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F R E E COINAGE OF SILVER AS RELATED TO
T H E M O N E Y POWER.
" E q u a l Rights to All and Special Privileges to None."
Motto People'8 Party.
SPEECH
OF
HOI. JAMES H. KYLE,
OF
SOUTH
DAKOTA,
IN THE
SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES,
MONDAY, OCTOBER 2 , 1 8 9 3 .
WASHINGTON,
1893.
SPEECH
OE
HON. J A M E S
H.
KYLE.
The Senate having under consideration the bill (H. R. 1) to repeal a part
of anact, 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. K Y L E said:
Mr. PRESIDENT: W e are urged by the chairman of the Finance
Committee to a speedy vote upon an important national question.
H e himself considers it the most important question that has
occupied the attention of the Senate. T h e Senators favoring
bimetallism entirely agree with him upon this proposition. In
my judgment it is not only important, but the welfare and condition of 65,000,000 of people depend upon its proper solution.
For thirty years the American people have been suffering the
hardships of a bad financial policy, the crowning blunder of which
was the demonetization of the people's money in 1873.
The avowed and constant purpose of the money power since
that time has been to stamp out silver entirely and place our
country entirely upon a gold basis. It is safe to say that more
than 75 per cent of the people are in favor of the free and unlimited coinage of silver and opposed to the destruction of the remnant of our silver coinage. They are flooding Senators with letters and petitions, in their humble way imploring them to stand
firmly in defense of silver. They appeal to the men whom their
votes elected and whom they recognize as their representatives.
W e are called in special session at this time for serious business, and not for hop, skip, and jump legislation, even though
such a programme may have been mapped out by the Eastern
financiers and urged on by the subsidized press of the country.
Serious deliberation should be the watchword of the hour, as
the people have a right to demand that this question shall be
thoroughly debated. It may be true with this as it has been
true with other important questions in the past, that debate may
be the means of showing the fallacy of positions assumed and of
changing votes. There is room for honest difference of opinion.
W e must meet face to face in this discussion with the entire absence of criminations and recriminations, and according to one
another absolute honesty of conviction and purpose. I here take
occasion to say that the advocates for repeal, through their press,
gain nothing in the eyes of the people by referring to silver
advocates as "obstructionists," " c r a n k s , " and "lunatics."
These men are honest and earnest in their convictions, and
feel deeply the injustice of the proposition to strike silver from
the list of our money metals. Few can be found to father the
demonetization act of 1873, or who do not condemn as vicious the
silver-purchase act of 1890. Is it any wonder, Mr. President,
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that the plain people become weary with the action of Congress?
Bad legislation is none the less injurious in its effects because
done through carelessness, or agreed to on the ground of expediency; and to-day the intelligent conservative yeomanry of
our country do not expect us to repeal or enact laws at random
without having discovered the cause and remedy for the present
financial depression.
SHERMAN L A W NOT RESPONSIBLE F O R THE PRESENT
DEPRESSION.
A s a member of this law-making body, Mr. President, I have
carefully studied the Sherman purchase law, and canvassed its
effects in connection with the present, or late financial panic.
And my honest conviction is that the law has no more to do wTith
the financial crisis than the moons of Jupiter, except as it may
exist in the imagination of frightened tradesmen. T h e cause
of a panic is one thing, Mr. President, and the occasion of it is
another. Heartless financiers have used the Sherman law as
the bugaboo to frighten the people, while they tightened the
purse strings and swelled their ill-gotten gains.
In the first place, the leaders of monometallism are not agreed
as to the effect of this law upon the present panic. Certainly
upon this floor we have had many radically different diagnoses
presented. The Senator from Ohio [Mr. SHERMAN] in his speech
of August 30 last, uses these words:
An erroneous idea, therefore, has been carried in the public mind that this
small measure has produced results with which it has no connection. But
nevertheless the situation is upon us, and we have got to deal with the situation and not with the measure.
I was very much interested with the observation made yesterday afternoon
by the Senator f r o m Colorado [Mr. TELLER] upon one branch of this question. Although I am not able to agree with him in many things, I am glad
to agree with him upon something.
I here give the loss in the-bullion purchased under the act of 1890 at 74%
cents an ounce, which I am told is its value to-day. The loss is $22,345,356.
It must be remembered also that we have issued on the 150,000,000 ounces of
silver that were bought under that law Treasury notes to the amount of the
cost of that bullion, which pay no interest and wrhich have been used as current money by the people of our country. Suppose this provision had not
been made in 1890; suppose we had been compelled to face the storms that
followed in 1890, the failures of banks, of the Barings, and all other causes
without any increasing currency in the markets of our country; suppose the
Sherman law had been stricken f r o m the files in 1890 or rejected, w h o can
tell what would have been the consequences in this country of the great depressing effects I have already mentioned?
Sir, " g i v e the devil his due." The law of 1890 m a y have m a n y faults, but
I stand by it yet, and I will defend it, not as a permanent public policy, n o t
as a measure that I take any pride in, because I yielded to the necessity of
granting relief; but I do say that the beneficial effects that flowed f r o m the
passage of that law were infinitely greater even in the percentage of m o n e y
than the loss we have suffered in the fall in the price of silver. W i t h o u t it,
in 1891 and 1892 we would have met difficulties that would have staggered us
much more than the passing breeze of the hour—a storm f o r a month, or even
for a year, growing out of causes entirely different, I think, with due deference to the President, f r o m the causes he has named.
How, pray, can we be asked to vote for the repeal of a law
which has proved beneficial in two different panics?
Other panics, Mr. President, have occurred at intervals when
no Sherman law was in exis tence. There was a panic under bimetallism in 1857. A panic under monometallism in 1874. A
panic under the Bland act in 1883. So that it is an open question
as to whether all our burdens will have flown with the disappearance of this measure.
T h e press was diligent in circulating the opinions of financiers
that the Sherman law was the cause of the outflow of gold, but
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gold began to leave ns in large quantities before the operation
of the* Sherman law, and its continuance was due entirely to
other causes. If gold went under the Sherman law, the Sherman law has caused its return. The present panic can be accounted for on other grounds. During the past four or five years
some important changes have been going on amongst the nations
of the world.
T h e great disaster in the Argentine Republic was followed by
the'failure of the Baring Brothers, the great banking house of
London. Austria, Hungary, and Roumaniahave been collecting
a reserve and getting to a gold basis. Australia has been rent
by financial failures within a year. These remarkable proceedings can not but have produced a stringency in the money markets of the world, upon which we are in a large measure dependent. Large banking houses lost heavily in foreign investments, and money was withheld from the United States. Gold
was scarce, yet Austria and her neighbors must have it. It went
from us at a premium. This disturbed condition throughout the
world is the result of an exaggerated condition of business. Our
castles of credit have been built with lavish expenditure on all
continents. Inflation bore its legitimate fruit in disaster the
moment a circumstance occurred to disturb the public confidence.
But beyond this still, Europe ceased to buy our products. W h i l e
our imports have continued from month to month about the same
as in 1892, our exports for the first seven months of 1893 were less
than for the first seven months in 1892 by $82,462,939. All these
balances had to be settled with gold. It was a matter of course,
and bimetallists predicted that with the revival of fall trade the
gold would again return. Forty million dollars, I believe, returned during the month of August.
But the real cause of the panic, Mr. President, is deeper and
well concealed. T h e prairie hen makes no greater flutter and
cackle to conceal her young than do these leaders of " h i g h
finance " to turn the honest but easily duped people from their
nests of iniquity. To the financier who lives by clipping coupons,
the " d e a r d o l l a r " is a god worthy of worship. His conscience,
if he has one, easily approves the step necessary to swell his
fortunes. The prime cause of the universal depression, which is
not confined to the United States, is the appreciation of the gold
dollar and the consequent depreciation of all commodities as
measured by it. Depression has not suddenly appeared like an
apparation. Agriculture has felt her clammy hand for a score
of years. The present hue and cry is raised because, forsooth,
the capitalist has been touched. W h e n a bankers' panic occurs
we hear from it, Mr. President, through the " howl of calamity,"
and speedy legislation follows.
But the"occasion of the present crisis is the result, I think, of
a conspiracy among the money lenders of the East. They have
deliberately planned to force Congress to grant additional privileges heretofore denied. I recognize this to be a serious charge,
and yet I think it is borne out by the facts. It is a well-known
fact that the money power is able to produce almost any financial depression they may wish.
The past thirty years have witnessed a most phenomenal centralization of wealth in New Y o r k and New England. Of this I
shall speak more in detail further on. Through class legisla612
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tion monoplies have been produced, by which there has been a
steady contribution from the pockets of the poor to the coffers
of the rich.
The " r i c h m a n " of ante bellum days is now the millionaire,
and the millionaire is now the multi-millionaire. Banking, railroad, manufacturing, and kindred enterprises to-day rule cities,
control elections, and dictate to Presidents. A dozen men in
New Y o r k and Boston can blockade commerce and produce stagnation in every State. They hold in their hands the destiny of
private fortunes. Prosperity waits upon their smiles,and desolation follows their withering frown. Again, Mr. President, they
have the organization necessary to accomplish their ends. It
is related of Jay Gould that when asked his politics he replied:
" I n Republican districts I am a Republican, in Democratic districts I am a Democrat, in doubtful districts I am doubtful, but
I am for the Erie Railroad all the time." Large moneyed enterprises often destroy one another through the law of competition,
but they never forget their allegiance to a common parent—the
money power.
This national organization has its branches in every State and
Territory. W h e t h e r they have written constitutions, and bylaws, and annual conventions or not, they all stand together
when their interests are thieatened by national or State legislation. A week's notice only is necessary to assemble a legislative committee in Washington from all parts of the Union.
Again, the money power moreover have the disposition to resort to such measures. W e can only, Mr. President, judge the
present or future of this organization by its past history. One
can not read the records of Congress from 1830 to 1840 without
discovering that even at that early day they were almost powerful enough to control the Government. During the late civil
war they dictated the terms on which legal-tender currency
should be issued. They forced the passage of the national-bank
act. After the war was over, they forced the retirement of legaltenders and the funding of the debt by bonds. And though bribery may not be a matter of record as during the time of President Jackson's Administration, yet during recent years, when
matters touching the money power have been before Congress,
we have been almost, if not altogether, restrained from enacting
the will of the people.
During the last session of Congress they made the demand for
a new issue of bonds and the repeal of the Sherman law. P r e dictions of dire disaster and national peril were made by them
as the result of nonaction by Congress. Prom published interviews, we are led to believe that they did attempt to create a
stringency in the money market and in the National Treasury
whereby Congress would be forced to accede to their wishes.
I quote first from the Philadelphia Press an item which has
been referred to by other Senators, and which, like those that
follow, will bear repeating:
The New York banks for several days have been endeavoring to bring a
home influence on United States Senators to induce them to vote for the repeal of the July silver law.
To this end correspondents of the New York banks in the West and South
have been told that they need not expect to get money from New York until
the purchasing clause was repealed, and the Southern and Western bankers
have been strongly urged to write to their Senators and to insist that they
work and vote for immediate repeal. This movement has given rise to the
recent feeling in New York that the silver majority in the Senate could be
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overcome, as the influence of the banks of the metropolis, when concentrated
on any object, is regarded as invincible. There is a feeling that the strain is
not as great as it was, and improvement is hoped for Some anxiety exists
as to the action of savings-bank depositors when the thirty and sixty day
limit expires next month. -The requirements of money for the crops will
also be a potent factor, but no one is disposed to contemplate future conditions, especially if they are likely to be unpleasant.
This from the New Y o r k Sun of April 29 last:
Let us point to another fact, and we are done. Never before have the large
banking institutions of Chicago and the West ordered their gold in such
large quantities direct from Europe, and in this fact is found one reason
why our bankers are puzzled over the anomaly that although all these millions are coming to the country, they experience little or no relief therefrom.
The other reason, gentlemen, is, in order to force the repeal of the Sherman
act and to quickly establish your power over the plain people of this land,
you first sent out of the country one hundred and ten millions of the people's
currency in order to assist the Rothschilds to demonetize silver in Austria
and elsewhere, and then let it remain there, to teach the West and South an
" object lesson," as the President called it, until you found it was necessary
to recall it in order to save your own house from destruction. Now, you
have not only taught the West and the South an object lesson, but yourselves
one as well, and you can be sure of it.
I quote next from the Springfield (Mo.) Democrat, edited hv a
worthy banker:
A COWARDLY
COURSE.
In their desperate determination to secure the demonetization of silver the
leaders of the gold-standard movement, by their own endeavors and through
their allies, inaugurated a campaign of intimidation several months ago. The
great banking and financial concerns of New York, with a business directory
of the United States at their command, flooded the country with elaborately
prepared circulars setting forth the disaster in store for the people unless
the Sherman act was unconditionally repealed, and breathing love, sympathy, and interest for the agricultural and laboring classes in whom these
Wall street philanthropists have at all times manifested such marked solicitude. The territory in which Springfield is embraced was evidently assigned
to Henry Clews and the Fisks, and no business firm, however remote, failed
to receive one of these imploring circulars in which all argument was summed
in the request that the recipient appeal to Senators COCKRELL and VEST and
to Representative HEARD in behalf of the plan of campaign marked out by
Wall street.
Ninety-nine per cent of these missives were consigned to the wastebasket,
and that plan of reaching and influencing Congress through the business
interests having failed in this section, at least, another method of applying
the screws has been adopted. Wholesale houses in St. Louis which have an
extended trade in this portion of the State have been brought into action,
and, through their traveling salesmen, are endeavoring to accomplish that
in which the Wall street circulars failed. These houses have sorely pressed
creditors throughout the Southwest, and instructions to their salesmen are
that these retail dealers must be impressed with the necessity of calling upon
Missouri Senators and Representatives for the unconditional repeal of the
Sherman act—this being done in connection with suggestions of the necessity of close collections and a curtailment of credit.
It is a deliberate and cowardly attempt to intimidate the business men of
the Southwest into expressions foreign to their convictions, and will, of
course, in some quarters, have its weight. The Democrat's advice to its
readers thus approached is that they request these emissaries to attend
strictly to their business, which is that of selling goods; and an alleged
sentiment that is the outcome of such a Draconian method of proselyting
will cut a sorry figure as a lever of influence when our representatives in
Congress are apprised of the nature of its origin.
The following is a circular sent out by the Chamber of Commerce, New Y o r k , and shows their efforts to intimidate members of Congress.
C H A M B E R OF C O M M E R C E OF T H E S T A T E OF N E W
YORK,
New York, August 18, 1898.
To the Members of the Chamber of Commerce:
The special committee of the chamber earnestly request yon to write once
more and immediately to your correspondents, south and west of New York
State, urging them to do their utmost, by letter, by telegram, and by personal effort, to induce their Senators and Representatives to ant speedily in
favor of the repeal of the silver-purchasing clause of the Sherman act. It is
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of the utmost importance that a large majority for repeal should be had in
the House of Representatives when a vote is taken on August 28. A large
majority in the House would do much toward insuring prompt action by
tke Senate.
JOHN CLAFLIN,
Chairman.
I n t h e N e w Y o r k W o r l d e d i t o r i a l of S e p t e m b e r 26 I n o t i c e
t h e r e a s o n w h y t h e D e m o c r a t i c p a r t y h a v e u n i t e d as h a r m o n i o u s l y as t h e y h a v e i n a c c o m p l i s h i n g t h e w i s h of t h e m o n e y
p o w e r , v i z , t h e d e c l a r a t i o n of t h e D e m o c r a t i c p l a t f o r m . I t i s
m y o p i n i o n t h a t m o r e t h a n t h r e e - f o u r t h s of t h e c o n v e n t i o n g a t h e r e d a t C h i c a g o u n d e r s t o o d t h a t t h e r e p e a l of t h e S h e r m a n l a w
w a s t o b e c o u p l e d w i t h t h e e n a c t m e n t of a n o t h e r l a w c a r r y i n g
out the declaration for bimetallism.
T h e W o r l d says:
These are words of sober truth. Power has been given to the Democratic
party in order that it may accomplish a needed and promised work. The
most pressing part of that work is the repeal of the silver-purchasing act.
Circumstances have made this the first duty. There must be no failure at
the beginning of the redemption of pledges.
T h e m o n e y p o w e r w e r e " p r o m i s e d " and " p l e d g e d " that the
l a w so o b n o x i o u s to t h e m s h o u l d b e r e p e a l e d . B u t t h e y w e r e
w i l l i n g t o a s s i s t t h e p a r t y i n p o w e r t o t h e f u l l e x t e n t of t h e i r
a b i l i t y by c r e a t i n g a p u b l i c s e n t i m e n t i n f a v o r of t h e i r s c h e m e .
M o n e y was r e m o v e d f r o m circulation. T h e maufacturer, the
j o b b i n g merchant, the retail dealer, and the farmer in the smallest hamlet were made to feel the depression and g i v e n to understand that C o n g r e s s was alone to blame in the failure to repeal
the nefarious Sherman law.
B u t t h e f o l l o w i n g f r o m t h e N e w Y o r k S u n of A p r i l 2 7 — b e f o r e
t h e p a n i c b e g a n — m o r e c l e a r l y s h o w s t h e d i s p o s i t i o n of t h e m o n e y
k i n g s i n t h e e x e r c i s e of t h e i r t y r a n n i c a l p o w e r :
NEW YORK, April 21
Secretary Carlisle this evening met a number of bankers at the residence
Of George L. Williams, president of the C hemical Bank. The following gentlemen were there to greet the Secretary. Mr. Jordan, Mr. Canda, President
Perkins of the Importers and Traders, President Sherman of the Bank of
Commerce, President Cannon of the Chase, President Ives of the Western,
President Tappenof the Gallatin, President Coe of the American Exchange,
and President Wood of the Hanover.
The conference lasted somewhat over an hour. There was the utmost good
feeling displayed, and the Secretary said he was there to make a frank and
open statement of what he believed to toe the financial policy of the Government. In the first place, the Secretary said that an issue of bonds just at
this time might be an effective remedy, but that it would be only temporary
and that it would be followed by disturbances in the money market and
would in the end retard the determination of the Administration to repeal
the Sherman silver law. The Secretary positively thought there would be
no bond issue except as a last resort.
As Carlisle outlined the policy of the Government, it was shown that nothing would be done that would in anyway retard or check the determination
of Cleveland's Administration concerning the repeal of the Sherman law.
The Secretary went over the currency laws of the country and said they were
in bad shape and needed revision. He said the revision should start with
the Sherman law.
There is a determination also to show the miners of silver the evils of the
Sherman law on their fortunes. President Cleveland's advisers have told
him that the only way to induce the Western and Southwestern Congressmen and Senators to consent to a repeal of the Sherman law is to demonstrate to their constituents that they are losing every day this law remains
in effect.
This work in that direction has been started by a number of the bankers
in the solid communities of the East. They are daily refusing credits to the
South, Southwest, and West, fearing the effects of the Sherman law. The
Chicago banks, it was said, are carrying out the same line of policy.
Secretary Carlisle, in his talk with the bankers, made his stand very clear.
It is to be heroic treatment all the way through of the Sherman law, and
possibly by the next session of Congress the silver-mine owners and adher612
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ents of silver in the Senate and House will be ready to consent to a repeal
of the law. The bank presidents, replying to Secretary Carlisle, cordially
informed him that they would be ready at all times to cooperate with him.
Everybody shook hands, and there was harmony all round. In the meantime the Secretary continues to receive offers of gold from unexpected
sources.
A s a result, Mr. President, all banks outside the money centers were placed in straitened circumstances; furnace fires
were banked, jobbers suspended business because credit was refused, and retail dealers were forced to refuse accommodations to
their customers. In the meantime the money centers were busy
by private circular and through the press in trying to convince
the people that the Sherman law lay at the bottom of their grievance. They have, Mr. President, not only produced the depression, but they seem determined not to permit a complete return to prosperity until the repeal is secured. I hold in my hand
an editorial of the New Y o r k W o r l d for September 23:
The deadlock seems to be absolute. Will it require another and a more
disastrous panic to break it? Is the Senate really proof against public opinion? Is it willing to admit its impotency? Has the majority no more resources, no greater courage?
If so, Republican government, so far as Congress is concerned, is for the
time a failure,
The inference would seem to be that another panic awaits us
if we do not accede to their demands.
The time was when such argument would have prevailed with
all classes. As it is, the intelligence of the American people has
been turned to the dangerous policy of allowing private corporations to control the circulating medium. It has been admitted by Senators upon this floor that banking corporations have
been and now are conducting their business in violation of law.
They are allowed to ride roughshod over the people and Congress in their nefarious work. A million laborers, honest and
willing to work are out of employment. They tramp from city
to city, and if found without money are arrested for vagrancy.
But the money power escapes because of their influence and their
power in Congress.
There is, Mr. President, one question before the people to-day
and that is finance. Show me the financial laws of a nation and
I will read you the condition of her people. In free America we
have been proud to say that all men are equal, and that there
was one spot on earth where money does not rule and where
caste is not known. Our laws are supposed to be humane and
righteous. Political parties have contended for the preservation of these institutions, but in doing so no issue has been
greater or more important than finance. The first battles royal
of Congress were fought on this question.
R E C O R D OF THE D E M O C R A T I C
PARTY
Just here, Mr. President, I wish to say that I have always read
with pride the record of the Democratic party in this contest.
But in view of the platforms now adopted and the expressions
now heard from some of her exponents in Congress I am constrained to ask " W h a t is Democracy?" It is a grand word both
in etymology and in its first political application. It is the spirit
of Cromwell born in Americcin hearts. A Government wherein
the people rule and every citizen a sovereign, sharing alike in
the protection and privileges of a great Government.
T h e first great political contest upon American soil occurred
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in 1791 in the halls of the American Congress. The people were
divided into two parties called the Federalists and anti-Federalists. The former were mastered under the leadership of Alexander Hamilton, the first Secretary of the Treasury, and the latter
under the leadership of the great and patriotic Thomas Jefferson. New England had already begun to realize her financial
strength. Boston and New Y o r k were cities of no mean influence. Her financier? were alive to the possibilities of gain
through the establishment of favorable banking laws. The contest was led by Hamilton in bahalf of the classes, and by Jefferson on behalf of the masses. Little did the people dream while
returning to their homes after the bloody scenes of the Revolution that their liberties were to be stolen from them by their
fellow-countrymen. The money power was already alert"and in
1791 secured the passage of the law chartering the United States
Bank with a charter covering twenty years. It expired in 1811.
In 1816 the bankers appeared upon the scene, and a bill granting an extension for twenty years more passed both Houses and
was signed by the President. In 1831 the usual journey was
made to Washington, a bill for another extension for twenty
years was introduced and passed both Houses of Congress, butwas vetoed by Andrew Jackson. During all these decades the
people did not submit silently to these inroads upon their rights.
Some of the warmest contests the country has known were
fought under the leadership of Jefferson and Jackson. But now
the money power had met their equal. During the eight years
of Jackson's administration they were held in abeyance by the
iron will of their master. By the return of the W h i g party to
power in 1840 and the election of Mr. Harrison, victory for the
bankers was supposed to be a foregone conclusion. But the
President died within one month of inauguration, and when the
new banking bill which had passed both Houses of Congress was
presented to President Tyler it met with his firm veto. Thus the
money power was checked in their selfish course from 1832 to
1863, when the Government was in the throes of the civil war.
For more than half a century the anti-Federalists and Democrats were known as the valiant defenders of the people's rights.
There were many questions of minor consideration embodied in
their platforms, but the great contest was the preservation of
the rights of the people embodied in wholesome financial laws.
In 1840 the Democratic party assembled in convention at Baltimore, Md., and, amongst other resolutions, passed the following:
Resolved, That Congress has no power to charter the United States Bank;
that we believe such an institution one of total hostility to the best interests
of the country, dangerous to the republican institutions of our country and
the liberties of the people, and calculated to place the business of the country within the concentrated money power and above the laws and will of
the people.
Again:
That the separation of the moneys of the Government f r o m banking institutions is indispensable for the safety of the funds of the Government and
rights of the people.
These same principles were reembodied in resolutions 6 and 8
of the Democratic platform adopted at Baltimore, Md., in May,
1844. The Democratic platform of 1848 embodied the eighth
resolution of the preceding convention, and goes on further to
state, in section 14:
Resolved, That we are decidedly opposed to taking from the President the
qualified veto power, by which he is enabled, under restrictions andresponsi612
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bilities amply sufficient to guard the public interests, to suspend the passage
of a bill whose merits cannot secure the approval of two-thirds of the Senate
and House of Representatives until the judgment of the people can be obtained thereon, and which has saved the people from the tyrannical domination of the Bank of the United States, and from a corrupting system of
general internal improvements.
S e c t i o n 19 of t h e s a m e p l a t f o r m i s as f o l l o w s :
Resolved, That in view of the recent developments of this grand political
truth of the sovereignity of the people and their capacity for self-government, which is prostrating thrones and erecting republics on the ruins of
despotism in the Old World, we feel that a high and sacred duty has devolved with increased responsibilty on the Democratic party.of this country,
as the party of the people, to sustain and advance among us constitutional
liberty, equality, and fraternity, by continuing to resist all monopolies and
excessive legislation for the benefit of the few at the expense of the many,
and by vigilant and constant adherence to these principles and compromises
of the Constitution, which are broad and strong enough to impress and up
hold the Union as it was, the Union as it is, and the Union as it shall be, in
the full expansion of the energies and capacity of this great and progressive
people.
I n t h e p l a t f o r m a d o p t e d a t B a l t i m o r e J u n e , 1852, t h e n i n t h
a n d t e n t h r e s o l u t i o n s a r e as f o l l o w s :
Resolved, That Congress has no power to charter a national bank; that we
believe such an institution one of total hostility to the best interest of the
country, dangerous to our republican institutions and the liberties of the
people, and calculated to place the business of the country within the control
of the concentrated money power, and against both the law and the will of
the people; and that the results of Democratic legislation in this and all other
financial measures upon which issues have been made between the two political parties of the country have demonstrated to candid and practical
men of all parties their soundness, safety, and utility in all business pursuits.
Resolved, That the separation of the moneys of the Government from
banking institutions is indispensable for the safety of the funds of the Government and the rights of the people.
T h e s e s a m e r e s o l u t i o n s w e r e a d o p t e d as r e s o l u t i o n s 1 a n d 8 of
t h e national p l a t f o r m p r o m u l g a t e d at Cincinnati in t h e c o n v e n t i o n of 1856. T h e f i r s t r e s o l u t i o n of t h e D e m o c r a t i e p l a t f o r m
a d o p t e d a t B a l t i m o r e J u n e , 1860, b e g i n s w i t h t h i s s e n t i m e n t :
Resolved, That we, the Democracy of the Union, in convention assembled,
hereby declare our affirmance of the resolutions adopted and declared as the
platform and principles by the Democratic convention at Cincinnati in the
year 1856, believing that Democratic principles are unchangeable in their
nature when applied to the same subject-matters.
These principles, Mr. President, were embodied in platforms
at a time w h e n platforms m e a n t s o m e t h i n g .
I n t h e h e a t of c o n f l i c t t h e s e s e n t i m e n t s w e r e b o r n f r o m t h e
c o n v i c t i o n s of m e n . I t w a s t h e d a y w h e n t h e D e m o c r a t i c p a r t y ,
i n t h e z e n i t h of its p o w e r a n d g l o r y , w a s b a t t l i n g f o r t h e r i g h t s
of t h e m a s s e s ; a n d t h e n a m e s of J e l t e r s o n , J a c k s o n , C a l h o u n
a n d a h o s t of o t h e r s w i l l g o d o w n i n t o h i s t o r y l o v e d a n d r e v e r e d
i n t h e h e a r t s of t h e i r c o u n t r y m e n .
L e t us stir u p o u r m i n d s b y
w a y of r e m e m b r a n c e , b y q u o t i n g f r o m t h e w r i t t e n w o r d s of a
few great Democratic champions.
L e t Jefferson speak:
Bank paper must be suppressed and the circulation restored to the nation,
to whom it belongs.
The power to issue money should be taken from the banks and restored to
Congress and the people.
I sincerely believe that banking establishments are more dangerous than
standing armies.
I am not among those who fear the people. They, and not the rich, are our
dependence for continued freedom. And to preserve their independence we
must not let our rulers load us with perpetual debt.
Put down the banks, and if this country could not be carried through the
longest war against her most powerful enemy without ever knowing the
want of a dollar, without dependence on the traitorous class of her citizens,
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without bearing hard o n the resources of the people, or loading the public
with an indefinite burden of debt, I k n o w nothing of m y countrymen.
F r o m President A n d r e w Jackson's inaugural message I quote
the following:
It being thus established by unquestionable proof that the Bank of the
United States w a s converted into a permanent electioneering engine, it appeared to m e that the path of duty which the executive department of the
Government o u g h t t o pursue was n o t doubtful. A s by the terms of the
bank charter n o officer but the Secretary of the Treasury could r e m o v e the
deposits, it seemed to m e that this authority ought to be at once exerted to
deprive that great corporation of the support and countenance of the Government in such a use of its funds and such exertion of its power. In this
point of the case the question is distinctly presented, whether the people of
the United States are t o govern through Representatives chosen by their
unbiased suffrages, or whether the p o w e r and m o n e y of a great c o r p o r a t i o n
are to be secretly exerted to influence their j u d g m e n t and control their decisions. It must n o w be determined whether the bank is to have its candidates f o r all offices in the country, f r o m the highest to the lowest, or whether
candidates o n both sides shall be brought forward, as heretofore, and supported by the usual means.
Still another.
L i s t e n t o t h e w o r d s of T h o m a s H . B e n t o n , a
R e p r e s e n t a t i v e f o r a l o n g t e r m of y e a r s f r o m t h e S t a t e of M i s s o u r i in this b o d y , and w h o s e spirit still l i v e s in o u r p r e s e n t R e p resentatives f r o m that State.
H e s p e a k s as f o l l o w s :
The Government itself ceases to be independent, it ceases t o be safe w h e n
the national currency is at the will of a c o m p a n y
The Government can undertake n o great enterprise, neither w a r nor peace, without the consent and
cooperation of that c o m p a n y ; it can not count its revenues six m o n t h s
ahead without referring to the action of that company—its friendship or its
enmity, its concurrence o r opposition—to see h o w far that c o m p a n y w i l l
permit m o n e y to be scarce or to be plentiful; h o w far it will let the m o n e y
system g o on regularly or t h r o w it into disorder; how-far it will suit the
interest or policy of that company to create a tempest or suffer a calm in
the m o n e y ocean. The people are not safe when such a c o m p a n y has such
a power. The temptation is t o o great, the opportunity t o o easy, to put u p
and put d o w n prices, to make and break fortunes, to bring the whole c o m m u n i t y upon its knees to the Neptunes w h o preside over the flux and reflux
of paper. All property is at their mercy. The price of real estate, of every
g r o w i n g crop, of every staple article in the market is at their c o m m a n d .
Stocks are their playthings, their gambling theater, on which they g a m b l e
daily with as little secrecy and as little morality and far m o r e mischief t o
fortunes than c o m m o n gamblers carry on their operations.
O n e m o r e quotation; and in this I do n o t wish to cast any reflection
u p o n t h e s e n i o r S e n a t o r f r o m I n d i a n a , n o w a m e m b e r of
the Senate. F o r thirty years I have been accustomed to look
u p o n h i m as t h e c h a m p i o n of t h e l i b e r t i e s of t h e p e o p l e .
H e was
k n o w n i n t h e c o u n t r y w h e r e I r e s i d e d as t h e " S y c a m o r e of t h e
W a b a s h " w h o stood amidst all the legislative storms, unyieldi n g a n d u n b e n d i n g a g a i n s t all f o r m s of c l a s s l e g i s l a t i o n . . P r o u d l y
h a v e t h e p e o p l e t r e a s u r e d t h e e l o q u e n t w o r d s as t h e y f e l l f r o m
his lips.
A n d whatever may have been his failings the masses
h a v e l o o k e d u p o n h i m as t h e w o r t h y s u c c e s s o r of t h e p a t r o n
saints of D e m o c r a c y in d e f e n d i n g t h e i r r i g h t s a g a i n s t t h e e n c r o a c h m e n t s of t h e m o n e y p o w e r .
I could entertain the Senate
f o r d a y s t o g e t h e r b y r e a d i n g e x t r a c t s f r o m e l e g a n t s p e e c h e s of
h i s in t h e RECORD b e f o r e m e .
But the following quotation from
a s p e e c h d e l i v e r e d i n t h i s r o o m , J u n e 19, 1882, d u r i n g t h e d i s c u s s i o n a t t h e t i m e of t h e r e c h a r t e r of t h e n a t i o n a l b a n k s , w i l l b e
sufficient to s h o w his life-time r e c o r d .
O n J u n e 19, 1882, i n a
s p e e c h o n t h i s floor, h e s a i d :
A brief glance at the conduct of the banks during the last year and a half
is all that I can indulge in at this time, but it is sufficient to p r o v e the truth
o f what I say.
In the closing days of the last Congress and of the last Administration the
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banks precipitated an issue upon the people which ought not to be forgotten
on an occasion like this; an issue so full of danger to constitutional liberty
that it ought to be faithfully remembered now that they are asking a new
and indefinite lease of power.
It is now twenty years ago that this Government first engaged in building
up, fostering, and encouraging the present vast and overshadowing system
of national banking.
No favor ever demanded by the banks has ever been withheld, no privilege
denied, until now they constitute the most powerful moneyed corporations
on the face of the globe. Congress has heretofore on nearly all occasions
abdicated its powers under the Constitution over the finances of the banks,
except when called upon to legislate in their favor. They have demanded
the violation of legislative contracts with the people, and the demand has
been granted, whereby their own gains-and the people's burdens have been
increased a thousand fold beyond right and justice. They have demanded
the remission of all taxation on their bonds, and it has been conceded, thus
leaving the poor to pay the taxes of the rich. They have been fortified in
their strongholds of moneyed caste and privilege by double lines of unjust
laws, supplemented with here a redoubt and there a ditch, to guard them
from the correcting hand of popular indignation, until now, deeming themselves impregnable, they bully and defy the Government.
*
#
#
*
#
*
*
Sir, with full and unrestricted power over the volume of the currency and,
consequently, over all values conceded to the banks, together with ample
machinery by which in an emergency they can defy the passage of any act
of Congress, what is left to the Government except an abject submission?
This Government could not, to-morrow, go to war in defense of its flag, its
honor, or its existence without first asking permission to do so of the great
financial corporations of the country. If there was an invading force on our
soil this hour, Congress could not with safety or show of success declare war
to repel it without first supplicating cowardly and unpatriotic capital, engaged in banking, not to contract the currency, withhold financial aid, and
leave the country to starve. In fact, there is no measure of this Government. either in peace or in war, which is not wholly depending on the pleasure
of the banks.
This Government is at the mercy of its own creatures. It has begotten
and pampered a system which is now its master. The people have been betrayed into the clutches of a financial despotism which scorns responsibility
and defies lawful restraint. * * *
The methods adopted by our present national banking system are also
similar to those pursued by the United States Bank in its rebellion against
the Government. The contest between the United States Bank and the
United States Government commenced in 1829 and terminated in 1830, covering a period of seven years, as long as the American revolution, and involving results as important to the rights and power of the people to govern
themselves. The charter of the bank was to expire in 1836, and Andrew
Jackson, who was a magnanimous foe, gave notice in 1829 that it should
never be renewed with his consent. The war at once opened. A torrent of
incessant abuse was at once poured on Gen. Jackson and his supporters
by the bank and its stipendiaries. The newspapers of that period show that
he and his followers were all stigmatized as hopelessly ignorant on the subject of the finances and bent on destroying the public credit. These charges
have a familiar sound and are in daily use now, as they were fifty years ago,
against all who dare oppose the insolent pretensions of the banks.
A s I r e a d t h e s e w o r d s , M r . P r e s i d e n t , a n d p l a c e t h e m s i d e bys i d e w i t h t h e p o s i t i o n n o w h e l d b y t h e c h a i r m a n of t h e C o m m i t t e e
on Finance, I must confess that I am grieved and pained.
It must
m a r k t h e f a c t D e m o c r a c y is f a s t d r i f t i n g a w a y f r o m its m o o r i n g s .
H a v e w e a l r e a d y a r r i v e d a t t h e t i m e w h e n p l a t f o r m s a r e r^eaningless platitudes? H a v e we already c o m e to this, that the D e m o c r a t i c party in o r d e r again to b e v i c t o r i o u s must b e g and c r i n g e
a t t h e f o o t of t h e m o n e y p o w e r ? I t .has b e e n s a i d i n s p e e c h e s
d e l i v e r e d o n b o t h s i d e s of t h i s C h a m b e r t h a t t h e m o n e y p o w e r
h a s d i c t a t e d t h e P r e s i d e n t i a l n o m i n a t i o n s of b o t h p o l i t i c a l p a r ties f o r the past twenty years, and that n o w our Chief E x e c u t i v e
s t a n d s u p o n t h e s a m e f i n a n c i a l p l a t f o r m as dicl M r . H a r r i s o n f o u r
y e a r s a g o . W h a t is t h o u g h t b y a s c o r e o r m o r e D e m o c r a t s i n
C o n g r e s s h e r e is t h o u g h t b y h u n d r e d s of t h o u s a n d s of p e o p l e w h o
a r e r a p i d l y b e c o m i n g e d u c a t e d u p o n financial q u e s t i o n s . A s w a s
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well said by the Hon. RICHARD P . BLAND, of Missouri, " W e
have come to the parting- of the ways."
Democrats are beginning to understand what is Democracy.
Representatives can no longer retain their seats in Congress and
conceal their views upon these vital questions. Every man must
show his colors. A s I read Democracy there are Democrats in
name to-day who are not Democrats; for in every contest between the people and the money power they are found as defenders of class legislation. Many speeches already delivered in
this Chamber might well cause" the fathers of Democracy to
groan in their tombs. Behold what a change has taken place.
Democrats vie with Republicans in the race for the almighty
dollar. They have come to worship the aristocracy of wealth,
and declare that the dollar is greater than the man. A few men
of wealth apparently stand higher in the estimation of the party
than the great body of common men who have bravely espoused
the party cause. Democracy has been made the victim of the
wiles of the money power, who have not lost an opportunity to
nominate the man to be placed at the head of both national tickets. But Democracy has taken this step at the cost of disrupting the party organization.
THE PEOPLE DEMAND JEFFERSONIAN
DEMOCRACY.
T h e people are still wedded to old-fashioned Jeffersonian
Democracy, and if they can not have it in their own parties they
will construct another. They are not to be frightened by the
daily assertions of a subsidized press that " T h e people demand
repeal," " A l l lovers of honest money demand repeal," " A l l
newspaper men demand repeal," " O n l y lunatics and silver-mine
owners oppose repeal." T h e New Y o r k W o r l d a short time ago
published what purported to be Virginia's demands for repeal
of the Sherman law. It was boldly asserted that these dispatches
represented the sentiment of Virginia. But, Mr. President,
Virginia is very like other agricultural States.
There are
bankers and capitalists enough to control the party organization, and the press, and imagine they are the people because
most of the people are obligated to them. They control political
conventions because they are shrewd tacticians. They are the
agents and copartners of the great Eastern money centers.
Puffed up with a sense of their importance they feel that the
people are but a common herd who should be grateful for their
guidance and dictation. They meet as did the three tailors of
Tooley street and resolve, " That we are the people of America
and so f o r t h . " Our bankers meet and resolve, first, that the
rights of the people must be protected; and, second, resolve that
we are the people.
The press and the bankers, though but a
fraction of the population, have the money to make themselves
felt. Money talks. One man with $10,000,000 is in politics equal
to 10,000,000 men with $1 each, at least such has been the case.
But this day, Mr. President, is fast passing away. T h e people
are informed on financial matters and are fast showing themselves capable of managing their own political affairs, The
glory of the money power must soon wane. Such is the declaration of the People's party and the great body of Democracy.
THE PEOPLE DEMAND THE ABOLITION OF NATIONAL
BANKS.
But while talking of the money power, I can not refrain from
saying a few words as to our banking institutions. There are
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many lessons to be learned from the late panic; but the clearest
and most significant is that we must get back to the Constitution
and permit the Government to issue and control her own volume
of currency. Many strong speeches have been made on both
sides of this Chamber against socialism and paternalism. It is
not my purpose to-day to discuss the correctness or incorrectness
of these theories. But it is safe to say that in a modified form a
large majority of the people to-day demand the extension of this
policy. W h a t works so well in our present post-office system it
is thought should be extended to the telegraph and the railroads.
But whatever may be argued against these on the ground-of unconstitutionality can not be argued against the paternalism of
the control by the Government of her own volume of currency.
T h e framers of the Constitution were emphatic and explicit on
this point.
In accordance with this, the people are opposed to the further
extension of power and privileges to the banking fraternity.
The system is wrong in principle. Money, Mr. President, is the
lifeblood of commerce; restricted and controlled, stagnation
ensues in all lines of business. A s well delegate the power to.
control the circulation of the blood of the human body as to
trust the circulating medium—the life of the people's trade—in
the hands of private and selfish individuals. As it is not just
that articles of common consumption should pass through many
hands between the producer and the consumer merely for the
purpose of supporting a class of people who prefer to trade rather
than to produce, so it is not wise that the issue of the people's
money should be delegated to private corporations merely for
the sake of furnishing a lucrative occupation for a class of selfish
money-getters. T o borrow the expression of the Senator from
Missouri [Mr. COCKRELL], " I t is a wrong principle that the
money of a nation should be allowed to percolate through the
fingers of the national bankers before reaching the people."
But the wrongness of the principle is equaled only by the audacity of the banking fraternity in asserting that there is very
little or no profit in the banking business. There may have been
times during the past thirty years, but they are few, when, on
account of the high price of bonds, there was not great profit in
bank circulation, but the fact remains that the banking institutions of the United States have already fulfilled the dire predictions made by their opponents when th e first charter was granted,
in 1863, and have proved the mghtiest agents in the centralization of wealth. To day the money power of the world speaks to
us and commands through the national banks of the United
States.
To whom, Mr. President, are these institutions amenable,
A s I understand the law, they were created to be servants and
not tyrants; to be a public benefit, not a public burden; and they
shouid be compelled to close their doors when they cease to perform the functions of banks. They were created, first, as places
of safe deposit for the people's funds; and second, were given the
power to issue and in a measure control the volume of national
currency. But repeatedly have we been compelled to witness the
failure of these institutions to perform both th ;se public functions. The people have largely in the past cherished the delusion that national banks were in some way safer than private
banks and were responsible for the money of depositors. But
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this dream has of late been rudely shaken. For years, also, the
people have imagined that the hanks were public benefactors in
the issue of the circulating medium; but even our most credulous business men during the past few months have been forced
to admit that the banks have been prompted by self-interest alone.
It is plainly too much power to place in the hands of a corporation whose only principle is the increase of their own wealth.
In times of great financial disaster the commerce of our country is compelled to fall at their feet. It is impossible to conceive how Congress should have delegated so much power and
authority to private institutions. It is a remarkable fact that
in the past twenty years national banks have managed their circulating medium to the detriment of the public welfare, and have
retired their circulating medium when they thought the volume of currency was too great and have increased it again when
there was urgent demand and high rates of interest for money.
From the remarks of the Senator from Missouri on August 16,
last, I notice that in 1881, when Congress threatened a reduction in the rate of interest on bonds to 31 per cent, the New
Y o r k banks " r u s h e d down like a hungry horde " a n d retired
eighteen millions of their circulation in one day, and threatened, moreover, to retire all their circulation unless Congress acquiesced in their demands. During the present financial stringency, when rates of interest went up in New Y o r k to 20 per
cent, they rushed to the Treasury and took out nearly thirty
millions of paper circulation in one month.
I have before me, Mr. President, the report of the Comptroller
of the Currency for 1892. From this I quote a few facts to show
the power of the national banks in increasing or decreasing the
volume of the currency. Since it is not compulsory upon them
to take out circulation, and since they have power to retire their
notes and take up their bonds, they can make money cheap or
dear at will. They have it in their power, moreover, to come to
the rescue of the country in times of disaster such as the one
through which we have passed, if they are patriotic enough and
wish to do so.
The Comptroller, on page 50, states that the national banks,
from October 31, 1883, to October 31, 1890, decreased their circulation as follows:
Oct. 31, 1883, to Oct. 31, 1884
Oct. 31, 1884, to Oct. 31, 1885
Oct. 31, 1885, to Oct. 31, 1886.
Oct. 31, 1886, to Oct. 31, 1887
Oct. 31, 1887, to Oct. 31, 1888
Oct. 31, 1888, to Oct. 31, 1889
Oct. 31, 1889, to Oct. 31, 1890
oct. 31, 1890, to Oct. 31, 1891 (increase)
Oct. 31,1891, to Oct. 31,1892 (increase)
:
$24,170,676
15, 545, 461
56, 590, 533
50,495,589
16,848,739
22,159,043
15,248, 549
11,795,101
10,487,226
It is supposed that the contraction had by this time proceeded
far enough to make their circulation profitable. But these
banks took very slow steps recently to relieve the stringency of
the money market. T h e Comptroller says:
Of the 3,773 hanks, 2,737" have a capital not exceeding $150,000, nor less than
$50,000, which is the lowest amount any bank in the system may have, the
aggregate capital amounting to $221,057,830. The remaining 1,036 have a
capital of over $150,000 each, the aggregate amounting to $465,515,185. If an
amount of bonds equal to the total capital were deposited to secure circulation, the banks to-day might have a circulation amounting to $617,915,714, or
$521,557,927 more than the present minimum.
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H e r e i s , m o r e o v e r , a l i s t of e l e v e n i m p o r t a n t n a t i o n a l b a n k s
which have not thought it necessary to take out circulation:
Title of bank.
Capital.
Bonds.
$300,000
!, 000,000
Chemical National Bank, New York, N. Y
Mechanics' Nationel Bank, New York, N.Y
Merchants' National Bank, New York, N. Y
National City Bank, New York, N. Y
National Park Bank, New York, N. Y
National Bank of Washington, D. C
Chestertown National Bank, Chestertown, Md
First National Bank, Butte, Mont
First National Bank, Houston, Tex
Citizens' National Bank, Englewood, N. J
National Bank of Cockeysville, Md . ..
ooo, ooo
,ooo, ooo
!, 000. 000
200. COO
60, 000
100,000
100,000
50, 000
50,000
In a s p e e c h d e l i v e r e d in this C h a m b e r the late S e n a t o r P l u m b
m a d e t h i s v e r y r e m a r k a b l e s t a t e m e n t as t o t h e c u s t o m s of
national banks in e x p a n d i n g and c o n t r a c t i n g their c u r r e n c y . I n
A p r i l , 1888, h e s a i d :
But this contraction of the currency, by means of the retirement of
national-bank circulation, has been going on for more than ten years, and
all the committee has to say now is that it has considered some bill, but it
is not completed. If the committee will not complete some measure the
Senate must. If the Senate will not, and the other House will not, then the
country is going upon the breakers of financial disturbance. A s a Senator
says in my hearing, " i t is there n o w . " I think it is there now. We are
dealing with a question which has more to do with the welfare of the people
of the United States, which is of more concern to them than any other thing
that is pending in either House of Congress, or which can be pending—the
volume of the circulating medium of the country, the value of its property,
the difference between debt and bankruptcy on the one hand, and freedom
from debt and prosperity on the other.
It is estimated that there are in circulation, including that which is locked
up in the Treasury and held in the banks as a reserve fund, about $1,600,000,000, of all kinds of currency of the United States, gold and silvei the overplus of gold and silver certificates, greenback notes and national-bank notes,
all told, and there are more than $60,000,000,000 of property which must finally
be measured by this volume of currency It has been contracted during the
last year more than 5 per cent in addition to all that has occurred by reason
of abrasion and loss. No man can tell the volume of greenbacks outstanding. Nominally it is $346,000,000 and a fraction, but that volume has been
subject to all the accidents which have occurred during the past twenty-five
years, whereby money has been consumed, worn out, lost, and it is doubtful
if the amount is really over $300,000,000 to-day.
But saying nothing about that, the retirement of the national-banking circulation during the past twelve months has been 5 per cent of the total
amount of the currency outstanding. There has been during that period a
phenomenal depreciation of the prices of property. There has been the
greatest depreciation of the price of agricultural products the country has
ever known.
*
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#
*
*
The contraction of the currency by 5 per cent of its volume means the depreciation of the property of the country $3,000,000,000. Debts have not only
increased, but the means to pay them have diminished in proportion as the
currency has been contracted. Events based upon nonlegislation have
proved of advantage to lenders, but disastrous to borrowers.
I h a v e r e f e r r e d , M r . President, d u r i n g m y r e m a r k s to the att e m p t of t h e m o n e y p o w e r t o c o n t r o l t h e a c t i o n of C o n g r e s s
d u r i n g P r e s i d e n t Jackson's Administration, and to the e c o n o m i c
f o l l y of d e l e g a t i n g t h e c o n t r o l of t h e m o n e y v o l u m e t o a p r i v a t e
corporation. I hold in m y hand a valuable work, entitled " E x e c u t i v e M e s s a g e s , " p u b l i s h e d i n 1841. F r o m t h i s I w i s h t o m a k e
a few pertinent quotations.
O n e m i g h t t h i n k h e was r e a d i n g
f r o m c e r t a i n e c o n o m i c j o u r n a l s of t o - d a y o n t h e b a n k s , m o n o p o 612—2
18
l i e s , a n d t h e s u b s i d i z e d p r e s s . T h i s is t h e D e m o c r a t i c b i b l e , a n d
is g o o d e n o u g h to r e a d o v e r and o v e r a g a i n .
THE DEMOCRATIC
BIBLE.
I n t h i s w o r k , o n p a g e 4 0 8 , 1 find a s t a t e m e n t i n P r e s i d e n t J a c k s o n ' s m e s s a g e of D e c e m b e r 3, 1833, as t o t h e p o w e r of t h i s g r e a t
money corporation to control Congress and the press.
Since the last adjournment of Congress the Secretary of the Treasury has
directed the money of the United States to be deposited in certain State
banks, designated by him, and he will immediately lay before you his reasons for this direction. I concur with him entirely in the view he has taken
of the subject, and some months before the removal I urged upon the Department the propriety of taking that step. The near approach of the day
on which the charter will expire, as well as the conduct of the bank, appeared to me to call for this measure, upon the high considerations of public interest and public duty. The extent of its misconduct, however, although known to be great, was not at that time fully developed by proof.
It was not until late in the month of August that I received from the Government directors an official report, establishing beyond question that this
great and powerful institution had been actively engaged in attempting to
influence the elections of the public officers by means of its money; and that,
in violation of the express provisions of its charter, it had, by formal resolution, placed its funds at the disposition of its president, to be employed in
sustaining the political power of the bank. A copy of this resolution is contained in the report of the Government directors before referred to, and
however the objects may be disguised by cautious language, no one can
doubt that this money was in truth intended for electioneering purposes,
and the particular uses to which it was proved to have been applied abundantly show that it was so understood. Not only was the evidence complete
as to the past application of the money and power of the bank to electioneering purposes, but that the resolution'of the board of directors authorized
the same course to be pursued in future.
It being thus established by unquestionable proof that the Bank of the
United States was converted into a permanent electioneering engine, it appeared to me that the path of duty which the executive department of the
Government ought to pursue was not doubtful. As by the terms of the bank
charter no officer but the Secretary of the Treasury could remove the deposits, it seemed to me that this authority ought to be at once exerted to
deprive that great corporation of the support and countenance of the Government in such an use of its funds and such an exertion of its power. In
this point of the case the question is distinctly presented whether the people
of the United States are to govern through their representatives chosen by
their unbiased suffrages or whether the power and money of a great corporation are to be secretly exerted to influence their judgment and control
their decisions. It must now be determined whether the bank is to have its
candidates for all offices in the country, from the highest to the lowest, or
whether candidates on both sides of political questions shall be brought forward as heretofore and supported by the usual means.
A g a i n , o n p a g e 422 ( J a c k s o n ' s m e s s a g e , D e c e m b e r 2,1834), r e f e r e n c e i s m a d e t o t h e m o n e y p o w e r of t h e E a s t in c r e a t i n g financ i a l p a n i c s . A t t h e b e g i n n i n g of m y r e m a r k s I r e f e r r e d t o t h e
p o w e r of t h e m o n e y e d o r g a n i z a t i o n s i n N e w Y o r k t o b r i n g a b o u t
a financial p a n i c ; t h a t t h e y h a d o r g a n i z a t i o n t o b r i n g a b o u t
such a panic: that they had the disposition to do it, and that t h e
supposition was they had p r o d u c e d the present financial panic.
Notice the similarity between the condition then and the condition now.
Circumstances make it my duty to call the attention of Congress to the
Bank of the United States. Created for the convenience of the Government,
that institution has become the scourge of the people. Its interference to
postpone the payment of a portion of the national debt, that it might retain
the public money appropriated for that purpose to strengthen it in a political contest, the extraordinary extension and contraction of its accommodations to the community, its corrupt and partisan loans, its exclusion of
the public directors from a knowledge of its most important proceedings,
the unlimited authority conferred on the president to expend its funds in
hiring writers and procuring the execution of printing and the use made of
that authority, the retention of the pension money and books after the selection of new agents, the groundless claim to heavy damages in consequence
612
19
of the protest of the bill drawn on the French Government, have, tm'ough
various channels, been laid before Congress.
Immediately after the close of the last session the bank, through its president, announced its ability and readiness to abandon the system of unparalleled curtailment and the interruption of domestic exchanges, which it
had practiced upon from the 1st of August, 1833, to the 30th of June, 1834,
and to extend its accommodations to the community The grounds assumed in this annunciation amounted to an acknowledgment that the curtailment, in the extent to which it had been carried, was not necessary to
the safety of the bank, and had been persisted in merely to induce Congress
to grant 'the prayer of the bank in its memorial relative to the removal of
the deposits, and to give it a new charter. They were substantially a confession that all the^real distresses which individuals and the country had
endured for the preceding six or eight months had been needlessly produced
by it with the vie w of effecting, through the sufferings of the people, the legislative action of Congress.
It is a subject of congratulation that Congress and the country had the virtue and firmness to bear the infliction; that the energies of our people soon
found relief from this wanton tyranny, in vast importations of the precious
metals from almost every part of the world; and that, at the close of this
tremendous effort to control our Government, the bank found itself powerless and no longer able to loan out its surplus means. The community had
learned to manage its affairs without its assistance, and trade had already
found new auxiliaries; so that on the 1st of October last the extraordinary
spectacle was presented of a national bank more than one-half of whose capital was either lying unproductive in its vaults or in the hands of foreign
bankers.
On page 424, of the same message, is an extract which shows
the tyranny of hanks over the rights of the people:
The high-handed career of this institution imposes upon the constitutional functionaries of this Government duties of the gravest and most
imperative character—duties which they cannot avoid, and from which, I
trust, there will be no inclination on the part of any of them t o shrink—my
own sense of them is most clear, as is also my readiness to discharge those
which may rightfully fall on me. To continue any business relations with
the Bank of the United States, that may be avoided without a violation of
the national faith, after that institution has set at open defiance the conceded right of the Government to examine its affairs; after it has done all
in its power to deride the public authority in other respects, and to bring it
into disrepute, at home and abroad; after it has attempted to defeat the
clearly expressed will of the people by turning against them the immense
power entrusted to its hands, and by involving a country, otherwise peaceful, flourishing and happy, in dissension, embarrassment, and distress—
would make the nation itself a party to the degredation so sedulously prepared for its public agents, and do much to destroy the confidence of mankind in popular governments, and to bring into contempt their authority
and efficiency In guarding against an evil of such magnitude considerations of temporary convenience should be thrown out of the question, and
we should be influenced by such motives only as look to the honor and preservation of the Republican system.
Omitting a few lines I read on:
Events have satisfied my mind, ana I think the minds of the American
people, that the mischiefs and dangers which flow from a national bank far
overbalance all its advantages. The bold effort the present bank has made
to control the Government, the distresses it has wantonly produced, the violence of which it has been the occasion in one of our cities famed for&Lts observance of law and order, are but premonitions of the fate which awaits
the American people should they be deluded into a perpetuation of this institution, or the establishment of another like it. It is fervently hoped,
that thus admonished, those who have heretofore favored the establishment
of a substitute for the present bank will be induced to abandon it, as it is
evidently better to incur any inconvenience that may be reasonably expected
than to concentrate the whole moneyed power of the Republic in any form
whatsoever, or under any restrictions.
Then again, on page 498—the veto message of President Jackson—there is a very remarkable prediction as to the concentration of wealth in the United States:
It is to be regretted that the rich and powerful too often bend the acts of
Government to their selfish purposes. Distinctions in society will always
exist under every just government. Equality of talents, of education, or of
wealth, can not be produced by human institutions. In the full enjoyment
of the gifts of Heaven, and the fruits of superior industry, economy, and
612
20
virtue, every man is equally entitled to protection by law. But wlien the
laws undertake to add to these natural and just advantages, artificial distinctions, to grant titles, gratuities, and exclusive privileges, to make the
rich richer and the potent more powerful, the humble members of society,
the farmers, mechanics, and laborers, who have neither the time nor the
means of securing like favors to themselves, have a right to complain of the
injustice of their Government. There are no necessary evils in government.
Its evils exist only in its abuses. If it would confine itself to equal protection, and, as Heaven does its rains, shower its favors alike on the high and
low, the rich and the poor, it would be an unqualified blessing.
A g a i n , o m i t t i n g a f e w lines, I read:
Experience should teach us wisdom. Most of the difficulties our Government now encounters, and most of the dangers which impend over our
Union, have sprung from an abandonment of the legitimate objects of government by our national legislation, and the adoption of such principles as
are embodied in this act. Many of our rich men have not been content with
equal protection and equal benefits, but have besought us to make them
richer by act of Congress. By attempting to gratify their desires, we have,
in the results of our legislation, arrayed section against section, interest
against interest, and man against man, in a fearful commotion which
threatened to shake the foundation of our Union.
It is time to pause in our career, to review our principles, and, if possible,
revive that devoted patriotism and spirit of compromise which distinguished
the sages of tlie Revolution, and the fathers of our Union. If we can not at
once, in justice to interests vested under improvident legislation, make our
Government what it ought to be, we can, at least, take a stand against all
new grants of monoplies and exclusive privileges, against any prostitution
of our Government to the advancement of the few at the expense of the
many and in favor of compromise and gradual reform in our code of laws
and system of political economy.
T h i s , M r . P r e s i d e n t , is t h e p r o p h e s y . T o - d a y w e h a v e t h e
fulfillment before our eyes.
F r o m t h e F o r u m of N o v e m b e r ,
1889, I q u o t e a t a b l e c o m p i l e d b y M r . T h o m a s G . S h e a r m a n ,
w h i c h is t o t h i s e f f e c t :
Families.
70
90
180
135
360
1,755
6,000
7,000
11,000
14,000
16,500
50,000
75.000
200,000
1,000,000
2,000,000
9,620,000
Concentration of wealth in the hands of the few.
Worth.
$2,625,000,000
1,025,000,000
1,440,000,000
968,000,000
1,656,000,000
4,036,000,000
7,500,000,000
4,550,000,000
4,125,000,000
3,220,000,000
2,722,000,000
5,000,000,000
4,500,000,000
4,000,000,000
3, 500,000,000
4,000,000,000
7,215,000,000
13,002,090
62,082,000,000
Now let us put them into four great classes:
Families.
182,090
1,200,000
2,500,000
9,120,000
13,002,090
Worth.
$43,367,000,000
7,500,000,000
5,200,000, 000
6,015,000, 000
62,082,000,000
O n e y e a r a g o I h a d o c c a s i o n to r e f e r t o t h i s m a t t e r i n p a r t i c u l a r
a n d to s h o w t h e c o n c e n t r a t i o n of w e a l t h u p o n t h e A t l a n t i c seaboard. I s h o w e d then that there was a ruinous inequality in t h e
d i s t r i b u t i o n of t h e l o a n a b l e f u n d s of t h e b a n k s of t h e U n i t e d
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21
States. I again submit the table as a portion of my remarks,
with the remarks, I then made upon it.
Table showing by States and Territories the population of each on June 2,1891,
and the aggregate capital of national and State banks, loan and trust companies, and savings and private banks in the United States on June so, 1891, and
the average of these per capita of population.
States and Territories.
Maine
New Hampshire
Vermont
Massachusetts
Rhode Island
Connecticut
New York
New Jersey
Pennsylvania
Delaware
Maryland
District of Columbia
Virginia
West Virginia
North Carolina
South Carolina
Georgia
Florida
Alabama
Mississippi
Louisiana
Texas
Arkansas
Kentucky
Tennessee
Ohio
Indiana
Illinois
Michigan
Wisconsin
Iowa
Minnesota
Missouri
Kansas
Nebraska
Colorado
Nevada
California
Oregon
Arizona
North Dakota
South Dakota
Idaho
Montana
New Mexico
Indian Territory
Oklahoma
Utah
Washington
Wyoming
Total
Population
June 1,
1891.
663,000
379,000
333,000
2,299,000
352,000
764,000
6,110,000
1, 484, 000
5, 382, 000
170,000
1,048,000
236,000
1, 670, 000
775,000
1,658,000
1,165, 000
1,867,000
405, 000
1,538,000
1,309,000
1,137,000
2, 304,000
1,161,000
1,870,000
1,773,000
3,720,000
2, 213,000
3, 899,000
2,139,000
1,728,000
1,935,000
1, 360,000
2,734,000
1,448,000
1,148,000
440,000
44,000
1,244,000
333,000
61, 000
193,000
341,000
93,000
145,000
157,000
181,300
115, 000
214,000
375,000
66,000
64,156,300
All ban]IS.
Capital, etc.
Average
per
capita.
$81,253,068
96,225, 832
40,981,914
742,651, 224
127,126,389
199,953,331
1, 663,604,173
119,766,779
546,267,053
14,886,050
101,096,200
20,146,171
42,131,055
14,113,894
10,602,746
14, 556, 233
22,682,049
8,485,786
14,900, 568
11,754,338
35,138,019
65,070,737
7,607,971
86,078,682
42,603,237
220,297, 991
71,753,885
271,513,188
124. 332,290
91, 828,490
111,981,211
102,482,170
164,047,645
53,896,588
69,333,620
40,480, 478
1,176,791
271,189,235
17,878,204
1,272, 356
8,985,308
11,669,101
2,588, 258
20,277,490
4,415, 963
282,954
480,347
15, 358,062
27,859,317
5,373,750
8122.55
253. 89
123. 07
323.02
361. 15
261. 72
272.27
80.70
101.50
87. 56
96. 46
85.37
25.23
18.26
6.47
12.49
12.14
20. 95
9.69
8. 98
30.90
28.24
6.55
46.03
24. 03
59.22
32.42
69.61
58.12
53.14
57.87
75. 35
60.00
37.22
60.39
92.00
26.75
218.00
53.69
20. 86
46. 56
34.22
27. 83
139.85
28.12
1.56
4.18
71.77
74.29
81.42
5,840,438,191
91.03
A glance at the tables submitted will show that the Eastern States are enjoying the benefits of a per capita of loanable funds ranging from $80.70 in
New Jersey to $361.72 in Rhode Island, while the Southern States have only
$6.56 in Arkansas to $30.90 in Louisiana. This inequality becomes more
marked as the statistics of loans and currency are considered, which will be
brought out further on. To such an extent has this inequitable condition of
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congestion in the East and depletion in the South and West obtained as to
attract the attention of many who have heretofore doubted its existence, and
may lead to a thorough awakening of public interest in the matter.
It will be noticed that out of the gross amount of loanable funds aggregating $5,840,438,191, the eleven Eastern States control $3,737,812,013, or nearly 64
per cent, while the eleven Southern States have only $197,041,996, or a little
over 3 per cent, and the remaining twenty-seven States and Territories have
$1,905,584,182, or about 33 per cent.
The eleven Eastern States, with an area of 117,062,640 acres o% land, hold
$3,737,812,191 in loanable funds, while the eleven Southern States, with 479,995,758 acres, have but $197,041,996. Reduced to an average, gives the eleven
Eastern States $31.93 and the eleven Southern States less than 4 cents per
acre. These figtires will be met with the statement that the East needs more
money than the South, which, under present conditions, is no doubt true,
and because it is, furnishes one of the best reasons for a change.
That the financial system as now practiced tends to intensify this situation to the detriment of other sections is apparent to all who will give it
even a partial examination. To eliminate the necessity for the West and
South going to the East for money to carry on or encourage production, is
one of the greatest questions before the American people.
Mr. President, we have had quite a number of references upon
the floor of this Chamber to the fact that the press to-day not
only works in harmony with the money power, but that it has
been subsidized. I wish to refer, upon page 536 of the volume
from which I am quoting, to the condition of affairs which existed in the decade between 1830 and 1840. President Jackson
said in his communication to the Cabinet, September, 1833:
It has long been known that the president of the bank, by his single will,
originates and executes many of the most important measures connected
with the management and credit of the bank, and that the committee, as
well as the board of directors, are left in entire ignorance of many acts done
and correspondence carried on in their name and apparently under their
authority. The fact has been recently disclosed, that an unlimited discretion has been, and is now, vested in the president of the bank to expend its
funds in payment for preparing and circulating articles and purchasing
pamphlets and newspapers calculated by their contents to operate on elections and secure a renewal of its charter. It appears from the official report
of the public directors that on the 30th of November, 1830, the president submitted'to the board an article published in the American Quarterly Review,
containing favorable notices of the bank, and suggested the expediency of
giving it a wider circulation at the expense of th3 bank; whereupon the
board passed the following resolution, viz:
"Resolved, That the president be authorized to take such measures in regard to the circulation of the contents of the said article, either in whole or
in part, as he may deem most for the interest of the bank."
By an entry in the minutes of the bank, dated March 11,1831, it appears
that the president had not only caused a large edition of that article to be
issued, but had also, before the resolution of the 30th November was adopted,
procured to be printed and widely circulated numerous copies of the reports
of Gen. Smith and Mr, McDuffie in favor of the bank, and on that day he
suggested the expediency of extending his power to the printing of other
articles which might subserve the purposes of the institution. Whereupon
the following resolution was adopted, viz:
"Resolved, That the president is hereby authorized to cause to be prepared
and circulated such documents and papers as may communicate to the people information in regard to the nature and operations of the bank."
The expenditures purporting to have been made under the authority of
these resolutions during the years 1831 and 1832 were about $80,000. F o r a
portion of these expenditures vouchers were rendered, f r o m which it appears that they were incurred in the purchase of some hundred thousand
copies of newspapers, reports and speeches made in Congress, reviews of
the veto message, and reviews of speeches against the bank, etc. For another large portion no vouchers whatever were rendered, but the various
sums were paid on orders of the president of the bank, making reference to
the resolution of the 11th March, 1831.
Taken in connection with the nature of the expenditures heretofore made,
as recently disclosed, which the board not only tolerate but approve, this
resolution puts the funds of the bank at the disposition of the president,
for the purpose of employing the whole press of the country in the service
of the bank, to hire writers and newspapers, and to put out such sums as he
pleases, to what persons and for what services he pleases, without the responsibility of rendering any specific account. The bank is thus converted
612
23
into a vast electioneering engine, with means to embroil the country in
deadly feuds, and under cover of expenditures, in themselves improper, extend its corruption through all the ramifications of society.
On page 566 I wish to quote the resolutions of two New England Legislatures touching the action taken by President Jackson with reference to the banks of the United States. These
resolutions were passed in a day when the New England hills
were not so barren as they are now, and when the Puritans were
the dominant factor in New England politics as well as society;
when they were in sympathy with the people and not in sympathy with the corporations which seem now to control the "Atlantic seaboard. First, I read on page 566:
The two branches of the Legislature of the State of Maine, on the 25th of
January, 1834, passed a preamble and series of resolutions, in the following
words:
1 Whereas at an early period after the election of Andrew Jackson to the
Presidency, in accordance with the sentiments which he had uniformly expressed, the attention of Congress was called to the constitutionality and
expediency of the renewal of the charter of the United States Bank: and
" Whereas the bank has transcended its chartered limits in the management of its business transactions, and has abandoned the object of its creation by engaging in political controversies, by wielding its power and influence to embarrass the administration of the General Government, and by
bringing insolvency and distress upon the commercial community; and
" Whereas the public security from such an institution consists less in its
present pecuniary capacity to discharge its liabilities than in the fidelity with
which the trusts reposed in it had been executed. and
" W h e r e a s the abuse ancl misapplication of the powers conferred have destroyed the confidence of the public in the officers of the bank, and demonstrated that such powers endanger the stability of republican institutions:
Therefore,
•'Resolved, That in the removal of the public deposits from the Bank of the
United States, as well as in the manner of their removal, we recognize in the
Administration an adherence to constitutional rights, and the performance
Of public duty "
On the 11th of December, 1834, the house of assembly and council composing the Legislature of the State of New Jersey, passed a preamble and aseries of resolutions in the following words:
" 3. Resolved, That we view, with agitation and alarm, the existence of a
great moneyed incorporation, which thre tens to embarrass the operations
of the Government, and, by means of its unbounded influence upon the currency of the country, to scatter distress and ruin throughout the community; and that we, therefore, solemnly believe the present Bank of the
United States ought not to be rechartered."
The Senator from Tennessee [Mr. BATE] asks me what book
this is. I will state that it is entitled "Messages of the Presidents of the United States, from the formation of the General
Government down to the close of the Administration of President Van Buren, concluding with the Inaugural Address of President W . H . Harrison," published in Columbus. Ohio, in 1841.
In closing this book I can not refrain from expressing my admiration for Jacksonian Democracy. If anybody should be anxious to know my political belief to-day as an independent in this
body, I would say unqualifiedly that I am a Jacksonian Democrat. Lincoln was a Jacksonian Democrat, Thaddeus Stevens
was a Jacksonian Democrat, and there are Jacksonian Democrats
to-day upon both sides of this Chamber.
The difficulty to-day is that the members of whom I speak are
a party without a leader; they are people without a home; they
have no place to go. The trouble is not their own. It is related
of an Indian, with the Indian characteristic, who went to the hut
of a certain settler at one time, and having lost his bearings,
stated that he did not know in which direction his cabin was.
The white man said, " A r e you lost?" The Indian replied, " In612
24
dian no lost; wigwam lost." [Laughter.] The truth is that the
great body of Democrats to-day are all right, but the party is
lost. There is no place for them unless they are received to the
sheltering care of the People's party.
But, Mr. President, the money power since the days of President Jackson has grown from childhood to manhood. It waxes
fat and is lusty. Their demands upon their people now are a hundred fold greater than in those early times. Since then the volume of the nation's currency and revenues has grown almost
beyond conception. The opportunities for plunder have correspondingly increased. Since the extraordinary session of Congress was called we have one continuous concentrated pressure
brought to bear upon us, not only to secure the repeal of this obnoxious law, but clearly outlining the policy to be followed out
by the Administration at the suggestion of the money power. It
brings us to inquire whether Congress, though the greatest of
the coordinate branches of the Government, shall be allowed to
assemble and enact laws without the interference from powerful
corporate organizations; whether New Y o r k shall make laws
for the people, or the people make laws for New Y o r k . I hold
in my hand a little volume giving the constitution, by-laws,
members, and committees of a very powerful organization in
New Y o r k . Their object in organizing is stated in the constitution, as follows:
C E R T I F I C A T E OF I N C O R P O R A T I O N OF T H E R E F O R M CLUB, NEW
YORK.
SEC. 2. The particular business or object of suchsocicty or club shall be to
promote social intercourse among ourselves and others, our associates and
successors, and to promote such economic and political reforms as may from
time to time, in the opinion of ourselves and others, our associates and successors, governed by a patriotic desire to conserve the public weal, be most
conducive to the general good of the people of the United States in their national, State, or municipal government.
They have committees almost equal to the number in the
United States Senate; covering the subjects of tariff reform,
finance, etc.
THE COMMITTEE ON CURRENCY.
T h e composition of two important committees is as follows:
C O M M I T T E E ON C U R R E N C Y .
Charles S. Fairchild, chairman.
Henry Hentz, treasurer.
E. Ellery Anderson.
Henry De Forest Baldwin.
William J. Coombs.
A. Augustus Healy.
William S. Opdyke.
William Salomon.
William Trenholm.
John De Witt Warner.
Everett P. Wheeler.
Horace White.
Louis Windmuller.
Frank S. Williams, secretary.
FINANCE.
Isidor Straus, chairman.
E. Ellery Anderson.
Walter S. Logan.
Alfred Bishop Mason.
James Speyer.
Everett P. Wheeler.
Charles S. Fairchild, treasurer.
T h e duties of these two committees seem to be clear. T h e
Press has published the fact that Mr. E. Ellery Anderson, the
chairman of the tariff committee, had prepared the tariff bill to
be the guide for the Ways and Means Committee of the House
of the Fifty-third Congress. From this we may i n f c that the
object of the finance committee of this organization is to draft
bills and furnish suggestions to the Finance Committee of Con-
25
gress. Already they have declared their position on the quest i o n n o w b e f o r e t h e S e n a t e . Of t h i s w o r k I r e a d , p a g e 136:
The silver-producing States, strongly moved by their local interests, demanded the adoption of this policy Many of the Western States, and substantially all of the Southern States echoed this demand. It is not easy to
understand the causes which produce results of this nature. A substantial
half of our people suddenly appeared to be possessed and honestly possessed
•of the belief that the passage of a law declaring 412$ grains of standard silver to be the absolute equivalent in value of 25.8 grains of gold would be
of inestimable benefit to the whole country. The other half of our people
believed with an equal intensity that the proposed measure would work incalculable mischief. The result of the enormous increase of Democratic
Representatives in Congress was that an apparent majority of the House
favored the free coinage of silver. The interests of New York and the great
seaboard States were directly opposed to the adoption of this policy, and the
unanimous judgment of their experienced financiers and business men was
that the proposed law would result in infinite confusion and disaster.
The effect of this singular divergence of judgment on the promised success
of the Democratic party and on the adoption of its policy relating to the
tariff was menacing in the extreme. The adoption of a bill for free coinage,
or its passage through the House of Representatives would necessarily lead
to the defeat of any Democratic candidate for the Presidency in 1892, because
n o candidate could possibly have drawn to his support the great financial
interests of the Atlantic States, including especially the State of New York,
after the party had committed itself to the policy of free silver.
T h e s e a r e t h e v i e w s of t h e c o n t r o l l i n g e l e m e n t of t h e D e m o cratic party to-day.
W h e t h e r t h e m o n e y p o w e r v o i c e s t h e s e n t i m e n t of t h i s o r g a n i z a t i o n o r n o t , t h i s o r g a n i z a t i o n c e r t a i n l y v o i c e s t h e s e n t i m e n t of
t h e m o n e y p o w e r as r e p r e s e n t e d i n t h e p r e s s .
W e are asked to
r e p e a l , u r g e d t o r e p e a l , a n d t h r e a t e n e d if w e d o n o t r e p e a l .
I h a v e a f e w c l i p p i n g s f r o m p r o m i n e n t n e w s p a p e r s of W a s h i n g t o n a n d N e w Y o r k , w h i c h , if t h e y a r e n o t A d m i n i s t r a i o n o r g a n s , a r e c e r t a i n l y t h e o r g a n s of t h e m o n e y p o w e r .
T h i s m a p s o u t c l e a r l y t h e l i n e of p o l i c y t o b e p u r s u e d n o t o n l y
by the m o n e y power, but by the Administration.
W e are not
asked to repeal the S h e r m a n law alone.
From the W a s h i n g t o n
P o s t of S e p t e m b e r 4, 1893, I r e a d a s t a n d i n g a d v e r t i s e m e n t a t
t h e h e a d of t h e f i r s t e d i t o r i a l c o l u m n :
THE SURE R O A D TO BIMETALLISM.
The way to force Europe to agree with us upon international bimetallism
is for the United States to stop buying silver and buy gold.
The repeal of the Sherman law is only the first step. If we follow it up by
getting our share of the gold of the world, we will compel England to come
to our terms.
I t i s o n e of t h e s t r o n g e s t d e m a n d s m a d e u p o n C o n g r e s s t o - d a y
t h a t w e s h a l l i s s u e a n e w s e r i e s of $100,000,000 o r $300,000,000 of
b o n d s . T h e P o s t of t h e s a m e i s s u e h a s a n e d i t o r i a l e n t i t l e d ' ' T h e
e a s i e s t w a y o u t . " I t r e a d s as f o l l o w s :
THE EASIEST W A Y
OUT.
It occurs to the Post as a sound business proposition that the wisest way
to deal with a possible shortage in the Treasury is the simplest and speediest
way That instead of devising any temporary makeshifts or trying any
new experiments in order to get around a difficulty, it were better toadopt
direct and straightforward methods.
The credit of the Government is unquestionably good for any amount it
may need. Assuming, therefore, that by reason of diminishing revenues,
which cannotbe summarily augmented, and increasing expenditures, which
can not well be curtailed under the laws authorizing them, the Treasury is
likely to be drained of its available resources by the expiration of the present fiscal year, why should the Government hesitate a moment to borrow
whatever sum or sums it may require to meet this draft?
A business man whose note was as good as his bond would not stand a moment upon the order of such a proceeding, in case he found himself in a tight
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place. He would raise the money he wanted, pull himself through, and come
out all right.
The Government should do the same thing. Instead of fooling with due
bills or scrip, or any other hand-to-mouth nonsense, it should place its bonds
upon the market, or be put in a position to do so if it becomes necessary.
If there is really a serious emergency at hand, it will demand prompt relief. It can not wait upon a general reconstruction of our financial system.
That will take time, and time is an element of importance in the present situation. The proper thing to do now is to provide for exigencies that can not
be postponed, and there ought to be no great difficulty in making the necessary provisions.
Again, another editorial of the same day from the same paper:
GOOD AS F A R AS IT
GOES.
The repeal of the Sherman law is good as far as it goes. It will show to
the world that this country is not prepared to go on indefinitely buying silver. But up to the present time we have bought so much silver that the
notes issued against it, added to the other outstanding notes of the Government, make it necessary to strengthen our gold reserve. If $100,000,000 of
reserve was necessary in 1879 to maintain the value of the greenbacks, certainly more is needed now, when the amount of the outstanding notes of the
Government is more than double what it was then. Our reserve can be
strengthened by selling bonds and buying gold, and not till that is done will
Congress have carried out the pledge of both political parties to make every
dollar as good as gold: that is to say, as good as every other dollar.
Besides giving this needed strength to our Treasury, the policy of selling
bonds and accumulating gold WJ 11 bring about international bimetallism.
In this country public opinion favors international bimetallism, believing
it will give greater stability to the measure of all values than we can have
with gold alone.
But there is incidentally another aspect of international bimetallism which
may fairly be taken into account, and that is its necessary effect on the silver industry of the United States. It will enlarge the use of silver and thus
add to its value. Now we have been stimulating the silver industry for
years by buying silver, and the country has found it necessary to suddenly
stop. This, like the sudden withdrawal of any form of protection, results in
hardship to communities and individuals who are in no way responsible for
the policy of the Government upon which they have based their undertakings and means of living. To remedy this evil, so far as it may be done without producing other evil, is a plain duty which Congress owes to these people. International bimetallism is an obvious and practicable remedy, which
not only does not produce other evils, but, on the contrary, must produce
great good to the whole country,
Congress can not enact international bimetallism, but by authorizing the
purchase of the gold necessary to strengthen our Treasury it will make Europe see that there is not enough gold to go round, and bring about an international bimetallic agreement.
And again from the same paper:
T H E PI^DY O F I T .
" T h e proposal to empower the Government to borrow money by an issue
of United States bonds is one which Senator SHERMAN would hardly have
made without sufficient reason. Further, it is one which the right-thinking
men of both parties will feel themselves compelled to support. It is a great
pity that the National Government should be obliged to raise money in this
way so soon after the advent of a Democratic Administration."—New York
Tribune.
But what is the " p i t y " of it? If the Government needs the money, why
shouldn't we all be thankful that its credit is good enough to get all it
wants? As to the causes which have led up to this exigency, there will be
time enough for their discussion when the exigency is provided for.
These causes are numerous; they have been of gradual growth; some of
them are of long standing; many of them are but imperfectly understood
even by the best financiers; all of them have, no doubt, been severely aggravated by the silver-buying policy of the Government under the Sherman act.
Honors are easy on these points as between administrations. The thing to
do now is to meet the necessities of the hour like brave men and patriots,
instead of wasting time in a wrangle over the question of responsibility.
So far as the pity business is concerned, however, the Democratic party
may congratulate itself that the emergency, if it had to come, has come this
early, Better to have it now, speaking from a political standpoint; better
now, " s o soon after the advent of a Democratic administration," than its
postponement to the summer of 1894.
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I call attention to an article from the Chicago Inter Ocean,
quoted in the Post, September 4:
SENATOR SHERMAN'S
POSITION.
JOHN SHERMAN, the great financier of this country, is a strong and consistent bimetallist, opposed alike to the gold or the silver single standard. In
a word, as he tersely put it, - 'the problem which Senators have to solve is how
to procure the largest use of gold and silver without demonetizing either."
There could be no truer definition of the duty of the hour.
Then the language of the Post:
Mr SHERMAN is a bimetallist, and he favors the policy that will lead to bimetallism—the purchase of gold wherewith to strengthen the reserve of the
Treasury against possibility of disturbance either at home or from abroad.
The United States insisting upon its equitable share in the distribution of
gold. Europe will necessarily concede to equitable terms in the distribution
of silver.
The United States wants no monopoly of silver; England nor any other nation should have a monopoly of gold.
Here is a sample of the average New Y o r k bankers' circular,
with which mail has been burdened the past three months. Our
duties are clearly'stated:
DEAR SIR: The present financial situation requires the following action
by Congress, which should be favored by all interests, to wit:
1. Pass a resolution repealing purchase clauses of Sherman silver bill.
2. Pnss a bill authorizing the issue of $300,000,000 of United States 3 per
cent bonds, payable in gold, directing United States Treasurer to sell $100,000.000 immediately in Europe, with stipulation that none of them should
be resold within the United States; the Treasurer to take this $100,000,000 of
gold and issue $100,000,000 of gold certificates against it, and deposit them in
the different national banks of the United States, pro rata to their capital
and circulation, upon adequate security being given to the Government
securing such deposits; such deposits to be preferred liens upon all assets of
each bank, etc.
It should also direct the Treasurer to sell $100,000,000 of such bonds immediately in Europe under similar conditions, the money to be placed in the
United States Treasury, or left on deposit in London, Paris, and Berlin, for
use by the Government in paying deficiencies between the Government's receipts and expenditures, and drawn as needed.
The remaining $100,000,000 should be held subject to sale whenever the
neces>ities of the Government or the financial interests of the country demand it.
Bringing $200,000,000 of gold to this country, in addition to the balances of
trade in our favor, would immediately establish confidence in our financial
strength.
3. Pass a resolution calling an international conference to establish an international agreement as to the use' of silver as currency, to be held within
twenty days after the passage of such resolution. Twenty days' notice by
cable is amply sufficient to allow time for every government to appoint men
who understand the subject thoroughly, and have them meet at some convenient place.
The delegates representing the United States should be selected by Congress, and named in the resolution; two of them to be Senators from the
silver States, and two of them equally representative of the other side of
the question.
4. Pass the act increasing national-bank circulation to par of deposited
bonds.
The above legislation would immediately inspire confidence here and
abroad in American finances, and start again the wheels of business, now
helplessly clogged.
For the future, the following action should be taken:
This has already been under consideration, and favorably too,
by the Committee of Finance.
5. Pass a resolution appointing a committee to consist of five New York
bankers of the highest standing, and one each from Boston, Philadelphia,
Chicago, St. Louis, Cincinnati, Nashville, Atlanta, Savannah, New Orleans,
Galveston, San Francisco, Denver, St. Paul, Detroit. Buffalo, and Pit tsburg,
This committee to immediately meet, consider, and report to an acl 'ourn-d
session of Congress a bill incorporating a United States national b n :
founded on the same lines as the National Bank of England and the Na ion 1
Bank of France, to be entirely divorced and free from politics; and it bem i
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expressly stipulated that one-half of the committee shall be selected from
Republican bankers and one-half from Democratic bankers.
A national bank is absolutely necessary for the future financial safety of
the country. Under present conditions there is no elasticity to our currency.
Five per cent of our financial business is done with cash.
Ninety-five per cent with credit.
To-day credit is largely destroyed, which leaves us trying to do more than
one-half of the business of the country on the insignificant 5 per cent cash,
and a considerable proportion of this cash hoarded and taken out of circulation.
To meet emergencies like this, we should have a national bank, having
power to make almost an unlimited issue of currency, with the same power
and self-interest, when confidence returns, to take and return all this
specially-issued currency and retire it.
The Bank of England and the Bank of France have power to issue millions
upon millions of additional currency whenever necessary to protect and
conduct the finances of the country, and they exercise this power, and therefore such extreme panics as ours are unknown in those countries. When
the crisis is over this extra currency is retired.
There is no question as to the safety of this power; it has been exercised
by these great banks in these two countries for generations, and has been
their financial salvation, and we can have no permanent financial safety in
the United States until we create a similar national bank, or else make the
United States Treasury a bank, and authorize and direct that in times of
panic and destruction of credit the Government shall issue currency to an
extent necessary to meet the emergency, and deposit it in the national banks
of the country. Of the two measures, it is certainly preferable to have a great
national bank, founded on almost exactly the lines of the Bank of England,
thus taking financial questions and management entirely out of the influence
of politics, because the government of the great National Bank of England
is entirely in the hands of the greatest business men of the country, w h o
have no interest whatever in politics, except as citizens.
Yours, truly,
WM. R. CONWAY.
W e are expected, M r . President, to follow out seriatim the
p r o g r a m m e they have laid down.
First, repeal the purchase
c l a u s e of t h e S h e r m a n l a w . S e c o n d , g r a n t t h e b a n k s p o w e r t o
i s s u e c i r c u l a t i o n t o t h e p a r v a l u e of t h e b o n d s d e p o s i t e d a t t h e
T r e a s u r y . T h i r d , i s s u e a n e w s e r i e s of b o n d s a m o u n t i n g t o $300,000,000. F o u r t h , l a y p l a n s t o e s t a b l i s h a p e r m a n e n t b a n k i n g
system.
I d o n o t h e s i t a t e t o say that such d i c t a t i o n is u n - A m e r i c a n , u n p a t r i o t i c , selfish, a n d t y r a n n i c a l . I t s h o u l d sound a n o t e of a l a r m
i n t h e e a r s of e v e r y m e m b e r of t h i s b o d y , a n d c a u s e t h e c o u n t r y
to rise to the e m e r g e n c y .
M r . P r e s i d e n t , w i s d o m w o u l d d i c t a t e a n e n t i r e r e v i s i o n of o u r
financial
s y s t e m . W e s h o u l d d e f e a t t h e p l a n s of t h e m o n e y
p o w e r to continue further their unjust demands upon the peop l e . B u t l e t u s n o w b e g i n t o c o n s i d e r t h e a d v i s a b i l i t y of a d o p t i n g a n e w m e d i u m of e x c h a n g e . W e a r e c r o w n i n g a c e n t u r y o f
r e m a r k a b l e a c h i e v e m e n t s in the arts, sciences, inventions, and
l i t e r a r y c u l t u r e . A n e w g e n e r a t i o n is c o m i n g w h i c h w i l l l o o k
u p o n o u r c r u d e m e a s u r e s of v a l u e , as w e n o w l o o k b a c k u p o n t h e
w o o d e n p l o w and the stage coach.
• MONEY ECONOMICALLY
MSCTJSSEn.
M o n e y , M r . P r e s i d e n t , is a f u n c t i o n and m a y b e a t t a c h e d t o
a n y m a t e r i a l . T h i s is a n a d v a n c e d s t a n d , b u t I a m firmly c o n v i n c e d that our nation and the w o r l d will ultimately c o m e to it.
M r . G l a d s t o n e , in his s p e e c h in the B r i t i s h P a r l i a m e n t F e b r u a r y 28 l a s t , s^ys t h a t w e h a v e p a s s e d b e y o n d t h e s t a g e of b a r t e r
a n d e x c h a n g e i n t h e p r i m a r y n e c e s s a r i e s of m a n k i n d i n t h e i r
first e f f o r t s t o w a r d s c i v i l i z a t i o n . H e s e e m s t o t h i n k t h a t w e
have made rapid advancement from the primary principles. B u t
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such I assert has not been the case. W e are still in our transactions exchanging one commodity for another. In barbarous
times when a man wanted a horse, he may have exchanged grain
or a cow or an instrument of warfare for it. The name of the
commodity to be exchanged was not specified. To-day one commodity has been selected by agreement for exchange purposes.
So that one must now convert his grain, cow, or instrument of
warfare into the commodities of silver or gold and then exchange those for the horse.
H o w far removed, Mr. President, is this from the old system
of barter. It is not only not better, but it is tyrannically worse
in some respects. Now, all the exchangeable commodities of
man are compelled to walk round systematically and make obeisance to the one commodity, gold. The owner of this favored
commodity must feel highly flattered and honored. Gold is today the king of commodities, sitting on the throne of commerce
and ruling the destinies of individuals and of nations.
During all the ages of history the subject of finance has been
shrouded in mystery, the veil being lifted for the benefit of a
few of the most favored citizens. The money lender has been
trained in all the arts and fine practices of his profession, while
the people have accepted their lot, enduring an oppression the
cause of which they knew not. Bonds and funding acts, expansions and contractions, demonetization and resumption, and a
score of such terms are as meaningless to them as the recitation
of a foreign alphabet. They have been accustomed to see banks
upon the street corners, but few have ever thought it their
r i g h t to inquire whence they came, or whether they represented
a favored class or not. They know that some are called private
banks and some national banks, and that they are convenient
places to visit when a check or draft is to be cashed. The law
creating the institution is a mystery. They have a currency,
but how they came by it they have not thought fit to inquire.
There is a vague idea that sometime in the past financiers
ciphered out and determined what was to be money. A s for the
method of getting it stamped and put in circulation Congressmen were elected to do that, and they were elected to accept the
result without a word of complaint.
But that day of ignorance, Mr. President, is happily passing
by, thanks to our public schools and other institutions of enlightenment. The day of barter is entombed with departed nations
of ^antiquity. W i t h it will soon lie the crude, superstitious ideas
of "money and finance promulgated to-day. W i t h the introduction of commerce the barter system gave way to a medium of exchange called money. The medium was naught else than a product of nature having a tolerably uniform value, and hence a general measure of commodities. But this theory is fast becoming
obsolete, as people come to under stand that a medium of exchange
is not an equivalent of value, but merely enables the holder to
obtain such an equivalent. It is the Government system of bookkeeping, done under the sanction and provisions of the law.
But gold and silver have been thrust upon us from generation
to generation, until we have come to think that nothing else can
be money.
W e are confronted with such media of exchange at birth, and
we g o through life without raising the question as to their right
to fulfill this important office. W e look upon the beautiful metals
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almost with superstition. W e see a divine fitness in their selection for this purpose. A prominent economist says:
It is hardly possible to avoid being impressed with the thought of a designing mind as we contemplate the relations of these metals to the economy of the human family. Among all the materials of which the solid earth
is composed, two substances are found, each of which is so related to human taste as to render it an object of universal desire among all civilized
nations. They are thus fitted and seem intended to unite the whole human
family into one great economic world.
But, ordained as a monetary standard or not, the supply of
gold, according to the testimony of experts, is rapidly diminishing, while the business and population are rapidly increasing,
and we shall be compelled sooner later to adopt a different
standard or medium. Gold is nicely adapted for money as far
as beauty and divisibility are concerned, but utterly wanting in
quantity and regularity of supply, the elements most essential
in a standard of value. W h e n e v e r and wherever used, it has
proven itself a traitor to commercial interests.
KINDS OF MONEY USED BY
NATIONS.
China's monetary history is the most extensive known, covering as it does a period of fifty centuries. Hundreds of years before the Christian era they were engaged in commercial intercourse with India, Arabia, Greece, Rome, and Africa, and yet
the records show that gold and silver were not always essential
as money. Tortoise or porcelain tablets and cowrie shells were
used in 2347 B. C.; copper before 2119; clay, mixed with glue,
was used for a long period. This was also used in Africa, India,
Babylon, Egypt, Siam, Etruria, Rome, Polynesia, and Arabia.
In the second century B . C . and during the
first,tenth,eleventh,
twelfth, thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth centuries paper
money was used freely, based sometimes on copper, as in 807 A .
D., or as in the reign of Tai Tsu, when the government warehouse system was in use and notes were issued from the treasury
on almost all articles deposited.
Frequently these notes were based entirely on the credit of
the nation. Sir John Mandeville, in 1327, after visiting China,
wrote:
This Emperor maketh no money but of leather imprinted or of paper.
And of this money is some of greater and some of lesser price, after the
diversity of his statutes. And when the money doth run so long that it beginneth to waste or wear out then they bring it to the Emperor's treasury,
and there take new money for the old. And that money goeth throughout
all the country and throughout the provinces, for there and even beyond
there they make no money neither of gold nor silver.
Fifty centuries have produced in China nearly a score of different media of exchange, all good in their way so long as they were
properly managed and constituted money only through the stamp
of the government issuing them. Every nation, including our
own, has passed through a somewhat similar experience, using
tobacco, skins of animals, or other material as a standard of value
as occasion demanded.
After five thousand years we are but little in advance of Chinese wisdom. W e are but one degree removed from the old
system of b irter. W e have as a civilized nation built upon the
ruins of exploded ideas. W e follow in the footsteps of those
who have ruined nations. Along the highways of history are
finger boards pointing to the folly of a currency dug out of the
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ground at a great expense and so scarce as to cause stagnation
to all lines of industry.
MONEY NEED NOT N E C E S S A R I L Y POSSESS INTRINSIC
VALUE.
There is a growing sentiment, Mr. President, amongst the
people of our nation that we may readily discard both gold and
silver and adopt a new circulating medium which is more convenient, and which will not, like the present standard, be currency only in name. Very little business is done with gold and
silver. If we were limited to-day in our currency to gold and
silver every branch of business from coast to coast would be in
stagnation. Our annual output of gold from the mines is only
thirty-Wo millions, while the annual business done through the
clearing houses alone amounts to $60,000,010,000. Ninety-five
per cent of all business is done through a paper medium. A
metal basis is a delusion calculated to blind the masses and enrich the few.
Treasury notes are the people's money, based not upon the output of this or that mine, but on the wealth of the nation. The
stamp is that of a great nation, and signifies th t behind every
dollar is the power, integrity, valor, and wealth of every State
in the Union and of all the States combined. No Treasury note
of the United States with such a foundation, when not discriminated against in its debt-paying power, ever depreciated.
Twenty different times Treasury notes were issued by our Government before the late war. They were receivable for duties,
were legal tender, and not one of them ever depreciated. The
first issues of sixty millions of demand notes at the beginning of
the war did not depreciate. All this goes to prove that money
is money if the creation of law, no matter of what material made,
so long as a strong government is behind it.
Hon. JOHN DAVIS, a member of the House, says:
Money, strictly speaking, is not a material thing. The m o n e y f u n c t i o n
m a y be attached b y l a w to any proper material. The material should be appropriate, convenient to handle, light to carry, easy to conceal, and difficult
to counterfeit. Intrinsic value in the material to which the m o n e y f u n c t i o n
is attached is not necessary.
Dr Franklin said:
On the whole, n o method has hitherto been formed to establish a m e d i u m
of trade equal in all its advantages to bills of credit made a general legal
tender.
Jefferson's financial philosophy was this:
Our only resource, an ample one for any emergency, Treasury notes bottomed on taxes.
But discussion of this subject is no sooner begun than the cry
of " cheap money " is raised. It is called cheap money because
it is easily produced. I am not able to discover why we should
be compelled, in order merely to procure a circulating medium,
to search the bowels of the earth, and tax the resources of our
people, when a most excellent and desirable article is at hand,
any more than I might see the wisdom in a railroad company's
searching the continent of Africa to obtain ivory for baggage
checks when brass, a substantial, cheap article-, is at hand.
But by whom is the cry of " c h e a p m o n e y " raised? By the
banking or creditor class and their friends." These same men,
when, during the war, under a paper currency, poor, hard-working farmers contracted debts payable in a money representing a
given amount of labor, never thought of raising the cry of dear
money when the farmer was compelled to pay in coin. Never in
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history has there been an instance of an abundance of or even
enough money under a gold currency. T h e money kings can
corner the finances and subject the masses to the payment of exorbitant interest. It will be an unprofitable day for money
lenders when articles of intrinsic value cease to be money. But
the poor will rejoice. T h e people who live by labor, and who on
Saturday night draw their bills and with their wives visit the
stores to buy the week's provisions, never object to " c h e a p
money." T h e farmer, who ciphers close to make receipts and
expenditures meetis glad f o r a " c h e a p m o n e y " which circulates
as naturally as blood through the arteries of the human body and
can not be held back at the wish of a class who reap rich harvests through loans.
This is the brave money, Mr. President. It accommodates
the people in peace, and it is the first to enlist in time of war.
Gold has never failed to oppress the people in peace, and has
never failed to secure a hiding place in war. "Cheap m o n e y "
redeemed France in the Revolution. Sir Archibald Alison
says it saved England from 1797, to 1815 from being a tributary
to France. Gold deserted Venice in 1176, America in 1776,
France in 1790, England in 1797, and Europe in 1813. Paper
money fought the battles for American independence. It was
the nations stay during the late civil war. W h y was it good?
Because a brave, united people are behind it. It is based upon
the entire wealth of the nation.
I lay down, Mr. President, a few fundamental principles as
characterizing a sound currency.
1. It must be issued by the sovereign power of the nation.
2. It must be honored by the issuing power by being receivable for public dues, customs, taxes, etc.
3. It must be made af ull legal tender for all monetary purposes.
4. It must be beyond the reach of the counterfeiter as far as
possible.
5. It should, in the amount of issue, bear a reasonable relation
to the public revenues collected.
6. It should be issued by a stable, nonrevolutionary government whose people possess a high degree of enlightenment. No
government paper, Mr. President, ever depreciated or was repudiated when issued according to these principles.
CHEAP MONEY IN
HISTORY.
But we are pointed to the features of paper money in past
history. W e are asked to explain the paper money of France.
Let me say that it was issued in violation of sound principles;
according to Alison, it was counterfeited by the wagonload.
The volume was entirely out of proportion to the revenues, and
it was made redeemable in gold, which is not redemption. Exchange of dollars is not redemption, and never can be. A dollar
is redeemed when it is received in revenue by the government
issuing it and not otherwise.
Mr. E. G. Spaulding, a banker in Buffalo, N. Y . , in time of the
war, chairman of the Subcommittee on W a y s and Means in 1861,
1862, and 1863, and known in financial history as " The Father of
the Greenback," has discussed commodity redemption of money
as follows:
Every time a hundred-dollar hill passes from one person to another, it is
a practical redemption of it hy the person who takes it. Every time a merchant at Chicago pays to a farmer $500 in national currency for a carload of
612
33
wheat, the farmer by the operation redeems such national currt-ncv not in
greenbacks, i:or in gold, but in a c o m m o d i t y better than either namely,
wire ,t a S:
article useful to all. &o every mexvhaut in \ ew i ork that
sells a bale of cotton goods and receives his pay for it in currency redeems
such currency, not in the w a y that banks redeem it. but in cotton gooas,
which is far better, because it p e r f o r m s tne true functions of money by facilitating the legitimate sale of commodities. So every time that a merchant
or manufacturer pays his internal-re venue tax to the United States collector
in national currency, the Government redeems such currency by receiving
and discharging such tax. So every mechanic or la.borer that receives national currency for his services, redeems such currency by the labor performed. So it will be seen that jitst so long as the national currency is
practically redeemed every day in its passage f r o m hand to hand in the payment of commodities and services, and in the ramified operations of trade
and business both with the Government and the people whose operations it
greatly facilitates, there is not the slighest necessity f o r resorting to the
expensive and risky operation of assorting and sending it home for redemption.— Spauidincf s History. Appendix, page 10.
[ A t this point the honorable Senator yielded to Mr. PETTIGREW.]
Mr. K Y L E . Mr. President, the money of the Revolution, as
Lord Howe says, was counterfeited and sent to America by the
shipload. Continental money was terribly depreciated but it
was issued out of proportion to the public revenue. It was not
receivable for taxes because the Continental Congress had no
power to collect taxes; and hence it was crippled in the most
essential feature of money. The first issue of our civil war, sixty
millions, did not depreciate because they complied with the essential laws above laid down. They differed from subsequent
issues, which sank to one-third of a dollar, in that the latter
contained the famous exception clause, by which the Government acknowledged them good enough to pay all debts except
those due herself. The Government repudiated her own offspring, crippled her own child, and then cast it off because crippled.
The Argentine Republic has been in a straitened condition
financially because her paper is dspreciated much as ours was
during the late war. But it is not receivable for revenues, and is
not a general legal tender. On the other hand, Venice in 1176
began her system of book credits, issuing a paper currency
which was a full legal tender, was receivable for all revenues,
and was not based on coin. This was continued during a period
of six hundred years of unexampled prosperity. And when
Napoleon marched into Venice with the expectation of finding
gold he did not find one dollar. Paper money succeeded in the
larger Colonies during the Revolutionary war in this country,
even though the times were dark. North Carolina's $400,000 of
paper money was kept at par for twenty years after she became
a State. Other St 'tes did likewise.
There is no reason, Mr. President; why a nation such as ours,
covering 3,000,000 square miles of territory, 65,000,000 of people,
$o3,000,000,000 of wealth with exhaustless resources of all that
goes to make up the necessities of mankind, with the best government upon earth, with a people of excellent morality and enlightenment. possessed of remarkable valor and patriotism, and
with an annual revenue of over four hundred millions, should not
be able to issue and maintain a currency of this character three
or four times as great as her revenues. But our financiers h ve
thought otherwise and our legislators h i v e followed suit
The
opportunities of the banking class during the years following the
war were not great enough and the prosperity of the farmer un612
34
p a r a l l e d . T h e o n l y r e m e d y , i n t h e j u d g m e n t of t h e b a n k e r , w a s
t o g e t r i d of t h e g r e e n b a c k s a n d c a l l b a c k t h e d e s e r t i n g c o i n .
B y some superhuman effort we have gotten onto a specie basis a t l a s t . H o w w e g o t t h e r e i s a p i c t u r e l o n g t o b e r e m e m b e r e d . W e h a v e a m o u n t a i n of p a p e r u p o n a p i n n a c l e of m e t a l .
I t is a r e s u m p t i o n i n n a m e and n o t in reality. T h r e e h u n d r e d
a n d f o r t y - s i x m i l l i o n s of g r e e n b a c k s r e s t o n o n e h u n d r e d m i l l i o n s of g o l d i n t h e T r e a s u r y i n c a s e of a p o s s i b l e r e d e m p t i o n ,
a n d t h e p e o p l e a r e s a t i s f i e d . T h e y w o u l d b e as w e l l s a t i s f i e d if
t h r e e h u n d r e d a n d fifty m i l l i o n s m o r e w e r e b a s e d o n t h e s a m e
o n e h u n d r e d m i l l i o n s . B u t b e t t e r y e t w e r e s u c h issue b a s e d
o n a l l k i n d s of p r o p e r t y ; t h e c o t t o n of t h e S o u t h , t h e w h e a t of
t h e W e s t , t h e c o r n of t h e v a l l e y s , a n d t h e m e t a l s of t h e m o u n tains. W h e t h e r , then, our balances w i t h f o r e i g n countries w e r e
to be settled in the one p r o d u c t o r the o t h e r an h o n o r e d curr e n c y would see that it was f o r t h c o m i n g .
PROMINENT ECONOMISTS F A V O R SUCH
MONET.
Sir J o h n Sinclair says:
It was a great discovery when a metallic medium was substituted for
barter; it was also a great discovery when paper convertible into coin was
substituted for gold and silver; but a third discovery was reserved for our
own times, namely, that, with an incontrovertible j>aper currency, agriculture, commerce, and manufactures might advance in a career of unexampled prosperity.
T h e f o l l o w i n g is f r o m t h e g r e a t E n g l i s h p h i l o s o p h e r , H e r b e r t
Spencer:
England herself does not in reality base her currency on specie; nor could
she without bringing all business to a dead stop in a very short time. She
just mixes enough of this specie-basis fiction in her finances to continually
or periodically divest the laboring classes of their earnings for the benefit of
the nobility. But for the real basis of value to her currency she makes the
notes of the Bank of England, as well as her coins, a full legal tender for
the payment of debts, and not the notes of the other banks. From this we
see that even in England specie basis is a mere fiction, a false pretense.
A r i s t o t l e , w r i t i n g of m o n e y , s a y s :
Money by itself * * * has value only bylaw, and not by nature; so that
a change of convention between those who use it is sufficient to deprive it of
all its value and power to satisfy all our wants.
I n his p r o p o s a l f o r an e c o n o m i c a n d s e c u r e c u r r e n c y , R i c a r d o
says:
A well-regulated paper currency is so great an improvement in commerce,
that I should greatly regret if prejudice should induce us to return to a system of less utility. The introduction of the precious metals for the purposes of money may with truth be considered as one of the most important
steps toward the improvement of commerce and the arts of civilized life; but
it is no less true that with the advancement of knowledge and science we
discover that it would be another improvement to banish them again from
the employment to which during a less enlightened period they had been so
advantageously applied.
P r o f . F r a n c i s A . W a l k e r says:
Let me repeat, money is to be known by its doing a certain work. Money
is not gold, though gold may be money; sometimes gold is money, and
sometimes it is not. Money is no one thing, no group of many things having any material property in common. On the contrary, anything may be
money; and anything, in a given time and place, is money which then and
there performs a certain function. Always and everywhere that which does
the money-work is the money-thing.
J e v o n s ( M o n e y and E x c h a n g e s ) , C h a p t e r V I I I , says:
Those who use coins in ordinary business need never inquire how much
metal they contain. Probably not one person in two thousand in this king612
35
dom knows, or need know, that a sovereign should contain 123.27447 grains
of standard gold.
Money is made to go. People want coin not to keep in their own pockets,
but to pass it off into their neighbors' pockets.
Dugald Stewart, professor of moral philosophy in the University of Edinburgh, in his Lectures on Political Economy (Part 1,
Book II), said:
When gold is converted into coin, its possessor never thinks of anything
but its exchangeable value, or supposes a coffer of guineas to be more valuable because they are capable of being transferred into a service of plate for
his own use. Why, then, should we suppose that if the intrinsic value of
gold and silver were completely annihilated, they might not still perform,
as well as now, all the functions of money, supposing them to retain all those
recommendations (durability, divisibility, etc.) formerly stated, which give
them so decided a superiority over everything else which could be employed
for the same purpose.
Supposing the supply of the precious metals at present afforded by the
mines to fail entirely the world over, there can be little doubt that all the
plate now in existence would be gradually converted into money, and gold
and silver would soon cease to be employed in the ornamental arts. In this
case a few years would obliterate entirely all trace of the intrinsic value of
these metals, while their value would be understood to arise f r o m those
characteristical qualities (divisibility, durability, etc.) which recommend
them as media of exchange. I see no reason why gold and silver shouldnot
have maintained their value as money, if they had been applicable to no
other purposes than to serve as money. I am therefore disposed to think
with Bishop Berkeley, whether the true idea of money, as such, be not altogether that of a ticket or counter.
These, Mr. President, are the statements of a few of the world's
greatest economic teachers. They proclaim a doctrine in advance of their day. It is the economic system of the future by
which financial standards will be solved, when legislators and
nations have become enlightened, and when we have become
tired of quarreling over these so-called precious metals, which are
but one degree removed from the cowrie shell of the barbarian.
For the present we must ad just ourselves to the times and secure
as convenient and accurate a medium of exchange as possible in
gold and silver. Gold and silver wedded has been our standard.
The question confronting us is whether we shall discard silver
and come to an absolute gold basis. There are many reasons,
Mr. President, why this step should not be taken.
S I L V E R IS T H E MOST S T A B L E M E A S U R E OF V A L U E .
T h e United States uses gold, silver, paper, copper, and nickel;
all are money after the money function has been attached. And
in the consideration of these materials we have no right to consider whether one is more valuable than another.
Silver is scorned and repudiated to-day by the monometallists,
because it does not rise above 75 cents per ounce or because the
dollar has silver worth but 55 or 60 cents, while gold they say
still maintains its par value and its stability.
It is true that as measured with gold, silver is at a disadvantage. But how, pray, can a parity be maintained when silver is
shorn of its money function? Y o u might as well enter two fast
and equally matched horses in a race and breaking the leg of
one expect it to run an even race, as to expect silver under present circumstances to maintain a parity with gold. No two kinds
of money ever remained at a parity unless they possessed an
even chance in the eyes of the law. Gold is to-day a legal tender for all debts public and private and for all amounts. Silver
is a legal tender, o r possesses a money function, only to the
amount of $5.
612
36
All metals used as money have both a commodity and a monetary value. The copper cent is worth as a commodity but oneeighth of 1 cent, and the stamp of the Government adds the
money function, viz, the faith and credit of the Government,
which is seven-eighths. The nickel in the 5-cent piece is worth
as a commodity but a trifle; with the money function added it is
worth 5 cents. The component parts of the silver dollar are 40
cents of commodity and (50 cents of monetary value. The commodity value of the gold dollar is not more than 25 cents, while
the stamp of the Government, adding the money function, makes
it worth 100 cents. W e r e the world to-day to relieve gold of its
monetary function it would be shoveled into the corners of buildings as more worthless than iron. It would not, as economists
tell us, be universally desirable. It is not lit to make plows,
shovels, knives, forks, or any other article useful in the mechanical arts. Restore silver again to its rightful place in our monetary system and it will be universally desired by our bankers as
well'as by the poor.
The material chosen for money, Mr. President, must first be
a convenient medium of exchange, and second, a constant and
invariable measure of the value of commodities. Of the former
I have already spoken; I will only add that about the only argument which has been adduced against si i. ver is that it is bulky and
can not be easily handled. If this is an objection, it is one that
comes from bankers only. The people never complain, except
because they are denied the privilege of carrying it. Silver is
the poor man's money. It circulates in all the small transactions
of life, and a large percentage ol business dealings are small
transactions. The people love silver. They revere it because
of its antiquity and because it has always been the money of the
people. Thsre can be no reason for taking it away from them,
except that by its presence they are made less dependent upon
the gold of the rich. The bankers to-day are relieved from the
burden of handling silver coins through the convenience of silver
certificates. Give silver coins the same chance under the law
that gold has, and it will go to the people and never return for
redemption or to trouble the banker. Do you wonder, therefore,
that the people are aroused at this time as never before in the
history of the nation?
I wish to speak more particularly of the second feature of a
circulating medium, and that is its constancy and invariability
as a measure of the value of commodities. This is an all-important question, s ?eing that the world is hopelessly in debt and
that the situation is growing worse. The kings of plutocracy in
Europe to-day rule the world. Every civilized nation upon the
globe is under obligation to them. The interest gatherers hourly
clip their coupons, which g o across all seas and represent the
gold tribute they exact from the poor and unfortunate of all
countries. Contracts have been made for a century, and will
continue to be made for a century to come. The question, therefore, becomes as important to the creditor as to the debtor. T h e
former wishes the payment of his money in a material which
represents as much to "him as at the time the loan was made, and
the latter wishes to cancel his ob'igation with products which
c st him no more labor than at the time he made the contract.
It is manifestly unjust that pending this stupendous indebtedness the contract should be changed and either party be made
612
37
to suffer. For the kings of finance to change the terms of payment in contracts with the poor is nothing less than robbery of
the most exacting type. This is the question that now confronts
us. It is not, as the subsidized press says, an obstruction by silver lunatics and owners of silver mines. The Government has
by law fixed a measure of commodities in the bushel, the pound
weight, and the yardstick . The grain gamblers have robbed
the people enough as it is; but should they attempt, after connering the wheat of the United States, to change by law the
bush 1 measure and maintain their price there would be revolution. There is almost revolution to-day, Mr. President, through
the tampering with the monetary standards. The people protest
against the attempt to bring the country and the world to a gold
standard especially when gold is enhanced in value by the demonetization of silver.
It has been proven, I think, that this silver is less variable
than gold, and therefore should be preserved as the measuring
standard.
NOT AN OVERPRODUCTION OF
SILVER.
Constancy of supply cuts an important figure as to the constancy
and invariability of any metal used as money. But if we shall
take the trouble to investigate it will be observed that there has
been no great excess in the production of silver, and hence no
reason for the change of ratio, much less for a cessation of coinage.
Hon. Thomas V . Carter, of California, has compiled some very
valuable facts from statistics, complete for the world to 1889.
There has been no change of importance since that time. F r o m
this it appears that at that period the world's stock of gold and
silver was as follows:
In pounds avoirdupois: Gold, 43,526,435; silver, 633,826,889.
The ratio indicated is 14.56.
Turned into dollars the result is as follows: Gold, $14,363,723,229; silver, $12,993,451,501. The result sho ws an excess of $1,370,271,719 of gold.
Again the total production of gold and silver in the world from
1848 to 1889 is as follows: Gold, 13,333,639 in pounds avoirdupois;
silver, 105,026,469. The ratio indicated is 8 "to 1.
T h e value of the same in dollars would be as follows: Gold,
$4,418,300,870; silver, $2,153,842,114.
T h e result shows that more than twice as much gold as silver
was produced during that period.
From 1878 to 1889, there was a slight excess in the production
of silver over gold, though not such as to cause any great variation. In 1889, the excess of gold over silver was $1,370,000,000.
These statements are borne out by the tables furnished by the
eminent statistician, Dr. Adolph Soetbeer, for the years 1492 to
1892, inclusive,
613
Statement of the production of gold and silver in the world since the discovery of America.
I From 1493 to 1885 is from table of averages for certain periods compiled by Dr. Adolph Soetbeer. For the years 1886-1892 the production is the annual estimate of the Bureau of the Mint.]
Period.
Annual average of
period.
Total for the period.
Annual average of period.
Fine
ounces.
Fine
ounces.
Fine ounces.
1493-1520.
io21-1544.
1545-1560.
1561-1580.
1581-1600.
1601-1620.
1621-1640.
1641-1660.
1661-1680.
1681-1700.
1701-1720.
1721-1740.
1741-1760.
1761-1780.
1781-1800.
1801-1810.
1811-1820.
1821-1830.
1831-1840.
1841-1850.
1851-1855.
1856-1860.
1861-1865.
1866-1870.
1871-1875.
1876-1880.
1881-1885.
.
Value.
186,470 | $3,855,000
230,194 ' 4,759,000
5,656,000
273,596
4,546,000
219,906
4,905,000
237,267
5, 662,000
273,918
5,516,000
266,845
5,828,000
281, 955
6,154,000
297,709
7,154,000
346,095
8,520,000
412,163
613,422 12,681,000
16,356,000
791,211
665,666 13,761,000
571,948 11,823,000
571,563 11.815,000
7; 606,000
367,957
9,448,000
457,044
13,484,000
652,291
1,760,502 36,393,000
6,410,324 132,573,000
6,486,262 134,083,000
5,949,582 122,989,000
6,270,086 129,614,000
5,591,014 115,577,000
5.543,110 114,586,000
4,794,755 99,116,000
Percentage of production.
Silver.
Gold.
Value.
5,221,160 $107,931,000
114,205,000
5,524,656
90,492,000
4, 377,544
90,917,000
4,398,120
98,095,000
4,745,340
5,478, 360 113,248,000
110,324,000
5,336,900
5,6139,110 116,571,000
123,084,000
5,954,180
143,088,000
6,921,895
8,243,260 170,403,000
12, 268,440 253,611,000
15,824,230 327,116,000
13,313,315 275,211,000
11,438,970 236,464,000
5,715, 627 118,152,000
76,063,000
3, 679,568
94,479,000
4,570,444
134,841,000
6,522,913
17,605,018 363,928,000
32,051,621 662,566,000
32,431,312 670,415,000
29,747,913 614,944,000
31,350, 430 648,071, 000
27,955,068 577,083,000
27,715,550 572,931,000
23,973,773 495,582,000
1,511,050
2,899,930
10,017,940
9,628,925
13,467,635
13,596,235
12,654,240
11,776,545
10,834,550
10,992,085
11,432,540
13,863,080
17,140,612
20,985,591
28, 261,779
28,746,922
17, 385,755
14,807,004
19,175,867
25,090,342
28,488,597
29,095,428
35,401,972
43,051,583
63,317,014
78,775,602
92,003,944
Coining
value.
$1,954,000
3,749,000
12,952,000
12,450,000
17,413,000
17,579,000
16,361,000
15,226,000
14,008,000
14, 212,000
14,781,000
17,924,000
22,162,000
27,133,000
36,540,000
37,168,000
22,479,000
19,144,000
24,793,000
32,440,000
36,824,000
37,618,000
45,772,000
55,663,000
81, 864,000
101,851,000
118,955,000
Total for the period.
Fine ounces.
42,309,400
69,598,320
160.287,040
192,578,500
269,352,700
271,924,700
253,084, 800
235,530,900
216, 691,000
219, 841,700
228,650,800
277,261,600
342,812,235
419, 711,820
565,235,580
287,469.225
173,857; 555
148,070,040
191, 758,675
250,903,422
142,442,986
145, 477,142
177,009,862
215,257,914
316, 585,069
393,878 009
460,019,722
Coining
value.
$54,703,000
89,986,000
207,240,000
248, 990,000
348,254,000
351,579,000
327,221, 000
304,525,000
280,166,000
284,240,000
295,629, 000
358, 480,000
443,232, 000
542,658,000
730,810,000
371,677,000
224,786,000
191,444,000
247,930,000
324,400,000
184,169,000
188,092,000
228,861,000
278,313,000
409, 322,000
509, 256,000
594,773,000
By weight.
By value.
Gold.
Silver.
Gold.
11.0
7.4
2.7
2.2
1.7
2.0
2.1
2.3
2.7
3.1
3.5
4.2
4.4
3.1
2.0
1.9
2.1
3.0
3.3
6.6
18.4
18.2
14.4
12.7
8.1
6.6
5.0
89.0
92.6
97.3
97.8
98.3
98.0
97.9
97.7
97.3
96.9
96.5
95.8
95.6
96.9
98.0
98.1
97.9
97.0
96.7
93.4
81.6
81.8
85.6
87.3
91.9
93.4
95.0
66.4
55.9
30.4
26.7
22.0
24.4
25.2
27.7
30.5
33.5
36.6
41.4
42.5
33.7
24.4
24.1
25.3
33.0
35.2
52.9
78.3
78.1
72.9
70.0
58.6
53.0
45.5
Silver.
33.6
44.1
69.6
73.3
78.0
75.6
74.8
72.3
69.5
66.5
63.4
58.6
57.5
66.3
75.6
75.9
74.7
67.0
64.8
47.1
21.7
21.9
27,1
30.0
41.4
47.0
54.5
1886
1887
188 9
189 0
189 1
1892
5,127,750
5,093,984
5. 316,412
5,746,950
5,473,631
5,830,107
6,328,272
Total.
106,000, 000
105, 302, 000
109,900, 000
118,800,000
115,150,000
120.519,000
130,817,000
5,127,750
5,093,984
5,316,412
5,746,950
5,473, 613
5,830,107
6,328, 272
106,000,000
105, 302,000
109,900, 000
118,800,000
113,150,000
120,519,000
130,817,000
397,191,823 8,204,303,000
93,276,000 !!
96,189,000
109,911,000 1
125, 830,000
133, 213, 000
144,426,000
152,062,000
120, 600.000
124,366,000
142,107.000
162, 690,000
172,235,000
186,733,000
196,605,000
93,276,000
96, 189,000
109,911,000
125, 830,000
133,213,000
144,426,000
152,062,000
120,600,000
124, 366,000
142,107, 000
162, 690, 000
172,235,000
186,733,000
196,605, 000
7,522,507,716 9,726,072,000
5.2
5.0
4.6
4.4
3.9
4.0
4.0
94.8 1 46.8
95.0
45.9
95.4
43.6
95.6
42.2
96.0
39.7
96.1
39.2
96.0
40.0
53.2
54.1
56.4
57, 8
60.3
60.8
60.0
5.0
95.0
54.2
45.8
40
D u r i n g t h e p e r i o d c o v e r e d b y this table t h e total p r o d u c t i o n
i n t h e w o r l d of g o l d w a s 397,191,823 f i n e o u n c e s ; s i l v e r , 7,522,507,716 fine o u n c e s , o r a r a t i o of 18 t o 1.
F r o m t h e c o m m e n t s of t h e s e n i o r S e n a t o r f r o m M i s s o u r i [ M r .
V E S T ] I c o l l a t e t h e f o l l o w i n g t a b l e of t h e r e l a t i v e p r o p e r t i o n s of
g o l d a n d s i l v e r p r o d u c e d a t s t a t e d p e r i o d s a n d t h e v a l u e of s i l v e r :
Value
per ounce'
_ 129 to 132
1833 to 1840, thirty-five times as much silver as gold.
. 129 to 131
1841 to 1850, fifteen times as much silver as gold
. 132 to 135
1851 to 1855, five times as much silver as gold
_ 134 to 136
3855 to I860, four times as much silver as gold
.
T h e g r e a t a r g u m e n t of g o l d m o n o m e t a l l i s t s is t h a t o v e r p r o d u c t i o n of s i l v e r s i n c e t h e p a s s a g e of t h e S h e r m a n l a w h a s p r o d u c e d its decline.
During the year immediately preceding the
p a n i c t h e s i l v e r p r o d u c t i o n o f t h e U n i t e d S t a t e s w a s $74,000,000,
w h i l e t h e p r o d u c t i o n of g o l d w a s $33,000,000, t h e p r o d u c t i o n of
s i l v e r b e i n g o n l y t w i c e t h a t of g o l d .
M a y I ask w h y the p r i c e
o f s i l v e r d i d n o t f a l l w h e n t h e p r o d u c t i o n of s i l v e r w a s f o u r ,
five, fifteen, a n d t h i r t y - f i v e t i m e s t h e p r o d u c t i o n of g o l d .
NO D A N G E R OF A D E L U G E OF S I L V E R , N O R A R E W E L I A B L E TO B E C O M E
DUMPING GROUND FOR THE FOREIGN COMMODITY,
THE
A l l f o r e i g n s i l v e r is l i a b l e t o b e c o n s u m e d at h o m e as s u b s i d a r y c o i n , a n d n o n e of i t w i l l b e p r e s e n t e d a t t h e m i n t s of t h e
United States. A t the present ratio between g o l d and silver,
s i l v e r is m o r e v a l u a b l e a b r o a d t h a n i t is h e r e . O n t h i s p o i n t I
w i l l e x p r e s s m y v i e w s i n t h e w o r d s of t h e H o n . W . H . S t a n d i s h ,
t h e p r e s e n t a t t o r n e y - g e n e r a l of N o r t h D a k o t a , g i v e n i n a n a r t i c l e
i n t h e A r e n a of A u g u s t l a s t . H e s a y s :
THE DUMPING GROUND OF FOREIGN SILVER ARGUMENT
ANSWERED.
"We are told that unlimited coinage will cause the silver money of other
countries to be melted down into bullion and sent here for free coinage and
thereby cause our Government to lose several hundred millions of dollars.
The total silver money of the world is approximately $3,700,000,000. We
have$500,000,000of this, leaving $3,200,000,000 in other countries. This $3,200.000,000 is money that has been coined in those countries and by the laws of
those countries has been made legal tender for the payment of all debts in
them, public and private, and therefore has a debt-paying value equal to its
face value, and will cost its face value in gold, as shown by our preceding
remarks and a letter f r o m our Secretary of the Mint that we have heretofore quoted.
The assumption then that it could be purchased in gold at what would be
its value in bullion if it had not been coined and made a legal tender muse
be discarded, even as to the limited legal-tender money of the world.
This being the case, what profits would foreigners and speculators make
in buying in the coined silver money of other countries to have it recoined
by us? First, they would pay its face to get it; secondly, they would lose 3
percent in weight, the coined dollar there being smaller than ours; thirdly,
by reason of the use of coined money there since it was coined it has worn
away not less than 3 per cent, which would be another loss in weight;
fourthly, under a properly drawn mintage bill they would have to present
to us pure bullion, such as we get in the bar f r o m the mine. To do this they
would have to extract the alloy f r o m their bullion after it was* melted down,
t o wit, the 10 per cent alloy that was put into it before coinage to enable it
to be coined.
This extraction would probably be at least one-half of the cost of mintage,
which would make 5 per cent additional before they had ever reached our
mint, and our mint would charge 10 per cent of the bullion as its toll for recoinage, making 30 per cent of an outlay to buy in foreign silver money to
have it recoined by us, or a loss to the foreigner or speculator who attempted it of $960,000,000. And what would these foreigners and speculators
receive? This bullion, $240,000,000. An i when they got them they would circulate them as money the same as we do now our silver notes, and if they
prefer the coin they would present their certificates to the treasurer and
get the silver dollars that had been recoined out of this silver foreign
money at a loss of 30 per cent and in one case out of six they would get gold,
612
41
as five-sixths of our coin would be silver and the b alance gold, and our totalgain for the recoinage. less expense of mintage.would produce $266,666,666.66
as the Government's profit in helping those foreigners to lose $960,000,000 in
tr,ving to swamp us with their silver, and the recoinage would leave the
same volume of coined money in the world as now exists, less 6 per cent in loss
in weight by existing money being worn and lighter coinage than ours.
W e are not endangered, Mr. President, by a prospective deluge
of sil ver from our American mines. Prom the report of the Acting Director of the Mint, Mr. R . E. Preston, I collate the production of silver in the United States from 1873 to 1892, inclusive:
187 3
187 4
187 5
187 6
187 7
187 8
187 9
188 0
188 1
188 2
$35,750. 000 : 1883
37,300.000 1 1884
31,700,000 1885
30, 80 J. 000 1886
39,793,573 ' 1887
45,281,385 1888
40,812,132 1889
39,200,000 1 1890
43,000,000 , 1891
46,800,000 11892
$46,200,000
48,800,000
51,600,000
51,000,000
53,357,000
59,195, COO
64,646,000
70,465,000
75, 416. 500
74,989,900
Our product will be needed to furnish the currency necessary
for a rapidly growing nation. Our ponulation has increased from
40,000,000 in 1873 to 65,000,000, and the volume of business has
increased a hundredfold. Our annual increase in population is
a million a year. Nearly forty millions of our gold and silver is
consumed in the arts, and this demand on the metals is growing
at the rate of a million annually. It is thus seen that our output is not equal to the demand for an increase of currency, and
will not be in the future unless some unforeseen discoveries of
the precious metals are made. As to this, it is a well-known fact
that every square mile of territory has been prospected, so that
the ratio of production as compared with gold is liable to decrease, and the demand for silver advance instead of recede.
THE COST OF S I L V E R .
It has been asserted time and time again that we are being
flooded with silver, the cost of production of which is not over 30
cents per ounce, and that the Government is being compelled to
buy this at the exorbitant rate of from 77 cents to $1.29. These
statements, Mr. President, show an utter ignorance of the whole
process by which silver is obtained. I have before me the
pamphlet of statistics as to the mining of silver in the Territory
of Utah. Only a very few mines are of a class that can produce
ore at less than the market price of to-day. From the table of
mining claims it is ascertained that but 40,000 claims have been
filed in the Territory of Utah since it was first discovered, and
of these but 8,000 have ever produced ore, and one-quarter of
these again have already been worked out. One would think, to
hear Eastern men talk, that one has but to take a journey through
the mountains and stumble upon a rich vein of silver to make
his fortune. Little do they think of the hunger and privations
undergone by prospectors, or of the energy and capital that
must be employed to develop a mine after it has been discovered.
But this is not at all uncommon that after months and years
of work it is discovered that the search is a fruitless one and
the claim must be abandoned. It is my honest opinion that
were prospecting, developing, mining, smelting, and shipping
all taken into account the price will approach more nearly $4
per ounce than $1.29.
612
42
W e have, Mr. President, coined only about $400,000,000 of silver in the one hundred years of our history, and no one has ever
thought we were approaching a danger point until it was suggested by the financisrs of W a l l street. The people of the
country, on the other hand, have been very grateful because a
few millions have been added annually to our currency supply.
France's example is a safe guide for other and greater nations
to follow. T h e wisdom of her statesmen and the energy of her
people are commended throughout the civilized world.
After the Franco-Prussian war she was compelled to pay an indemnity of $1,000,000,000 in addition to the debts incurred in carrying on the war. Her rebound has been without parallel, and
to-day she has more gold and more silver in her vaults than any
nation in Europe. If France with a population one-half as great
as our own, with a territory which might be included within two
or three of our States, with resources taxed to the utmost, can
maintain in circulation between seven hundred and eight hundred millions of silver, is it to be supposed that the United States,
with her 63,000,000 of enterprising people, a territory reaching
from ocean to ocean, resources as yet but partially developed,
and a Government more stable than France, supported by energetic and patriotic citizens, will not be able without even the
suspicion of embarrassment to maintain a circulation of fifteen
hundred millions of silver. The people upon whom the responsibility rests will grant no such supposition. Their manhood
and their patriotism will not brook even the suspicion of insolvency or repudiation.
The Senator from New Y o r k a day or two since stated that
business would again resume if this law were repealed; that the
trouble in New Y o r k is largely want of confidence. Confidence
by whom, or in what or in whom, may Iask? Have foreign nations questioned our integrity? No. Have the financiers of New
Y o r k ever doubted that we would be able to float and maintain
at a parity four hundred millions of silver? Never for a moment.
Have the people lost confidence in themselves? Not at all.
Then, Mr. President, where is this want of confidence? It
exists nowhere unless the people have lost confidence in the
bankers and capitalists of our country. T h e unvarnished truth
of the matter is that silver stands in the way of the moneylender, and it is this class that have raised the cry of suspicion
against the white metal. But monometallists tell us that business men at least imagine that this purchase law is the cause
of our depression, and that for this reason, if for no other, it
should be repealed.
Mr. President, we are not here to prescribe for hysterical, imaginative patients, if in doing so we must rob the people of their
best and most faithful currency. Let us give New Y o r k the
bread-pill prescription and she will recover. Unless it can be
shown to me that the Sherman law is the active cause of our
commercial depression, I will not vote for its repeal. For I stand
with the Senator from Ohio [Mr. SHERMAN] in saying that this
much-abused law has mitigated the evils of two panics; and
though not as good as free coinage of silver, it is yet a recognition of this metal as money by our mints, and is a source of prosperity to a large and growing section of our country.
There is no danger of a flood arising from any sudden cheapness
612
4:3
of production, and we can therefore rely upon the same law which
has governed the production of gold and silver from prehistoric
times. W h e n given an equal chance under the law there has
been but little variation during centuries and centuries of the
progress of civilization.
S I L V E R V A R I E S I N P R I C E W I T H COMMON
COMMODITIES.
But, Mr. President, there are other facts and arguments bearing directly upon the stability of silver. I think it can be shown
conclusively that during all these trying years from 1873 to the
present, silver being the money of the people, has been the most
accurate measure of their products. T h e facts show that the
market price of wheat, cotton, and other commodities, allowing
for minor causes of fluctuation, rise and fall directly with the
rise and fall of silver.
T h e common phrase of newspaper parlance to-day is that silver has depreciated and that gold has remained the one steady,
unswerving unit during all panicky situations. These statements
we are prepared to contest, and affirm that the gold dollar is the
dishonest dollar.
It arises from an ignorance of ,the first principles of economics. The great law of supply and demand alone is sufficient to
convince any fair-minded man that by the destruction of one of
the money metals of the world the one left, being scarcer, is
bound to appreciate. I hold in my hand, Mr. President, three
charts, marked D, E,and F, prepared by Mr. T. T. Baker, a civil
engineer of ability in Butte, Mont., which I gladly incorporate
in my remarks. This gentleman has evidently made a full study
of the relation of the common products consumed by the people
to our money standard.
[For charts see pages 44, 45 and 46,]
It is shown that the market prices of wheat have fallen from
131 in 1873, to 86 in 1885, 89 in 1887, 90 in 1889, 83 in 1890, 103
in 1892. Cotton ranges from 20 cents per pound in 1873, to 10
cents in 1885,11 in 1889, and 8 in 1892.
The value of the silver dollar as measured by gold has drooped
from 100 in 1873, to 60 cents in 1892, or taking 100 as the gold
standard, silver, wheat, cotton, and twenty other leading commodities range from 70 down to 39.
In the mean time the value of the gold dollar as measured by
silver has risen from 99 to 148.
From Chart E we learn that when silver is taken as the standard, upon the basis of 100, the leading commodities keep very
close company. Starting at 95 in 1873 they reached their lowest
point in 1879, which is but 75, and are found in 1892 at 89; while
gold has steadily risen to 150.
It is claimed by gold monometallists that the depreciation in
all lines of products has been caused by the improved facilities
of production, but from Chart F we see that taking 100 as the
gold standard and basis, steel rails, which are now produced
with great facility, have fallen, but that butter and eggs, and
other common articles of consumption, still produced in the old
fashioned way, have kept a steady march downward for twenty
years. These facts have all been taken from the Statistical A b stract for 1892, issued by the Bureau of Statistics under the direction of the Secretary of the Treasury.
612
United States.
1873 1874 1875 1876 1877 18TS 1870 18801681 18821883 \l884 18851886 1887 18881883 'l8S0 1.W91 1832
AVERAGE PRICE OF WHEAT. $1.31
tf
U
*' COTTON.*0.20+
VA&UME%uiLE0%%G0LD^H
i h 0 0 4
-
1.43
1.12
.18'
.15
-388
.364
+
1.24
1.17
.13-
.12-
. 8 3 4 . 3 2 3
1.34
.11+
.831
1.07
,11~
.868
1.25
.12.886
1.11
his
.12+
. 1 2 -
.881
.878
1.13
. 1 2 , .858
1.J07 .86
. 1 7 .861
.10+
.823
. 87
. 89
. 85
.03+1.10+
.763
.758
.SO
.83
.10+
.11'
.11+
.727
.724
.80S
A s the p r o d u c t i o n of G o l d h a s fallen a w a y its v a l u e h a s a p p r e c i a t e d .
m e a s u r e d b y G o l d h a v e depreciated.
.33
. 0 3 .764
Hence, prices
The t w e n t y c o m m o d i t i e s r e p r e s e n t e d b e l o w i n c l u d e C o t t o n , Corn, W h e a t , W h e a t - F l o u r ,
M e s s P o r k , A n t h r a c i t e a n d B i t u m i n o u s Coal, Butter, Eg-g-s, etc., s u c h a s c o n s t i t u t e t h e
chief s o u r c e s o f A m e r i c a ' s w e a l t h . The fall in p r i c e of t h e s e c o m m o d i t i e s h a s k e p t p a c e
w i t h t h e fall of Silver.
Or old
StarvcUvrd.
1.03
^08-1
.674
w h e r e Silver is r e g a r d e d as t h e m e a s u r e of v a l u e o r c o n s t a n t quantity, t h e s e l e a d i n g
c o m m o d i t i e s s h o w a m u c h g r e a t e r stability of price, b u t G o l d s h o w s a striking- a p p r e ciation. The " d i s h o n e s t d o l l a r " is n o t the Silver Dollar, b u t is a $ 1 . 5 0 G o l d Dollar.
150
\ '
iM
r
140
130
k
V
no
^
*
S
1
GoU
120
7
l
'
/
r J
r
Szlve R Sta NFLAJI Y7.
100
Twei\IHF
so
80
^
-.- L{ Tro'ir [QCO.
\
^
a
70
60
I
'i
AVERAGE PRICE y,-EELRAiui\?i2a&Q
04-.Z5 68.75 53.25 4-5.50 42.25 48.25 67.50 67.73 4830
"
"
»
"
B'JTTEnh 0.21 + .25
f'G-s.
.24--
|"ANY- .22-+ ,Z6~
.28
.73 +
37.75 30.75 28.50 34.50 37. C8\ 23.83 29.25 31.75 23.32 30.00
.21-
.18
.14+
.77 +
.20-
.26-
.76-
.76-
.77-
.77 + .T3 + .21-
.73-
.18 +
.77-
.21 + .22-
.76-
.76-
.78 +
.76+\
.78+
.77-
.14 +
. 75-
.76
76-
.74-
.75 +
.78-
.78
OS
to
The claim is m a d e that the fall of prices is due to improved facilities of production.
There h a v e b e e n improved facilities of producing- Steel Rails but n o t of Butter and E g g s ,
y e t tiie latter articles have shared the general fall in price.
P r e p a r e d f r o m d a t a furnished b y the " S t a t i s t i c a l Abstract of the United S t a t e s " for
1892, i s s u e d b y the Bureau of Statistics, under the direction of the Secretary of the
Treasury.
Gold,
100
V
^
80
^
3
O
vn/
Jhitt er.
\
70
60
60
40
30
Stcmd<LTdb.
\
\
N
r
/ m
N '
K
/
47
Silver, Mr. President, being the money of use in the ordinary
transactions of life, still measures the common commodities, although demonetized since 1873. But when crowned with the
monetary rights under the law it has measured on account of
its stability not only commodities but gold itself amongst the
nations of the earth for centuries.
Boeckh, in his Economy of Athens,, says:
The value of gold is more variable than that of silver, which, therefore,
may be considered as the standard of price for gold as well as for other commodities.
T h e gold of the Greeks, the Persians, and Macedonians was all
measured by silver. Locke, in his work on Money, says:
I have spoken of silver coin alone, because that makes the money of account and measure of trade through the world.
But recent testimony upon this point confirms what I have
just read. Mr. Robert Girt'en. who is chief of the statistical department of the board of trade in England, and one of the
strongest and most avowed champions of monometallism in that
country, has made some very remarkable admissions in regard
to the appreciition of gold in a pamphlet entitled " Recent
Changes and Prices and Incomes Compared," published in London in 1888. He says:
If the test of prophecies be the event there was never surely a better forecast. The fall of prices in such a general way as to amount to what is known
as a rise in the purchasing power of gold is generally. I might almost say
universally, admitted.
Measured by any commodity, or group of commodities, usually taken as the
measure for such a purpose, gold is undoubtedly possessed of m o r > purchasing power than was the case fifteen or twenty years ago, and this high
purchasing power has continued over a long enough period to allow for all
minor oscillations.
These statements are borne out in his pamphlet by tables and
facts.
I shall also, Mr. President, present some tables compiled by
the eminent statistician, Mr. A . Sauerbeck. On the principle
of the index number, 100 being the unit, he has rated 45 leading
articles of common consumption. These range from 102 in 1874
to 68 in 1892.
Years.
Mr. Sauerbeck's index numbers for 45
leading
commodities.
102
96
95
94
87
83
88
85
84
82
1874
1875
1876
1877.
1878.
1879.
1880
1881
1882
1883
Years.
1884
1885
1886
1887
1888
1889
1890
1891
1892
Mr. Sauerbeck's index numbers for 45
leading
commodities.
76
72
69
68
70
72
72
72
68
The second table of Dr. Sauerbeck on the same principle indi612
48
cates a striking contrast between the relative value of gold and
silver between the years 1854 and 1892.
Years from 1873 back to
1854.
Yearly index num- Years from 1873 on to 1
bers of
silver.
1873
1872.
3871.
1870.
1869.
1868,
1867
1866.
3865
1864.
1863
1862
3861
1860
1859.
1858
1857.
1856
1855.
1854.
97.4
99.2
99.7
99.6
99.6
99.6
99.7
100.5
100.3
100.9
101.1
100.9
99.9
101.4
1873
1874
1875
1876
1877
1878
1879
101.0
101.5
101.0
100.7
101.1
1888
102.0
Yearly index numbers of
silver.
97. <
95 J
93.J
86. i
90.;
86. <
84 J
85.1
85. (
84. <
1880
1881
1882
18S3
1884
1885
1886
1887
1889
1890
1891
1892
From this we learn the gold prices of silver in 1854 was 101.1
and 97.4 in 1873. Since which time there has been a steady declination to 05.4 in 1892.
T h e third table on the same principle rates the forty-five
principal commodities and silver.
Mr. Sauerbeck's in"
dex numbers—
Mr. Sauerbeck's index numbers—
Years.
1874
1875
1876
1877
1878
1879
1880
1881
1882
1883
Years.
Of 45 principal com- Of silver.
modities.
102
96
95
94
87
95.8
93.3
86.7
90.2
86.4
84.2
85.9
85.0
84.9
83.1
1884
1885
1886
1887
1888
1889
1890
1891
Of 45 principal com- Of silver.
modities.
76
72
69
68
70
72
72
72
68
83.3
79.9
74.6
73.3
70.4
70.2
78.4
74.1
65.4
These London statistics corroborate the facts that have been
given time and time again by bimetailists in America that the
principal commodities of common consumption are closely allied
with silver and rise and fall with it.
L e t me quote also some statements made by the R i g h t Hon.
Leonard Courtney, member of Parliament, in the Nineteenth
Century for April last.
This gentleman was a member of the gold and silver commission, signed the favorable report, but feels that he can not acquiesce in all the statements made. Here are some extracts:
Is it true that gold is thus a stable standard? I was one of the six members of the gold and silver commission who could not see their way to recommend bimetallism, and reported:
612
49
" When we look at the character and times of the fall in the prices of commodities, * * * we think the sounder view is that the g eater part of the
fall has resulted from causes touching the commodities rather than from
an appreciation [or increase in value] of the standard."
In the same paragraph we had said:
" We are far from denying that there may have been, and probably has
been, some appreciation of gold, though we held it impossible to determine
its extent."
Let me make a confession. I hesitated a little about this paragraph. I
thought there was, perhaps, more in the suggestion of an appreciation of
gold than my colleagues believed; but while I thus doubted I did not dissent.
I am now satisfied that there has been an appreciation of gold greater than I
suspected when I signed the report, and I should not be able to concur in the
same paragraph again.
W e have been passing through a period of appreciation of gold, and no
one can tell how long it will last. This is a serious matter. * * * The
pressure of all debts, private and public, has increased.
The situation is serious. It is a dream to suppose that gold is stable in
value. It is no more stable than silver. It has undergone a considerable
appreciation in recent years, and industry and commerce have been more
hampered by its movement than they would have been had silver been our
standard.
Every step taken towards the further demonetization of silver must tend
to the enhancement of the value of gold.
It is true that much inconvenience is involved in the use of gold as the
standard in some countries, and of silver as the standard in others, with no
link to check their divergent variations; but the advantage of having the
same monetary basis throughout the world would be counterbalanced if we
made gold that universal basis, and tied all the fortunes of the nations to it.
Five years ago I joined with my friends in deprecating any attempt to
establish an international agreement for the free coinage of both gold and
sliver as standard money. I have advanced with further experience and reflection to the belief that such an agreement is to be desired.
I n 1867 M r . E r n e s t S e y d , a f a r - s i g h t e d a n d c l e a r - h e a d e d financ i e r , in discussing this question, w h i c h was t h e n e x c i t i n g c o n siderable interest, expressed himself v e r y freely on the evils that
w o u l d p r o b a b l y f a l l o n t h e w o r l d i n an a t t e m p t t o d i s c a r d s i l v e r
as a f u l l l e g a l - t e n d e r m o n e y m e t a l . H e s a i d t h a t —
Throughout the world a fall in prices would take place, injurious alike to
the owners of solid property and to the laboring classes.-and advantageous
only, and unjustifiably so, to the holders of state debts and other contracts
of that kind.
A l l these statements but corroborate the statement made by
the L o n d o n Economist, Mr. Gladstone, and others. T h e Econom i s t f o r 1883 s a y s :
England being the chief creditor nation of the world, it is to her interest to
keep the volume of money as small as possible in countries from which debts
are due to her citizens.
E n g l a n d , M r . P r e s i d e n t , h a s o v e r o n e t h o u s a n d m i l l i o n s of
m o n e y l o a n e d a b r o a d . I t is e s t i m a t e d t h a t t h e U n i t e d S t a t e s
pays t w o h u n d r e d millions to G r e a t B r i t a i n annually, and it r e q u i r e s b u t a s c h o o l b o y t o d i s c o v e r t h a t i t is a g r e a t a d v a n t a g e
to England when, by raising the standard, prices are lowered in
America.
T h e w a r h a s r e a c h e d t h e p o i n t of c o l d - b l o o d e d s e l f p r e s e r v a t i o n o r s e l f i s h i n t e r e s t . I t is h i g h t i m e t o a s k w h e t h e r
w e s h a l l b e w i l l i n g t o f o l l o w t h e d i c t a t i o n of E n g l a n d ' s
financiers.
W e have already listened, to our sorrow.
W e stand to-day surr o u n d e d b y financial p i n i c a n d s o c i a l u n r e s t , w i t h s t a r v a t i o n
t h r e a t e n i n g m i l l i o n s of l a b o r e r s . M r . G l a d s t o n e , a s h o r t t i m e
since in t h e B r i t i s h P a r l i a m e n t , said:
What is the use? What do we want with a bimetallic conventions I am
afraid to undertake to state what the amount is, but a very large amount of
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50
money is due to people who live within the United Kingdom from people
Who live without the United Kingdom. I should estimate it at two billions
of sterling—ten thousand millions of American dollars. I admire the philanthropy of gentlemen who would make a gift to our debtors of that
amount, but I do not see what cause we would have to congratulate ourselves, though I may see some reason why the rest of the world should c o n gratulate itself.
This is the encouragement, Mr. President, we get from England.
No international agreement will ever receive her consent. I
think I have shown clearly the English policy and where English interests lie. And the opinions of Mr. Gladstone are shared
by other English statesmen as fair-minded as he. Such confessions are cold blooded and not born of justice or charity, and
are prompted by a worse spirit than self-preservation. It is
that which looks upon foreign nations as so many fields for plunder. England has no love for the United States, and in her
failure to coerce us in 1776 she did not yield her purpose to
bring us into subjection to English will. T o be conquered and
made tributary in war is merciful as compared to a monetary
subjection.
According to Hugh McCulloch, once Secretary of the Treasury, Europe held, in 1868, $850,000,000 of American securities
which called for interest in gold." H e further states, " W e ar9
even now increasing our debt to Europe at the rate of $60,000,000
to $70,000,000 in interest-bearing bonds," and " o f the $1,300,000,000 of the gold and silver products of California and the Territories produced since 1848, we have exported $1,100,000,000."
Our obligations since then, Mr. President, including railroad
bonds, have increased, according to Poor's Manual, to about
$4,000,000,000. This at 5 percent interest would make an annual
tribute of $200,000,000. This indicates the financial dependence,
if not slavery to which the people of our country are fast drifting. England has a limited territory, there being but land
enough for a seat of government, but she has outlying colonies
in all parts of the globe, and is marching steadily towards possession of the islands of the seas.
But these are largely provinces for plunder. She juggles with
provincial monetary standards as the Hindoo does with his
sword, and all to swell the stream of gold that flows into the
coffers of the mother country.
A strong speech was lately delivered in the English Parliament by Hon. Henry Chaplin which was corroborated by the
Parsee member from India, showing the disaster caused to India by the closing of the mints at Bombay and Calcutta to the
free coinage of silver. I quote an extract of the speech from a
London dispatch of August 8:
P L U N D E R E D B Y T H E E N G L I S H — S T A R T L I N G S T A T E M E N T S ON S I L V E R I N T H E
HOUSE OF C O M M O N S — D O N E TO H I D E A D E F I C I T — M E M B E R C H A P L I N CLAIMS
T H A T THE GOVERNMENT T A M P E R E D W I T H THE C U R R E N C Y OF I N D I A TO
PREVENT A BIG DIFFERENCE IN THE EXPENDITURES A N D THE I N C O M E DESCRIBED AS A F L A G R A N T THEFT FROM T H E NATIVES—SOCIALISTS IN
SESSION—OTHER NEWS.
LONDON, August
8.
In the House of Commons to-day Mr. Gladstone announced that an autumn session of Parliament would be held. The prime minister's words
were greeted with cheers by the members of the Government party. The
home-rule bill was then taken up and some discussion was indulged in, after
which Mr. Chaplin made a motion that the House go into committee to discuss the financial situation in India
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51
He charged the Government with persistently obstructing the discussion
of this question and said that the changing of the Indian currency system
before allowing Parliament to express an opinion on the matter was a subject of urgent public importance. If the House had waited for the Indian
budget it would have been some time in October before it would have got a
chance to expose the troubles arising f r o m the Government's indiscreet action. He could not, he added, blame the Indian government, which had found
itself confronted with bankruptcy on one hand or the closing of the mints to
free coinage on the other.
The latter policy was full of danger to the commercial interests of the
world. This policy had been practically forced upon the Indian government
by the attitude of the Imperial Government.
The government of India had escaped a deficit by tampering with the currency and artificially raising the value of the rupee. The effect of this action
had been to lower the pro tanto value of everything else.
The government had virtually mulcted the natives of India by methods
which it had hoped would not be discovered. The closing of the Indian
mints 13 the free coinage of silver had necessarily led to a fall in the value
of that metal within a month as the world had never before known. There
had been a tremendous wrong done to the people of India, who held enormous quantities of uncoined metal.
By a single stroke the government had depreciated by 15 per cent the value
of the silver held by the population of India. A more flagrant act of public
plunder has never been perpetrated by a civilized government. The result
had been a convulsed financial situation from China to Peru. If the repeal
by the American Congress of the Sherman act should become inevitable it
would be partly due to the error that had been committed in India. A further fall in the price of silver must follow the repeal of the Sherman act.
Frequently during his remarks Mr. Chaplin was interrupted by cries of
" H e a r ! " '-Hear!"
Mr. Chaplin, in concluding, demanded to know whether the government,
before taking this action in India, had held any communication with the
United States Government, and whether the government, with their eyes
now opened, contemplated persisting in the great wrong.
The loss to holders of silver securities, he said, was already nigh £200,000,000, for which the government must be held responsible. Their action could
not fail to appreciate gold throughout the world, while increasing commercial difficulties everywhere.
If s u c h b e E n g l a n d ' s p o l i c y t o w a r d s h e r c o l o n i e s , c a n w e a s a
rival nation expect fairer treatment? W h y should we voluntarily
p l a c e o u r s e l v e s in t h e c o n d i t i o n w h e r e I n d i a is c o m p e l l e d t o b e ?
T h e U n i t e d S t a t e s is l o o k e d u p o n b y E u r o p e as a n a t i o n of i n e x perienced financiers, w h o are willing to place themselves under
h e r tutelage. S h e will consent to no financial c o m p r o m i s e b y
w h i c h w e shall be placed upon an equal footing w i t h h e r in t h e
m o h e t a r y w o r l d . T o b e s u r e t h e r e is a g r o w i n g s e n t i m e n t in
fctvor of b i m e t a l l i s m i n G r e a t B r i t a i n .
A l l h o n o r to m e n l i k e
Balfour and Frewen, A r c h b i s h o p W a l s h , and others. B u t bet w e e n t h e m a n d t h e g o a l o f t h e i r h o p e s i s a m a j o r i t y of t h e C o m m o n s , t h e H o u s e of L o r d s , a n d t h e c r o w n e d h e a d s of E n g l a n d
; n d E u r o p e . T h e s e s t a n d as a n i n s u r m o u n t a b l e b a r r i e r i n t h e
w a y , and it is useless to f r i t t e r a w a y t i m e and m o n e y in s e n d i n g
c o m m i s s i o n s a b r o a d . W e m i g h t as w e l l f a c e t h e q u e s t i o n o f
INDEPENDENT ACTION,
and t r i m o u r c o m m e r c i a l sails a c c o r d i n g l y . W e are p o w e r f u l
e n o u g h . L e t us l e a d t h e n a t i o n s of t h e e a r t h i n t h e s t r u g g l e f o r
b i m e t a l l i s m , w h i c h m u s t b e t h e f u t u r e p o l i c y of E u r o p e as w e l l
as A m e r i c a ,
W h a t t h o u g h o u r g o l d is d e m a n d e d b y and s h o u l d g o t o E u r o p e ?
W h a t is t h e r e t o b e f e a r e d i n a s i l v e r b a s i s ? W e c a n g e t o n
w i t h o u t g o l d , and our p e o p l e will be p e r f e c t l y w i l l i n g to transact their business with silver.
B u t s o m e one c o m p l a i n s about the difficulty in settling trade
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52
balances and interest obligations w i t h Europe. In this, M r .
President, there will not be the slightest difficulty. T h e r e has
never y e t been a trade balance settled w i t h m o n e y . Gold and
silver may leave our shores as money, but it lands on the other
side as a c o m m o d i t y . I t is w e i g h e d in the scales, as are our cereals.
W e are rich, not only in gold and silver, but in c o r n and cotton £Jid wheat, and cattle on a thousand hills. In settling our
balances w e are prepared to g i v e whatever England calls for.
and are prepared in turn to demand f r o m her w h a t e v e r w e ask.
L e t us not be f r i g h t e n e d by the bugaboo of international trade.
England has traded and trades now with nations using all kinds
of money. I t will not f r i g h t e n her to c o m e in contact with us as
a silver nation. I t is f o r our people to say what shall be our
measuring unit, as our labor and our interests are in jeopardy.
W e should not destroy a large section of our country at the behest of English financiers; and, if necessary f o r self-protection,
we can p r o c l a i m the Monroe doctrine, " A m e r i c a f o r A m e r i cans." Our interests lie southward, not eastward; n o t i n courting
E n g l i s h favor, but in
A PAN-AMERICAN
ALLIANCE.
T h e United States, Mr. President, in returning to bimetallism,
w h i c h marked the day of h e r prosperity, will not recede, as Senators have said, to the level of silver-standard countries. T h e
condition of India, China, and certain South A m e r i c a n nations
can be satisfactorily explained on other grounds than monetary
standards. T o the south of us are possibilities of empires.
M e x i c o has 11,000,0000, Central A m e r i c a 3,000,000, and South
A m e r i c a 35,000,000 people, all transacting business upon a silver
standard, and their c o m m e r c e with us is done largely by way of
England. B y coalition with the United States, mutual prosperity would follow in all commercial lines, and the two sister c o n tinents, standing together, would rival and surpass the Old W o r l d
in the progress of civilization.
L e t me g i v e f r o m Mulhall's Statistics some facts as to the
amount of i m p o r t and e x p o r t trade of Central and South A m e r i can States. T h e s e are based on the reports f o r 1889:
Countries.
Brazil
Argentine
Chile
Uruguay
Venezuela
Colombia
Ecuador
Peru
Bolivia
Paraguay
Imports.
$19,700,000 $21,200,000
14, 300,000 12,500,000
6,600,000 7,500,000
6,300,000
6,200,000
2,500,000 3,300,000
2,800,000
2,200,000
1,800,000
900,000
300,000
Total
57,200,000
Mexico
Central America.
8,100,000
612
Exports.
3,000,000
1,600,000
2,000,000
1,300,000
1,500,000
200,000
57,300, 000 114,500,000
12,500,000
3,500,000
53
T h e p r o d u c t i o n of g o l d a n d s i l v e r i n t h e s e S t a t e s f o r 1889,1890,
a n d 1891 w a s a s f o l l o w s :
1891.
1890.
Gold.
Brazil
Argentine
Chile
Uruguay
Venezuela
Colombia
Peru
Bolivia
Mexico
Central A m e r i c a .
$445.
82;
1,436,
70,
1,838.
3,430!
93,
59,
700,
150,
Silver
$620,000
Gold.
$445,300
82,000
Silver.
$610,000
5,140,800 1.436,600 5,140,800
93,500
1,670,000
612,000 3,600,000
830,000
850,000
69,000 2, 734,300
951, 300
67,000 12, 514,200
544,000
767,000 50,356,000
000,'000
150,000 2,000,000
Gold.
Silver.
$438,000
82,000
1,436.600
93,500
$620,000
3,000,000
1,000,000
"!, 472,000 1,298,000
75,000 3,112,000
67,000 15,488,000
1,000,000 53,000,000
150,000 2,000,000
O u r c o m m e r c e w i t h t h e s e c o u n t r i e s is g r o w i n g n o w , a n d w i t h
p r o p e r e n c o u r a g e m e n t t h e v o l u m e of business d o n e c o u l d b e
largely increased.
T h e business done b y the United States in
1892 w i t h t h e s e R e p u b l i c s i s s h o w n , , b y t h e G o v e r n m e n t S t a t i s t i c a l A b s t r a c t f o r 1892, t o b e a s f o l l o w s :
Countries.
Brazil
Argentine
Chile
Uruguay
Venezuela
Colombia
Ecuador
Peru
Bolivia
Mexico
Central A m e r i c a
E x p o r t s to
Imports f r o m
United States. United States.
$14,240,009
2,927, 488
3,544,709
939, 030
4,049.155
3,134,152
810, 070
1,007,035
17,036
14,293, 999
2,762,531
$118, 633,604
5, 343,749
3, 487,159
2, 480,596
10, 325,338
4, 116, 888
809, 831
591,300
28,"107,525
409,015
L e t m e q u o t e h e r e , M r . P r e s i d e n t , as t o u c h i n g t h i s s u b j e c t , a n
i n t e r v i e w w i t h S e n o r D o n A l v a r e z , a m e r c h a n t of t h e C i t y of
M e x i c o , and published in the D e n v e r R o a d :
[ F r o m Our Republic, Oakland, Cal.]
CITIZENS B E A D THIS—WHAT A PROMINENT MEXICAN SAYS OF OUR T R A D E
POSSIBILITIES UNDER A FREE-SILVER POLICY—VAST COMMERCIAL RELATIONS W I T H MEXICO AND SOUTH A M E R I C A — B R A Z I L , B O L I V I A , ARGENTINE
REPUBLIC, CHILE, URUGUAY, AND P A R A G U A Y WOULD A L L T R A D E W I T H
THIS COUNTRY INSTEAD OF GOING TO GREAT BRITAIN.
In order t o reach all the business m e n of Oakland and San Francisco w e
reprint the f o l l o w i n g article:
[Denver (Colo.) Road.]
Senor D o n Alvarez, a gentleman doing business in the City of Mexico,
called o n us this week.
He conducts a large mercantile business in that city and is visiting A m e r i c a
f o r the first time.
" Y o u have a grand c o u n t r y , " said he. " I h a v e been i n N e w Y o r k , Boston,
and other cities and visited the W o r l d ' s Fair at Chicago. I never dreamed
y o u r country contained such a progressive, inventive, and pushing people.
I wish I could do business with your people but I can not. I buy your cotton
g o o d s through L o n d o n and Liverpool brokers and pay them in silver bullion
which they carry to India to coin into rupees that pass in India trade at par
with gold. By this means they do by m y country as they are doing by this
beautiful nation of yours, namely, ruining our farming industries. B y the
way, I cut this article ou% of one of y o u r Denver papers this morning, and I
wish y o u would read i t . "
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54
After looking over tlie numerous other newspaper clippings, he at last
found what he wanted us to read. It read as follows:
" NEW YORK,
July 20.
" The Evening Post says: ' The effect of the proposed closing of the large
Amoskeag cotton plant in Manchester, N. H., d n r i n g t h e m o n t h o f A u g u s t . i t
is asserted, has been generally overestimated. This, at all events, is the view
of many of the leading cotton merchants here. It is regarded as probable
that many other mills in New England, such as the Manchester mills, the
Pembroke, Webster, and China mills, and the York Manufacturing Company of Saco, will shut down, but, nevertheless, the situation is not considered an alarming one by the New York merchants.
" 4 The closing of the Amoskeag mills will undoubtedly be followed by the
closing of other large manufacturing concerns in New England and perhaps
in New York. It will be done as a precautionary measure to prevent a large
accumulation of goods during the autumn. There is already a large accumulation of ginghams, which will be forced down in price if the production continues at the present rate. A large proportion of these are goods
for the spring trade. In view of the present financial disasters, it is hardly
to be expected that the country will have recovered f r o m the drain by spring,
so that trade will then probably be anything but brisk. In view of a smaller
demand, therefore, it is but natural that the mills should diminish their
output accordingly. This is best done by stopping work altogether and thus
saving the heavy expense of keeping up the power, besides a whole month's
wages. A month's wages for the Amoskeag operatives, I understand,
amounts to as much as $225,000. This is the best time of the year for such a
measure, for most of the operatives wish to take a vacation during the summer or can at least in winter when their living expenses are so much higher.
If the mills had not decided to close now, they would probably have had to
do so in December, when it would have been a very serious matter for the
operatives.'"
After we had read it we handed it to him and remarked: " I t ' s sad, isn't
it?"
" Y e s , " said he, " b u t it is sadder still when one contemplates how utterly
foolish it is to permit such a condition."
" H o w would you remedy i t ? " we asked.
" E a s y e n o u g h ! " he exclaimed, as he lit a cigarette and settled himself
down in our big armchair. " N o w listen. I buy thousands of yards of
Amoskeag cotton in Europe every year, as all Mexican merchants do. Now,
suppose your manufacturers would come to our Mexican merchants and say •
Here,' we have passed a free-coinage bill and can now allow you $1.29 per
ounce for our silver against 70 cents per ounce allowed you by England.'
How long would your Amoskeag mills be without orders under such a condition? Why, in no time they would be submerged with orders, and we
would use Amoskeag and other American made cotton instead of that grown
in India and manufactured in England. In fact, America*would capture our
entire trade, not only in cotton goods but in every other line of manufactured goods. Our people would exchange all their spare silver for American
manufactured goods, if your people would declare free coinage for the metal
it so abundantly produces, that would enable you to allow us $1.29 for our silver. Not a dollar of our silver would go to England at 70 cents an ounce, or any
other price under $1.29 per ounce. Such a rise in silver Mexico yearns for.
Our agricultural industries would immediately take a step forward and thus
relieve the distress that now exists among our peon system. Speaking of
peons, your country will have plenty of them in another ten years if during
Cleveland's extraordinary session gold is made the sole basis of American
prices and values. I can't conceive what your people are thinking about.
To the south of my country lies a whole continent of silver nations eager to
break away from the slavery of the Rothschilds-Bank of England combine.
Your nation could capture the entire trade of Brazil, Bolivia, Argentine
Republic, Chile, Uraguay, Paraguay, Peru, Equador, Colombia, Nicaraugua, and the Lord only knows where you could reach—why, you could reach
into China, India, and Australia by allowing $1.29 for silver."
" Y e s , " we interrupted, " b u t that would bring a flood of silver to this
country, and we would become the dumping ground for all the silver of the
world."
" H a ! ha!! h a ! ! ! " laughed the senor, "suppose you should become the
dumping ground for silver, wouldn't it be a blessing compared with the
present condition that now faces you? It we dump our silver upon you we
would not do so just for the fun of the thing; we would buy your manufactured goods, and when buying them we would stimulate your manufacturing interests until the time would come when you couldn't find people
enough to work in your mills. Would that be a sad condition?"
" N o , but England would withdraw her gold, and
"
"Oh, b o s h ! " interrupted the quick-witted Mexican. " Suppose she did;
what figure would that c u t ? "
pw
55
"Our bonded debts," we ventured.
" W e r e made payable in coin," the senor added, " a n d silver was coin
when the debts were made, besides by that time England would allow $1.29
per ounce for silver just as quickly as Americans, for she would be fighting
for her life to retain her commercial supremacy, and the only way she could
hold her trade would be to either allow $1.29 per ounce for silver, the same as
America, or order gunboats out and destroy the United States. Should she
try the latter scheme, she would find the entire western hemisphere helping
the United States, besides the nations like France and Russia and the entire
Latin Union would be glad to dip into the row and help to make it hot for
the Rothschild family of gold owners. I tell you, my friend, the United
States has it in her hands to obliterate the gold corner, and nothing can
defeat you' but the treachery of your President and the Shylock-owned
tools of Wall street, who are backing him. I glory in your spunk when y o u
hoist your black flag and yell " F r e e coinage or a free fight. Keep it up,
and if the New England States succeed in killing the great cotton States
of the South and your wheat-growing States of the Northwest and Pacific
slope, and your mining States, let them do it. Then it will become your
duty to boycott the Amoskeag mill and all other mills—usury mills and
all, and begin to throw your trade elsewhere—among your own kind of
people. By and by the grand Pan-American idea of your late lamented
Blaine will begin to become clear to you, and when that day comes you silver
men will find plenty of friends below the Rio Grande River willing to ride
bridle deep in blood with the devil, your Government, or anybody elte, in
order to desti oy the condition of human slavery the Jew gold-metal owners
have built UD through their control of the monetary system."
Mr. P A L M E R . I did not hear the name of that gentleman.
Mr. K Y L E . Senor Alvarez, a merchant of Mexico. I have
read a published interview with him.
Mr. P A L M E R . He invites us to a Mexican entertainment.
Mr. K Y L E . No; a Pan-American entertainment. This, Mr.
President, is the extended hand of the South. L e t us grasp
it and together let us help lift the burdens from the backs of
our farmers and laboring men. This class in the United States,
in Mexico, in Central America, and in South America are all
prostrate.
In the Arena of recent date were, two excellent papers written
by two of our brightest Americans upon the subject, A r e W e a
Prosperous People ?
I commend these to the consideration of all unbelievers. It
is a timely and pertinent question to be discussed. In my
speech last year I dwelt at some length on the centralization of
wealth and the slavery of the poor. I wish I might be able to
impress upon this body that the straggle now going on is not between a few silver States and the rest of mankind.
A G R I C U L T U R A L STATES A R E ALSO
INTERESTED.
It is not the silver States alone that are opposing this measure
for the repeal of the Sherman law. I live in an agricultural
State at the western border of the Mississippi Valley. W e produce a little silver, to be sure, but not enough to entitle us to recognition as a silver State. I shall cast my vote against repeal
because honestly convinced that the depression of agricultural
interests for twenty yep^rs has been caused by the crime or blunder of demonetization of silver in 1873, and that the repeal of the
present silver-purchase clause of the Sherman law will further
enhance the value of the gold dollar and cheapen all commodities
measured thereby.
It is the plain, honest people of our Government, Mr. President,
whose clamor is now heard against repeal. The press never
omit to say that u The people demand repeal." As a gentleman
of my acquaintance used to say, " That depends upon whether it
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is true or not." A l l depends, Mr. President, upon who are the
people. If they mean the financial 400 in all the cities of the
Union, then it is true. If they mean the great mass of the people
who are shut out of this aesthetic organization then it is not true.
I am fully convinced that more than three-fourths of the people
are opposed to the repeal of this law. They are the men, Mr. President, whose sweat and life blood have built the Republic, and
whose sacrifice now sustains it. T h e y are the class who built
Rome. That empire fell when they were crushed. W e to-day
are following in her footsteps, and fast becoming a nation of millionaires and paupers.
W a r d McAllister, the society leader of the 400 in New Y o r k ,
says in his book, Society as I Have Pound It, page 349:
Up to this time for one to be worth a million of dollars was to be rated as
a man of fortune, but now bygones must be bygones. New York's ideas as
to values, when fortunes were named, leaped up boldly to ten millions, fifty
millions, one hundred millions, and the necessities and luxuries followed
suit.
From Mr. Powderly, of the Knights of Labor, I learn that
nearly a million workmen in the U nited States are out of employment, with many of them tramping for work and begging
for bread. This does not include the families of these men or
the large number of workmen who do not report to labor organizations.
In New Y o r k could be heard at the same time the gaiety and
laughter of guests at the board of the multi-millionaires, and
without upon the streets the groans and cries and threats and
curses of thousands engaged in bread riots. W hile fashion's leaders are engaged in days of shopping, selecting garments of purple and fine linen, worth thousands and tens of thousands of dollars, in the streets can be seen multitudes begging for castaway
garments or rags to cover their gaunt forms.
But these, Mr. President, are city laborers. I may turn with
you to the farmers of the far West. I have visited them at their
homes. These are abiding places, not homes, unless in the sense
that they shelter those whom they love. They are board shanties, dugouts, or sod shacks, with dirt floors, dirt or board walls,
and no ceilings.
These cheerless structures stand in the midst of treeless, barren tracts of land, but often house a family who have known
comfort and culture, but who now find themselves amongst those
struggling to gain a livelihood in the West, They labor from
early morn until late at night, and are rewarded by a small crop
of wheat worth 35 to 45 cents in the market. T o make ends
meet farming utensils, stock, and often the place, is mortgaged—
the interest being exorbitant. They live on the plainest food
and often are not able to obtain sufficient clothing. Life to them
is a dark picture, and the future is not full of promise.
Toward this same condition the farmers of the country as a
class are drifting, until in some districts already they are n o t
far removed from the condition of the tenant farmer of Ireland.
A r e these laboring men of our cities and these farmers people,
Mr. President, or are they not counted because they are poor
and in the aggregate represent but little wealth? A. large body
of noble-hearted, manly Colorado miners came to the Mississippi
Valley the past summer to hunt work in the harvest fields.
They were frequently arrested in our cities and thrown into
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prison, or compelled to wear a ball and chain on the public
streets because, forsooth, they could not satisfy the " v a g r a n t
law' 1 by showing some money in their pockets. W i l l one hundred of these manly but unfortunate fellows weigh in the balance
with one hundred bankers of New Y o r k worth $100,000,000? Or
are the poor to be lumped off by the bunch?
Mr. W a r d McAllister, of New Y o r k fame, probably would not
deign to count the men of whom I speak. In his book, page 50,
he thus speaks of his humble though well-to-do fellow-citizens
who have money enough to travel abroad:
Though carrying letters to our American minister, then resident at Rome,
I gave his legation a wide berth, as I had heard that our distinguished representative was in the habit of inviting Italians to meet Italians and Americans to meet only Americans at his house. When asked his reason for this,
he replied: " I have the greatest admiration for my countrymens they are
enterprising, money-getting, in fact, a wonderful nation, but there is not a
gentleman among them."
W a r d McAllister, Mr. President, and his class want the Sherman law repealed. The poor of whom I speak do not wish silver
destroyed and an additional burden placed upon their backs.
They can not come here and urge their rights as do the bankers,
for they have not the funds. They can not purchase prominent
daily papers all over the continent to urge their wishes. They
can only petition, in their modest way, their representatives to
be true to their trust.
WHY FARMERS WISH
BIMETALLISM.
These men of whom I speak, together with our more well-todo business men of small capital, represent the debtor class of
our nation who pay tribute to New Y o r k and Europe. The sum
total of their indebtedness is the story told by our last census
report, and represents the total of the contracts which will be
affected by a change of the monetary standard.
Many a mortgage representing $1,000, or 1,000 days of toil, by
a change of standard and the appreciation of gold will have to
be settled by 1,500 days of toil, an equivalent to $1,500 in money.
This is the question that has confronted them since 1873, when
silver was destroyed. T h e honest economists of monometallism
admit this, but say that for the good of the country they must
stand it.
T h e public debt, according to the Government Statistical A b stract for 1892, is $841,526,463.60, which is large enough, but
still does not include our private indebtedness, which is astounding. Prom the statement of Mr. Frederic Waite, printed as
Miscellaneous Document No. 25, Fifty-third Congress, I quote
the following:
The most astonishing increase of all, however, is in the real-estate mortgage indebtedness, as disclosed by the investigations of the Eleventh Census. Let us remember that this is largely the debt of the hardest working
and the poorest paid of all our American citizens, namely, the farmers and
the laborers who are trying to obtain a home of their own by honest toil.
In the twenty-one States for which the mortgage indebtedness has been
tabulated the aggregate amount in force at the close of 1889 was $4,547,000,000,
with the great States of Ohio, Texas, and California and whole groups of
lesser States yet ot be heard from.
The grand aggregate will be no less than 6,300,000,000. The aggregate in 1880
was only about 2,500,000,000. Last year, after turning the scale at 8,000,000,000
the mortgage indebtedness continued its upward flight, not being contented
with an increase of 220 per cent, or nearly four times the increase in the
true value of real estate.
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In a word, tlie total net private indebtedness of the American people
equaled, in 1880, but $6,750,000,000. Last September it amounted to $19,700,000,000. an increase of $13,000,000,000 in the short period of twelve year.
These mute figures tell the tale.
It well b e c o m e s the Senate to p r o c e e d slowly, M r . President,
f o r t h e q u e s t i o n of d e b t c u t s t h e l a r g e s t f i g u r e i n t h i s d i s c u s s i o n . I c a n n o t f o r b e a r t o q u o t e a f e w l i n e s f o u n d o n p a g e 168,
v o l u m e 2, of D o u b l e d a y ' s L i f e of S i r R o b e r t P e e l , s h o w i n g t h e
j u s t i c e of P o r t u g a l i n t h e c o n t r a c t i o n of h e r c u r r e n c y .
I t is a
lesson in morals to p r o g r e s s i v e A m e r i c a :
It is not easy to believe that the bill of 1819 was brought in and passed in
utter ignorance of its real consequences. The Portuguese Government has
never been deemed a very enlightened one, and yet a measure of the same
kind was about this time adopted by it and carried through on equitable
principles, and without material difficulty. The minister found it prudent
by withdrawing a portion of paper money to enhance the value of Portugal
currency 20 per cent. He did so; but at the same time, knowing what he did,
he made a commensurate reduction upon all debts, public and private, so as
to adjust the payments to a higher standard; and the fairness of this was
so manifest, and prices so rapidly adjusted themselves under the enhanced
currency that few murmured under the measure, and no one was appreciably injured by it. Tl^e Portuguese, luckily for themselves, had no Ricardo
in power or it might have been otherwise.
M r . P r e s i d e n t , I will a g r e e to v o t e to c o n t r a c t o u r c u r r e n c y ,
as in t h e b i l l b e f o r e us, p r o v i d e d t h e p u b l i c and p r i v a t e d e b t s
a n d t a x e s of o u r p e o p l e a r e s c a l e d i n l i k e p r o p o r t i o n .
T h e q u e s t i o n b e f o r e u s is w h e t h e r t h e t r i b u t e t o t h e m o n e y
c e n t e r s of t h e U n i t e d S t a t e s a n d t o E n g l a n d s h a l l b e i n c r e a s e d .
A c c o r d i n g to Mulhall's Statistics, the public debt of the world
w a s o v e r $30,800,000,000, o r b y a p r i v a t e s t a t i s t i c i a n i t i s g i v e n
b y c o u n t r i e s as f o l l o w s :
The national debts of the world in 1889 were as follows:
Austria-Hungary
Belgium
Denmark
France
Germany (entire)
England (and dependencies)
Greece
Italy.
Montenegro
Netherlands
Portugal
Roumania
Russia _ (all)
Servia...
Spain
Sweden
Norway
Switzerland
Turkey....
Argentine
Bolivia
Brazil
Canada
Chile
Colombia
Mexico
Peru..
United States
Uruguay
Venezuela
Egypt
All other countries (about)
Total
612
$2,643,021,000
512,000,000
50,467,000
4,982,810,000
2,695,255,000
5,695,657,000
132,625,000
2,250,000,000
1,000,000
545,000,000
593,670,000
176,000,000
4,869,768,000
50.655,000
1,986,650,000
58,000,000
20.860,000
65,000,000
878,590,000
148,000,000
19,000,000
600,560,000
273,000,000
92,860,000
15,000,000
112,000,000
342,624,000
1,462,800,000
79,108,000
63,780,000
732,000,000
3,500,000,000
35,654,779,000
5y
This is loaned hy the great money powers of Europe, which
have made the world subservient to their will. The gold and
silver of the world is estimated by report of the Treasury Department of August 16, 1893, to be: Gold $3,582,605,000, silver
$4,042,700,000, or a total of $7,625,305,000. B y the striking down
of silver has not our burden nearly doubled during the past 20
years?
The civilized nations are now hopelessly in debt. Continued
exactions by the money power will end in revolution.
The mortgage indebtedness of our own agricultural States
helps to swell this vast sum. Shall we of these States by our
votes add longer hours and years to the labors of our constituents? The mortgage debts of these States is: Nebraska, $132,902,322; Minnesota,$197,745,989; Illinois, $384,299,150; Iowa, $199,774,171; Kansas, $243,146,826; Indiana, $116,730,643; Missouri,
$214,609,772.
This debt represents more labor now than 20 years ago, and
will represent still more if gold continues to appreciate. T h e
Statistical Abstract for 1892 gives the wheat raised in the several States as follows:
States.
Nebraska
Minnesota
Illinois
Kansas
Bushels.
j 15,670,000
41,210,000
23,370,000
i 7,257,000
70,831,000
Worth.
$7, 834.775
25,138,382
17,873, 247
4,354, 335
36,831.911
States.
Bushels.
Worth.
39, 885,000 $25,526, 651
Indiana.
24,834,000
14, 403,474
Missouri
34,403, 311
BothDakotas. 66,765,000
Total
166,363,086
This table tells the tale of hardship in the Mississippi Valley.
From the figures given the market price for wheat was but little over 50 cents per bushel. The crop of 1893 will be sold at 15
to 20 cents less per bushel.
This, Mr. President, is in consequence of the demonetization
of silver upon the part of the United States and the increased
advantages given to the British colonies or to India in the Liverpool market.
A year ago, in my speech on the silver question, I enlarged
upon the results to the price of wheat in the Liverpool market
and the advantage given to the Indian product by the demonetization of silver in 1873. In closing, 1 gave the following syllogism:
1. Our prices for cotton and wheat are regulated largely by the European
market.
2. East India and the United States are competitors for that market.
3. Considering quality of grain and price of freight, other things being
equal, the market is ours.
4. If Asiatic bills of exchange, however, fall below par, the East Indian has
the advantage of us.
5. Demonetization of silver in the United States has furnished cheap silver
bullion and hence lowered Asiatic exchange.
6. Free coinage of silver would bring it to a par with gold, and also raise
Asiatic exchange to par.
7. Therefore, free coinage of silver restores to our farmers the European
market, with no unjust competition from Asiatic silver nations.
I see no reason now to change a word of the argument, and the
distressing effects to the American farmer are felt more this year
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than last. I can r e a d i l y understand, M r . P r e s i d e n t , h o w r e p r e sentatives f r o m Massachusetts or N e w Y o r k can vote for repeal.
T h e i r p r o d u c t is c o u p o n s . B u t h o w c a n t h e S e n a t o r s f r o m
Nebraska, o r Minnesota, or Illinois, o r Indiana, or T e x a s vote to
f u r t h e r a p p r e c i a t e g o l d a n d l o w e r t h e p r i c e of t h e i r h o m e c o m modities and saddle additional burdens upon their constituents?
S o m e of t h e b e s t t h i n k e r s i n E n g l a n d t o - d a y , M r . P r e s i d e n t ,
a r e w a k i n g u p t o t h e e n o r m i t y of t h i s e v i l . T h e c r u e l t y of l a n d l o r d s is n o t t h e o n l y t r o u b l e w i t h t h e E n g l i s h and I r i s h f a r m e r .
L e t m e q u o t e t h e w o r d s of M r . R o b e r t G i f f e n , of L o n d o n , f r o m
his essay, R e c e n t Changes in P r i c e s and Incomes Compared.
It is o b v i o u s H e says—
beyond all question, that these effects may be important. * # * The weight
of all permanent burdens is increased as compared with what would have
been the case if there had been no appreciation.
People in paying annuities, or old debts, have to give sovereigns which
each represent a greater quantity of commodities, a greater quantity of the
results of human energy, than it would have represented if there had been
no appreciation. * * *
T h i s m a n , r e m e m b e r , M r . P r e s i d e n t , is a g o l d m o n o m e t a l l i s t .
The debtors pay more than they would otherwise pay, and the creditors
receive more, * * * Appreciation—
T h a t is, in o t h e r w o r d s , an increase in t h e value, o r p u r c h a s i n g
p o w e r of t h e s t a n d a r d c o i n —
is a most serious matter to those who have debts to pay.
I am-
H e said—
bound to say that all the evidence seems to me to point to a continuance of
the appreciation. * * * It is impossible to suppose that the movement
(for the adoption of a gold standard of currency) will not extend to other
countries. * * * All these facts point to a continued pressure on gold.
# * * The better probability seems to be that the increase of the purchasing power of gold will continue from the present time.
A r c h b i s h o p W a l s h , of D u b l i n , I r e l a n d , s a y s i n h i s p a m p h l e t ,
Bimetallism and Monometallism, w h a t they are and h o w t h e y
bear upon the Irish land question:
1. Gold, the one standard of value in the monetary system of Great Britain
and Ireland, has of recent years " appreciated;" that is to say, become enhanced in value.
2. The "appreciation," or increase in value of gold, has already progressed
to a notable degree, and is still in progress, at probably an ever-increasing
rate.
3. Every increase of the value of gold—so long as gold remains, as at
present, our single standard of value, free f r o m check or control in its fluctuations in value—makes heavier the burden that has to be borne by everyone
who is subject to any annual charge, the amount of which, in pounds, shillings, and pence, is a " f i x e d " amount.
4. Whilst from all this it results that all tenants with rents so " fixed " are
in reality subject to a burden that is growing heavier from year to year,
there is, in the case of our Irish tenants, the further point, that, in their case
the state—in other words, the public authority of the country—has felt itself bound to assume the responsibility of regulating the amount of rent, or
of rent charge, which Irish tenants should be called upon to pay, and has,
in regulating it, tied them down for long terms of years, to the payment of
amounts " f i x e d " in pounds, shillings, and pence, no regard being had to the
fact that, as things now stand, an amount so " fixed " represents in reality,
an ever-increasing burden.
5. As appears from the last published report of the Irish land commission, the number of cases in which rents have been fixed by the various
methods within the scope of the commission is now 288,054, with an aggre612
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gate " h x e d " rental of £4,733,262—tlierental in eacliof the 288,054 cases being
fixed for a term of fifteen years.
6. Furthermore, there are considerably more than 20,000 tenant purchasers, with annual charges payable to government—charges '' fixed'' in amount
for forty-nine years, and amounting in the aggregate to little less than half
a million sterling, the result of the purchase of their holdings by tenant
farmers, under the provisions of the land-purchase acts of 1885 and 1891.
7. The gravity of the effect of the recent and continuous "appreciation " of
gold in all such cases of " fixed " annual charges is now openly acknowledged
by statesmen whose testimony in the matter is certainly not open to suspicion.
Money, says Mr. Balfour, the late chief secretary for Ireland, has to serve
not only as a medium of exchange, but also as a "fair and permanent record
of obligations extending over long periods of time." In this requirement,
he goes on to say, "Our existing currency totally andl amentably fails."
The increase of value in our present standard of value he describes as progressing "steadily, continuously, indefinitely." All this, h e - t r u l y says,
"Throws a burden upon every man of enterprise, upon every man who desires
to promot.e the agricultural or the industrial resources of the country, and
benefits no human being whatever but the owner of fixed debts, such, for
instance, as rents." And as he elsewhere puts it, explicitly in reference to
rents and all such annual charges, " w i t h every rise in the value of gold, the
weight of this burden upon the industry of the country increases."
W i l l the Senators from these agricultural States deny the
soundness of the statements of such monometallists as Mr. Giffen? W i l l they be able to convince their constituents that a
blow at silver does not enhance the value of gold, and that the
appreciation of gold does not reduce the price of their products?
I am afraid they c m not. This is the economic principle so well
established as to have become an axiom, and this axiom the people now understand and accept as needless of demonstration.
Shall we turn a deaf ear to their appaals or add another blow to
the already prostrate form of an industry the dearest to the
prosperity of a nation. I appeal to Senators from the South and
from" the West to stand for the protection of their own States,
for our prosperity is linked with silver and the silver States.
Let us make this defense in a manly and courageous manner;
not in the spirit of sectionalism or class legislation; not with a
spirit of hostility to the eastern interests of our country, but in
the spirit of "equal rights to all and special privileges to none."
Endeavor to preserve the landmarks of our fathers and bring
justice and righteousness to a harmonious and free people.
In concluding, Mr. President, let me say that I have tried to
show:
1. The importance to the people of our country of the question now under debate in this body.
2. That the Sherman silver law of 1890 is in no way responsible for the present disturbance in our business interests, but
rather that the money power of America and Europe are crowding the gold standard for the purpose of enhancing the value of
their holdings.
3. The danger to our American liberties of yielding to the
advice and demands of the money power as represented by banking institutions.
4. That the record of the Democratic party has been on the
side of the people in this fight, and that it means the 'wrecking
of the party to change front.
5. That the money of the future will be relieved of intrinsic
value, and will be better than either gold or silver, being b^sed
upon the wealth of the nation.
fi. That we of to-day must deal with gold and silver. This
being the case, we should as a people broaden the base of our
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money system by opening our mints to the free coinage of silver.
7. That as between gold and silver the latter is the more stable measure of our commodities. But all history and testimony
and experience prove that gold is the dishonest dollar, because
it has appreciated in value until it is now worth $1.50.
8. That it is folly to fritter away time and money with an international conference on the question of bimetallism, and that
we must prepare for independent action.
9. That our hope is in looking southwards towards a PanAmerican alliance, and toward a people eager to cooperate with
us.
10. That the present contest is not between a few silver States
and the welfare of our country, but rather the contest of a people
burdened with debt and fast sinking to the condition of the
European laborer, against the aggressions of moneyed corporations.
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