the panic, to accompany or precede temporary
relief. The banks can open their doors to depositors, and pay
their honest debts, and that will be a great relief. They can
cease furnishing money to be sold on the streets at a premium,
if they now do so, and that will be some relief. They may even
put us in the condition which we were before the panic commenced—a condition of stringency in the money market, of low
prices and distress to producers. After the present affliction that
will seem to be a relief—a hot fire may be endured with some
comfort just after escaping from the flames of Hades.
But, sir, ought we to purchase not indeed relief from the
wrongs and burdens of our present money system, but from the
exact condition of horror and despair produced by the power of
money by yielding to their demand?
, Esau sold his birthright for all time to release himself not
from death, but from the pangs of present hunger. Shall we
sell our birthright to the constitutional money of both gold and
silver because we have been made to hunger by those who demand the sacrifice? My answer is that such is not the wish of
the American people.
THE PEOPLE WILL NOT SURRENDER THEIR RIGHTS.
In all ages of the world it has been in the power of men to create such situations of pain and trouble as to be unendurable, and
then, for their own ends, they have promised relief if the victim
will make some great sacrifice. And in all ages there have been
men who would make the sacrifice demanded, and yet in all ages
there have been also men who defied power and pain and stood
firmly by their convictions and their rights. The wretched victims of the inquisition at every fresh drive of the wedge in the
boot, at every turn of the thumbscrew were offered release from
present torture for a surrender of their conscience and their
faith. Many, sir, unable to withstand the pain and anguish exchanged for present ease the hopes of eternity, and yet others
stood firm to their faith. In this exigency I believe the American people will endure present ills with fortitude and with the
determination to surrender no portion of their rights; will keep
up the struggle for the full restoration of the money of the Constitution till success, however long delayed, shall at last crown
their efforts.
FINANCIAL SLAVERY.
The present system, if long persisted in, will necessarily work
the financial slavery of the people in the end—by more and more
augmenting the wealth of bankers and other capitalists, and
more and more reducing the fortunes of the great mass of the
people.
Already, through this financial system, and the yet more
destructive annual transfer, through the operation of the protective system, of a sum equal to $^2,000,000 directly from the
pockets of the people to the manufacturers, and by other Government subsidies, has one-half of all the wealth of the United
States been concentrated in the hands of about 24,000 persons.
m
lb-
This, aggregation will proceed to a still more dangerous extent unless there shall be relief from both systems—not one
alone, but both.
Under the present financial system every single dollar m circulation in the United States is made to pay interest to the banks
nearly three times. Or, in other words, the banks, as shown by
their own reports, draw interest annually three times on every
dollar in circulation in the United States, their loans being, as
we have seen, over $4,362,630,527, and their deposits over $4,(JOO,000,000, and the circulation being only $1,600,000,000. Estimating the average interest charged at 6 per cent (very low), they
tax the currency of the people of the United States annually, in
round numbers, $258,000,000 (about one-half of all the taxes of
the Federal Government and more than one and a half times
the taxation to support all the State governments). They do
this on a capital, invested by them of a little more than $900,000,000. This is done whilst two-thirds of the capital of the
national banks is otherwise profitably invested, leaving only
about $230,000,000 to be engaged in loans.
THE REPEAL OT SHERMAN LAW WILL REDUCE THE VOLUME OE PRICES^
This is the great prize for which the banks are struggling in
this contest, and this a part of the great burden from which the
people are asking relief.
_
The Senate will take notice, as the country has already taken
notice, that every national-bank note necessarily means not only
a debt owed by some person to the banks, but under the system
of triplication of loans, as I have described, it means an indebtedness of thrice its nominal value, bearing interest three times.
Gold and silver money, I admit, when the currency is contracted,
may be made and is now made by the banks to do this triple
duty. Bat they are not necessarily the subject of triple loans,
or even of any loan at all. They may be and often are owned
without evenhaving been the subject of a loan.
But this is not the only burden the present money system imposes on the people of the world, if it shall be amended by the
total demonetization of silver' as a debt-paying money. W e
have seen the enormous indebtedness, public and private, in
the United States, amounting to many billions of dollars.
If we destroy half the real money in the world this indebtedness will be doubled in its burdens, and the wealth of the 24,000
owning half the property in the United States will be largely
increased. Are we here to perform a part in this spoliation of
the American people; to rivet on them more firmly the chains
of financial slavery?
Mr. President, I do not wish to be misunderstood on any part
of this great subject of giving relief to the American people.
Whilst I believe that they are entitled to a fuller currency
than they now have, to an increase coming not only from the
free and unlimited coinage of gold and silver, but also from an
increase,in the legal-tender notes, so as to make them equal to
$10 per capita of the present and the increasing population, I
am satisfied that all this will give but small relief if we allow
the annual transfer of the many millions I have alluded to from
the people to the manufacturers, under the present protective
system.
It will do but little permanent good to increase the currency
if this transfer be continued. The American people under the
486
lb-
protective system, like blind Samson are but turning tho mill to
make profits for the Philistines—to fill tho colTorsof tho manufacturers—and I fear that an addition to the currency, whilst
this system continues, will do little moro than add grist to tho
mill, out of which will be ground still greater profits to these
beneficiaries and favorites of tho Government, and thereby increase their power to oppress and destroy tho paople.
DEMOCRATIC TLATFORM DEMANDS THE DEFEAT OP UNCONDITIONAL REPEAL.
Mr. President, it is said that tho Democratic platform of 1892
demands the passage of this bill. I deny it, and aver that it demands its defeat.
That platform on this subject is as follows:
ioSfe
t j e Republican legislation, k n o w n as the Sherman act of
f ™ u g h t w ^ h possibilities of danger in the
3 U ^ o r t e r s ' a3
a s * * author, anxSSSSrltS^spe'edy repeal
°f
d e n o u n c e
nrSJtSS1?^0*
use, of'both gold and silver as the standard money of the
t o th«° f ° u a £ e o t b( 2 th
a n d s i l v e r > without discriminating
5 P w £ S i t I i e T i n e t a V ^ r c f a r B e 1 ' f , r mintage, but the dollar unit of coinage
111
1
1
e<
ual
l
n
t
r
i
SEcSPi?*,?® ?? ?®
J
^sicand exchangeable value, to be ad?!?« e n d A h wf9 h inte ™ational agreement, or by such safeguards of legislation as shall insure the maintenance of the parity of the two metals, and the
d °l l a £ a t *}} t i m G S i n t h Q markets, and in the paymeSt
S i ^ S L ^ w 0 ^ 1 1 1 ^ 1 1 1 ^ aU „P a Per currency shall be kept at par with
S ^ J ^ m a b l e In such coin. We insist upon this policy as especSly
^ssary for the protection of the farmers ancf laboring classes, the first and
most defenseless victims of unstable money and a fluctuating currency.
That platform, as is seen by the reading, denounces the whole
a " ^^eshift,» and alleges that its supporters
v I7?l5? l a w
should be anxious for its repeal.
What is denounced? The Sherman act—not a part of it, but
the whole. What is it said should bo repealed? The same answer: Not a part, but the whole. What was denounced as a
makeshift''t Tho Sherman act-the whole of it, not apart.
And yet, sir, the bill, as if the authors of it had suddenly fallen
in love with the act, attempts to repeal a single clause of the
full force n g
°ther
Part
°f
t h e act) contalnin£
sections, in
SHERMAN ACT DENOUNCED BECAUSE IT LIMITS THE COINAGE 0* SILVER.
So, sir, there is to be no repeal of the Sherman act, but only
of a part of it. And the part to bo repealed is not designated
by the platform as especially objectionable; but on the contrary
taking the whole platform on this subject together, it is plainly
inferrable that this very clause is not objectionable per se bl
cause it coins silver, but is objectionable only because it provides
for a limited instead of an unlimited coinage of silver For
alter denouncing the act as a "makeshift," in clause 1 of the
paragraph, it immediately proceeds to declare that " we " fthe
Democrats of the Union) "hold to the use of both gold and BSLM ^ ' , 1 0 ^ ' ™ ? of t h e c o u n t r ^ and to the cringe
of toth gold and silver, without discriminating against e S
J 2 ? " S S ? 1 ^ ? 1 3 1 1 t h i s & too plain for mistake or for controversy. The Sherman act is denounced as a makeshift which
means » a temporary expedient." A temporary expedient for
T °U}y
^pporary expedient either for total
demonetization, for which this bill provides, or a temporary ex-
lb-
pedient for a more enlarged use of silver money. That this latter is the meaning—plain, clear, obvious—is put beyond all controversy by the subsequent declaration, in the same^ clause, in
favor of coining silver on the same terms as gold, " without discriminating against either." Gold has an unlimited and free
coinage, and so this platform says silver should have free and
unlimited coinage.
If such was not the intention of the convention, then that body
of representative Democrats used the English language not to
express their meaning, but to conceal it. The people understood that it meant that the Sherman bill should be repealed
and thereby give to us the free coinage of silver and gold alike,
and on that understanding they voted for and elected the Dem-.
ocratic candidates.
So far from the bill carrying out the Democratic platform, it
is a gross violation of it—a direct reversal of its plain, unambiguous declaration.
,
*
Why, sir, it is to be noted that there is no declaration in this
platform committing the party expressly to the repeal of the
Sherman act as an independent measure. The declaration is
that our opponents, the Republicans, should be anxious for its
repeal, because it is a miserable makeshift for that which we declared the true remedy, to witj free and unlimited coinage; and
its repeal is to come, not as a separate and independent measure
to which the party is committed, but in consequence oi the
soletan pledge ot the party to enact free coinage. Free coinage
is necessarily a repeal of a statute providing for limited coinage
only. In that sense alone does the Democratic platform commit
the party to the repeal of the Sherman act*
DUTY TO PERFORM PLEDGES.
This is the first time in over thirty years in which the Democratic party has had the power to enact laws—to shape the poliicies of this country. In this thirty years of defeat and disaster
we have sought the confidence of the people by promises of reform—promises of a reversal of the methods of the Republican
party. Among these promises, solemnly made, as the conditions on which we asked for the confidence of the people, is the
promise three times deliberately announced in national Convention, that we would give the people free and unlimited coinage
of silver—the money of the Constitution—and three times have
the people excused nonperformance of these promises on the
ground that We had not the power to perform.
But what excuse will we give if we fail now? W e have the
power, and more than that, we have the cooperation of a large
number of the ablest and purest men of the Republican party.
Will the people, whilst We destroy unconditionally $40,000,000
which would annually be added to the currency by the Sherman
law, accept a mere declaration of policy as to the future, and a
mere promise to use our best efforts to effect international bimetallism, as a redemption of our own oft-repeated solemn
pledges? Will they not rather say, " W e have promises enough
already. W e are s u f f e r i n g from actual present, emergent ills,
coming from a deficient currency, and we do not mean to accept
another pledge from a party which has already failed to redeem three otherfe"?
,
„
Mr. President, I have often had difficulty in finding the path
486
lb-
in which I might safely tread, but in this matter I have had no
doubts, no misgivings/ There are some duties so plain that I
can not mistake them, and among them is the full, fair, and
honest redemption of a solemn pledge made to the people, a redemption in that sense which I intended to be understood, and
in which it was understood by the people. In this full and free
redemption only can a man or a party escape that most terrible
of accusations—perfidy. I impute to no Democrat who differs
from me, any improper motives. When I reflect upon their
talents, their great services, their patriotism, their high elevation of character, and our long cooperation in well-doing for the
people, I can but regret, deeply regret, that an occasion has
arisen in which this cooperation is impossible.
APPENDIX
Selected statistics of manufactures in cities of 20,000 inhabitants and over, com
piled from the returns of the Census of 1890— Totals for the United States.
1890.
Manufactures.
1880.
Woolen manufactures:
Number of establishments
Capital employed a
Ave rape number of employes
Total wages paid
Miscellaneous expenses d
Cost of materials
Value of product
2,489
2,639
8296,404,481
8159,091,869
6219,132
161.557
C$76,660,742 $17,389,0*7
819,520,238
8202,815,842 "8164,371,551
8337,768,521
$2^7,252,913
Cotton manufactures:
Number of establishments
Capital employed a
Average number of employes
Total wages paid
Miscellaneous expenses d
Cost of materials
Value of product
1
905 |
756
8354,020, H13 ! 1 1208,280,346
6221,585
174,659
C$69,489,272
$42,040,510
817,036,135
8154,-593.368 "kl02,206*347
8267,981,724
$192,090,110
Silk manufactures:
Number of establishments
Capital employed a
Average number of employes
Total wages paid
Miscellaneous expensesd
Cost of materials
Value of product
472
851,007,537
650,913
C819,680,318
84,345,032
$50,919,016
587,298,454
Dyeing and finishing of textiles:
Number of establishments..
Capital employed a
Average number of employes
Total %vagespaid
Miscellaneous expenses d
Cost of materials
Value of product
Chemical manufactures:
Number of establishments
Capital employed a
Average number of employes
Total wages paid
Miscellaneous expenses d
Cost of materials
Value of p r o d u c t
4S&
*
382
819,125,300
31,337
89,146,705
$22,467," 701
841,033,045
248
191
838,450,800
$20,223,981
620,207
16,698
c89,717,011
86,474,364
(3,154,219
512,362,082 ***813,"664*295
828,900,560
832,297,420
1,624
1.349
8169,270,324
885,394,211
643,893
29.520
Ct25,42t,771
811,840,704
¥13,478,380
8106,630.375 *"«77,"494.425
8178,177,488
$117,377,324
65
Selected statistics of manufactures, etc.—Con tinned.
Manufactures.
1890.
Salt manufactures:
Number of establishments
Capital employed a
Average number of employes
Total wages paid
Miscellaneous expenses d
189
$12,039,653
63,929
C$1,539,816
$592,533
$1,683,418
$4,921,461
""""
Cost of mjitdriilc
«•---
Value of product
Total for the iron and steel industry in the
United States, with the exception of the
State of Pennsylvania:
Number of establishments
Capital employed a
Average number of employes
Total wages paid
Cost of materials
Value of products
1880.
£68
$8,225,740
4,289
$1,260,023
$2,007,036
$4,829,566
460
$189,663,057
b 75,765
C$40,495,444
$139,999,652
$203,097,321
= = = = =
Total for one hundred and sixty-five cities
with a population of 30,000 and over, all
classes of manufacture:
Number of establishments
185,727
Capital employed a .
$3,964,064,627
Average number of employes
b 2,895,667
Total wages paid
C$1,559,065,130
Miscellaneous expenses d .
$456.877,392
Cost of materials
.
$3,329,377,893
7
Value of product
$6,232,966,020
r e p o n e d l n 1880 M r e d Property is not included f o r 1890, because it was not
J ^ v ^ ^ S S S S ^ S t & T ™ l n
a This item was not reported at the Census of 1880
486
5
o
labor or in
@FedFRASER