Full text of The Money Question of the 53rd Congress : Silver : Speech of Hon. Thomas J. Hudson of Kansas, Debate in the House of Representatives, v.5, H-Z

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S ILYBE.

SPEECH
OP

HON. THOMAS J. HUDSON,
OF KANSAS,

IN" THE

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES,




SATURDAY, AUGUST 19, 1893.

WASHINGTON.
1893.




S P E E C H
OF

HON. T H O M A S

J. H U D S O N .

The House having under consideration the bill CH. K. 1) to repeal a part of
an act, approved July 14, 1890, entitled "An act directing the purchase of
silver bullion and the issue of Treasury notes thereon, and for other purposes"—

Mr. HUDSON said:

M r . S P E A K E R , A N D GENTLEMEN OF T H E H O U S E OF R E P R E S E N T A T I V E S : I am conscious of the fact that it will appear pre-

sumptuous on my part to occupy the attention of a body containing so many older and abler men, and my only apology for
claiming your attention is the fact that I represent a people as
much entitled to be heard upon this floor as those of any other
district in our common country, and the question now before
this House is of such far-reaching and overshadowing importance to them that I feel that I should be recreant to the trust
confided in me should I remain silent. My only regret is that I
am not better equipped for the discharge of that great responsibility.
It is the first time in the history of our country that the Congress of the United States has been called together in extraordinary session to pass upon a demurrer filed by the Executive
branch against the acts of a former Executive and Congress.
It is a well-established rule of practice that a demurrer leveled
at the answer or pleading of a defendant may be carried over to
the original complaint or initiatory pleading. I therefore propose, Mr. Speaker, to insist upon applying this demurrer to the
so-called Sherman silver-purchasing act, to the act of 1873 demonetizing silver, which was the primary pleading in this case—
the provoking cause of the Sherman law.
The wrong does not begin, sir, with the Sherman law, but
.began with the act of 1873, which stopped the coinage of, and
consequently debased silver.
A skillful patient in treating a patient seeks for the primal
cause of his disease, and, in eradicating that, cures the patient.
Therefore, being called together to prescribe for this dreadful
Sherman act, let us like good physicians dispose of the whole
question by restoring silver to the place it occupied in this Government prior to the 14th day of February, 1873.
The gentleman from Indiana [Mr. BROWN], on the first day of
the debate upon this question, made an able appeal to this House
for a mere surface treatment of our financial trouble, asking us
to ignore for the time being the root of the evil. His plan would
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give us no substantial relief, and would leave us, in my judgment, in a worse condition than we are to-day.
I trust, therefore, that we shall not subject ourselves to the
criticism of having shirked our whole duty. No, sir; the mere
repeal of the purchasing clause of the Sherman law, which is all
that is contained in the bill now before us for consideration, will
not meet the expectations or the demands of the American
people. We should, here and now, either adopt a paper standard
or firmly and positively reestablish bimetallism by giving silver
her old place under our Constitution and laws, equal with gold
at 16 to 1.
The people whom I represent in the Third Kansas district are
farmers and miners,.and those whose interests are directly dependent upon the success of those two industrial classes; and
they know that they want more money; that they must have
more money or lose all the property they now possess, together
with all hope of future success. While they do not believe that
the free coinage of silver will give them the immediate relief
which is now needed, they believe that it will gradually, but certainly, give them more money and better prices; that the unconditional repeal of the silver-purchasing clause of the Sher-.
man act will decrease the volume of the currency by reason of
the holders of the coin certificates issued under that act taking
them to the Treasury and demanding and receiving gold for them,
and result in their ultimate retirement from circulation and the
checking of the further issue of such notes.
Give us free coinage of silver and the silver miners will at once
resume work, and as fast as bullion is taken out it will be taken
to the mint by the miners, coined for them, put in circulation by
them in the purchase of food and clothing and in supplying their
general demands, thereby rapidly increasing the volume of currency in the country, stimulating labor and prices everywhere,
giving employment to the idle and unenfployed, and bringing
back to the country the prosperous times of 1873.
We are told by the gold-stardird advocates that it is not more
money that we need, but more confidence. I hope they will
permit me to say to them, without any intention on my part to
be humorous, that if they will give us their money" we will
give them our confidence. We have been confiding in them for
twenty years and have constantly grown poorer, and the prices
of our labor and our products have steadily gone down, with a
spasmodic exception here and there.
Confidence without money has deprived tens of thousands of
people of their homes, of their property, and of their employment. The gold advocates have maligned and slandered our
people through ignorance or malice, the result being the same
to us, and charged us with dishonesty in not paying our debts,
the interest and principal of mortgages held by them, thoughtlessly assuming that our people were giving up their homes and
all they had of this world's goods as a mere pastime, or for the
simple enjoyment of hearing the complaints of the mortgage
holders.
No people on earth are more intelligent, industrious, or honest,
as a whole, than the people of Kansas; and all this talk and
newspaper twaddle about the people of Kansas suddenly becom75




5
ing law-breakers, anarchists, and criminals is the outgrowth of
mendacity and want of information. Can any man possessed of
reasonable decency expect an intelligent farmer to remain docile with wheat selling at 35 cents, oats at 13 cents per bushel,
cattle and horses at less than one-half that which they sold for
in 1873, and all other products at about the same ratio—all at
less than the cost of production, with here and there a nominal
exception—with land constantly falling in jjrice, while bonds,
mortgages, interest, and taxes retain all their elephantine proportions ?
Will you be kind enough, my gold-standard friends, to tell me
how, under such conditions, our people can pay their debts (the
securities held by you), their taxes, educate their children, and
provide their families with the comforts of life? No, sirs; they
are losing their homes, shortening the terms of their schools,
buying fewer manufactured articles, and buying less and less of
the necessities of life, not because they want to do so, but because
they must.,
t
There is not a supporter of the single standard in the United
States, or all Europe, that would suffer as patiently the injustice
that has been done them as the people of Kansas, and of the
West, and of the South. Instead of being maligned and reviled,
as they have been, they should receive applause for their moderation. But, sirs, this condition can not continue much longer.
We must have relief, and that speedily, or the mutterings that
you have heard from the West and the South will break forth
so loud that they can be heard not only in Wall street but at
Buzzards Bay.
Men recklessly tell us that we are extravagant, and yet these
same men would sneer at the cheap clothing and coarse fare of
our Western and Southern farmers and laborers, and of their
wives and children—and their sensibilities would be terribly
shocked if they were compelled to so dress and live. Our farmers* wives, many of them intelligent and well qualified to grace
any station in life, are compelled not only, to do their own household work and care for their children, but also to go into the field
and aid their husbands in farm work, or in taking care of the
stock, and a great majority of them are wholly debarred from
the time or opportunity to read and cultivate their minds, or
otherwise enjoy the amenities of social life.
In the senseless abuse of our people their traducers frequently
say that they do not work enough, and then, when driven from
that assertion, they say that our want of good prices is brought
about wholly by overproduction. In other words, we work too
little and produce too much. What a masterpiece of logic!
These charges are untrue and wholly unjust.
The whole truth of the matter is that there is not money
enough in the country to give profitable employment to our people and enable us to pay our debts and live. Those who growl
about our people in the West failing to meet their expectations
remind me of a circumstance that occurred when I was in Montana some years ago. Some highwaymen or "road agents," as
they were called there, held up a miner at the outskirts of Virginia City, and on examining his pockets they found only $5,
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which they relieved him of, and then kicked him soundly because
he had no more.
I do not expect paid newspapers to stop abusing Kansas and
the people of the West, although every word I have uttered can
easily be verified by any honest investigator. If they told the
truth about us, like Othello, " they would lose their occupation,"
and yet, strange to say, nearly every one of these maligners of
our Western people are advocates of"a gold standard, and doing
all they can to take away from us more than half of the money
which we now have.
Every step we take widens the space between the holders of
gold and gold-bearing securities and those who must pay. We
must pay all our debtsfinallywith labor and its products. Silver
and farm products are all that America can rely upon. The only
leverage we have left us to prevent our creditors from absorbing
our property is silver, and that is why they are so clamorous
against it. Will some supporter of the gold theory please tell
us how we are to get the gold of Europe unless we increase our
trade with her and have something to buy her gold with? Do
they suppose, or do they expect the people to believe, that gold
will flow to this country simply because we favor it? Do they
regard gold as a sensate being or a cupid to be won by smiles?
Shylock wanted his pound of flesh, but the gold advocates
want three pounds where their bonds call for but one, as $1 will
now purchase three times as much of the products of the farm
and mines as a dollar would at the time our debts were contracted. The holders of the securities say that it is not our
fault, and blandly reply that we want our contracts fulfilled to
the letter, and we say, " grant i t ; " but while you demand the
fulfillment of our contract, we demand-that you accept without
complaint the kind of money we contracted to pay you.
The foundation of all wealth, of all business, and of every industry in this country is farming and mining. Consequently,
when we get b .ck to the base, the farmers and miners must pay
all debts and all interest, and a burden of any kind c.^stupon this
nation or upcn any of its people ultimately reaches the farmers
and miners, and they are the greatest sufferers. The American
silver mines are now producing $75,000,000 coin value of silver.
Close the silver mines (and that is what a gold standard means),
and the farmers and miners must not only make up that $75,000,000 lost to us, but must supply the 225,000 miners and those
dependent upon them with the necessities of life, and have their
farm products further depreciated by the loss of the silver, and
the further increase of farm products put upon a falling market,
should these miners go into the farming business, as they are
advised to do by some of the gold advocates. On the other
hand, the miner would be compelled to engage in a business of
which he knows nothing, his wages would be decreased by more
than one-half, and discontent and crime would have thrifty
growth among them.
In the face of all this, where is the boasted protection to
American labor? Abandoned by the men who so eloquently advocated it a few years ago, while confidence on the part of the
workingmen in their sincerity, has vanished like mist before
the morning sun. They say truthfully that your talk about pro75




7
tecting the American laborer was simply for the purpose of misleading him and thereby catching his vote, and I warn you that
this bait will not catch him again. In the language of Lincoln—

You can fool all of the people some of the time, and some of the people all
the time, hut you can not fool all the people all the time.

I may be old-fashioned and out of date, but I believe that under the Constitution and laws of this country the rights of the
poorest farmer and most destitute miner are just as sacred and
entitled to just as much consideration as the rights of the men
who manipulate " Wall street," corner our money, and declare
a panic at their sweet will.
SHERMAN L A W .

I believe, and am not alone in that belief, that had the Secretary of the Treasury given a fair interpretation to the Sherman
law silver would to-day be on a par with gold at 16 to 1. Immediately after the passage of the act silver went up all over
the world; but the Secretary of the Treasury was opposed to silver and at once began to construe the law unfriendly to the white
metal, and systematically did all he could to disgrace and degrade it, and that plan is followed to-day by those charged with
the execution of the law.
You ask us to save ourselves from national dishonor, to give
our creditors more than the contract, to give them gold only,
when we have the right to p^y in either gold or silver, and you
ask our people to do this at a time when our products are lower
in the market even than silver. You ask us to wipe out $70,000,000 annually of our money, and to throw out of employment immediately 250,000 miners. You ask us to cut off five-sevenths of
our money metal supply at a time when all business and industries all over this land are prostrate.
Let me suggest to you, my Democratic friends, and to you, my
Republican friends, that unless you now renounce the single
standard heresy and honestly stand by the silver dollar, the
money of the^ laboring and industrial classes, you may write
" closed out" in big letters on your banners.
The temper of the people is not to be mistaken for party pride,
and empty promises will not deceive them any longer.
This sham nonsense of an honest dollar for labor and for the
workingman has grown stale, and he knows that it means for
him no dollar at all.
The people want silver dollars, and they want to see them and
feel them. No more confidence'for them, but dollars—dollars
that always supply their needs when they have them. Confidence will not supply homes, clothing, or food. There can be
no confidence in business without money or property. Confidence alone is like unto nothing. Confidence and nothing as a
copartnership is bankruptcy already. Give us money, more of
it, at least $50 per capita, and confidence will be at once restored.
Gold-standard men say, " How will you get it in circulation? "
1 reply, "Just as any other money is put in circulation." 44 If it
does not get into circulation, why do you object to it? " " I t can
not possibly hurt you or your foreign abettors." " It is because
it will get into circulation that you oppose it."
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L A W MAKES MONEY-

W h a t is gold? A metal, an insensate thing, without action or
power.
Clothe it in the royal robe of the law and it springs upright
into active life, moves the commerce of all nations, employs all
labor, controls the tastes and passions of men, mars or gives victory to all human hope and endeavor, and, in fact, like a mighty
magician with magic wand, moves the world.
W h a t quality is it, then, that exercises this almost omnipotent influence? Certainly not the cold, lifeless gold. No, sir.
It is the law which sustains the same relation to the metal that
life, the soul, does to the human body.
Gold is petted, praised, pushed by 44 Wall street," by England
and other European nations, and by the executive branch of our
Government, while silver is slandered, abused, and spurned, and
yet some weak-minded people wonder that silver does not hold
its own with gold.
Silver, clothed in the same robe, would be equally powerful,
command the same respect, and exercise the same influence.
Those who attack silver, on this floor and elsewhere, are not
only illogical, but have not carefully read the history of money;
or, if they have, they have forgotten its teachings. I find the
following in Appleton's Encyclopedia, which is an acknowledged authority of the very highest character:
Money Is the currency of the realm or of the country; the standard of pay*
ment, whether of coins, circulating notes, or any other commodity. Anything which freely circulates from hand to hand, as a common, acceptable
medium of exchange in any country, is in such country money, even though
it cease to be such, or to possess any value, in passing into another country.
In a word, any article is determined to be money by reason of the performance by it of certain functions, without regard to its form or substance.
Money has been termed by Mr. Henry C. Cary "the instrument of association," and the same writer has said of it that it is "a saving fund for labor,
because it facilitates association and combination, giving utility to billions
of millions of minutes that would be wasted did not a demand exist for them
at the moment the power to labor had been produced." BaronS torch terms
money u the marvelous instrument to which we are indebted for our wealth
and civilization." Mr. Thorold Rogers has said: "Just as the development
of language is essential to the intellectual growth of a people, so is a medium of exchange to civilization." Aristotle says of it, "that it exists not
by nature, but by law."
How true is this doctrine, or, at least, how potent is the law under a civilized government in imparting the quality of acceptability for the payment
of debts and the purchase of commodities to that which it recognizes as
money, is .clearly proved by the operations of the Bank of Venice during several centuries; throughout which time its deposits, which were never payable, but only transferable on the books of the bank, were at a premium
over coins, because they were the standard of payment furnished by the state
and used for all large transactions. Indeed, this bank money was that which
established the money of account, and in which the value of all coins was
expressed. Further, on the testimony of Thomas Baring, we are assured
that it was found impossible during the crisis of 1847 in London to raise any
money whatever on a sum of £60,000 of silver.
During a similar crisis in Calcutta in 1864 it was equally impossible to raise
even a single rupee on £20,000 of gold. The former was not a legal tender
above 40 shillings, while the latter was not so for any sum whatever. About
1855 Holland adopted silver as the only legal tender at a fixed value, but attempted to coin gold coins having no such value, this only being regulated
by the market price from day to day. After 200,000florins(about 880,000) had
been coined the demand entirely ceased.
Some gentleman possessed of a poetical imagination, more accustomed to the drama than practical everyday life, says with
a theatrical flourish, " I want an honest dollar, one worth a hun75




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dred cents in gold, and good in Europe." This remarkable apostrophy seems to furnish the opponents of silver a battle cry . Let
us examine these cabalistic words; they possess no real significance.- There is no dollar containing a hundred cents, or honest
dollar, ok-dollar made by the United States that is good in Europe.
Three marine leagues from our shore every coin of the United
States of gold or silver is bullion, a commodity, nothing more,
unless some European state (and I know of none such) has by law
made our coin a legal tender. The word " cents " has no signification in Europe as applied to money, and none in the United
States except as established by law. Mountains of forensic
eloquence have been wasted in the effort to prove that the Constitution of the United States does not confer upon Congress the
power to say what shall constitute a dollar unless the thing mentioned by it is worth a dollar as a commodity.
I propose, Mr. Speaker, for a short time to discuss the legal
meaning of the word *4 dollar." The Constitution of the United
States declares, Article I, section 8, clause 5, "That Congress
shall have the power to coin money, regulate the value thereof,
and of foreign coin to fix the standard of weights and measures,"
and in section 10, " N o State shall coin money, emit bills of
credit, make anything but gold and silver a tender in payment
of debts."
Stripped of all sophistry this is a plain and direct declaration
that whatever Congress declares to be money, no matter what
the commodity value may be, that declaration fixes its money
value. It is claimed by theorists of the gold standard persuasion that the words ''regulate the value thereof" means that
Congress shall ascertain its value and then declare what it is,
but in the same sentence the Constitution also provides that
Congress shall have the power to regulate, not ascertain, the
value of foreign coin. The men who framed the Constitution of
the United States understood our language, and wrote vigorous
English, and had they intended to say "ascertain the value of
domestic and foreign coin " they would undoubtedly have done
so, and I submit that any man of ordinary intelligence who
wishes honestly-to ascertain what the framers of the Constitution meant by the words "regulate the value thereof " can have
no trouble in arriving at a clear-cut conclusion.
The word "regulate," as used in the Constitution, clearly
means to adjust, to fix, to establish, to direct precisely as Congress shall will, and the power to coin money granted to Congress by the Constitution is unlimited; but belongs to Congress
alone and can not be delegated. It would be next to impossible
to use clearer or stronger language, and as applied to gold and
silver the true intent and meaning of the Constitution has never
been seriously questioned until recently.
Aristotle, the great Greek philosopher and lawgiver, who
flourished about 325 B. C., and who taught Alexander the Great,
in speaking of money, says " that it exists not by nature, but by
law." But why argue this question? If there is anything settled beyond all cavil by the decisions of the courts, it is that
Congress, under the Constitution, has power to coin money and
to fix the value of it, without regard to the market value of the
substance of which it is made.
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The supreme court of Pennsylvania, in 52d Pennsylvania State,
page 36, says:
To regulate the value is to declare by proclamation or statute the value of
the coin as a currency, and thus essentially, if not necessarily, make it a legal tender in payment of debts.
The court of appeals of New York, the home of " W a l l street,' 1
in 27th New York Court of Appeals, page 459, uses the following
language:
It is the lawful money of the United States only (made such by its authority) that can be effectually used for payment of debts, without reference to
the intrinsic value of the thing tendered or paid.
For those who care to look it up, I cite the following cases,
which are to like effect: Taylor vs. Robinson, 34 Federal R e ports, page 681; 47 Wisconsin, page 557 ; 13 Wallace, page 6^4;
8 Wallace, pages 603 and 639; 12 Wallace, page 457; 14 Wallace,
page 297 ; 15 Wallace, page 195; 38 Missouri, page 658; 25 New
Hampshire, page 434; 27 New York, page 400; 69 Illinois, page
70; 39 Vermont, page 46, and a great many other decisions too
numerous to mention here, hold that the power of Congress is
complete to say what shall constitute a dollar.
The Supreme Court of the United States, in 12 Wallace, page
445. says:
It was designed to provide the same currency, having a uniform legal valufe
in all the States. It was for this reason the power to coin money and regulate its value was conferred upon the Federal Government, while the same
Xjower, as well as the power to emit bills of credit, was withdrawn from the
States. The States can no longer declare what shall be money or regulate its value. Whatever power there is over the currency is vested in Confress. If the power to declare what is money is not in Congress, it is anniilated. » # *
Even the advocates of a strict literal construction of the phrase, " to coin
money and regulate the value thereof,'1 while insisting that It defines the material to be corned as metal, are compelled to concede to Congress large discretion in all other particulars. The Constitution does not ordain what
metals may be coined, or prescribe that the legal value of the metals when
coined shall correspond at ail with their intrinsic value in the market. Confessedly the power to regulate the value of money coined, and of foreign
coins, is not exhausted by thefirstregulation. More than once in our history
has the regulation been changed, without any denial of the power of Congress to change it, and it seems to have been left to Congress to determine
alike what metal shall be coined, its purity, and how far its statutory value,
as money, shall correspond from time to time with the market value of the
same metal as bullion. * * *
But the obligation of a contract to pay money is to pay that which the
law shall recognize as money when the payment is to be made. If there is
anything settled by decision it is this, and we do not understand it to be
controverted. No one ever doubted that a debt of $1,000 contracted before
1834 could be paid by one hundred eagles coined after that year, though
they contained no more gold than ninety-four eagles, such as were coined
when the contract was made, and this, not because of the intrinsic value of
the coin, but because of its legal value. The eagles coined after 1834 were
not money until they were authorized by law, and had they been coined
before without a law fixing their legal value, they could no more have paid
a debt than uncoined bullion, or cotton, or wheat.
As I have said there is no such thing as an honest dollar.
There is not now, and never has been, a dollar coined which was
made by law or was in fact a standard of value. Value has no
standard, it is an ideal thing; it is like faith or hope, intangible.
Therefore, when the words "honest dollar" are used they
must mean a legal dollar; if they do not mean a legal dollar the
expression is senseless.
If legal dollar is meant, the silver dollar is legal, therefore
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honest. The silver dollar is a representation of value made so
by law.
In the legal-tender cases, 12 Wallace, page 553, the Supreme
Court of the United States says:

It is hardly correct to speak of s standard of values- The Constitution
C
does not speak of it. It contemplates a standard for that which has gravity
for extension: hut value is an ideal thing. The coinage acts fix its unit as a
dollar; hut the gold or silver thing we call a dollar is, in no sense, a standard of a dollar. It is a representative of it.

Speaking of the idea that gold was a fixed standard of values,
Archbishop Walsh, to whom I shall hereafter refer, says:

The popular notion, then, of the sovereign or pound sterling constituting
afixedstandard of value is merely a popular delusion.
The sole foundation for that delusion manifestly is that in these countries
the values of all commodities are commonly stated in terms of the pound
sterling. * * *
The natural result of this method of expressing the values of commodities
other than gold, is that, when prices rise or fall, the impression is conveyed
to a superficial observer that it is the value of all other things that changes,
the value of the sovereign remaining fixed.
DEMAND FOB MORE MONET.

There are 1,503,000,000 of people on this globe, probably more.
The total amount of gold money is $3,600,000,000, and the supply
of gold is rapidly decreasing.
Scientific investigation proves that a gold piece in constant
circulation is destroyed in twenty years.
Increasing commerce, developments, inventions, civilization,
are each and all rapidly expanding the demand for money. The
cry is going up to-day in every nation and among all people for
more money, and only a few here and there, not to exceed 3 psr
cent—the very rich and their attorneys—are resisting that demand; but the few are powerful because they possess the wealth
and have a mortgage on the 97 per cent.
All kinds of fallacies are put forth, published, and repeated in
behalf of gold; their name is legion. Among others it is claimed
that the world is now at a gold standard—this in face of the fact
that the last report of the Census Bureau, No. 1,1892-1893, on
imports, exports, etc., but recently issued, page 184, shows that
of the gold and silver of the world there is of gold stock $3,656,935,000, while there is a full legal tender of silver of $3,401,100,000,
and limited tender $543,600,000, making the total of silver money
in use $3,944,700,000, or $300,000,000 more of silver money in use
than the entire stock of gold.
Thus it will be seen that of silver and gold combined there is
sufficient to furnish only $5 per capita if all in circulation. Drop
silver and we have only $2.40 per capita. No economic writer
has ever- up to this time had the hardihood to assert that there
was money enough in circulation to properly supply the business
demands of the world, and almost without exception it is agreed
that there is not sufficient money in existence to properly Bupply
the demand.
Every intelligent person knows that by adopting a gold standard our debts will necessarily be increased and prolonged, necessitating the payment, of vast interest. Interest is what our
creditors want. We want to pay them the principal. This is
good sense and good financial policy; let us use every resource
at our command to pay our debts, including every dollar in silver that we can get.
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We are told that we fail now because we borrowed too much,
and owe too much; that we ought not to have borrowed so much.
Suppose this to be true. Is that any reason why this Congress,
elected by the people, should add to our burdens by depriving
us of more than half the means of paying our debts? Wall street
banks are here asking relief for their own acts and their own
mistakes, for doing business on confidence and not on capital. It
is said that we want a sound money as a basis. A gold standard
places this Government absolutely at the mercy of its creditors.
Our European creditors could call now—on present outstanding
securities—for every dollar of gold in this country.
Are we not as a nation doing a far more reckless business than
the people of the West ever did? It is proposed to adopt a gold
standard at a time when we owe $50 for every dollar of gold we
possess—placing ourselves in the hands of our creditors and the
great money centers, giving to them the power to put up the
price of gold at will, and absolutely bankrupt all business and all
industry.
Does not common sense and common honesty toward our own
people require us to protect their interests by standing by our
legal right to pay all our debts in silver? If for no other reason
we should stand by silver until we have paid our debts—at least
every debt which we can legally pay with it—and we should do
this at the present standard.
It is claimed, Mr. Speaker, that only the mining States are interested in this question, and I notice that some of the Wall
street pictorial p ipers, Puck, I believe, has a big dog, a very
proper illustration of this gold-standard idea, with a small tail.
The tail is labeled "Pour silver States," and the body of the
animal is labeled "All the rest of the States." The illustration
would have been much more apt and truthful with a small weasel
head labeled " Gold standard," and all the rest of the body, tail
and all, labeled " Free silver."
Gentlemen say that they do not see how it can affect the agricultural States, and I am asked, "How can it affect Kansas?"
Let me illustrate. Let us suppose that the State of Kansas is
indebted to the Eastern and foreign holders, $300,000,000; the
sum is greater, sir, and that the amount of interest that sum is
drawing annually is at least 7 per cent. Ten years ago wheat
was worth a dollar a bushel in Kansas, and had in fact been above
that figure almost continuously since the war. The interest on
three hundred millions at 7 per cent would be $21,000,000. Ten
years ago 21,000,000 bushels of wheat would have paid that interest.
Now,.sir, wheat is only worth 40 cents per bushel, but the interest remains unchanged. Therefore, it requires 52,500,000
bushels of wheat to pay that interest. Three hundred million
bushels of wheat would have paid the principal ten years ago
or previous to that time, but now it requires 750,000,000 bushels
of wheat to pay that debt. Kansas is an agricultural State, almost pure and simple, and she can from no discovered process
become any thing else for generations. ThefiguresI have given
you regarding wheat holds good with almost every other product
of the farm and of the State. Not only that, but the enormous
drain upon our resources to pay our interest necessarily compels us to increase our debt.
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Taxes throughout the State average over 3 per cent, and all
this great tax upon the energies of our people to pay interest
and taxes which I have mentioned, is sapping life and hope.
There is in the decline of prices absolutely no prospect of the redemption of this great debt. All the earnings must go to pay
interest, and that interest pays no taxes or tribute to the State
of Kansas, and leaves but little to defray the constantly increasing
burden of tax necessary to carry on our State and municipal governments. And what is true, sir, of Kansas is substantially
true of all the agricultural States. It is useless to tell the people of the agricultural States that it makes no difference to them
whether we have a gold standard and less money, or whether we
have the combined standard and more money.
As I have said, our people want to pay their debts, want to
relieve themselves of these enormous burdens, but in order to
do this they must have more money that must be accepted by
our creditors. We will be satisfied when the volume of money
is so increased that wheat will again be restored, on the average,
to a dollar a bushel, and we will be satisfied with nothing less.
The mining States will not suffer as much by the adoption of
a gold standard as will the agricultural people, because they are
not so heavily indebted, and & their mining interest is closed out
they have the consolation of knowing that they owe nothing.
From a financial standpoint the people of the agricultural
States must have a larger currency, or absolute bankruptcy awaits
them in the near future, and this bankruptcy will recoil upon our
creditors because they will be compelled to take our lands inpayment of our debts, and put tenant farmers on them. This will result in negligence of the interests of the landowners, decay of
improvements and falling off in the value of the lands, and the
burden of local taxation will then begin to "be felt and understood by them, and the history of Ireland will be repeated in the
valley of the Mississippi.
This, sir, is not an idle vision. I have recently examined
with much interest a pamphlet prepared by the Most Reverend
Dr. Walsh, archbishop of Dublin, entitled " Bimetallism and
Monometallism: What they are, and how they bear upon the
Irish land question." Archbishop Walsh is now recognized as
one of the most learned and conscientious men in the great
church to which he belongs, and it is further well said of him
that there is no man living who has at heart the interest of the
common people of Ireland to a greater extent than he, and after
a careful and thorough investigation of the question, bringing
to bear upon the subject all his vast learning and splendid
ability , he felt compelled to advise the Irish ^people not to attempt to purchase the farms upon which they live, under the
land laws adopted by England in recent years, because of the
constantly and necessarily falling prices of their products on account of the gold standard now sought to be forced upon the
civilized world by the English Government.
From the examination of the Archbishop by the English Commission, I quote:
Q. The connection, your Grace, between bimetallism and the Irish land
Question does not seem very close?
A. (By the Archbishop). Yet nothing could be closer. The adoption of
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"bimetallism, or of some equivalent remedy, if there be an equivalent remedy,
Is, I am convinced, a matter of Imperative necessity; that is, if the agricul*
tural tenants of Ireland—and I do not at all limit this to Ireland—are to be
saved from otherwise inevitable rain.
It is transparently obvious to everyone who has mastered even the elementary facts and principles of the case. But it is disheartening tofindthat,
notwithstanding all this, no interest seems to be taken in this grave question
by many of the leaders of Irish opinion.
If things go on as they are, even the excellent land-purchase scheme which
is associated with the name of Lord Ashbourne may become, before many
years are over, a source of widespread disaster to the tenants who have purchased under It.

And a little further on the archbishop goes on to say:

The principle of the monometailists seems to be that things must become
agreat deal worse before they can become any better. • * * At all events,
they have no practical remedy to propose.

And at page 11 the archbishop continues:

It is indisputably plain that the Irish tenants who have the misfortune to
have their rents fixed " for terms of fifteen years, under the land act of
1881—and, much more so, the Irish tenant purchasers, who have the misfortune to find themselves saddled with the obligation of making annual payments " fixed " for forty-nine years—are simply slipping down an inclined
plane, with bankruptcy awaiting them at the bottom of it.

At page 30 the archbishop continues:
Monometallism, as we have it in Great Britain and Ireland, in Germany,
and in so many other countries, tends to raise the value of gold, thereby favoring the interests of the capitalists, the interest of all those who have
command of gold—money lenders and the like—favoring all such persons at
the expense of the general community, and favoring also the interests of all
creditors, the interests of all who have a claim to receive afixedmoney payment from others, favoring these at the expense of their unfortunate debtors.

The archbishop then goes on to show by statistics that when
England only had adopted a gold standard the commercial
world was but little influenced thereby, and silver was not cast
down as compared with gold until other European nations and
the United States, in 1873, adopted a gold standard. At that
time the disastrous effect of the gold craze began to make itself
manifest, and has continued to grow in importance and increased ruin to the borrowers of money, until now the intelligent people of the world are beginning to understand the monstrous crime that has been perpetrated against them in the effort
to wipe out more than half of the money of the world. But in
the face of all the history of the last twenty years, monometailists still insist with a dogged resistance that gold has not gone
up, but that everything else has gone down.
Suppose we admit for a moment, Mr. Speaker, that their theory
is correct. Upon our side we know that it is not; tha effect is precisely the same upon the business interests of this country and of
the world. That is, that the holder and controller of gold is enriched, while the creditor and the business interests of the country are correspondingly burdened. The necessary result of this
increased value of gold is to increase every existing obligation
to pay a fixed amount of dollars.
Therefore, sir, if, in the language of Horace White, " We are
not called upon to legislate for the debtor classes," let us, to say
the least, not legislate against them, and increase their already
too heavy burden.
I propose to add to my remarks a few tables of figures, showing that silver has not gone down in value, notwithstanding the
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legislation of Europe and America against it, any more rapidly
in its commodity value than the average products of labor
throughout the world.
A PERMANENT CURRENCY,

The President says, and the gold-standard men say, and bimetallists say, and we all say, that we want a permanent and
st ible currency, and we all agree that Congress has the power to
establish that currency. For some years prior to 1792, when the
first coinage act was passed, a general discussion h id been going
on among the founders of our Republic, and an earnest effort was
made by the ablest men of that day—and no one will maintain
that they have ever been surpassed in this country for ability todo precisely what we now claim we should do—Jefferson and
Hamilton taking the leading parts. Finally it was agreed between those great men and thos eassociated with them, uninfluenced by England or Wall street, but acting for the best interests
of all, that both gold and silver should be coined in the United
States at a ratio then fixed.
At that time there were no great security holders clamoring
for a gold standard and a high price dollar, nor extensive silver
mine owners demanding that silver receive special consideration. But these men, uninfluenced by any motive except the
future development of the prosperity and grandeur of the young
Republic, at whose christening they had stood godfather, decided on a bimetallic standard, and that bimetallic standard
stood the test of eighty-one years without wronging or injuring
anyone, and would be standing to-day as a monument of their
wisdom and patriotism but for the fact that during the la te war an
immense debt was saddled upon the people of this country, and
the holders of that debt, although a small yet a compact an d skillful body, desired to increase the value of their holdings, not by
the usual laws' of trade, not in the ordinary and fair dealing
methods, but through acts of the American Congress; and, among
other unjust and wrongful acts, they procured the passage of the
law in 1S73, known as t;the demonetization of silver" law, and
from that day to this, sir, they have with organized, systematic,
and skillful effort, through the mighty power of untold wealth,
labored to maintain that law.
They knew then and they know now that by that legislative
act and other acts procured by them the purchasing power of
their securities was more than doubled, consequently the burdens laid upon the shoulders of the industrial people of the
United States were necessarily more than doubled, and I am, sir,
astonish 3d to find the Chief Executive of this nation and a large
number of distinguished gentlemen, who owe all they have and
are to the industrial people, standing up before all the world today and insisting upon a perpetuation of the advantages gained
by that act over the masses by the rich few.
'
Contemplating these wrongs and the position taken by quite
a respectable number of distinguished citizens, I am led to exclaim, "Can this be America? Can we be the descendants of
the Revolutionary fathers? Can this be the boasted land of
liberty, and of equal rights to all?" And I can not refrain from
the sad reflection that, notwithstanding our boasted Christian
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intelligence, we are following in the footsteps of the great majority of empires that have heretofore sprung into existence, flourished, and fallen, almost universally fallen through corruption
in high places and injustice on the part of the rulers toward the
people.
Let us, sir, to-day, at this extra session of Congress, call a
halt, and do our best to restore as far as we may, under our Constitution and laws, to the masses, to the yeomanry, and to all the
people the rights which have been so unjustly taken from them;
and in doing that, as a first step, let us wipe from the statute
books all patchwork on the silver question and restore this country to the bimetallism which existed prior to the 14th day of
February, 1873. Bo this, and generations to come, whose tiny
feet have not yet touched the shores of time, will praise and
bless^ the patriotism of this Congress.
It is charged, sir, upon this floor, and in newspapers and magazines throughout the country, that the representatives and
people of the silver-mining States and Territories are unjustly
trying to compel this Government to buy their silver at an exorbitant price for their own selfish interests and gain.
The State that I partially represent produces no silver; therefore I think I may answer these charges from an impartial standpoint. I have mingled with the people of the mining States
very extensively, and I have never yet heard the demand urged
by them, or any of them, that the Government buy their products. On the contrary, sir, all they have ever asked, or are asking now, is that silver be restored to its right of free coinage as
it existed at the time they settled and begun to develop those
States and Territories, and this they have a right to insist upon,
and only those who prefer England and Europe, and our creditors, to the. people of these States and Territories, are objecting
to their claims.
It is universally admitted in works of political economy that
any such thing as a commodity with absolute stability of value
is unattainable.
The most important characteristic of a good monetary standard is that it should preserve comparative stability of value.
The principal reason why, of the multitude of commodities that
have been used for the material of money at different times,
gold and silver has survived as thefittest,is because their great
durability renders the total stock extremely large compared
with the annual supply, and thus eliminates one element of instability of value. Another special advantage of gold and silver
for monetary purposes is that both the weight and purity of the
coins made from them may be easily ascertained.
Only fools believe, or can be made to believe, that gold never
f^lls in price or value as a commodity; and even when coined in
money, that it does not change in value.
If the world's stock of gold should^un low every man of ordinary intelligence understands that' the price of gold would go
up, not that other commodities or labor would go down.
As I have stated, there can be no absolute standard of value.
Value is a sliding scale and Changes according to the demand of
each and every particular commodity, even though that commodity may be money itself.
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The immense production of gold in California was of great benefit to the human race, not because the gold was needed, but because it was generally accepted as a money standard. I use the
word "money" standard distinct from "value" standard. Money
was needed throughout the world, and the price of commodities
and wages went up everywhere because of the discovery of gold
in California and Australia. Inventions, improvements, and civilization leaped into new life, and progressed more in fifty years
after the discovery of gold in those two countries than it had for
a hundred and fifty years previous thereto.
Money and plenty of it is the spirit of all enterprise, of all commerce, and of all development, and no people at any time in the
world's history, with a small circulation of money, have ever
progressed to any considerable extent.
Adopt a universal gold standard with the small amount of gold
that there is now in the world and you place gold absolutely beyond the reach of the many, clip the wings of commerce, close institutions of learning and churches, stop inventions, and reverse
the hand of civilization on the world's dial plate and cause it to
run backward instead of forward.
Every gentleman who has discussed this question upon this
floor, without exception, I believe, admits that we need more
money, that we ought to increase the volume of our currency, In
fact, the gold standard men are here asking us to issue bonds
with which to buy gold, and the bankers of New York are issuing
illegal clearing-house certificates to take the place of money. The
universal cry is going up all over the civilized world for a larger
circulating medium, and the man would be reckless, indeed, who
would say to the American people that we have too much money
to-day, or even that we have enough.
How then are we to increase our circulating medium? The
answer of the gold standard men is logically, whatever words
they may desire to answer in, " by cutting off more than half of
the supply." In other words, in order to increase the supply,
cut off the production.
In some of the Western States crops can only he produced by
irrigation, and even the gold standard men in the United States
would regard the farmer who must irrigate his farm as a very
foolish man, who would during the dry season of the year, and
when his crops most need a supply of moisture, cut off more than
half of the water which was obtainable; or having two streams
flowing into his ditch turned the larger one adrift. And likewise would they deem a man foolish who had a house that was
not sufficiently ventilated, who for the purpose of improving the
ventilation would close half the windows and doors.
I was astonished the other day to hear the distinguished gentleman from Ohio [Mr. H A R T E R ] say:
I want to say right here, lest I should overlook it later, that if we had
never had the Bland-Allison act, nor the act of 1890, sometimes called the
Sherman act, the circulating medium of this country would to-day be over
two billions of dollars, and a very large part of it would be in gold coin.

I thought, Mr. Speaker, at the time the gentleman made that
declaration that he was jesting, but I afterwards, in private conversation with him, ascertained that he was in real earnest.
What a remarkable proposition! What is there to support it?
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If we had two thousand millions of gold in the United States, all
the rest of the civilized world would only have one billion six
hundred millions, and think of the desperate condition of the
rest of the human race, if, as he contends, gold is the only honest money.
History does not bear out Mr. H A R T E R ' S proposition. England, conceded to be the wealthiest of all nations, has had a gold
standard for seventy years, with the rest of the world most of
the time using either a silver or bimetallic standard. Not only
that; she is the creditor of the nations which deal with her to
the extent of $10,000,000,000. So says Mr. Gladstone, and yet, with
all those advantages in her favor, she only has $18 per capita in
circulation, and that not all in gold.
I was curious to know, Mr. Speaker, upon what theory the distinguished gentleman arrived at his conclusions, and I learned
that he based them on the trade balance in our favor for the last
twenty years taken in the aggregate. But, Mr. Speaker, that
proposition does not hold good, for during those twenty years
we have exported silver in excess o! our imports to the gross
amount of $290,000,000. Even last year, when the balance of trade
was largely against us, we exported in excess of our imports
over $14,000,000 of silver.
Sir, a few years ago our Western people were told that what
they needed was protection, that the McKinley bill was the-goose
that would lay golden eggs for all of us. What was the result?
We got the goose, but we never got'the eggs. In the year 1892.
as shown by the Treasurer's report just issued, we exported
$99,000,000 worth less of breadstuff's, $70,000,000 less of cotton, and
$10,000,000 less of animals than for the year 1891. In round numbers, of farm products alone we exported $200,000,000 less in 1892
than we did in 1891, and we sold what we did export at less prices,
instead of increased prices.
Now let us see, on the other hand, if we made that up in the
increased sale of manufactured articles. I find, on examination
of the same report, that we did not; that the increased sale of
manufactured articles, if any, was merely nominal, not to exceed $10,000,000.
Now, sir, while I do not charge all this loss to the demonetization of silver by European nations, and partial demonetization
upon the part of our own Government^ yet the fact remains that
ever since the demonetization of silver Europe has been paying
less prices for our products, and the price of our products on the
average has gone down in the European market more rapidly as
a whole than silver has gone down.
I find, sir, in the July number of the Annals of the American
Academy of Science, published in Philadelphia, an article by
Prof. Lotz, of the University of Munich, a gold standard' advocate, and in that article he admits that the demonetization of
silver in Germany caused a great falling off in price of German
products in Germany, and he also admits that the landowners
of Germany are just as much opposed to the gold standard as are
the landowners and laboring people of the United States, In
fact, sir, I challenge the attention of this House and of the country to the fact that wherever silver has been demonetized by any
nation or people it has resulted in an immediate falling off of the
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price of labor and of the products of the soil, and that it is not
the farmers or laboring class of any civilized country that has
demanded a single standard, but everywhere, and at all times,
it has been the bankers and money-lenders, and the wealthy.
In the face'of all these facts how can gentlemen stand upon
this floor or go before the country and defend their attempt to
force a gold standard upon America?
Germany could afford a gold standard better than the United
Stutes can, for the reason that she produces only a nominal
amount of silver, and in order to get silver for money she must
buy it.
England could afford a gold standard better than any other
nation, for two reasons—the principal one, because she is the
largest creditor nation in the world, and is not indebted, except
to her own people; and for the further reason that her colonies
produce four times as much gold as they do silver; and for the
further reason that all her trade with India, her largest colony,
is carried on on a silver basis. Therefore, it is to her interest
to force silver down, so that she can buy it cheap and coin it at
a ratio of 15 to 1 for India, thereby making enormous profits
on the silver she purchases, and thus enabling her, as shown by
Uncle Jerry Rusk, to pay for India wheat in rupees which cost
her less than half their money value—two years ago she coined
$65,000,000 of silver, as shown by the report of the Director of
the Mint—thus enabling her to force down American wheat,
which she has successfully done.
England, sir, seems to be legislating for England, and we find
none of her statesmen proclaiming against the injustice done
her American debtors. In fact, it is her policy to buy our products at as lowfiguresas she possibly can. England, sir, has never
at any time said- that she wanted a dollar good in the United
States, but has attended to her own business andher own interests, and quite successfully, too. '
Germany could better afford a single standard than the United
States, for the reason not only that she is not a silver-producing
country, but because what she owes as an empire is due her own
people. Consequently, whatever interest she pays goes to the
Germans, and not to a foreign people.
A sound currency,-therefore, must be an honest currency,
must be a currency equally fair to creditor and debtor, that will
maintain a general uniformity of prices for a long series of
years, so that the contracts made this year to be paid in fifty
years would require the same amount of labor, and no more, to
pay them then than they would if paid now. This definition can
not apply to gold. Gold never has been fair. It is a tyrant, taking advantage of necessity. All understand that both gold and
silver would make a more flexible currency than gold alone.
Therefore the two combined do not answer the true definition
of a "sound currency," but they approximate to it more nearly
than gold alone, because the two are broader and enable the
Government to enlarge and contract as the demands of the people may require.
A "sound currency " means a currency that will give employment to all labor, supply the demands of every industry? and
enable every man that strives for a dollar, honestly and mdus75




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triously, to obtain it. If this is not the definition of a " s o u n d
currency," then, sir, I am not in favor of a sound currency.
THE WEST AND SOUTH DEMAND EQUITY.

On the 22d day of A p r i l , 1866, J O H N S H E R M A N said in the Senate of the United States:
Before we return to specie payments tlie debt ought to be funded. It can
not be funded on as favorable terms after we return to specie payments.
The very abundance of the currency obviously enables us to fund the debt
at a low rate of interest; and it is just and right, as the debt was contracted
upon an inflated currency, that upon that currency the debt ought to be
funded in its present form.
Nearly two years later Mr. S H E R M A N pointed with pride, in a
speech made February 24,1868, to the above extract.
Continuing his speech in the Senate February 24, 1868, Mr.
S H E R M A N said, speaking of the power given the Secretary of the
Treasury in 1866 to fund the national debt:
Within two years he [the Treasurer] contracted the legal-tender currency
8160,000,000, and the plain United States notes over $10,000,000 (making a contraction of the noninterest bearing debt of over two hundred millions).
At the time this law was passed, April 12,1866, the total amount of 5-20 bonds
was $666,000,000, and the great mass of the debt was in what are called currency obligations, the principal of which undoubtedly could have been paid
in currency.
Believing, as be did [the Treasurer], that the best way to resumption of
specie payments was by rapid and steady contraction of the currency, he
entered upon his policy.
Now, what has been the result? Why, sir, in April, 1866, the price of gold
was 125. It had steadily declined from the close of the war until-it had
reached its lowest point in April, 1866, the time of the passage of this law
(funding act and resumption acts).
What was the result? From that time to this gold has advanced, varying
between 130 and 140, and has never from that day to this reached the price
at which it stood at the passage of this act.
Are we any nearer specie payments now than then? Not at all.
Now, sir, what has been the policy of this Government ? First,
our floating and noninterest-bearing debt has been taken up
and funded into an interest-bearing debt, while the interestbearing debt has been allowed to run and been continued.
A l m o s t every dollar of our war debt was payable in silver, and
our Government has steadily, stealthily, and in violation of the
rights of our people, year after year, made it a gold debt, and today, sir, we are asked to put the finishing touches upon this
masterpiece of villainy by stopping the coinage of silver as
money.
I will quote a portion of the law under which legal-tender
notes were issued:
Such notes herein authorized shall be receivable in payment of all taxes,
internal-revenue duties, excise, debts, and demands of every kind due the
United States, except duties on imports; and all claims and demands against
the United States, of every kind whatsoever, except for interest upon bonds
and notes which shall be payable in coin, and shall also be lawful money and
a legal tender in payment of all debts, public and private, within the United
States, except duties on imports, and interest as aforesaid.
I know it will be argued by the opposition that the legal tender there authorized to be issued was limited to $150,000,000, but
before the bonds were issued that limitation was removed. B y
act of Congress, dated March 3,1863, the legal-tender act of February 25,1862, was amended and enlarged,
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W© find in the report of the Secretary of the Treasury, Mr.
Chase, published December, 1863, the following:

On that day, March 3,1863. the act to provide ways and means for the support of the Government received the approval of the President [Lincoln]
and became a law. In addition to various provisions for loans, it contained
clauses repealing restrictions, affecting the regulation of the live-twenties,
and thus disengaging that important loan from the embarrassment which
had previously rendered it almost unavailable.

Almost immediately after this enlarging act was passed the
Secretary of the Treasury sold the bonds, and "they were sold
under a basis of currency of $ 4 5 0 , 0 0 0 , 0 0 0 , " says J O H N S H E R M A N
in his speech to which I refer.
S H E R M A N further says, in that speech (see Congressional
Globe, part 5, Thirty-ninth and Fortieth Congresses):
I say that equity and justice are amply satisfied, if we redeem these bonds
in the same money, of the same intrinsic value, it bore at the time they were
issued.
Gentlemen may reason about this matter over and over again, and they
can not come to any other conclusion; at least, that has been my conclusion
after the most careful consideration. Senators are in the habit sometimes,
in order to defeat the argument of an antagonist, of saying this is repudiation. Why, sir, every citizen of the United States has conformed his
business to the legal-tender clause.
S H E R M A N was speaking of greenbacks then; they have no intrinsic value.
It will be seen that the entire debt was payable in coin.
I wish, sir, to adopt Mr. S H E R M A N ' S views as there expressed,
as my views now, and to apply them to silver, which is legal
money, and when coined a legal tender for all debts.
Gentlemen roar dishonor, repudiation, dishonest dollar, etc.
Will you hear our Western farmers and miners when they show
that this debt must be paid with labor and products which have
fallen more than silver? In other words, silver as a commodity
will buy more of the products of the country and more of labor
than gold would buy m 1873.
When I hear men talk of national disgrace, dishonor, and repudiation, I feel that I would be more than justified in replying
u Shylock!"
No, this would be unjust to Shylock, who only
wanted his pound of flesh; but extortioner, oppressor, tyrant,
robber.
No, gentlemen, stop your rhetoric, stop your lofty periods,
stop giving us sentiment, and give us argument; give us justice,
allow us the right to pay our debts in both silver and gold.
There is something remarkable* Mr. Speaker, about the radical change of opinion upon the part of our distinguished statesmen and party leaders. And what is most singular is that such
changes are always favorable to the money powers.
Such men as S H E R M A N and Carlisle, and a number of other distinguished gentlemen not necessary to mention, I trust will be
able to explain to their constituents the wherefore of their
changes, and I hope I may be pardoned for suggesting to their constituents that they demand a solid reason for their conversion.
There is one other strong point to which I wish to refer before I
close, and that is, that our security holders all say that they are
laboring for our interests, for the interests of the laborer, yet
they seem to lose their temper when the laborer views their action in a different light.

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If they really love us, if they are in good faith when they talk
of our interests, why do they not give us some real solid evidence
of that regard? Why do they not say, " We see that your products and your labor are bringing less and less each year, and in
order to place you on a par with us we will reduce the face of our
bonds, our mortgages, and the interest on our bonds and mortgages in exact proportion to the reduction of your products?"
Why not bring forward a bill and push it through this Congress, for the purpose of relieving the debtors in this country,
that all debts shall be based on the price of leading products
at the time of the creation of the debt; and if products and wages
go up, more dollars would be required to pay, while if prices went
down, less would be required in exact proportion.
Horace White, in his fine literary paper read before the Chicago monetary convention held last June, discloses the dragon's
claws when he says " that nobody would be especially benefited
by free silver but the debtor class." Mark you, he confesses
that it would benefit the debtor class, but he goes on to say
blandly, "that Congress is not called upon to legislate for the
debtor class."
Now, as the debtor class make up fully 90 per cent of our population, it necessarily follows that we are called upon to legislate
for the 10 per cent, or the creditor class.
It was claimed on this floor by the distinguished gentleman
from Maryland [Mr. RAYNER], and concurred in by a number of
gentlemen on that side of the House, that the way to compel
England to adopt a bimetallic standard was to adopt a gold
standard for the United States. I mean no offense, Mr. Speaker,
when I say that this fallacy is too apparent to require serious
consideration.
What! Compel England to do what we want her to do by doing
as she wants us to do? What would you say of a general commanding an army who would take his army into the camp of the
enemy and surrender for the purpose of defeating his enemy?
Or what would you think of a Christian church which, for the
purpose of converting the Chinese'to the Christian religion, would
adopt as their creed and articles of faith the Chines 3 religion?
Or what would you think of a navigator who, starting to discover
the North Pole, would direct his ships toward the equator?
There is only one theory upon which the argument of the gentleman can be based, and that is the starvation theory. That
might in long years win, but in winning in that way we should
sacrifice nine-tenths of the American people and send millions
of people throughout the world through starvation to paupers*
graves. The way to bring England to our view is to be broader
and fairer; gain from her, as we can, the trade of Mexico and
the South American states, India, China, Japan, and all the rest
of the East.
Let us have more money, all the silver that Europe has, and we
will take from England the mastery of the ocean, and the Stars and
Stripes will be hailed with delight by the people of all nations,
and " Yankee Doodle " and " The Girl I Left Behind Me " will be
sung by American sailors in every seaport in the world.
This proposition is not a mere idle suggestion, brewed by me
75




23
for the occasion of this discussion, but it is concurred in by very
able authorities.
I submit a few tables and extracts.
The following table, sets forth, by means of Mr. Sauerbeck's
index-numbers, the striking contrast between the relative value
of gold and silver in the years preceding and in the years following 1873:
Years from 1873
back to 1854.

Year on from 1873
on to 1892.

Yearly
indexnumbers
of silver.

This table gives, in parallel columns, for the years 1874-,92,
the index numbers for the 45 commodities comprised in Mr. Sauerbeck's computation, and the index numbers of silver for the same
years:
Mr. Sauerbeck's
index numbers.
Years.

1874
1875
1876
1877
1878
1879
1880..
1881
1882
1883

ht

Mr. Sauerbeck's
index numbers.

Index
number Index
of 45 number
principal of silver.
commodities.
102
96
95
94
87
83
88
85
84
82

95.8
93.3
86.7
90.2
86.4
81.2
85.9
85.0
84.9
83.1

Years.

1884
1885
1886
1887
1888
1889
1890
1891
1892

Index
number Index
of 45 number
principal of silver.
commodities.
76
72
69
68
70
72
72
72
68

83.3
79.9
74.6
73.8
70.4
70.2
78.4
74.1
65.4

It is sufficient to note that in one case the index numbers show
a fall from 102 to 68, and in the other a fall from 95 to 65. What
more striking evidence could be looked for that the fall, all
round, is the result of the rise of gold?
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24
Let us make friendly treaties with the silver nations of the
earth. I quote from a very significant editorial from the London Standard of a few days since, which is the leading organ of
English finances." It says:
What if the United States should now Join Mexico in declaring for the free
coinage of silver, and throwing over gold as too dear? What if the two
American continents held out the hand to Asia and said: "Let us have the
white metal for our standard?" Chile, now hard-hit, would eagerly respond
and all the states of South America and Mexico, with Japan and China and
Java—in fact the whole mighty East (which cares little for Simla). It is a
great danger to which the present outburst of alarm and fear must not render England oblivious.

And again, the Mexican Financier, the leading paper to-day
in all financial and governmental affairs of Mexico, says in its
issue of July 22:
If Europe demonetizes silver, if it refuses to exhaust every effort to adjust
the two money metals, she will find her export trade with the younger nations of the New World and with the older countries of Asia steadily diminishing, and her factories will close down in proportion to her loss of trade,
while in China and India, and in all Latin America, manufacturing will become the favored investment for European capital. The nations which can
feed themselves will surely begin to manufacture for themselves; while Europe, which can not feed its starving populations, will certainly lose its best
customers.

And again a leading daily paper of the city of Mexico says in
its issue of this week:
A project Is on foot here to unite all Latin-American nations in a monetary
league to resist the depreciation in silver. The depreciation, it is asserted,
Is out of all proportion to what it should be and debtor nations should unite
to defend their interests against conspiracy. Public opinion would support
a monetary league with the United States, transferring the trade of LatinAmerica to Americans in return for a freer entrance of raw material.

Let us adopt on the other hand a gold standard and we will
become the taxi to England's kite for a long period of years, and
no gold-standard man can give us any idea when we shall get
out from under her dominion.
I fully concur in the proposition that values ought to be measured by more than one standard, but if they are to be measured
by one standard, and one standard only, that standard, sir, ought
to be labor. All debts, if paid by a fixed standard, should be estimated by the amount of day's labor it required to pay them.
It would be fairer to the world to ascertain about how much
labor should bring in every department and calling of life, and
when obligations are to be met, let the calculation be made of,
how many days' labor, or the equivalent thereto in money or
other commodities, it would require to meet them.
On this basis there could be no cornering or monopolizing of
prices. I am well aware, sir, that the money-lenders of the world
would fight such a plan to the death. But after all the higher
and nobler idea of government is the benefit of the many, and
the few must yield some of the advantages that they possess over
the many for the common good of all.
We are told that the United States can not maintain bimetallism alone. Franc© and the United States did maintain it for
seventy years, and the United States is stronger now than the two
together were from 1803 to 1813. In fact, we maintained it independently from 1792 to 1803, if the assertions of the goldstandard men are true. During the late war and for a number
75




25
of years thereafter we maintained a paper standard, being without both gold and silver, and we suffered no loss but gained by
the adoption of a paper standard. We have the power to stop
coining money when we have a satisfactory amount of money in
circulation for our people, say fifty or sixty dollars per capita, if
we should ever reach that amount.
Why, sir, if we coined all the silver, without loss, that com6s
out of our mines annually, and nobody believes that we would
be seriously troubled with foreign silver, and there was no loss
of money now in circulation, we would only add about a dollar
per capita per annum more money to our circulation, and it
would take this continued for twenty-five or thirty years to bring
us up to $50 per capita. Besides, much of our silver would go
abroad, if we wished to pay our debts with it, and we have a
right to do so, at its coined value without any change in the
amount the law now placed in the silver dollar, and we ought to
do that in order to use our own commodities and protect ourselves against the unjust demands of foreign creditors.
Herewith I give a table of the silver and gold products of the
world in 1892:
76




World's production of gold and silver, calendar years 1890,1891, and 1892.
[Kilogram of gold, $66160. Kilogram of silver, 141.56. Coining rate in United States silver dollars.]
Countries.

United States
Australia
Mexico
1
European countries:

SUrer.

Gold.

Kilos. Dollars, Kilos. Dollars. Kilos.
49,421 32,845,000 1,695,500 70,465,000 49,917
44,851 29,808,000 258,212 10,731,300 47,245
767,000 1,211,646 50,356,000 1,505
1,154

35,296 23,458,000
Germany . . . . . . . . . . . .
2,104 1,398,505
Austria-Hungary
58,500
88
Sweden
Norway.................
140,320
211
Italy
Spain . .
7,000
Turkey
£10
123,000
185
France
3,000
4
Great Britain
Dominion of Canada... 2,506 1,666,000
South American countries:
82,000
123
Argentine Republic
6,416 3,600,000
Colombia
67,000
101
Bolivia..
/2,162 1,436,600
Chile
670 c445,300
Brazil
2,512 1,670,000
Venezuel a
1,693 1,125,000
Guiana (British)
444,200
668
Guiana (Dutch) .
548,000
/825
Guiana (French)
69,000
104
Peru
93,500
140
Uruguay
226 g 150,000
Central American States..
507,700
764
Japan
14,877 9,887,000
Africa
3,009 2,000,000
India (British)




1891.

1890.
Gold.

15,021
182,086
50,613
4,180
5,539
10,110
C51.502
d1,323
71,117
9,075
12,464

1892.
Silver.

Dollars. Kilos.
33,175,000 1,814,642
31,399,000 311,100
1,000,000 1,275,265

Gold.

Dollars. Kilos.
75,416,500 49,654
12,929,300 50,964
53,000,000 1,699

Silver.

Dollars. Kilos. • Dollars.
33,000,000 1,804,377 74,989,900
33,370,800 418,087 17,375,677
1,147,500 1,419,634 59,000,000

576,000 35,429 23,546,000 13,234
624,300 36,300
24,125 13,859
al90,600
190,600 7,921,336
7,567,500
2,103,500 2,100 1,399,648 52,020 2,161,951 62,106 1,399,648 b52,020
73,100 £3,658
3,658 . 152,000 Alio
173,700
"73,100
110
£5,665
235,400
5,665
230,200
94*280 k 27,583
420,200
142
94,280 27,583 1,146,370 "&142
C51,502
<?51,502 2,140,400
2,140,400
7,000 £1,323
55,000 dlO
55,000 d 10
7,000 £1,323
133,000 071,117
2,955,600 0200
133,000, £71,117 2,955,600 em
100
66,600
6,156
9,075 e377,200
377,200
67,000
101
925,000 £9,797
407,100 k 1,392
9,797
518,000 1,392
925,000

82,000
610,100 #123
14,680
830,000 5,224 3,472,000
19,971
67,000
301,112 12,514,200 A101
73,700 3,063,000 f 2,162 1,436,600
438,000
659
1,504 1,000,000
2,708 1,800,000
542,000
816
998,229
1,502
75,000
113
65,791 2,734,300
140 ^ 93,500
163,492
246
48,123 32,000,000
42,468 1,765,000 A 765 508,400
21,366 14,199,600
3,754 2,495,000

550,000
7,921,336
2,161,951
152,000
235,400
1, 146,370
2,140,400
55,000
2,955,600
255,650
407,100

620,000
82,000 k 14,918
620,000 em
14,918
31,232 1,298,000 £ 5,234 3,472,000 £31,232 1,298,000
67,000 £372,666 15,488,000
372,666 15,488,000 £10J
70,794 2,942,000 /2,162 1,436,600 £70,794 2,942,000
A 659 438,000
£ 1,504 1,000,000
A 2,708 1,800,000
:
k 816
542,000
k 1,502
998,229
75,000 £74,879 3,112,000
74,879 3,112,000 k 113
e 140
93,500
it
163,492 "ff48,'l23 "2~666,"6OO
48,123 ff2,000,QG0 246
h 7(35 508,400 i43,282 1,798,800
i43,282 1,798,800
33,207 22,069,578
4,600 3,057,900

Korea
I

Total

1,128

750,000

| 1,128 e750,000

1,128

<750,000

170,248 113,149,620 4,144,233 172,234,500|181,339 120,518,849 4,493,100 186,732,957 196,814 130,816,627 4,730,647 196,605,181

a Estimate of the Bureau of the Mint.
b Product of Hungarian mines in 1891. Austrian minesin 1890.
c Estimated the
same as officially communicated for 1888.
d Estimated the same as officially communicated for 1886.
e Estimated the same as
officially communicated for 1890.
/ Estimated the same as officially communicated for 1889.
g Estimated the same as officially
communicated for 1887.
h Rough estimates, based on exports.
i Product of imperial mines, 1891. Private mines, 1889.
Estimated the same as officially lor 1891.




to

•a

28
This clearly shows that we ought to stand by silver in the interest of American products and industry. I challenge any gentleman to produce in history an instance where any country has
been injured by having too much silver, or whose decay has been
traced or charged to an overburden of silver. Aye, more, I call
upon the gold standard advocates to point out what country has
been injured by bimetallism, and in what way it has injured it.
I am radically opposed, sir, to a change in the present ratio,
for the reason that all debts and con tracts now outstanding have
been made with reference to that ratio. Our bonds are payable
in coin at the present ratio. The ratio throughout the world is
substantially the ratio now existing in the XJnited States, and
why should we with our debts payable in silver, and the leading
silver-producing country of the world, take the lead in debasing
our own products? The mere mention of the fact ought to be
sufficient to answer the objections to the present standard.
Senator Plumb, himself a banker, but a patriotic and honest
Senator, said in the Senate of the United States, a little more
than two years ago, that if the United States adopted free coinage there could be no question but what in a very short time
the parity, between gold and silver at its present ratio of coinage
would be established all over the world.
Judge Perkins, on this floor, in the best speech ever delivered
by him, said with emphasis, *4 that every man, woman, and
child knew that if we had free coinage of silver that in less
than six months it would be on a parity with gold." And Mr.
Carlisle, the present Secretary of the Treasury, made substantially the same statements, at different times, once in this House
and once in the Senate.
There is no valid reason given, nor can there be, why the
United States should favor her debts being paid in gold where
they are payable in silver, and saying to the ever-exacting creditor, " We will, as a mere matter of grace, give you more silvar
than we contracted to give you."
If you increase, sir, the number of grains which shall constitute a dollar in silver, at the same time and to the same proportion as I have shown by tables you will increase the burdens of
the debtors throughout this country and throughout the world,
because if the United States increases the ratio between gold
and silver there can be no question but what Europe will immediately follow.
Europe is awaiting now, sir, to see what the United States will
do with silver, and the great mass of the European people, from
the best information that I can gain, are hoping that the United
States will stand by the silver dollar as it now stands. Aye, sir,
more than that. The single-standard men of England and of
Germany and of almost all of Europe are becoming more liberal
in sentiment; in other words, they are being cured by experience
of their gold "fetichism."
There seems to be a studied effort to deceive the people as to
the amoant of silver coined in the United States prior to 1873.
There was coined in round numbers by the mints of the United
States prior to 1873 $146,218,000. It is true that of all this amount
only a little over eight millions was in silver dollars. But the
76




29
Government of the United States had coined all the silver that
had come to its mints, but it needed the major portion for fractional currency.
Gentlemen of golden opinions who talk about paying cheap
money to the widows and orphans who hold mortgages and bonds,
even if their claim possessed the merit of truthfulness, are
wholly forgetful for the widows and orphans that seek employment and food and clothing, while the latter class outnumber
the former in the ratio of a thousand to one in the United States
alone. I may be wrong, sir, but I can not help feeling that the
rights of the thousand ought first to be considered. The fact
that the former class possesses mortgages and bonds is sufficient
evidence that they do not require immediate relief.
The true difficulty here and throughout all this broad land is
unjust usury, the collection of stupendous revenues on paper,
with no real money behind it or honest capital to support it.
If the money on which we are paying interest was all in circulation, there would be, and could be, no panic or financial
trouble. Prices would be three to five times what they now
are, labor would be employed at remunerative prices, and business would be in holiday attire.
1 gather, sir, from the last November's report of the Comptroller of the Currency that there is about $1,000,000,000 of
money in actual circulation; $500,000,000 is held by the banks as
a reserve, and the banks manage to do $4,500,000,000 of business
on that reserve, and charge and collect interest thereon, thereby
actually doing business on $4,000,000,000 of confidence.
A few months ago the representatives of these confidence
plans had a little meeting in New York, the purpose of which
was to bring about a gold standard, and they started the wolfcry against the Sherman law, and proclaimed a want of confidence and pretended to be scared. The people thought that
these representatives of the confidence plan were scared, that
they were in earnest, and the people really did get scared and
began to demand their money. The $500,000,000 being exhausted,
the banks had nothing left but confidence to meet their demands, and the necessary result was failure.
We wonder, sir, that they are asking the Government to restore
that $4,000,000,000 of confidence. Yes, sir; they want the Government to go into partnership with them in this confidence
game, but the people are opposed to the Government becoming
a copartner in any such a fraudulent practice, and are asking for
money, asking this Government to do its duty and give them
monev, currency with which to do business. Now, sir, shall we
consult the wishes of the people or of the banks? This is the
whole question.
In this crisis, let us first provide for the free coinage of silver.
Second, let us direct the Secretary of the Treasury to issue
$100,000,000 of greenbacks, which under existing laws we h .ve
the power to do. This, sir, will save a large amount of interest,
and restore confidence on a sound basis.
I wish to remark, Mr. Speaker, right here, that no party can
survive the useless issuing of interest-bearing bonds at this time.
The American people are aroused, weary of paying interest, and
75




30
will not tamely submit to the compounding of interest-bearing
obligations, and they ought not to do so.
Let us set our great, big, loyal, national foot down on all foreign and aristocratic influences, and, like men imbued with the
spirit of Washington, Jefferson, Jackson, and Lincoln, legislate
for the common people, America and Americans.
75




O