1893. CONGRESSIONAL RECORD-HOUSE. 301 ~

In addition to this, I append a table showing the remarkable ASSISTANT SOLICITOR OF THE TREASURY. tenacity with which thepricesof wheat andcottonhaveadhered Norborne T. N. Robinson, of Louisiana, to be as sis tan t solicitor to the value of silver: of the Treasury, vice Felix A. Reeve, resigned. Year. Wheat. Cotton. Silver. Year. Wheat. Cotton. Silver. UNITED STATES ATTORNEY. William C. Perry, of Kansas, to be attorney of the United 1833 ______States for the district of Kansas, vice Joseph W. Ady, resigned. L8'i2 ..•• -~- ---. 1.47 19.3 1.32 1.13 10.8 1.11 1873 ______1. 31 18.8 1. 29 1884 ______10.5 1. 01 CONSUL. 1885 ______1.07 1814 .. ------1. 43 15.4 1.27 .86 10.6 1.06 1875 ______1.12 15.0 !.24 1886 ______.87 9.9 .99 Otto H. Boyesen, of Grand Forks, ~-, to be consul of the 18i6 ______1.2! 12.9 1.15 1887 ______·- .89 9. 5 .97 United States at Gothenburg, Sweden, vice Charles H. Shepard, 1. 17 11.8 1.20 1838 ____ ------.85 9.8 . 93 18i71878 ------_____ , _____ !839 ______recalled . 1.34 11.1 1.15 1890 ______.90 9.9 .93 1. 07 9. 9 1.12 .83 10.2 1.04 COLLECTOR OF CUSTOMS. 187:)_ ------1891______1880 .• ------1.25 11.5 1.14 .85 7.0 .90 Bradley B. Smalley, of Vermont, to be collector of customs 188L ---- __ ---- 1.11 11.4 1.13 189~L .... ---- .80 7.3 .86 1882 ______1.19 11.4 1.13 7.0 .73 for the district of Vermont , in the State of Vermont, to succeed 1893------.67 George G. Benedict, resigned. . Mr. LODGE. Mr. President-- CHIEF ENGINEER REVENUE CUTTER SERVICE. Mr. COCKRELL. Does the Senator desire to proceed this First Assistant Engineer Edward F. Hedden to be chief en- evening ·~ gineer in the Revenue Cutter Service, in phceof Horace H .1ssellt Mr. LODGE. I shall beveryhappyto give way if the Senator deceased. desir.: s to move an adjournment or to go into executive session. FIRST ASSISTANT E~GINEER REVENUE CUTTER SERVICE. The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Chair desires to ask what Second Assistant Engineer Eugenious A. Jack to be first as­ disposition .is proposed to be made of the joint resolution which sistant engineer in the .Revenue Cutter Servic3, to succeed Ed­ has been pending~ ward F. Hedden, promoted. Mr. COCKRELL. Let the joint resolution still lie on the table. Mr. VEST. I understand that other Senators deaire to speak SECOND ASSISTANT ENGINEER REVENUE CUTTER SERVICE. on it. William E. Maccoum, of Maryland, to be a second assistant The PRESIDING OFFICER. The joint resolutionwilllieon engineer in the Revenue Cutter Service, to succeed Samuel B. the table. McLenegan, resigned. Mr. COCKRELL. I ask that the table which my colleague PENSION AGENT. presented and asked to have printed with his speech may also George W. Skinner, of Big Cove Tannery, Pa., to be pension be printed as a separate document. agent at Pittsburg, Pa., vice Herbert H. Bengough, to be re­ The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection to there- moved. quest of the Senator from Missouri? . SECRETARY OF OKLAHOMA TERRITORY. Mr. HOAR. What is the request? Thomas J. Lowe, of Guthrie, Okla., to be secretary of Okla,­ Mr. COCKRELL. A table which my colleague requested to hom%Territory, vice Robert Martin, to be removed. be printed, giving ratios, etc., was ordered to be printed in the REUORD, and I ask that it be printed as a separate document, so REGISTERS OF LAND OFFICE. we may have it without the whole speech. It is Soetbeer's sb.­ John J. Beavers, of Benton, Ark., to be register of the land tistical table. office at Little Rock, Ark., vice Patrick Raleigh, resigned. The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection to the re­ Ed win P. Harm !in, of Denver, Colo., to be register of the land quest of the Senator from Missouri? The Chair hears none, and office at Denver, Colo., vice John A. McBeth, to be removed. the table referred to will be printed as a separate document. Wiliam D. Lindsay, of Guthrie, Okla., to be register of the Mr. HOAR. I understand the desire of my colleague is to land office at Guthrie~ in Oklahoma Territory, vice Tboms.s J. speak to his own resolution, and not to the pending resolution. L owe, nominated to be secretary of Oklahoma Territory. I had an understanding that I should follow . the Senator from Edward G. Spilman, of Huntington, W.Va., to be register of Missouri [Mr. VEST], but I have no desire to speak until my col- the land office at Kingfisher, in Oklahoma Territory, vice Jacob league has spoken. · C. Robberts, term expired. BUSINESS OF THE SESSION. RECEIVER OF PUBLIC MONEYS. Mr. LODGE. Mr. President, I now ask that the resolution James C. Caldwell, of Kingfisher, Okla., to be receiver of pub­ submitted by me on the 8th instant may be laid before the lic moneys at Kingfisher, in Oklahoma Territory, vice Jacob V. Senate. Admire, term expired.

Mr. COCKRELL. If the Senator from Massachusetts will -< I yield, I will move that the Senate proceed to the consideration of executive business. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES. Mr. LODGE. I will yield for that purpose. The PRESIDING OFFICER. Before submitting the question MONDAY, August 14, 1893. on the motion of the Senator from Missouri, the Chair will lay before the Senate the resolution referred to by the Senator from The House met at 11 o'clock a.m., and was called to order by Massachusetts [Mr. LODGE], which will be read. the Speaker. Prayer by the Chaplain, Rev. SAMUEL W. HAD­ The Secretary read as follows: DAWAY, D. D. ·whereas Congress has been called in extraordinary session on account of The Journal of the proceedings of Saturday was read and ap­ the unfortunate condition of business; and proved. Whereas some measure of relief can be obtained by the immediate and APPOINTMENT OF COMMITTEES. unconditional repeal of the purchasing clauses of the silver act of 1890: Therefore, The SPEAKER announced the appointment of the following Resolved, That the Committee on Finance be instructed to report at once committees: to the Senate a bill to repeal the purchasing clauses of the silver act of 1890, and that a vote be taken in the Senate on said bill on Tuesday, August 22, On Enrolled Bills-Mr. Pearson, Mr. Russell, Mr. L'1timer, at 2 o'clock p.m., unless it is sooner reached. Mr. Hines, Mr. Hager, Mr. Adams, and Mr. Gillett of Massachu­ The PRESIDING OFFICER. The question now is on the setts. motion of the Senator from Missouri [Mr. CoCKRELL] that the On Mileage-Mr. Lynch, Mr. Strait, Mr. Pendleton, and Mr. Senate proceed to the consideration of executive business. Mahon. The motion was ag- reed to; and the Senate proceeded to the On Accounts-Mr. Rusk, Mr. Paynter, Mr. Tate, Mr. Mutchler, consideration of executive business. After :five minutes spent in Mr. Ikirt, Mr. Wells, Mr. Post, Mr. Wright of Massachusetts, executive session the doors were reopened, and (at 4 o'clock and and Mr. Marvin. 20 minutes p.m.) the Senate adjourned until to-morrow, Tues­ MESSAGE FROM THE SENATE. day, August 15,1893, at 12 o'clock m. A message from the Senate, by Mr. Cox, its Secretary, an­ nounced that the Senate h ad passed without amendment joint resolutions of the fol1owing titles: NOMINATIONS. Joint resolution (H. Res. 1} making available appropriations Executive nomination.s 'teceived by the Seno,te A uqust 14, 189S. for the payment of session employes of the House and Senate during the first session of the Fifty-third Congress; and SECRETARY OF LEGATION. Joint resolution (H. Res. 2) providing for the appropriate com­ Edward C. Butler, of Massachuset-ts, to be secretary of the lega­ memoration of the one hundredth anniversary of the laying of tion of the United States to Mexico, vice Charles A. Dougherty, the corner stone of the Capitol of the United States, September recalled. 18, 1793. 302 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD-HOUSE. AUGUST 14,

MILEAGE OF SENATOR~ REPRESENTATIVES, AND DELEGATES. Mr. O'NEILLof Pennsylvania. Imova to strike out the words Mr. HOLMAN. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent for "in lieu of." the present consideration of the jointresolution which I send to The SPEAKER. The gentleman from Indiana demands the the Clerk's desk. previous question. The SPEAKER. The gentleman from Indiana [Mr. HOLMAN] Mr. HOLMAN. I must insist on the resolution in its present asks unanimous consent for the present consideration of a joint form. resolution which the Clerk will report. Mr. O'NEILL of Pennsylvania. You can not caJl the p'evious The Clerk read as follows: question when I have the floor. Jo:lnt resolution (S. R. 3) making immediately available the appropriation Mr. HOLMAN. Tpe resolution gives satisfaction to those for mileage ot Senators and Members ot the House of Representatives. gentlemen who have examined it. Resolved, etc., That the appropriation for mileage ot Senators, Members of Mr. O'NEILL of Pennsylvania. I insist on the amendment. the House of Representatives, and Delegates from the Territories made in the legislative, ~xecutive, and judicial appropr•iation act for the fiscal year 1894-, Mr. HOLMAN. Rather than consume the time of proper de- approved March 3, 1893, be, and the same :is hereby, made immediately avail­ bate I prefer to withdraw the measure. able and authorized to be paid to Senators, Members of the House of Rep­ Mr. REED. Withdraw it, then. resentatives, and Delegates from the T erritories tor attendance on the first session of the Fifty-third Congress: Provided, That payments hereunder shall Mr. O'NEILL of Pennsylvania. ·withdraw it. be :In lieu ot mileage authorized by law tor attendance at the first regular The SPEAKER. The Chair will state to the gentleman frorri or the next se~ston of the Fifty-third Congress. Pennsylvania that striking out the three words '' in lieu of" would The SPEAKER. Is there objection to the present consi-dera­ not accomplish the gentleman's purpose. tion of the joint resolution? Mr. O'NEILL of Pennsylvania. I want to strike out all the Mr. POWERS. Mr. Speaker, I object. words necessary to make this really apply to the session that The SPEAKER. The gentleman from Vermont [Mr. Pow­ might unfortunately continue unt.i.l December. ERS] objects. . Mr. HOLMAN. Mr. Speaker, I demand the previous ques­ Mr. HOLMAN. !believe itisin order anyhow,Mr. Speaker. tiOn. The SPEAKER. Theon1yreason why the Chair asked unani­ The SPEAKER. The gentleman will please present his mous consent was, that an order was adopted by the House in amendment. relation to the pending bill which seems to assign all the time Mr. HOLMAN. I bad called the previous question, I think. to its con·sideration nntil the period when the vote should be The SPEAKER. The gentleman from Pennsylvania has, how­ taken. Therefore the Chair did not feel that, without consent, ever-, been recognized, and understood that he had the floor. he could interrupt or take away any part of the time which had Mr. O'NEILL of Pennsylvania. I think the gentleman from been agreed upon for debate. Indiana had better let this lie over until to-morrow. Mr. HOLMAN. This resolution simply makes available now Mr. HOLMAN. I submit the resolution to whatever action the appropriation which was made for the next session. the House deems proper. Mr. POWERS. I withdraw the objection. Mr. O'NEILL of Pennsylvania. Then I move to strike out The SPEAKER. Is there further objection to the considera- the words which by implication extends this to the December tion oi the joint resolution? session. There was no objection. The SPEAKER. Will the gentleman please indicate those Mr. HOLMAN. I will demand the previous question. words? Mr. O'NEILL of Pennsylvania. I would like to ask the gen­ Mr. O'NEILL of Pennsylvania. I move to strike out the tleman u question. Suppose this called •session should not con­ words ''in lieu of" and the words following. tinue very long, a-s the country hopes it will not. Suppose, for The SPEAKER. That does not accomplish the purpo8e instance, having acted upon the financial question, having re­ sought. The gentleman will please look at the resolution. pealed the purchasing clause of the Sherman bill, and having ~r. O'NEILL of Penns)'lvania. Let the resolution be reported given the banks the right to issue circulation up to the par value agam. oftheir bonds; suppose we should get awaybytheJstofOctober, The SPEAKER. The gentleman can examine the resolution. does the gentleman's joint resolution propose that we shall not Mr. O'NEILL of Punnsylvania. I move to strike out the have mileage for coming to this extra session., to which we have p.roviso. been called properly by the President of the United States, and The SPEAKER. The Clerk will report the resolQtion, so that not by any act of ours? . the House may understand what it is. Mr. HOLMAN. This measure does not prejudge that subject. The resolution was again reported. It leaves it all open . . Mr. O'NEILL of Pennsylvania. I move to strike out the pro­ . Mr. O'NEILL of Pennsylvania. It appears to me that it does VIso. prejudge it. I think the gentleman should have offered a joint The SPEAKER. The question is on the amendment. resolution giving us our mileage and also allowing us the· usual Mr. HOLMAN. I call for the previous question on the reso­ amount for stationery. lution and amendment. Mr. HOLMAN. That is provided for already. The previous question was ol'"d:ered. Mr. O'NEILL of Pennsylvania. For the extra session? The SPEAKER. The question is on the amendment to strike :Mr. HOLMAN. Well, this may not be an extra session. We out the proviso. can not positively answer as to how long we will be in session. The question was taken, and th.e Speaker announced that the Mr. O'NEILL of Pennsylvania. It was called as an extra ses­ ayes seemed to have it. sion. N aw, I do not know but we may desire to have stationery, Mr. HOLMAN. Divi3ion. and we ought to be allowed to have a settlement for that, if we The House divided, and there were-ayes 91, noes/28. should sit here for a couple of months. So the amendment was agreed to. Mr.·COOMBS. You can get the stationery allowance now. The joint resolution as amended was ordered to be eno-rossed Mr. 0 NEILL of Pennsylvania. I have seen the same thing for a third reading; and being engrossed, it was acco~dingly done before at a called session, and I simply rise to say that in re,ad the third time, and passed. my opinion the joint resolution ought to refer only to the extra LEAVE OF ABSE-l>lCE. session, and not to apply in anyway to the regular session in De­ By unanimous consent leave of absence was granted- cember, for the country wants us to get out of this session as soon To Mr. O'NEIL of Massachusetts, for ten days, on account of as we can-to adjourn long before the first Monday of December. sickness. Mr. HOLMAN. If I had thought, Mr. Speaker, that any ob­ jection was to be raised, I would not have offered the resolution. ENROLLED JOINT RESOLUTIONS SIGNED. The question to which my friend has referred will come before Mr. LATI1\1:ER, from the Committee on Enrolled Bills, re­ the House for consideration at a later time. For the present ported that they had examined and found truly enrolled joint this seems to be the safer course to pursue. resolutions of the following titles; when the Speaker signed the Mr. O'NEILL of Pennsylvania. Will not the gentleman con­ same: sent to amend by striking out the words "in lieu of?" Joint resolution (H. R-es. 1) making available appropriations Mr. HOLMAN. I would not like to do that at present. for the payment of session employes of the House and Senate Mr. O'NEILL of Pennsylvania. .And let the resolution read during the first session of the Fifty-third Congress; and without that proviso concerning the regular session? Joint resolution (H. Res. 2) providing for the approprhte Mr. HOLMAN. That comes up later. commemoration of the one hundredth anniversary of the laying Mr. REED. It always comes up later. of the corner ston.e of the Capitol of the United States, Septem­ Mr. HOLMAN. I demand the previous qnestio,n. ber 18, 1793. Mr. O'NEILL of Pennsylvania. As the question has been SILVER. brought np, we might as well St}tt1e it here. The SPEAKER. The gent1emanfrom Louisiana [Mr. BOA'l'­ The SPEAKER. The gentleman from indiana demands the NER] is entitled to the ftoor. previous question. Mr. BOATNER. Mr. Speaker, the gentlemen who havehere- 1893. CONGRESSIONAL RECORD-HOUSE. 303

tofore addressed the House on the pending bill and amendments dollar issued under that law which is not redeemable in gold at ' have very graphically described the present condition of the the Treasury of the United States. Everybody knows that, and country and the dangers which confront us. The gentleman everybody knew that all along, and, if there is not gold enough from New York [Mr. HENDRIX], speaking on the last legislative in the Treasury to take care of those securities, every sensible day, said: man in this country knew, every b:mker knew, every editor I a.sk you to listen to the employes of hundreds and hundreds of work­ knew, every politician knew, that this Government had ceedit shops and factories that are idle. I ask you to listen to the expressed fears in the markets of the worid to buy enough gold to redeem as of the dread penury that will come on With the blasts of winter. I ask you to listen to the spoken fear that proceeds from the minds of men that we are much money as it could possibly issue under the Sherman law entering upon a period black with sorrow and with woe. The condition of in ten years, that it could sell enough gold bonds in ten days to the country about us you well know. It is not necessary for me to tell you redeem every one of those obligations, and that it would do so if of the banks that are tottering, that are falling, that have already suspended. It is not necessary for me to tell you that currency is at a premium in the the necessity arose-. city of New York to-day, and that it sold there yesterday at. from one to four Sir, the -people have not lost confidence in the Government. dollars premium. You have heard of no one going to the Treasury and demanding The gentleman proceeded in eloquent language to further de­ gold for the circulating notes of the Government unless he wanted pict and describe the conditions prevailing in the country at it for export. No man has gone there and asked for gold to hoard this time. The gentleman from Ohio rMr. HARTER] also de­ it, or to use it in the purposes of ordinary business. On the con­ scribed the condition prevailing in the West, and besought this trary, Mr. Speaker, gold has been freely exchanged for the cur­ House to exert its constitutional power to relieve that condition rency of the country-the greenback, the Treasury note, the sil­ by appropriate legislation. The gentleman ~rom New York, ver certificate. further addressing himself to this subject, denounced as "rot" In support of the charge that what may be denominated the the statement made by the gentleman from Missouri [Mr. BLAND] . gold clique of the Democratic party and the gold clique of the that this condition of things had been brought about and pre­ Republican party are responsible for this unnecessary scare-for cipitated by the action of the members of this House who are this scare which is without any foundation on earth, except in demanding the unconditional repeal of what is known as the the fear& which have been created irr the minds of the people-I Sherman law. call your attention., Mr. Speaker, and the attention of the coun­ The gentleman from New York denounced that statement as try to certain significant facts. "rot," and yet, Mr. Speaker, neither he nor any other gentle­ During the last seS6ion of this Congress a determined effort man who has spoken upon this subject has been able to show was made here to obtain the unconditional repeal of the pur­ any connection between the Sherman law and the existing con­ chasing clause of the Sherman act. Persons came here claim­ dition of things. It is very true that our banks are failing­ ing to represent the incomin~ Administration, and insisting that that is, that they are suspending payment. It is true that enor­ we should repeal that provis1on; they insisted that a crisis would r mous sums of money have been withdrawn from circulation.and come upon the country unless that should be done. They made hoarded. this demand, Mr. Speaker, in the faca of the following declara­ But, Mr. Speaker, what connection has the Sherman law with tion in the platform of the Democratic party, which every man this condition of things? The Sherman law authorizes and re­ elected on our side of the House is bound inhonorandconscience quires the Secretary of the Treasury to buy four and one-half to support: million ounces of silver every month, and to issue the-legal ten­ We denounce the Republican legislation. known as tire Sherman act of 1800 der obligations of the Government in payment thereof. Andif as a cowardly makeshift, fra.ught with possibilities of danger in the future, which should make all of its supporters, as well as its author, anxious for any distrust is- created by reason of the existence of the Sher­ its speedy repeal. We hold t(\ the U.<'le of both gold and silver as the standard man law and of the purchases made under· it, that distrust ought money of the country, and to the coinageotboth goldandsUverwithoutdis­ to be directed against the currency which the Go.vernment is is­ criminating against either metal or charge for mintage, but the dollar unit of coina~e of both metals must be of equal inttinsic and exchangeable value, suing and not ag-ainst private institutions. Why, Mr. Speaker, or be adjusted through international agreement, or by such safeguards of if I learn that a debtor of mine is going to fail, I do not go and legislation a.s shall ensure the maintenance ot the parity of the two metals, get his notes and bury them and lock them up in a safety vault; and the equal power of every dollar at all times in th.e markets, and in pay­ I take his notes and go to court for my money. ment of debt; and we demand that all paper currency shall be kept at par with and redeemable in such coin. We insist upon this policy as especially Under the existing condition of things it is argued that, be­ necessary for the protection. of tfie farmex:s and laboringclasses, the f!Tst and caw::;e this Government is issuing a clru;s of circulation which is most def&nseless victims of unstable money and a fluctuating currency. upon an alleged insecure basis, and which men say it will be The- President before his elect.ion, in reply to the notice of his beyond the power of the Government to take care of, public con­ nomination, said: fidence is destroyed. If public confidence were dest:I:oyed or The people are entitled to sau:ndandhonestcurrency, abundantlysu.mcient undermined by reason of that fact, it would be public confidence in volume to supply their business needs. But whatever may be the form of in the Government, and instead of l~uns upon the banks there the people's currency, national or &tate, whether gold, silver, or paper, it would be runs upon the TreJ.&ury itself. Men would not have should be so regulated and guarded by governmental action or by wise and careful laws that no one can be deluded as to the certainty and stability of gone to their banks to draw out silver certificates for the pur­ its value. Every dollar put into the hands or· the people should be of the pose of hoarding them when they were told and believed that same intr.insic value or purchasing power. With this condition absolutely those certificates were going to fall to their intrinsic value of guaranteed, both gold and sil-ve:c can be safely utilized upon. equal terms in the bullion they represented. They would not hoard money the adjustment of our currency. which they were told and believed would be worth less th~m.. its So, sir, in June, 189"2., the Democratic party, in national con­ par value. vention assembled had declared that bimetallism was a possi~ If they had been alarmed by the legislation known as the Sher­ bility, and h ad pledged tb._e faith and honor of the Democratic man act and by the purchases of silver made under it, they party to attempt its incorporation into the laws of the country. would have gone to the Treasury with those silver certificates, The nominee on that platform, in commenting upon it, had also those obligations of the Government, and demanded that ''uni­ declared that it was practicable and had laid down the line~ vers3.1 money" which the advocates of the pending bill seem to upon which the attempt to carry it into execution should be be so fond of. There would have been a run upon the Treasury made. But, sir, the echoes of the election had hardly died away instead of upon the private banking institutions of the country. before there was a committee here, before there were Demo­ But, Mr. Speaker! I charge that the assertion made by the gen­ cra.ts elected to this fl.oor upon that platform, pledged by every tleman from Missouri [Mr. BLAND] is no ''rot," but is the truth. consideration of honor and conscience to stand by that platform, I charge, sir, that the advocates of this measure, these thick­ demanding and insisting th!1t this House should stultify its3lf and-thin gold men. of the Democratic party and of the Republican and should stultify the Democrati0 party in the Unitsd States; party who have been endeavoring ever since I have been in Con­ that before we came into the possession of the Government, before gress to force this Government to an issue of cheap bonds, are re­ we had the Executive and both branches of the le~islative de­ sponsible for the excitement which has created the destruction partment we should put an impassable barrier between us and of public confidence and has caused a run upon the banks and the the accomplishment of the very purposes for which_ we were withdrawal of large amounts of money from circulation. They electea. are the men who have sown the wind and we are now reaping the Why, sir, gen.tlemenfromNew York, afte~ having been elected whirlwind. There is nothinginorabouttheShermanlaw, there on this platform in November, said in December that it was im­ is no deduction that can be drawn from that law, which would possible to execute the pledges contained in the plat!or~ to justify anybody in making the assertion that the United States maintain bimetallism in the United States. They say now it iB Government is not good for every obligation that it has put upon nonsense and "rot." The whole delegation of the Empire State, - the market. Republican and Democratic, stn.nding upon a. platform. practically There is a provision on the Sherman law which declares it to similar in every respe-ctt with no distinction whatever in point be the established policy of this Government to maintain the of principle, come here and s::~.y that the platform on which we parity between the two met.Jls, gold and sil-ver. Everybody have gone before the people, and upon which weh.ave carried the knows that ~he. United Sbtes Government is behind every single country is "rot "-is impossible of execution-is an idle dream; dollar that 1s lSsued under the Sherman law. There is not a that bimetallismcannever be accomplished. And this,. I repeat,

·, • I 304 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD-HOUSE. AUGUST 14,

Mr. Speaker, after they had pledged their honor and faith and· I Now, sir, suppose that these political journals and these gen­ the h onoe and faith of the Democratic party to make the effort. tlemen who seem to mold public opinion had immediately r epLied Mr. WARNER. Will the gentleman yield for a correction? to such utterances as that by showing that the Governme:1t of Mr. BOATNER. I will. the United States is amply able to make good every doll ::~. r that Mr. WARNER. On beh3lf of myself, as one member from the it p!l.ys out, in whatever shape; that foreign capitalists might State of New York, and I believe on behalf of the whole New withdraw gold as they see fit, but that the Government under York delegation, I want to S!l.Y that we come here pledged to existing legislation and legislation to be adopted, can issue bonds carry out, and we intend to help in carrying out, every single · il necessary to buy gold and thus to maintain its credit in the pledge made in the Democratic platform at Chicago. [Applause.] most ample manner and that it will do so if necessary; is it not Mr. LANE. Now is the time to do it. perfectly apparent that such a line of argument would h ave con­ Mr. BOATNER. Mr. Speaker, I am delighted to hear this dec- vinced the people that there was no necessity, no reason, no bot­ laration. It is the first utterance with any such ring that I h ave tom whatever to the frhrht which h ad seized upon them? heardsinceihavebeenon this floor. Why, sir, those who pose a.s Why, if you look at the list of bm ks which have failed, you the friends of the Administration were recognized on this floor will di cover the fact that nineteen out of every twenty of them to bring in a bill, and what wa.s the bill? It was to repeal the are not only absolutely solvent, b :1 t in the ordinary condition of "cowardly makeshift"-no more. affairs in this country would be held to be in a flourishing state- r say that the national Democratic p !l.rty is pledged to the perfectly sound, perfectly solvent, with abundant assets to meet principle of bimehllism, leaving nothing for the judgment of every obligation. And yet., notwithstanding this fact, by a sense­ Congress except the question of ratio. I say that the R epub- less fright, created by gentlemen who have put monometallism lican party is essentia ly committed to the principle of bimetal- before every other consideration, the country has been fright­ lism, leaving nothing to Congress except to fix the ratio. But ened into an unwarranted condition of apprehension, a senseless the Republicans are undet·no responsibility in this matter. We scare, wJ::W.ch has brought ruin and disaster in its wake. And I have control of the Government in all its departments, and upon sRy that it is on these gentlemen, and those who came here last us is the responsibility. The question is, are we going to carry winter who insisted upon the repeal of the Sherman law, and out that platform, or are we going to repudiate itr those who have a-dvocated from that time to this the doctrine The gentleman from West Virginia [Mr. WILSON], heretofore that bimetallism. is an impossibility, who have been demanding considered as one of the soundest men on our side of the House, the repeal of the Sherman act, on them and on their shoulders brings in a bill which seeks to repeal a single section of that alone rests the responsibility for the deplorable condition in legislation which was declared to be a "cowardly m -:t keshift." which we find the country to-day. "A cowardly makeshift" in what? A "cowardly m:tkeshift " We are told that this is all "rot." But, Mr. Speaker, that it because, while it pretended to be a measure in the interest of sil- is the truth is my candid, honest, sincere opinion. I do not say­ ver andits restoration to circulation as a money metal, it stopped I do not pretend to say-that they expected or anticipated any short of the fundamental principle of free coinage and put silver such results from their utterances and endeavors. I do not say upon the plane of any ordinary commodity-made it subsidiary that it was done with any such design or intention. But I do andsubordinateto~old, and therefore merely accumulated a stock say that it is my firm belief that it was their intention t~ bring of bullion in the h ands of the Treasurer, to be a menace to the about such an apprehension, such a fear in the mind of the general market. Therein consisted , sir, theeiement of the" cow- public, and ther eby produce such a pressure on this body from ardly makeshift.;' But if that was a " cowardly makeshift," what, the busin~ss community, that we would lose the exercise of our. under the construction these gentlemen would give to the Demo- calmer judgment, and be compelled, in view of the public de­ cratic platform, was the Damocratic platform itself? If the Sher- m:m.d, to assent to an unconditional repeal of the Sherman act, m3.lllawwasa "cowardlym!l.keshift," as h as been alleged, what is and thereby leave the country on a gold basis, in line with the Democratic platform, if we merely execute and carry intoef- Great Britain and Germany. · fectoneoftheclauses, itself dependent upon the other clauses, the Now, Mr. Speaker, I desire to call the attention of the House nonexecution of which defeats the intention of the convention to the platforms of all the political parties. I have read the plat­ and thwarts the will of the people? I say what will be our an- form of the Democratic party. That is not capable of miscon­ swer to our constituents? What is to be our r esponse when we struction. It commits the Democratic party to the principle of are asked why we failed to carry out the pledges that were made bimetallism, or there is no meaning in the English language. by us before election and by the Democratic platform in its de- The platform of the Republican party is equally clear and unam­ claration of principles? biguous. I will ask the Clerk to read the paragraphs which I For my part, sir, I consider that I have come here with in- send to the Clerk's desk, the first being the extract from theRe­ structions. I consider that I have come here instructed by my publican platform. people to carry out every plank in the Democratic platform from The Clerk read as follows: beginning to end, and I shall do so to the letter, as far as my voice Gold and silver money.-The American people, from tradition and interest, and ability will permit me to do. [Applause.] favor bimetallism, and the Republican party demands theuseofbothe:old Mr. sp· eaker, referring to this question of responsibility and silver as standard money, with restrictions and under such provisions, to Now' - be determined by legislation, as will secure the maintenance of the parity of for the existence of this scare, I wish to call the attention of the value of the two metals, so that the purchasing and debt-paying power o! House briefly to an address which was delivered before the St. the dollar, whether of silver, gold, or paper shall be at all times equal. The LoulS. Chamber of Commerce and published on authority of that dinterestsemand that of the every produ dollar,cers ofpaper the counor coin,try, itissueds farmers by the, and Governm its workingmen,ent shall chamber on the 20th day of May by Mr. George E. Leighton, in be as good as any other. We commend the wise and patriotic steps already which Mr. Leighton rehabilitates the calamity howl which he taken by our Government to secure an international conference to adopt -had Uttered m. 1886 about the effects of the Bland law, and in ususec has m moneyeasures throughout as will insure the aworld. parity of value between gold and silver for which he predicted as earlyas the 20thdayof May that the Mr.BOATNER. Now,IwillasktheClerktoreadtheplatform country was to go to ruin and destruction because of the exist- of the People's party upon the same subject. ence of the Sherman act. He says: Mr. REED. Is it not worth while to read that part of the Dem- r do not claim to have had any exceptional insight. It was simply the ocratic platform on the State-bank tax? The gentleman from statement of a familiar law, as old as the world's commercial history-a law New York [Mr. WARNER] announces that the whole platfot·m which any monetary system must recognize, or it will break down. Its op- .s to be carrl"ed out. eration in the United States is as sure as in the Argentine Republic or Aus- 1 tralia. To-day we are face to face with the conditions there set forth. The Mr. BOATNER. If he is serious, that practically settles the higherlawhasasserteditsauthority. Goldhasbeenwithdrawnandhoarded t• d f th deb te · for future use. It has been put away in safe-deposit boxes in this city, as in ques lOD, an u er a lS unnecessary· every other, to an extent of which few persons are aware. Balances have Mr. REED. If the gentleman from New York is in favor of been placed in foreign exchange. Foreign capital invested in gold has been the other, the country would like to know about it. and is still being withdrawn from the country before it can be paid back in M BOATNER 1 will k th Cl k t d th depreciated silver, and all these causes, operating silently and slowly, have r. · now as e er 0 rea e para- caused the practical disappearance of gold trom the ordinary channels of gra ph of the platform of the People's party relating to this sub- commerce. ject. And it is a· fact that these utterances were printed and spread The Clerk read as follows: Silver, which has been accepted as coin since the dawn of history, has been broadcast throughout the United States; and they are in line demonetized to add to the purchasing power of gold by decreasing the value with the editorials and utterances of those who were thick-and­ of all forms of property as well as human labor, and the supply of currency thin advocates of monometallism, and demanded that this Gov­ is purposely abridged to fatten usurers, bankrupt enterprise, and enslave in· dustry. A vast conspiracy against mankind has been organized on two con· ernment should have the gold standard and the gold standard tinents, and it is rapidly taking possession of the world. If not met and alone. This was before there was any serious disturbance and overthrown at once it forebodes terrible social convulsions, the destruction when the dangers to result from a continued execution of the of civilization, or the establishment of an absolute despotism. Sherman act existed chiefly in the imag-ination of the crusaders Mr. BOATNER. I was not referring to that special plank of who had undertaken the task of frightening the country into the People's party platform, but rather to the one in whi0h it is abandoning the policy which the people declared for and adopt­ declared that the People's party favor the free coinage of silver ing the financial system advocated by Wall street and JOHN at a ratio of 16 to 1. SHERMAN. Now, Mr. Speaker, every member on this floor, except one, , ,· .. -.. <.. •

1893. OONGRESSIONAL REOORD-HOUSE. 305 ' was elected either upon the Democratic, the Republican, or the I yield the remainder of my time to the gentleman from Ohio People's party platform. I found duringtheremarksof thegen­ [Mr. LAYTON]. • tleman from Ohio [Mr. HARTER] the other day that he had not Mr. LAYTON. Mr. Speaker, we are now convened in extra been elected upon the Democratic platform. As he is neither a session for the one purpose above all others, of making such Republican nor a Populist, he is the lone independent in the changes in our financial legislation as will best condEce to re­ House, and the only gentleman in the House who is entitled to store the confidence of the people in the stability of the money · the freedom of opinion upon this question. It seems that he did of the country. To this end the President, in whom the whole not adopt or indorse the Democratic platform, but wrote a plat­ p 2ople have confidence, with the approval of his able C tbinet, form for himself; so that he alone, I repeat, is entitled to vote as has said to us in his most admirable and unanswerable message he pleases upon the question at issue without violation of pledges that the :first thing to do is to repeal the purchasing cltJ., use of made by himself or his party. th:3 Sherman act. Pursuant to this suggestion of the Chief Now, the gentleman from New York, and other gentlemen who Magistrate of the nation, who was elevated to his high office a claim to represent the views of the President, say that they are second time with such unanimity, at a z:easonably early hour, in favor of bimetallism; but the question is, when are they in viz, on the fourth day of the session, such a bill was introduced favor of it and how are they in favor of it? How do they pro­ by the distinguished Representative from West Virginia [Mr. pose to carry the principle of bimetallismintoeffect? Theyhad WILSON]. the opportunity to introduce a bill here reflecting their views, Thereupon the equally distinguished g~ntlem~ from Missouri and the way they propose to give us bimetallism is to absolutely [Mr. BLAND] gave notice that he proposes to so amend the bill repeal all laws under which a dollar of silver can be coined, as to provide for the free and unlimited coin::tge of sih'er at a which, ss the gentleman from California [Mr. BOWERS] put it ratio of 16 to 1, or, in any event, not exceeding 20 to 1. Or, in the other day, is a proposition to increase the circulation by de­ c:LEe of the failure of said amendments, then to substitute the stroying one-half of it. "Bl'lnd-Allison act of 1878." And then in a proper and ~om­ I repeat, sir, that if the gentlemen who are advocating the mendable spirit it was agreed between the various sides of the pending bill are in favor of bimetallism they-should have brought question at issue that fourteen days' deb'tte shall be had before us a bill which proposed to execute the provisions of the Chicago voting thereon, so as to give _the subject that careful considera­ platform. They should have given us the wise legislation pro­ tion its vast importance demands and all sides a fair opportunity vided for by that platform, by which the country could have the to be heard. free use of both gold and silver. They should have conformed This debate has now progr2ssed many days, and many l r.;arned to the suggestion of the President in his message of acceptance, and earnest speeches have been deliverad upon substantially all and safeguarded the free use of both gold and silver with such sides of the question, from which, and the conferences going- on wise legislation as would secure the convertibility of the dolLlr, at the other end of the Capitol, it is made apparent to all that to carry into effect the views which His Excellency at that time the two gre'lt parties, c. s represented in the Fifty-third Congress, entertained, and which he gave to the country in the shape of a are subst':lntially divided on the question of finance into three formal letter of acceptance. classes, who may be appropriately n a.med or called "single gold­ I will not, Mr. Speaker, enter upon any discussion as to whether standard men," "free coin ge or single silver-standard men," bimetallism_is practicable or not. I will not enter upon any dis­ and "limited bimetallists." cussion as to the effect which the legislation of the world has had For the present, until I see my way more clearly, at least, I de­ on the price of silver. That was fully discussed years ago. The sire to be classed with the latter, providing always such a thing as views now presented are ancient history, and the country has bimetallism, limited or otherwise, is longer possible, consistent declared its wishes. I will not set my judgment against the ver­ with the true and perm:ment prosperity of the country. And dict, and content myself with calling the attention of the House while I do not r epresant, nor am I authorized to speak for any to the fact that we are bound and pledged by the platform upon member but myself, yet from many earnest conversations held which we were elected to attempt to carry bimetallism into effect, with my immedhte colleagues and other members on this floor and that all politic:tl parties in this- House are pledged to that and elsewhere, I am convinced that my class is numerously rep­ common purpose. In my judgment the attempt to repeal exist­ resented here, and hence presents a fruitful field for converts to ing laws without the substitution of other legislation which will either the first or second class, providing we can be convinced conform to the verdict of the people, as given in November, is a by fact and argument, C'llmly and fairly presented, that bimetal­ betrayal of the people who have trusted us and an ab.mdonment lism is no longer tenable or maintainable in this country by rea­ of the princ: ples we profess, and upon which we asked and received son of the present attitude of foreign nations. their votes. I say that, as American Representatives, we have And why should not we, permit me to inquire, be friendly to no right to do this. . bimetallism? Have not we from infancy, and our fathers before I see gentlemen around me elected upon the Democratic plat­ us, been taught that gold and silver is the money of our Consti­ form, elected by Democratic constituencies, elected by people tution, in spirit if not in letter? Has not the big white dollar al­ who demand that the Democratic platform shall be executed to ways been held up and pointed out to us as the "dollar of our the letter, who say that they consider they are executing that daddies?" And above and beyond this, have not the platforms of platform by destroying the legislation which authorizes the both of the great parties for years and years recognized both as coinao-e of silver and by not substituting any other legislation the money metals of the country? In support of this latter query, to take its place. Of course, if this is satisfactory to the con­ suffer me to quote briefly from the last Republican national plat­ sciences of these gentlemen it is satisfactory to me, but I want form, adopted at Minneapolis in June, 1892; to see them face their constituencies. - The American people, from tradition and interest, favor bimetallism, and I want to hear from the country. I want to hear froll,l the the Republican pa..l:"ty demands the use of both gold and silver as standard Southern States, where we were only able to hold the people in money, with such restrictions and under such provisions, to be determined by legislation, as will secure the maintenance of the parity of values of the line by pointing to this very plank in the platform and by two metals, so that the purchasing and debt-paying power of the dollar, fcointing to Mr. Clevaland's letter of acceptance and by saying, whether silver or gold, shall be at all times equal. The interests of the pro­ ' the Democratic party is bound in honor and conscience to stand ducers of the country, its farmers and its workingmen, demand that every dollar, paper or coin, issued by the Government shall be as good as any other. by it, that it has n8ver betrayed the people before and will not We commend the wise and patriotic steps ah·eady taken byourGovernment do so in the -future." We have got to go home if this bill p a-sses to secure an international conference to adopt such measures as will insure and say, "Gentlemen, you were correct when you said that the a parity of value between gold and silver for use as money throughout the platform of the Republican party was a sounding brass and a world. tinkling cymbal. You were correct when you &aid that the · In further support of and answer to the ·latter query, I now platform of the Democratic party was a mere snare to catch quote from the last Democratic national platform, adopted with­ votes. You were right aJ\d we were wrong. You understood out a dissenting voice at Chicago in the same month and year: the situation. and we did not." We denounce the Republican legislation known as the Sherman act of 1890 I do not believe that a House of Representatives, Democratic as a cowardly makeshift, fraught with possibilities of danger in the future which should make all or its supporters, as well as its author, anxious for by nearly 100 majority, will ever go before the people with any its speedy repeal. such record. I believe it is a r ecord which can not be maintained, We hold to the use of both gold and silver as the standard money of the can not be justified, and that we can not give any reasonable ex­ country, and to the coinage of both gold and silver without discriminating cuse on our part and say that we could not repeal the Sherman against either metal or charge for mintage, but the dollar unit of coinage of both metals must be of equal intrinsic and exchangeable value or be ad­ bill, and by the very same act provide legislation under which the justed through international agreement or by such safeguards of legislation principle of bimetallism provided for by the Chicago platform as shall insure the maintenance of the parity of the two metals and the equal could be carried into effect and gold and silver coin could be power of every dollar at all times in the markets and in the payment of debts; and we demand that all paper currency shall be kept at par with and redeem­ coined by the United Staws upon equal terms. able in such coin. I say, sir, that I do not believe we could ever make any ex­ We insist upon this policy as especially necessary for the pl-otection of the planation to the people of any such betrayal of them, and I for farmers and laboring classes, the first and most defenseless victims of un­ one trust this House will not put us in such an attitude before stable money and a fluctuating currency. the country. [Applause.] And now in still further support of the same interrogatory I XXV-20

·-. 306 CONGRESSIONA~ RECORD--HQUSE. AUGUST 14,

oome nearer home to my beloved Htate of Ohio, which I have on many of the flower of this lru:d honestly beli-eved that a Sbte the honor to repre~ent in part on this floor. had a right to withdraw from the Union and establish a govern­ 'The countl·y has abiding faith in the integrity, patriotism, and exalted ment of her own. They do not believe so now. Still later on courage of President Cleveland. True to the people and watchful of their Iflany of the bright minds of the country, and a g reat portion of ~terests, he will enforce honest and economical methods in the conduct of • p11blic affairs and secure to every section of the country the blessing of good the masses, believed in fiat money-"Greenbackism," so caUed . government. They do not believe it now. I next quote from the Ohio Republican State platform adopted Still later a large majority of the people seemed to prefer pr6- at Columbus last June: t.ection and the Republican party. They do not do so now. And We favor honest money, composed of gold, silve1·, and paper, maintained at hence none should be blamed or censured for changing their equal value and under National and not State regulation. * * * mind, providing always it is honestly done. It is scarcely nec­ And I next quote from the Democratic State platform very essary for me to say to the" silverites" of the Rocky Mountain recently adopted at Cincinnati: regions, for whom I have the warmest sympathy, that neither We hereby approve the platform of the Democratic party acopted by the can our support be secured by any threats of secession, revolu­ N"ational Convention at Chicago, and especially those portions referring to tion, or riding in blood up to the bridle bits. When I say this I the tar iff and to currenC1J legislation . do not il'efer to the representatives of those small Stutes or Ter­ Hence we see from these quotations from the national plat­ ritories on this floor, for I understand they utterly repudiate any forms and our State (Opio) platforms that both parties are com­ such sentiment. mitted to bimetallism in some form or other. No, gentlemen, all this should be thrown aside, and a friendly, And as a message or guide to my State colleagues on this floor charitable, patriotic spirit manifested here that will best accom­ as to what our action should be in this great emergency, I take plish that which the eme1·gency demands. It is an absolute the liberty of here quoting further from the latter platform: truism that all important legislation is the r esult of a series of We congratulate the country upon the early prospect of measures of relief compromises. If it be within the bounds of possibility then let as outlined by the President's late message to Congress, an-d we have confi­ us throw aside ail partisan and sectional feeling, and, rising dence that the Democratic Congress will devise laws to furnish such relief. above all of these, resolve that we will speedily do what all the I may be permitted to add here that this latter paragraph met people say should be done, viz, speedily repeal the purchasing with the unanimous approval of the convention, coupled with five clause of the Sherman act. And to this end we of the third minutes continuous cheering. And hence I may inject here also class-the conservative party-beg of you Republicans and De­ that it does not look very much like an anti-Administration con­ mocrats of the first and second class to come together, for the vention, as many newspapers would have us believe. present at le:1st, on some common ground, so that the people's In saying whutlhave relative to Ohio, orcallingthe attention will may be done, confidence restored, and business resumed. of the House and my colleagues as I have to the platform of the By reason oi the fact that this great question h as, most un­ party, I do not mean to be understood as reflecting in the slight­ fortunately, to a certain extent at least, well-recognized sec­ est degree upon any of my colleagues, or upon my distinguished tional lines, Ohio, in common with her sister North Central colleague [M1.·. HARTER], who so ab~y addressed the House la~t States of Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, and Wisconsin, is sur­ week in support of a gold standard. I hold my colleague rn rounded on three sides with Sbtes favorable to the other classes high personal esteem. I know him to be earnest and conscien­ I h ave named; on the east with the Eastern States almost solidly tious in his views. I know him to be a successful business man for the gold standard, and on the south and the west by States of large and varied experience, a good Democrat, a hard student and Territories largely in iavor of the white metal. Hence, of economics and finance, and hence whatever he may say on geographically spe aking, if I may be permitted to use the ex­ this or kindred subjects is justly entitled to earnest and serious pression and it is entitled to any comideration in this debate, consideration. Neither do I propose to censure, condemn, Ohio, by reason of her loc~tion a!!d her surroundings, is natu­ threaten, or abuse anyone for his views upon this complicated rally inclined to be conservativ-e and somewhat undecided upon question. No converts either way are to be gained by such pro­ this question; and if the way can be fotmd, in a spirit of com­ cedure. In this connection I fully approve what is said in are­ promise, to vote for the repeal of the obnoxious purchasing­ cent editorial of the leading journal of this city: clause of the Sher man act, and at the S':lllle time retain bimetal­ First of all, we say, let the antisilver newspapers discard their vicious lism as a part and parcel of the monet n>y policy of this Govern­ trade in fiction, and then let antisilver men or all sorts and conditions im­ ment, it should be adopted. bibe a. more charitable, considerate, and becoming spirit. The silver men are not fools and traitors and conspirators. They do not belong to an inferior Just now, as indicated by the many able addresses m ade on order of virtue and intelligence. They are not here to be 'disciplined by this floor within the last few days, the first classsn,y nothing but conceited doctrinaires and snubbed by fia.bby Mugwumps. They are en­ titled to their opinions. They represent constituents who honor and re­ a single gold standard will do the work; but we conservutives, 'spect them. They are American citizens devoted to the nation's welfare. who are very loth to abandon bimetallism, shake our heads and And they must be met as such by those who propose to hela;> or be helped by say, No, that will not do, for it destroys silver as m-oney entirely. them 1n solving the problem of the da.y. On the other hand, the second class say 'that the only solution is And, orr the other hand, had this same editorial also c-ondemned the free coinage of silver at a certain r a-tio, wh ich means the silver the silver men and their newspapers for their equally vicious standard only . We say, No, tha t will not do, either, fori twill drive trade in fiction and attacks upon those they somewhat viciously gold from the country. We t hink there is, there certainly must call" gold bugs of Wall street and London," it would have met be, some sm·t of middle ground that will accom plish the p urpose my hearty indorsement also. In times lilre these it does not quite as well and prese1've both of the money metals, to a. certain · become us to indulge in epithets or hard names, nor wiU the -extent at least. For instance, it h as been suggested that we coin .people in their struggles for relief long endure it. In this same all the silver bullion now on h and and many millions more to a connection I would kindly say to the distinguished gentleman certain limit:. Why would not this be a h appy medium, for the 'from Missouri [Mr. BLAND], whom personally and for whose sin­ present at least? With something like this, as one of the ~on­ cerity, candor, and ability I also entertain high regurd, that he servatives I would vote for the bill. Free and unlimited coin­ -can not hope to win votes from my class by any threats as to the age at any of the proposed ratios as we now see it would be but tlire calamity that will befall us at the hands of our respective jumping from the frying pan into the fire-would give no per­ constituencies. m anent relief-and hence we can not vote-for it at this time. I remember well, as does, no doubt, the gentleman from Mis­ If some such reasonable compromise can not be reached, in com­ -souri, that during the discussion of this same question in the pliance with the wish-es of the President and this Administra­ Fifty-sEcond Conress a Representative from the State of Ten­ tion in whose judgment and patriotism I have the g l·e:.t.test con­ nessee, who w-as recognized as the able lieutenant and counselor fidence, and in compliance with what I fbeHeve to be the wishes "Of the gentlem~n, while ·earnestly protesting a.g·ainst the oppo­ of substantially all of the twenty-three thousand intelligent sition of one of his colleagues from the sam~ State, from the Democratic voters of my district and the will of about fifteen Memphis district, most vehemently warned him that his con­ thousand Republican voters as well, I will vote for the bill now duct would result in his misrepresented constituency relegating under consideration, without the p-roposed amendment or sub­ him to the rear when next a candidate. But in looking around stitute. I will do this, however, relying upon the good faith, this Hall we notice the shoe got on the other foot, for we see the honor, and the patriotism of a Democratic Administ).>ation here the smiling countenance of the gentleman from Memphis, and a democratic Congress, coming from the E ast and the West, while it is said these Congressional Halls will know the other the Not·th and the South, if they will but signify s uch inten­ gentleman no more forever. tion-that a-t the -earliest reasonable opportunity in the coming Times •and circumstances change, and many good and intelli­ regular session of this 'body some perman,a,n t leg islation sha-ll gent men change with them. At onetime in the history of t~is be enacted on the lines laid down in our Ohica.go platform, that country many of our fathers, and many of the ablest and best will give all our peopie good, sound, stable mon ey worth dollar men now on this floor, believed that slavery w-as r ight. They do for dollaT all th-e world wide. . n ot believe so now. At one time many of the best men of this I would also suggest, as conferring an immedi te sou't'ce of re­ country believed in "Knownothingism," which swept the land lief to a large extent at 1-e Rst, that in accordance with the third tik-e a whirlwind in 1854-'55. T hey do not believe so now. L ater plank of our Oh io State platform, the na.tioual .banking [aws be ' ' . ' ,, , I

1893. OONa-ItESSIONAL ~EOO~~HOUSE. 301 so amended as to permit them to issue their c1.u_·rency to ~ m&ke th~ commercial 1·a.tio conforrp. to the legc.W. ratio~ They amount equal to the par value of the United States bonds which therefore insist that the mainte:pance of a double st.:otndard is im­ tl;ley may deposit with the United States Treasurer to secure possible, and that all governments must eventually adopt either their circulation, instead of but 90 per cent the1·eof.o;e,s now, to the single ~old or single silver shndard. th,e end that the volume of currency may be immediately in­ Bimet!lll1sts, on the othel· hand, insist that it is possible to creased. hold the two metals on a parity, and that the double standard And while it may not be possible to adopt any tariff legisla­ insures more volume, safety, and uniformity to the currency of a tion at this session, yet it seems to me that in order to fully re· country. However, they are divided into national and interna­ st.ore confidence and promote business prosperity, we ought not tional bimetallists. The national bimetallist contends that for to adjourn until wehavecalleddown the cold, aud.~iousbluff that the first eighty years of our national existence we coined both is now so shrewdly going the rounds of the Republican press­ gold and silver until silver in 1873 was demonetized. They say to the effAct that we really have no serious intention to disturb that when you destroy the use of an articlB you destroy the de­ the McKinley bill-by passing a resolution in substance that at mand for it and it goes down in price. They inaist. that follow­ an early st::tge o.f the coming session we expect to, and will re­ ing the demonetization of the silver dollar in 1873 there was a form, revise, and r educe the hriff on the lines laid down in our rapid decline in the price of silver, and that if it was remon­ Chicago platform in accordance with the will of a very large etized the demand for it would be so increased as to restore it majority of the voters of this land, as expressed at the ballot on a parity with gold. box last November. The international bimetallist insists that e very enlightened In other words, that we will place substantially all raw mate­ country in the·world, that every commercial n ation on the earth, rial on the free list, reduce the t::Lriff on all the necess3.ries of including the United States, has abandoned the double standard life that go to furnish the poor m an his food, his home, his cloth­ and adopted the single gold standard; and that in view of these ing, his shelter, and his fuel; increase the tariff on the luxuries, facts, and the canstant variation in the commercial value of sil­ repeal all bounties and subsidies. If this does not produce ~uffi­ ver, it is impossible for any single government t{) fix a ratio cient revenue, add $1 per barrel on beer and 35 cents on wh1sky. which will dominate the silver market o.f the world, and there­ If sufficient is not yet forthcoming, make up the residue by a fore that bimetallism is impracticable and impo&s.ible without fair and well-regulated t ax on large incomes and inherit:mces. international cooperation. [Applause.] Now, Mr. Speaker, the question under qiscussion is simply I sincerely believe that this action is due to the business of this: My friend from West Virginia [Mr. WILSON] has intro­ the country, to the producer, the manufacturer, the consumer, duced a bill to repesJ. the purchasing clause of what is knownas the importer and the merchant, so that they may know on what the Sherman act. My friend from Missouri lMr. BLANDl, un­ lines these changes will be made, arrange their business ac­ der the order adopted by the House, proposes to offer cerhin cordingly and thus revive trade and commerce, for tariff reform amendments to that bill. The first amendment is for the free, will surely and speedily come. unlimited, and independent coinage of silver at the ratio of 16 All this baing done, I 'J?elieve this extraordinary sessiop. could to l. If that is. voted down, then an amendment to coin it at a ter:r,ninate in the sure hope that our action would meet the ap­ ratio of 17 to 1. If that is voted down, then at n. ratio of 18 to 1. proval of our constituents, and that in a short time confidence If th~t is voted down, then at a ratio of 19 to 1. If that is voted would be once more rest.ored and general prosperity would·again down, then at a ratio of ~0 to 1; and if that is voted down, then prevail. fA pplauEe.} he proposes to offer as a substitute what is known as the Blanrl­ Mr. PATTERSON. Mr. Speaker, I congratulate the House Allisop. act, passed in 1878. on its good temper. We are in the midst of a great financial Should we adopt the free, unlimited, and independent coinage ' crisis. Not only are the eyes of the American people upon us., o.f silver, at either of the ratios named in the amendments of­ but the eyes o.f the civUized world. On occasions like this we fered by the gentleman from Missouri? In arriving at the con- · are called UJ?On to test the value, the wisdom, and the safety of elusion that we should not, I h ave been largely. influenced by the our institut10ns. We are required, in t:qe name of the people, to facts in our own experience. Before c:1lling attention to them, l,lD.d.erstand a:n,d to rightly solve a most difficult problem. If I invi~e attention to a few of the facts of history which preceded · there was ever a time in the histo1·;y of the American Congress our first coinage law. At the beginning of the sixteenth cen­ when the representatives of the people should be cool, dispas­ tury. the commercial ratio between gold and silver was 1Q. 75 to sionate, patriotic, and intelligent, it is now. 1. At th~ beginning of the seventeenth century it was 12.25 to I am no fi~ncie1·. I have not a dollar on earth invested in l. At the beginning oi the eighteenth century it was 15.27 to 1. any moneyed institution; and whatever information I have on From the beginning of the eighteenth century dO\'Vn to the thi~ subject has been acquired since I entered public life, and year 187a, a period of one hundred and seventy-three years~ there for the sole purpose of enabling me to discharge a duty which I wa~ unprecedented stability in r~pect to the commercial ratio owe to my constituency and the country at large. between gold and silver. At no time during those one hundred In the discussion of every important question t.ilere are always and seventy-three years did silver rise &bove the ratio of 15 to 1, points on whlch the disputants are agreed. On this question I or fall below the ratio of 16 to 1. The v&riance in the commer­ think I can safely say that all intelligent men are agreed on the cial ratio during the last fiscal y-ear ha.c;; been greater than it was following pro:positions: during that entire period of one hundred and seventy-three It is reoogmzed by all enlightened, and especially: by all com­ years. There has been a greater variance in the commercial ],lleJ;"Cial oountfies, that there is an absolute necessity for a fixed, ratio between gold ~d silver ~nee 1873 than th,ere was in all uni.form, and certain standa1•d of value. Gold and silver are the centuries transpiring from the discovery of America to that recognized the wor ld over as the two money metals. I believe time. _ I may s a~.., furthermore, that the double shndard oi gold and In 1792, when Washington was President, Jefferson Secret!ll'y sUver, if 1t can be maintained, is admitted to be more tmiform, of State, and Hamilton was Secretary of tl;le Treasury, our fathers fixed, and c~rtain than a single standard composed of either t.ook up this question of the free and unlimited coinage of gold me tal. Again, it is universally conceded by intelligent men on and silve1·. Hamilton found thatthecommercialor marketratio this subject that the double standard can not be maintained un.­ at that time was almost exactly 15 to 1. He ascertained that for less the legal ra~io corresp.onds substantially with the commer­ one hundred years prior to that time ·the ratio had been about cial or market ratio. They are also agreed that where the sin­ 15 to 1, varying only very slightly. The bill which b.e prepared, gle standard is gold in a country it may safely use a large volume and which was enacted into law, provided for coinage of gold at of silver as subsidiary to the gold, whereas in a country where the rate of 24.748 grains of pure gold, and 27 gra~ of standard silver is the standard gold can not be used at all. gold to the dollar~ and 37H grains of pure silver, or 416 ~rains There is not a cou,ntry on the earth where the gold. standard of standard silver to the dollar, the ratio being fixed at exactly prevails in which there is not a large circulation of silver. The 15 to 1. United Kingdom b as a circulation, of over $100,000,000. The Em­ Now, I desire to impress upon the House the fact that these, pire of Germany h as a cir culation of more than $210,000,000. The the fathers of the Republic, and acknowledged statesmen of the Republic of France h as a circulation o.f $700,000,000. This coun­ age in which they lived, recognized the fact that the legal ratio try has silver now in circulation and hoarded in the Treasury had to correspond with the commercial or market ratio, or else a.mountingtoabout$7001 000,000. Now, there is nota silver coun­ the twometalscouldnot be maintained in circulation, and that the try on the habitable globe where gold is not treated as a com­ ratio fixed by them was made to conform exactly with the mar­ ~odity. It is a commodity in China, it is a commodity in Mex­ ket ratio for that reason. What was the result? Within less ico, it is a commodity in all of the South American Republics. than five years after the p assage of the act. of 1792, and before Wherever silver is the st ~ndard, gold is eliminated from circu­ Washingto,n r~tired from the Presidency, silver began to fall in lation and silver alon-3 is the medium of exchange. the market. The doctrine of the monometallist is that no single govern­ I desire particularly to call attention to another fact. Our ment or combination of gove).·nments c:m fix a double s~andard grandfathers knew no difference between the gold and the silver between gold a;n.d silv~ that will sq do~inate thf\. market as to doUaJ?. They interchanged them on a ~rity, innoee~t of ~y

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knowledge that there had been a departure of the legal from the the ratio of 16 to 1, France still having a ratio of 15t to 1? Now, commercial ratio. But our grandfathers discovered before the let me ask one other question. :.. year 1810 that gold was going oiit of circulation. Silver had Mr. PATTERSON. I would prefer one at a time, if you please. gone down to 15.60 to 1. There was a profit to the brokers and Mr. RA\vLINS. This is in the same line as tlie other. If scalpers of about 4 cents on the dollar, and that was a sufficient France, with silver to the amount of $19 percapita,arate which inducement to buy up the gold in circulation and ship it to for­ in this country would give about$1,400,000,0:JOof silver, can main­ eign parts. By the year 1810 gold had been practically elimi­ t 3.in a ratio of 15! to 1, why can not we maintain the two metals nated from our currency. at a parity on a ratio of 16 to 1, especially in view of the fact In 1834, during President Jackson's second administration, the that if we should consume all the silver produced it would take attention of Congress wa~ called to this fact. A change in the ten years before we could ·accumulate the same quantity per r a.tio was recommended and on the floor of Congress it was de­ capita which France now has? clared without contra diction that not a dollar of gold had been Mr. PATTERSON. Mr. Speaker, I am confining myself to in circulation in the United Shtes for more than twenty years. our own experiences here in the United States. I shall not take The difference of 3 or 4 cents on the dollar had absolutely driven time to elucidate what may h ~ve been the effect of the coinage gold out of the country. The act of 1834 was passed fixing the laws of France or Germany on our currency. Th::.tt they had the ratio ah 16 to 1. At that time silver was worth about 15.60 to I, e.ffect described in the que..; tiou only goas to show t h-1t I am and Congress purpo3ely increased the r atio so as to make gold right in s:tying that the double sts.ndard can only be m !tintained the che.:t.per money, in order th3,t it might be induced to flow through the instrumentality of international co5peration. I say into the country. This was accomplished by reducing the gold that the fact remains that silver was the cheaper money by three in a gold dollar from 24.748 to 23.2 grains, making the ratio ex­ or four cents on the dollar under the act of 1792, and that gold a~tly 16 to 1. was consequently expatriated. I say that gold was the cheaper By the act of 1837 a slight change was made by adding a frac­ metal by three or four cents on the dollar under the act of 1834, tion of gold to the dollar, making it 23. 22. This act was passed to and consequently silver was driven out of the country. m !1ke both the gold and silver dollar 900 parts fine and 100 p arts Now, in regard to the other question: I desire to say that in alloy. Since that time we have had the standard gold dollar of order to m!'Li.nts.in her silver in circulationFra.nce h as a bsolutely . 25.8 gra.ins and the standard silver dollar of 412t grains. Now, stopped the coinage of silver at her mints, as well as the pur­ what was the r esult of this ratio of 16 to 1? In 1828, when An­ chase of silver bullion. She h as not coined a dollar or p u rch ~ sed drew Jackson was first elected President of the United States, an ounce of silver, I believe, since the year 1878, and. she has there were coined in the United States only $140,000 in gold. In only been able to kee p the silver already coined on a p :trity with 1836, when his successor was elected, there were coined over gold by excluding that met9.1 from h er mints. This question $4,000,000, and in 1847, just ten yearsafter he retired fromoffice, is exactly within my line of argument, because if we 1·epeal the and before the discovery of gold in California, there were coined pur chasing clause of the Sherm:tn act it would en ~ble us, not $20,000,000 in gold. · only to maintain on a parity with gold eve1·y dollar of silver Now, what was the effect on silver? France was coining that now in circulation, but to coin every ounce of silver in the met-.11 at 15t to 1, and the difference between that ratio and 16 to Tre1.sury and assimihtt e it with our currency. But we have . . 1, amounting to less than 4 cents on the dollar, was sufficient got to follow the exam pie of France and maint CLin the single gold to cause silver to t ake its departure to foreign countries. When standard, or we can not accomplish that result. gold was discovered in California, silver went up higher. The Now, sir, I will pass over tlie amendments of the gentleman result was that gold, at the ratio of 16 to 1, became the cheaper from Mis3ouri, proposing a r atio of 17 to 1, 18 to 1, and 19 to 1, money and silver was practically eliminated from our circula­ and go directly to the proposed r atio of 20 to 1. How will that .- tion. In 1852 we coined $56,000,000 in gold and only $999,000 in result? I have gone to the Directorof the Mint and secured the silver. Silver had been so completely eliminated from our exad figures. Take the averag ed bullion value of the silver dol­ circulation that the people were without small change, conse- lar in the open m:.1.rket for the last fiscal year, and it shows that • quently, in the month of February, 1853, Congress, recognizing a dollar coined at the ratio of 20 to 1 would be worth only 81 this condition of affaira, provided by law for the coinage of h alf­ cents. I _put it to the House, can we afford in this crisis to de­ doll::.trs, quarter-dollars, dimes, and half-dimes in silver at the liberately enact a la w for the free, unlimited, and independent rate of only 384 grains to the dollar. These coins were made, coinage of silver dollars of the intrinsic value of only 81 cents confessedly cheaper than gold in order that no one would be each? Is it not just as obvious as that the sun shines in the induced to buy them up on speculation and send them out of heavens, if we doH, that silver as the cheaper money will drive the country. They weremadealegal tender to the amount of$5. gold entirely out of circulation? In this way, the people secured small change for their daily If 3 or 4 cents on the dollar in favor of silver drove gold•out transactions. of circulation under the act of 1792, what would 19 cents on the So it appears that long prior to the war, in 1834, Congress pur­ dollar in favor of silver do at a time when every enlightened posely changed the rat io so as to invite gold into the country, nation h as demonetized silver and it is constantly fluctuating thus showing that Andrew Jackson's administration of the Gov­ like-iron and copper in the open markets of the world? ernment evinced a decided preference for gold. Again, in 1853, But some of my friends may say I am putting silver to an un­ a pref~rence for gold was shown by making silver subsidiary to fair test. They say that for the last twelve months silver has I·· that metaL From 1853 until the breaking out of the war gold been under fire. Very well, let us concede that. I will go back, was practically the standard and silver was used as mere token then, to the first day of July, 1 85, and then I will reckon down money. - ' to the 30th of June, 1893, a period of eig ht years, a pel'iod em­ Now, under the act of 1792 silver was overvalued totheextent brc, cing a Republican administration, a period embracing a of 3 or 4 cents on the dollar. This made silver the cheaper Democratic administration, a period embracing the xtraordi­ metal, and the difference was sufficient to eliminate gold from nary rise of silver after the passage of the act of 1890, and a our circulation and to practically bring the country to the single period which leaves altogether out of the account the extra­ silver standard. Under the act of 1834 gold was overvalued and ordinary flunctuations in the commercial value of silver during became the cheaper money, to the extent of 3 or 4 cents on the the month of July last. What do we find? We fl.nd that the dollar, and the r esult was that the silver dollar was driven out averaged bullion value, during that period, of a silver dollar, of the country and fractional coins were introduced at a r atio coined at a ratio of 20 to 1, would b a in.trinsically worth exactly which made them so muchcheaperthan gold thattheyremained 90. 29 cents. with the people. Now, I put the question to the House again: If 3 or 4 cents Now, let us come to the amendments offered by my friend difference drove gold out of the country under the act of 1792, from Missouri [Mr. BLAND]. He proposes _by his first amend­ and if 3 or 4 cents difference r etired silver under the act of 1834, ment the free, unlimited, and independent coinage of silver at what, I ask, willlO cents on the dollar do in hhis age of telegra­ the r atio of 16 to 1. Now, the average bullion price of a silver phy, in this age of boards of trade, in this age when the com­ dollar for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1893, was 65.064 cents. mercial transactions of the world are printed and daily placed on This shows a difference between the legal and the commercial every man's bre .:~. kfast table? ratio of 35 cents on t he dollar. I put H to every intelligent man And now, sir, I desire to especially call the attention of the vn this floor, can we stand that? Can we coin silver at the ratio House to this phase of the question. The gentlemen favoring coin­ of 16 to 1 without bidding adieu to every gold dollar in circula­ age of silver at a ratio of 20 to 1 discredit silver already coined at tion, and bringing this country abruptly and at once to the sin­ the ratio of 16 to 1. They admit to that extent that the ~egal ratio gle silver standard? between the two metals must conform to the commercial. How Mr. RAWLINS. Will the gentleman yield for a question? can any member abandon th e r atio of 16 to 1 and go to the r atio Mr. PATTERSON. With pleasure. of 20 to 1 without recognizing t he imporktnce of the ma,rket Mr. RAWLINS. Did not the gold leave this country upon value of silver in fixing the r ::: tio? H ow can be abandon a dollar the fixing of the ratio of 15 to~ because France had a ratio 'of 15t of the bullion value of 65 cents and adopt a dollar of the bullion to 1; and did not the contrary effect take place when we adopted value of 81 cents with any degree of consistency? Why ad-

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1893. CONGRESSIONAL RECORD-HOUSE. 309

vance in the direction of the commercial ratio without gorng its last State ..convention. The concluding paragraph of the the entire way? To do so is an admission of the doctrine for financial plank is as follows; which I am contending. The member who votes for the ra­ And we further favor the continued coinage of both gold and silver bullion tio of 20 to 1 abandons the field and concedes that the two metals in such manner as that every dollar so coined shall be equal to every other can only be maintained.in circulation on a parity so long as the dollar. ratio established by law coincides with the ratio established in This, I submit, is in accordance with the Chicago platform, and t.he open market. His only justification lies in the fact that he it is in accordance with the views which I entertain to-day. may hope that the bullion value of the silver dollar may increase My convictions are that owing to the fluctuations in the com­ until it reaches a parity with gold. It is, however, inconceivable mercial ratio of gold and silver that we, the representatives of that a member of Congress would take the chance to drive gold the people, have not the power, however earnestly we may de­ out of the country and involve its commerce in the throes of sire it, to adopt a legal ratio for the free, unlimited, and inde­ ruin and bankruptcy in order that he might see if his anticipa­ pendent coinage of silver that will dominate, control, and fix the tions as to the rise in silver were realized. market ratio throughout the world, so as to m ~ke every dollar Mr. Speaker, very much has been said by some of our friends so coined equ!il to every other dollar. [Applause.] in respect to the Chic:.tgo platform. The men who advocate the Now, Mr. Speaker, I come to the Bland-Allison act, which, views which Ienterhin are charged with recreancy to the party after all amendments are voted down, is to be offered as a sub­ platform and unfaithfulness to the pledges which the Demo­ stitute for the bill to repeal the purchasing clause of the Sher­ cratic party made to the peop!e before its accession to power. I man act. During the month of July the av or .1 ge bullion price will read the financial plank of theplatformadopted atChicago: of a fine ounce of silver was 72t cents. At this rato it cost the We denounce the Republican legislation known as the Sherman act of Government in Treasury notes $3,252,500 to purchase under the 1800 a.s a cowardly makeshift, fraught with possibilities of danger in the Sherman law 4,500,000 ounces of silver. Under the Bland-Alli­ future, which should make all of its supporters, as weU as its author, anx­ ious for its speedy repeal. We hold to the use of both gold and silver as the son act we are required to purchase not less than $2,000,000 worth standard money of the country, and to the coinage of both gold and silver, per month. Two millions of dollars at the r L1te of 72t cents per without discriminating against either metal, or charge for mintage; but if the dollar unit of coinage of both metals must be of equal, intrinsic, and fine ounce would purchase 2, 758,551 ounces, which, coined at exchangeable value, or be adjusted through international agreement, or the ratio of 16 to 1 would make $3,558!530. Therefore, at this by such sa.feguards of legislation as shall insure the maintenance ot the rate, under the Sherman law, we would add to our currency parity of the two metals, and the equal power of every dollar at all times in monthly $3,252,500 in Treasury notes, whereas under the Bland­ the markets and in the payment of debts; and we demand that all paper currency shall be kept at par with and redeemable in such coin. We in­ Allison act we would add to our circulation monthly $3,558,551 sist upon this policy as especiallynecessaryfor the protection of the farm­ in silver. I agree with the gentleman from New York [Mr. ers and labormg classes, the first and most defenseless victims of unstable HENDRIX] that if we are to make a selection between the two money and a. fluctuating currency. evils it would be better for the country, for its commerce, and all No man on this floor would more gladly welcome the free, un- its people to retain the Sherman law than to reenact the Bland­ limited, and independent coinage of silver on the terms proposed Allison bill. in the Chicago platform than I. Gentlemen here propose to Mr. Speaker, let us for a few moments look into the history of coin a silver dollar of the bullion value of only 65 cents. Am I silver coinage in the United States. Up to 1873 we had coined recreant to the Chicago platform because, in my judgment and only 8,031,000 silver dollars. We hear gentlemen pleading pit­ in the discharge of the duty I owe my constituency, I believe eously for the dollar of their fathers; but, strange to say, for such a dollar has not the intrinsic value of a dollar worth a hun- eighty-one years, including all that period from the inaugura­ dred cents? Am I recreant to the Chicago platform because I tion ofWashingtonin1789down to the year1878,when the Bland­ rise in my place on this floor and declare that a dollar coined at Allison law was enacted, we coined only $8,031,000 in silver. the ratio of 20 to 1, a dollar of the bullion value of only 81 cents, During the same period we coined $137,000,000 in small silver h as not the exchangea.ble value of a dollar of the bullion value of coins. In 1878, when the Bland-Allison act was passed, the bullion 100cents? Am I to be charged with faithlessness to the plat- value of a silver dollar was only8dcents, and then itwasthatour form of the party bec ~tuse I am convinced that such dollars, be- friendsdevelopedanaffectionforthedollaroftheirfatherswhich ing the cheaper money, would drive $650,000,000 in gold out of their paternal ancestry never had-an affection that was never ­ circulation and involve the country in a p:rn.ic which would bring m anifested when a silver dollar was worth a hundred cents, and distress and disaster to all our people? an f'.ffection that was conceived ina passion for depreciated money. Mr. SNODGRASS. Will the gentleman allow me a question [Applause.] just there? The Bland-Allison act was in no sense a free-coinage act. It Mr. PATTERSON. With pleasure. provided for the .purchase of silver in the open market by the Mr. SNODGRASS. At what ratio are you willing to allow Government just as an ironmonger would purchase pig iron. It silver to be coined freely? provided for the purchase of $2,000,000 worth of silver per month Mr. PATTERSON. I will answer my colleague. In view of and for its coinage into money at the ratio of 16 to 1. The bul­ the extraordinary fluctuations of silver in the markets of the lion purchased under the act cost the Government $303,199,262. world for the past twenty years, in view of the fact that every The same bullion could be purchased to-day for $218,469,014. '-- enlightened government on earth h as demonetized silver; in This bullion was coined into 383,000,000 silver dollars, or into view of my conviction, after careful investigation and mature ~oforty-eight times as many silver dollars as our fathers coined in reflection that we can not: independently of the balance of man- eighty-one yearf!. kind, establish a legal ratio between gold and silver that would Under the Sherman act we have coined $36,087,000, and under absolutely dominate and fix the commercial value of silver in the the act of 1891 we have coined the trade dollars into over $5,000,­ open marketand hold the two metals permanently on a parity, 000, making a total coinage under the Sherman and Bland acts I am not prepared to vote for any ratio that you might name. and the act for the coinage of trade dollars of $419,332,000, or [Great applause.] I would not take the risk of guessing at a fifty-two times as many silver dollars in less than fifteen years as matter of so much importance. On the one hand I might do our fa.therscoinedineighty-one years. Now, we have 130,465,000 silver an injustice; on the other I might drive gold out of the fine ounces of silver in the Treasury, which if coined would make country and entail disaster on the ueople I represent. I will $168,294,000. Add these and it gives us 587,626,000 silver dol­ go, however, as far as my colleague can go in pursuing a policy lars, or more than seventy-three times as many silver dollars as and in taking such steps as will bring about international cooper- were coined from the 4th of March, 1789, up to the day when the ation for the free and unlimited coinage of silver. This, in my Bland-Allison act was passed, in February, 1878. This does not judgment, is the only policy we can pursue with safety. I sub- include the coinage of $186,000,000 in fractional silver currency. mit to my colleague thrtt such a policy is in entire accordance Mr. Speaker, how has all this silver been kept on a parity with the declared principles of the Chicago platform. with gold? This is a question which involves a proper under- Mr. SNODGRASS. Then you favor the single gold standard? st:mding of a situation which has deluded and deceived the peo- Let us understand each other. vie. It has been kept on a parity with gold simply because it Mr. PATTERSON. Well, we are coming to an understmding. h as been propped up, held up, and sustained by gold. This Gov­ -·, The country is now at the gold standard, and the question I am ernment annually receives revenue through internal and custom­ considering is whether we ought to adopt either of the make- house channels amounting to about $500,000,000. All this silver shifts embodied in the amendments of the gentleman from Mis- money is by law not only a legal tender in the pa.ymentof debts, souri, unsettle our unit of value, and drive gold out of circulation, but it is receivable for all public dues; by law it h as the right to or retain the gold standard, firmly holding our paper currency flow through the revenue channels into the Treasury of the and the silver we already have on a parity with gold, in accord- United States. ance with the principles of the Chicago platform. I am decidedly The United States during all these ye!l.rs bas been discharg- for the latter policy. [Applause.] · ing whenever it was required to do so, all its obligations in For the benefit of my colleague [Mr. SNODGRASS!, I call his at- gold. The holder of Treasury or United St:Ltes notes can now, tention to the platform adopted by the Tennessee Democracy at and could at all times since the r~sumption of specie payments , ..

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3l0 CONGRESSION·AL REOORD-HOUSE. AUGUST 14,

on the 1st day of January, 1879, go to the Treasury and de­ of-a lady who took $13,000 in currency out of a bank in Memphis mand gold. The Government has always paid gold, because and locked it up in a vault; I know of a laboring m an who hid if it should elect to pay silver, gold would instantly go to a pre­ $500 in currency. These people were frightened, but they do not mium and the country would be precipitated to the single silver understand the cause. My friend from New York [Mr. HEN- standard. . DRIX], who addressed the-House on yestet·day, who is a bJnker, My friend from Louisiana [Mr. BOATNER] has said that no one and who has studied the conditions which environ our circula­ has. been able to trace the cause of the prevailing financial panic tion, knows the reason. The masses, who t oil in the field and to the Sherman silver law. Now, let us see how it is. We the workshop, are the princip:.tl sufferers from monetary panics, have 419,000,000 silver dollars in actual circulation, 130,000,000 and yet they have neither the time nor the opportunity to under­ fine ounces of silver in the Treasury, $147,000,000 of Treasury stand the derangement of our monetary system. notes outstanding, issued for the purchase of silver bullion, and Mr. BLAND. I desire to ask the gentleman whether the peo­ $346,000,000 of greenbacks in circulation. This makes 912,000- ple are tu.king the money out of the banks because they are dor..bt­ 000 of currency and silver dollars already coined which have ful about the value of the money, or because they are airaid of access to the Treasury through the revenue channels. Now, the banks? [Laughter.] . what is the result? As soon as the country takes alarm, instead Mr. PATTERSON. I will answer that question. In the city of gold flowing through the revenue channels into the Treasury, of Memphis, in which I live, there has not been a bank failure silver, Treasury notes, and greenbacks take its place; they block in twenty years, and there is not a man, woman, or child living the way and gold ceases to fill the Government coffers. in that community, so far as my knowledge extends, who sus­ On the other hand, the holder of greenback or Treasury notes, pects any bank in the city. They are perfectly solvent and are whenever he sees proper to do so, may demand of the Treasurer esteemed to be so by their patrons. That is my answer to the their payment in gold. Gold the Treasurer must pay; for iE he gentleman's question. dares to pay silver, the parity is destroyed, the country is pre­ Mr. BLAND. Mr. Speaker, I desire to state that I do not cipitated to the silver standard, and gold goes to a premium. wish to reflect upon the banks. I think it is all a mistake for Now, to show the combined effect of the Bland and Sherman people to take money out of solvent banks; but some of the banks laws, let us see what per cent of the money received from cus­ were not very solvent, nn,d the people got scared and took the toms at the port of New York in the month of June, for the past money out of them. six years, was paid in gold. In June, 1888, the Government col­ Mr. WILLIAMS of Mississippi. If it be true that the masses lected $10,996,484, 74 per cent of which was paid in gold. In who are scared by the causes which the gentleman states, but June, 1889, it received $10,697 ,716,of which 74.7per cent was gold. which they do not understand, and that the capitalist, who does In June, 1890, the Government received $14,992,128, of which understand this question, is scared for a different reason, why 94! per cent was received in gold. In June, 1891, it received is it that the capitalists are to-day paying-a premium for the $9,131,418, of which only 12i per cent was gold. In June, 1892, silver dollar in New York City? it received $9,591,270, of which only 8.2 per cent was gold. In Mr. PATTERSON. Well, that, Mr. Speaker, is a business 1893, in the month of June, the Government collected at the port matter which I have not investigated. [Laughter.] of New York, $18,068,560, and not one cent of it was paid in Mr. BYNUM. They arepayingapremium for paper money, gold. Now, think of it; with no gold flowing into the Treasury, too. and with obligations outstanding sufficient in amount to absorb Mr. PATTERSON. Yes, they are paying a premium, I un­ five times the amount of the gold reserve, could there be a more derstand, for other small currency. I can not give the reason pro::.:imate and direct cause for want of confidence? That the for that, unless it be to secure currency to pay wage-earners. crisis through which we are now passing was precipihted by The question is outside my line of thought and of my argument. this condition of affairs is, to my mind, obvious. Now, sir, I desire to call attention to the fact that President The business communities, I assert, throughout the United Cleveland in December, 1885, sent his annual message to Con­ States attribute the situation to this cause. and there is a concen­ gress, in which he graphically portrayed the very events which sus of opinion among business men throug·hout the country that are transpir ing to-day. He gave the country warning then. there peal of the purchasing clause oi the Sherm ~ n act will arrest He told Congress that this crisis would ultimately be precipi­ the p9llic and restore confidence. I know there are thousands tated upon the people, and just how and why it would occur. of people in the country, I might say ninety out of every one Then he was a prophet. Now he comes with his special message, hundred of those who are panic-stricken by the financial situa­ recommending the repeal of the purchasing clause of the Sher­ tion who do not understand these matters; but the shrewd capi­ man act, with that prophecy fulfilled. talist who has money to lend or invest, or the shrewd business We have come, Mr. Speaker, to the place where the roads man who is seeking to borrow mone-y, knows the cause. fork. It is perfectly demonstrable that we c:m not maintain .: . The capitalist will not loan his money when there is a proba­ gold and silver on a parity in this country under a free-coinage bility that it will be paid back to him in a depreciated currency; act. The fluctuation of silver in the markets of the world is too and the merchant, the manufacturer, and the railroad operator, great. Independently and alone we can not hke the risk of un­ are therefore unable to command money or credit for the transac­ limited free coinage. The time has come when we must take tion of business. Thi.s condition of affairs immediately finds its our choice. We must retain the single gold standard, as we way to the wage-earner, who wants money for his labor, and to have done in the past, or abandon it and go to the single silver the farmer, who wants money for his products. This want of standard. This is an alternative forced upon us by the environ­ confidence hag gone abroad in the land. The rich and the poor, ments of the age in which we live, and we can not do otherwise the wise and the unwise, the wage-earner who toils in the field if we would than to accent it and make our choice. or the workshop, the business man behind his counter, and the [Here the hammer fell.] manufacturer, the hum of whose machinery is hushed into si­ Mr. COOMBS. I ask unanimous consent that the gentle­ lence, are all confronted with a situation which it is our patri­ man'stime be extended. We would like to hear him further on otic duty to relieve. [Applause.] this question. - Mr. BLAND. Will the gentleman permit me to ask him a The SPEAKERprotempore(Mr. BOATNER). Howmuch time question? doesthe gentleman desire? . Mr. PATTERSON. Yes, sir. Mr. PATTERSON. I can not tell exactly how soon I shall be Mr. BLAND. If the occasion of the alarp.1 is what the gen­ able to finish my remarks. tleman st ~1 tes, I would like to ask him how it is that England The SPEAKER pro tempore. The gentleman from New York not.only returns to this country our obligations, which are made (Mr. COOMBS) asks unanimous consent that the time of the payable in currency and in coin, but is returning at the same rate gentleman from Tennessee (Mr. PATTERSON) ba extended so as to of discount, without a particle of difference in the exchange, the· allow him to conclude his remarks. obligations which a1•e made payable expressly in gold? There was no objection. Mr.PATI'ERSON. My answer to that question, and I believe Mr. PATTERSON. Mr. Speaker, I am very much obliged to it to be correct, is this: Gold would come into this country, even the House for its courtesy. Now, s1r, I was remarking we have if it was at a premium, but the fact that gold returns to this come to the time when we must elect. We must retain tho country is no sufficient reason why under present conditions it single gold standard or we must abandon it and precipitate the should flow into the channels of trade and commerce. Our peo­ country to the single silver st!llldard. That is the crisis now ple m ay hoard gold, they may import it from England, their cof­ upon the country; that is the alternative which is forced upon fel•s may overflow with it, but it does not follow that they will us. I beg to say I do not want it that way; I would rather have put it into circulation on a parity with silver until somet)l.ing is it otherwise; but my judgment tells me that we must make the done to relieve the si\uation. choice. Now, which shall we do? We already h ::we the gold Mr . .ALLEN of Mississippi. Are they not hoarding all sorts standard; we have had the gold standard since the 1st day of of currency ? January, 1879. Mr. PATTERSON. I think so. Iknowof a gentleman of in­ I prefer to retain that standard. I prefer it because the people blligence who has hoarded $5,000 in silver certificates; I know prefer it. I vrefer it beeau se gold is more convenient than silver. , . .... ~ '-

1893. CONGRESSI0'NAL REC0R]9-- HOWSE.

1; prefer it because gold is the standard. of commerce throughout tha~ - I- wa:s in error. I will never, so long as I am in public life, the world. I prefer it because it is the standard of the nations foolishly adhere to an error when I can correct it. I sa.y very:. to which we sell our products, and it is the money with which frankly to the ge~tleman from Kansas that I have modified my .. we must adjust our balances of trade. I prefer it because if we views on this subject to this extent: Before I investigated the retain the gold standard we can assimilate with our currency subject I was of the opinion that we could, independently of the not only the silver now coined, but ~he bullion in the Treasury. outside world, adopt the double shndard. I am as much in favor But if we abandon the gold standard and drift to the silver stand­ of free bimetallic coinage as I ever was, but I now believe that ard, then gold will beco-me a commodity; it will no longer be that result can only be bro~ght about by intal'nn.tional agreement. a part of our currency, and we will take our place, not with the I have discussed this subject somewhat freely with the people enlighted nations of Christendom, but side by side with China, I have the honor to represent during the last c:mvass, and I s :1id with the Republic of Mexico, with the republics of Central and everywhere to them that on reflection I was inclined to the opin­ South America, and every other semicivilized country on the ion that our candidate for the Presidency was right in his views globe. OJ+ this subject. I have no hesit':lncy, at any time or place, in I desire to say that I am willing to go as far as any member of the correction of a mistake. Suppose a client should walk into Congress in the direction of protecting our silver now in circu­ a lawyer's office some evening with~- c::tse, and the lawyer should lation. I am willing to do all I can in the way of legislation; in advise him to pursue a certqin course, but on raflection he the way of increasing our circulation by the amount of the un­ should be of a very different opinion the next morning. Now, coined silver in the Treasury. In order to bolster up silver I that lawyer would be a pretty fool, ::-,t the next consultation with would vote for an act prohibiting the coinage of gold below the his client, to insist th~t he should pursue the error which he had denomination of ten dollars, and to refund the gold coins below advised him to adopt the evening b3fQre. "Consistency," s:tys that denomination into eagles and double eagles. I would vote Ca-rlyle, "is the hobgoblin of little minds." I do not subscribe for an act calling in every Treasury note, every national-bank to the doctrine, "Once a fool, always a fool." [L:tughter and note, every greenback note under the denomination of ten dollars, applause.] _ and to refund them into denominations of ten dollars and upward. Mr. SIMPSON. Then the gentleman is willing to concede I would be willing to provide by law that the entire circulation that be was in error at that time? of this country below the denomination of ten dollars should be Mr. SNODGRASS. Will my colleague yield for a question? silver or silver certificates. I would go further than that; I Mr. PATTERSON. I am speaking now with the indulgence would vote for a law requiring the national banks to receive and of the Hou,se, and am getting quite tired. pay out silver on a parity with gold, and I would forfeit their char­ Mr. SNODGRASS. Only a pertinent question in connection ters if they 1,·efused to comply with it. I would go further, and in with what you have just said.• . order to hold silver on a parity I would make silver redeemable Mr. PATTERSON. Very well, what is it? in multinles of ten dollars in Treasury notes. I would retain the Mr. SNODGRASS. I want to know if the lawyer my colleague ratio of 16 to 1. refers to should advise his client on a very important question By these and similar precautions we could hold in circulation at night, and make such a sudden change and confess his igno­ on a parity with gold every dollar of silver now coined, and coin rance il! the morning, if it would not awaken fears in the client a;t,t,d put in circulation every ounce of silver in the Treasur.v. as to the ability of the lawyer? This would give us a silver circulation amqunting to $700,000,000, Mr. PATI'ERSON. My answer to that is that while it might about the amount in circulation in the Republic of France. If weaken the confidence of the client in the ability of the-lawyer, F'rance, with less population, smaller territory, and fewer re­ it would at the same time very much strengthen the confidence . sources than we have, can take care of that amount of silver of the client in his honesty. [Great applause.] money, I see no reason why we should not do so. But gold, as Mr. Speaker, there are certain popular delusions pervading ~n France, would be the standard, and silver would be the younger the country to which I desire to call the attention of the House. brother, leaning its head upon the shoulder of gold. One of these is, that the situation which has made it necessary Mr. SIMPSON. Will the gentleman permit me a moment? for the President to call Congress- in extra session, was brought Mr. PATTERSON~ Go ahead. about by means of a conspiracy. It reminds me of the old-time Mr. SIMPSON. I would like to ask the gentleman whether charges-that Jefferson Davis was alone responsible for the war he still holds to the same views that be announced during the betweentheStates; thatallofthe'Southernpeoplewerepe:lCefully fir~tsession of the last Congress. Speaking on the lOth of March. disposed and wanted to remajn in the Union, but JY.[r. Da.vis 1892, of the Republican Administration and its ~olicy, he said: wanted them to go out, and they went out; when the truth was, Now, let us trace its legislative history since the close of the war and see Mr. Davis appeared only to the public eye on the crest of the how perfectly it has conformed to the bidding of its ID!b.3ters. In respect to the currency it began by the demonetization of silver. At the time silver storm; whereas the cause which produced the storm emanated was disgraced and barred as a money metal it was at a. premium and was out of conditions existing at the formation of our Government. not in circul~tion. Coin at this juncture was unknown to the people and So now, we find on this floor, men in whose intelligence and pa­ consequently the blow at silver was not then felt; a.nd the people, even the triotism I have confidence, saying that this crisis in our affairs, Wisest of the people in official life, did not ren.lize 01~ even know what had been done. No one but the conspirators dreamed of the far-reaching effects affecting alike every section of our common conntry, and every of thi11 secret stab at silver, w,nic.h had been recognized· a~ . a money metal class of our citizens, is the result of a conspiracy, and that the from the earliest dawn of history. Then followed the process of rapid ap­ proach to the resumption of specie payment which occurred in 1879. The banks are conspiring and have conspired to bring it about. cuiTency during that period appreciated 1n value and all property corre­ Why, Mr. Speaker, the b:mks are the first to feel the effects spondingly depreciated, leaving a vort.ex in which was swallowed up 1n large of a finanDial panic, and the recent decline in the price of bank measure the prosperity of the people. stocks all over the country shows this. The b:mks, the manu­ M1·. PATTERSON. I take pleasure in answering the gentle­ facturers, and the business establishments of the country are the man. In 1873 the people of this co-untry were enormously in first to take alarm and the earliest to suffer in such times as these. debt and we had an enormous national debn. I believe that at From them the distress reaches to the toilers in the field and the that time the coinage of the sU ver dollar ough 11 to have been con­ workshop, and there· it remains the longest. This assumption tinued, and that the people, as well as the-Government, ought is not only unwarranted, but it is dangerous and foolish to im­ to have had the opportunity to pay their debts then existing in press such a doctrine on our fellow-citizens. It is much wiser the cheaper currency, because it was- the currency when the to trace the cause, as the President has done in his messs.ge, to '· debts were cohtracted. But that has been twenty years ago. vi

312 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD-HOUSE. AUGUST 14,

Mr. SNODGRASS. Will my colleague allowme to ask him a Another hypothesis assumed by the other side in debs.te is, question? that there has been a very great appreciation of money and de- Mr. PATTERSON. I hope mycolleague will not again inter- preciation of property, growing out of the scarcity of money. rupt me. For twenty-five years we have been attributing all the ine~ Mr. SNODGRASS. Just one question. qualities in the condition of our people, not to the scarcity of Mr. PATTERSON. Very well. money, but to unjust taxation. :E- am sorry to say tha t some Mr. SNODGRASS. When Cleveland was a candidate for the gentlemen have traveled so far in the direction of the People's Presidency you knew all these things, did you not? party as to attribute the vast inequalities in the distribution of Mr. PATTERSON. I did. wea.lth to the absence of cheap money and plenty of money, and Mr. SNODGRASS. W ere you not a strong advocate of the they t alk about the appreciation of gold and the depreciation of nomination of DAVID B. HILL? property as glibly as the Populist orator. We have been at t he Mr. PATTERSON. I was not. gold st:=tndard since the 1st day of January, 1879, and whatever Mr. SNODGRASS. Did you not talk to myself and others in accumulations of wealth we have had in the past ten years have his interest? been measured by that standard. Mr. PATTERSON. I have never said one word against Sen- I hold in my hand a shtementsigned by the Superintendent of ator HILL, and have always spoken kindly of him. thl3 Census. It shows that in 1850 the estimated value of prop- Mr. SNODGRASS. Did you not &ay wor ds for him? er tyin the United States was $7,125,000,000. In 1860 itwas $16,- Mr. PATTERSON. I shall not refer upon this floor to any 159,000,000. In 1870 it was $30,068,000,000. The latter estimation private convers:1tion which occurred between my colleague and was in the inflated currency of the war period. In 18SO it was$43,­ myself. [ Apphuse.] I do n ot r e c ~ll the conversation he refers 642,000,000. In 1890 it amounted to the enormous sum of $63,648,­ to, but my colleague h as no right to call me to account for any 000,000. We have had, therefore, a much greater increase in the convers.1tion on this floor, and I shall not refer to it. My atti- estimated value of property in this country from 1880 to 1890 tude on this question w as not assumed bec:mse I was for Presi- than in any other period during our history. The property of dent Cleveland or Senator HILL, or anybody else. I am advo- all the people, the hut of the poor, the mansion of the rich, are eating whn,t I believe to be the proper solution of an absorbing all measured by the s:tme standard of value. If the stm dard public question in t he interest of my constituency and the coun- had been too short we would not h ave had this vast accumula­ try at large, and any converss.tion I m ay h ave h ad with my col- tion of wealth. It is true there are vast inequalities in the dis­ leJ gue in our daily intercourse is not pertinent or proper for tribution of this enormous wealth; but this does not grow out of discussion on this floor. [Appl:mse.] the scarcity of money, but out of unjust and unequal taxation. I was going on to say, Mr. SpEfr~ker, that Mr. Cleveland, in In conclusion, I beg to address a few remarks to my Southern view of his well-known attitude on this subject, was t :i ken up by colleagues. Those of them who know me know that every pulsa­ the South and West and nominated for the Presidency. Now, tion of my heart is in sympathy with the people with whom my my distinguished friend from Missouri [Mr. BLAND], who made lot is cast. I was born and reared in the South. The younger the opening speech for his side, threatened with defeat every years of my manhood were spent in the Confederate army. For member from the great Mississippi Valley who sustains the twenty-eight years I have longed for the upbuilding and uplift­ :financhl policy of the President . In reply, I say the States in ing of our Southern country. I have, in common with my old the great Mississippi Valley, notwithstanding he did not h ave comrades, aspired to bring it into such relations with the Union the support of his own S tate, with a spontaniety never surpassed that it could, without taking a single diadem of glory from its in popular government demanded his nomination and election, brow, m ainhin its relations in the Union with loyalty, with dig­ and the pPople of those States have abiding faith in him and nity, and with honor. [Great applause.] will uphold and support his Administration. For more than thirty years we have had a fearful struggle. Another delusion in the minds of some of our friends of Popu- We have had astrugglefor local self-government. We h ave had list tendencies is that the President's fi nancia l policy is in the a struggle for equal taxation. We have h ad a long and weary . interest of what they call thn money power, and they -never tire march. At last we have won a triumph for local self-goverment in their denunciation of the greedy creditors. Mr. Speaker, and for just taxation. At last both Houses are Democratic and who are the cre:litors of this country? The very men which we h :we a Democratic President. And now, that we are about these gentlemen assume to be the creditors are really the debt- to achieve peace and prosperity and justice for our people, the ors. The railway companies, the m:mufacturers, and the b usi- Aar onsappeartopersuadeusthatwewillneversee the fruitionof ness men of the country, are really the borrowers of money. our hopes until we secure a cheap dollar. They are breeding dis­ The wage-earners and those who work for salaries are the real trust among our people. Thev go out and denounce New York creditors. I do not overestimate the number when I say there City all over the Southern States as a Sodom and Gomorrah and are 20,000,000 of people, men, women, and children, who are call upon their people to cast their lot with the Populists of Kan- ~. working for wages. Assume that they earn $10 a week, and they sas and Colorado. are creditors every Saturday night to an amountexceeding $200,- I shall never forget, and you can never forget, my Southern 000,000, and the amount of money due them annually by the colleagues, that New York City has been the Malakoff of the in­ week, by the month, or by the year, exceeds all the gold and all trenched camp of the Democracy during all these years of our the silver in circulation on the h abitable globe. These are the travail. This great metropolis, predestined by the Almighty people who are r eally most interested in sound finance. Disturb when he created the hemispheres to be the m etropolis of North the unit of value, bring distrust, panic, and financial disaster America, h as alwas been our friend and has always been Demo­ upon tbe country, and they and their wives and children are the cratic. [Applause.] It has always contended for local self-gov­ ones who are impoveeished and sta.r ved in the wreck of com- ernment in the Southern States and h eld its shield between us merce, the suspension of manufactories, and the bankruptcy of and those who would oppress us. Whenever the sky was dark the business men of the country. in every other direction, we of the South could always look with Another delusion is, that cheap money necessarily means plenty confidence to New York City for succor and sympathy. It has of money. The facts which transpired during the civil war ex- from the beginning struggled in common with us against Federal poses this fallacy. National b 1:1...nk notes and greenbacks, being the _ interference in our local affairs, while the Seymours, the Tildens, cheaper money, drove gold and silver entirely out of circulation and theClevelandsof New York inspired the movement for tariff during the suspension of specie p :1yments. The highest amount reform, and have brougp.t the American p eople back to a sense of these notes in circulation at any one time was $80-!,787,480. of their constitutiona-l obligations. (Applause.] On the 1st day of January, 1862, it was estima-ted that we had Mr. PENCE. Will the gentleman permit me to ask him a on hand in gold and silver $250,000,000. During the suspension question? of specie payments, our mines produced in gold $751,650,000 and Mr. PATTERSON. No, excuse me. I am in haste to con­ $379,000,000 in silver, aggregating a coin production during the elude. These Aa.rons attribute the depressed condition of the period of $1,130,650,000, which, added to the stock on hand Jan- people to the absence of che!:tp money and not to unjust taxation. uary 1, 1862, foots up a total of $1,380,650,000. Our stock of For twenty-five years, upon every stump and upon every high­ gold and silver on hand January 1, 1879, the date of resump- way in the South, we h ave-preached the doctrine of unjust, un­ tion, amounted to $332,25 ,031, which, being deducted from the equal, and unfair taxation, and now that we h ave elected to the amount on hand when suspension took p~ace and the amount Presidency by an overwhelming majority the recognized t ariff­ produced during that period, leaves $1,048,391,969 in coin which reform leader of the country, we are in this cdsis, brought about was driven out of the country by the cheaper money-a sum by the fe.tr of cheap money, persuaded to follow th3t ignis f atuus $243,604,489 greater in amount than the highest aggregate of int.o a wilderness of financial dis3ster, confusion, and bankruptcy. greenback and national bank circulation that was in use at any They tell our people that they are overwhelmed with debt. It time during that period. These figures illustrate what would is true that a people absolutely stripped of money and personal bccur in the event gold should go to a premium in this country. property by the r ava.g·es of war must necess :; rily accumulate It is true we would have cheaper money, but it is furthermore slowlyunder the administration of la.ws by which they are taxed true that our stock of gold, amounting to $650,000,000, would be unequally and unjustly. . .· forced out of circulation. It is true that, in comparison with other sections of the Union, - \

1893. CONGRESSION .AL RECORD-HOUSE. 313 - our people are still poor; but.it is furthermore true, that when people up to that point, they go a stage further, and beginning compared with them we are practically out. of debt. Pennsyl­ with the distinguished gentleman from Maryland [Mr. RAYNERj, vania sustains about the same relation to the North that Ala­ who opened this debate, one_after another their leaders have bama does to the South} and it is instructive to introduce a com­ declared that even an international agreement can not preserve parison between them. In taking the census there was an the parity of these two metals. If they succeed in destroying estimate made of the mortgage indebtedness on lands in there­ silver money in this country now, ten years from to-day not one spective States. The estimate embraces all lands measured by of them will vote for its rehabilitation under any circumst:mces. the acre and by the lot. The mortgages in Alabama amount to Mr. Speaker, if the bill and substitute now pending before this only $39,000,000, while the mortgages on acres and lots in Penn­ House involved the use or disuse of silver as money in this coun­ sylvania amount to $613,000,000. try alone, it would be difficult to overstate their importance, and The mortgage indebtedness of Pennsylvania, a State whose their importance is intensified many fold when we consider that people would gladly see the purchasing clause of the Sherman the effect of our decision here will be practically to decide this act repealed, exceeds by $200,000,000 the aggregate mortgage question throughout the world, and perhaps for all time to come. indebtedness of the ten States whlch composed the Confederate Gentlemen on the other side, at least, wiH not find it conven­ States. My own State of Tennessee has a mortgage indebtedness ient to deny this view of the situation, because their argument of of only $40,000,000, while your State, general [addressing Gen. most; frequent repetition is that the United States, even with BLACK of Illinois], has a mortgage indebtedness on acres and lots the aid of other silver-using countries, can not maintain our amounting to $380,000,000. It amounts in your State to $100 per double standard. If this 'Qe true, then it certainly must follow capita, while in my State it amounts to only $23 per capit9-. ln that the other countries, without the aid of the United States, your State 19 per cent of the estimated -value of real estate is can not maintain their single silver standard. And so it is, that mortgaged, while in my State there is only 8 per cent. wh a tev~r the form in which it may be presented, the great issue Again, in the South we m ake surplus crops of cotton and to­ which confronts us, is the preservation or destruction of silver bacco largely in excess of the demand of the American market. as a money metal amongst all nations. These products are shipped across the Atlantic and sold in the I have been puzzled tounderstand why the representatives of open free markets of the world. They are all practically shipped a free people should desire such a result. I am aware, of course, to the countries having a gold standard. After supplying all that each of the two schools of monometallists gives us a different the spindles of the United States, the people of the Southern reason for the faith which they both profess. One school contents States since the war have shipped and sold in other countries, at itself with the scholastic argument that the double standard is free-trade prices, cotton which realized $5,000,000,000 in gold. absurd. But, Mr. Speaker, it appears to me to be assuming Where has it gone to? Has the want of cheap money dissipated very much-more! indeed, than any man in this day and genera­ it? Has the want of a 65-cent dollar made it useless? No; it tion is justified in assuming-to stigmatize a policy established has been practically filched from the pockets of the Southern by Alexander Hamilton, with the concurrence of Wru::hington people by unjust tariff laws, and, so far as I am concerned, I in­ and Jefferson, as an absurdity. And especially so, sir, when that tend to hold, if possible, my constituency to the issue of tariff policy was continued in successful operation for more than eighty reform until the system of protection, under which they have years, and those years, whether tested by the increase or by the been robbed, is abolished. [Applause.] distribution of our wealth, the most prosperous in our history. Mr. Speaker, I regard this as a grave and serious crisis in our I ' prefer to receive my instruction on financial policies from affairs. It is a momentous crisis so far as the Southern States that period which brought us peace and kept us in contentment, are concerned. No other section of the Union is forced to lean rather than from a narrow sect of intolerant and "bookish on the Democratic party for prosperity, good order, and good theories." govern~ent like the South. Should either one of the amend­ The other school votes to establish a single stmdard because ments offered by my friend from Missouri meet with the ap­ it does not believe that this Government c·w sushin the double proval of Congress, it seems to me inevitable that the President standard against the practice of what gentlemen choose to call will veto the bill as a measure fraught with more mischief than the commercial nations. Mr. Speaker, I am very free to say that the Sherman law. In that event, in my judgment, the present this argument deserves the most careful consideration, and pro­ situation will develop into a condition of confusion and bank­ ceeding as it does from men with whom I agree on so many ques­ ruptcy, which will discredit the Administration to such an ex­ tions, I shall atttempt to make the best and most dispassionate tent that it may fall short in the accomplishment of the benefi­ answer to it that is within my power. cent ends which we all have so much at heart. The serious, and I may say the fatal, vice of this argument is, that I believe there is an imperative necessity for the repeal of the itoverestimates the importance of our monetary system as related purchasing clause of the Sherman law. This is the consensus to our foreign commerce, and underestimates its importance as of opinion throughout the business community of the United related to our domestic transactions. Our imports and exports States. I do not go back to see what I have said here, or what added together aggregated less than $1,800,000,000 during the I have said there, under different conditions, or unadvisedly. last fiscal year, while our dealings with one another in our own I am dealing with the living present. I am acting for a confid­ country will exceed this sum by more than twenty times, and it ing and trustful constituency: whose interests it is my highest therefore app~rs to me too plain for disputation that we can not duty to protect. I am acting for the country at large, whose in justice to our people ignore the domestic aspect of this ques­ welfare it is my duty to promote. I do not look forward to the tion. future to•see what my personal or political fortunes may be. I Again, sir, in our foreign commerce the usual course of busi­ would rather be right on this question than to return .to Con­ ness is that we pay for our imports with our exports. If I send gress. I have given the subject much time and study. I have a shipload of cotton to Liverpool and bring a shipload of cotton given those who sent me here my best efforts to solve the prob­ goods back to this country, I can use the money or the exchange lem rightly, and I will answer to them for my vote. I have taken which I receive for my cotton in payment for my cotton goods. my stand. Others m1.y take the course which duty and patriot­ And even if I desire to trade with different countries I can still ism point out as best for their people and their country. So far attain the same result. If I send a cargo of wheat to London and as I am concerned, I am now, and shall always be, with Jeffel'son, bring a cargo of wine from Paris, I can use my London exchange with Jackson, with Tilden, and with Cleveland, for sound money, in p:1yment for my Paris wine. for economic government, for fairj just, and equal taxation, and But, sir, there IS another, and, as I think, a stronger answer home rule. [Prolonged applause. still. It is this: In the settlement of international balances we Mr. BAILEY. Mr. Speaker, my distinguished friend from seldom use either of the precious metals, except when the bal­ Tennessee [Mr. PATTERSON] might have extended his Biblical ance of trade is against us, and this occurs, and ought only to history and reminded the House that the leader who had brought occur, at rare intervals. When we use them at all we do not the children of Is rae1 in sight of the promised land never lived to use them as money. If we use gold or silver coin we use it as enter it. [Laughter.] I have, Mr. Speaker, been not a little di­ bullion and 1;1.t its bullion value. You might double the amount vert-ed by the change in the arguments of our friends on the other of silver in your silver dollar or divide the amount of gold in side, and, as I heard the distinguished gentleman from New York your gold dollar without making any possible difference in the [Mr. HENDRIX] on Saturday last describe what he called the settlement of foreign balances, because they each would be taken "evolution of fina,nce," I could not avoid thinking that some then. as now, according to its weight and fineness. financiers had been undergoing that same process of evolution. What difference can it make to me wheth e!.' the London mer­ . [Laughter.] Up to withinthepast few months it was not com­ chant who owes me $6,000 pays me in six thousand gold dollars, mon to find a pronounced advocate of the single standard in this worth a hundred cents on the dollar, or in ten thousand silver country. The men who denounced silver and demanded its dollars worth 60 cents on the dollar? It might, indeed, make a demonetization professed themselves to be bimetallists, but in­ very great difference if you would open yoJr mints, bec:mse I sisted that the 'ratio between the two metals could only be fixed could then coin my silver into American silver dollars, and the' . ·, by an international agreement; alon.g- this line thl'l argument pro­ wheatorcotton whichlsentabt·oad w o uiddisch :.~ rg-e$10,000of my ceeded until now, and when they think thattheyhave brought the debts, while to-day it ~cquits me of only $6,000.

. i 314 CONGRESSI0NAL REOOR·D-HOUSE. AUGUST 14,

It has beoome the fa-shion, Mr. Speaker, in the discussion of and predicting a continued increase in their production, he closes this question~ to lay great stress upon the necessity of all com­ the chapter in'these words: - mercial nations conforming to one financial system. Yet, sir, the Under circumstances similar to those which I have hurriedly enumerated, the only wa;v to prevent a fall in the value of gold and a. consequent rise 1n history of the very country to which the advocates of this policy the price of all other commodities, would be the discovery of a new demand most frequently refer unanswerably refutes their argument. equal in·extent to the increased supply thrown upon the markets of thtl west­ England for more than fifty years maintained her single gold ern world. standard, while all the countries with which she traded main­ His theory was that gold must be demonetized or n, new de­ tained either the single silver standard or the double standard mand found for it. He preferred its demonetization, and Ger­ of both gold and silver. Yet it is not averred in all the volumes many, accepting his theory, actually demonetized it in 1857. of English history, nor is it asserted in her parliamentary de­ England had previously adopted the single gold standard, and as bates, that the difference between her monetary system and that its demonetization would depress the value of all money in her which prevailed in other countries ever interfered with Englislf borders, she hesitated. She appointed a commission and sent commerce. England adopted a single gold standard in 1816 when it to California and Australia for the purpose of examining she was exhausted in blood and treasure by her long Napoleonic their mines and reporting on the extent and richness of their wars, butshemaintained italoneag~nstall the world. Shall we deposits. Thn.t report was such as to disarm the fear of England in the evening of this nineteenth century, with oursixty-fivemil­ about the increase of those mines. Beiore a final conclusion was lions of people, with our free institutions, with our measureless reached, however, the discovery of the great Comstock mine, resources, and with a wealth surpassing e-ven the dream of Ori­ followed by the opening of other silver mines, rendered it cer­ ental fable, confess ourselves unequal to an easier task? To do tain thatthe annualsupplyof silver would soon agerabnndance as compared .- would retire one-half of his capital and still attempt to tt•ansact With their present consumption, and at much less cost or labor than pre­ his business undiminished in amount. I know that there is not a viously; just, in tact, as occurs in tpe case of manufactures of every kind whenever, by 1m proved processes or from natural ca. uses of a novel kind, merchant or manufacturer so mad as to believe that he can with­ they can be produced in unusual quantities and at a. great reduction of cost. draw one-half of his capit9l from his business without contract­ Thfs fall in the value of gold and silver. in com>.Jarison with all other pro­ ing his business to answer the reduction of his capital. auctions, revealed itself by the increased quantity of coined metal which it was necessary to give for the generality of other articles, and it was thus Even, sir, if we consider money merely as a medium of exchange, that the working of the mines of A-merica had necessarily for effect a gen­ it still must be admitted that the amount of money ought to bear eral rise of prices; in other words, they made all other commodities dearer. some fair correspondence to the exchanges which it is expected Mr-. Speaker'", I could multiply these evidences until I had ex­ .:. to perform. Of course there are credit devices which economize hausted my own strength and the patience of the House, but its use, but they derive their value from the fact that they are these seem sufficient to establish my contention. promises to pay in the money of ultimate redemption. Take the money of final payment from behind the checks and drafts FLUCTUATIONS BETWEEN THE TWO METALS. about which we hear so much, and they would not be worth the Now, sir, upon what theory are we invited to subject our coun­ clean paper on which they are written. The amount of our trymen to these appalling consequences? Upon the inconclusive money must determine the amount and the value of the credits and unsatisfactory argument that the market value of gold and sil­ which we can use. No reasonable man, of course, expects a dol­ ver fluctuates. Gold and silver fluct~ated, in 1792, when our lar in money to support every dollar of credit, but every sensible mint was established, but Alexander Hamilton., atter long and mnn knows that the more money we have, the safer our credit careful consideration of the whole question, decided in favor of becomes. the double standard, and gave as his reason that- To annul the use of either of these metals is to abridge the quantity of All great writers on political economy affirm that money is the circulating medimrr, and is liable to all the objections which arise from necessary in the development of civilization and the extension the comparison of the benefits of a full With the evils of a scanty circula­ of commerce; that without it there can be no division of labor, tion. with its resulting skill and other benefits. Concede that proJ?­ I do not deny, sir, that there is, nnd always will be, some diffi­ . , - osition, and it follows as n. corollary that enough money 1s culty in adjusting·and maintaining any given parity between the necessary to athin the highest development of civilization and two metals; but I regard that difficulty as insignificant when the greatest extension of commerce, and when we :restrict the compared with the evils which must result from reducing the amount of money below the requirements of the people we ob­ world to an insufficient supply of money. Fluctuation in market struct the progress of mankin'd, value is not an insurmountable obstacle. Surely there is wisdom . Gold alone can not furnish a sufficient supply oJ money to meet enough in the American Congress to meet and solve these diffi­ the necessities of commerce and civilization. There is not one:. culties as they may rise. Free coinage itself will powerfully con- .. ·.• -.... ,· ', : ·.

316 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD-HOUSE. AUGUST 14,

tribute toward correcting fluctuation and settling the relative which destroys a portion of the money of the world. The French value of the two metals. monetary commission in 1869 declared that demonetization was It is nonsense to tell me that a law which permits me to coin for the benefit of those whose incomes are fixed. One of the 412-! grains of standand silver into a debt-paying dollar will not earliest advocates of the single standard, discussing it in a coun­ greatly enhance the price of silver. It will, at least! render it try where the people did not rule and where, therefore, the ob- more valu]1ble in the payment of debts, and while the advocates ·ject of all legislation and its effects could be frankly admitted, of gold seem to have entirely overlooked the function which declares the same thing in a passage which I send to the Clerk's money performs as a standard of deferred payments, many of desk to be read. our profoundest thinkers on the subject regard this function as The Clerk read as follo:ws: secondary to none of money's other uses. All commodities excepting gold, and every kind of property excepting that Almost every gentleman who h as spoken upon the other side, of which the income is from the present fixed, as is the case with the Govern­ ment funds, ought, from the moment that the monetary crisis is terminated, in discussing this phase of the question, has fallen into the curi­ to have attained in a gold currency double the price which they are at pres­ ous contradiction of first asserting that this Government, acting ent worth, upon the supposition, qUite arbitrarily, I admit, of the deprecia­ alone, can not raise the price of silver bullion, and thee in almost tion reaching 50 per cent. Thus, a house or a landed estate nowworth £4,000, or 100,000 francs, would then sell for £8,000, or 200,000 francs. the next se.n tence declaring that if we enter upon a policy of free The hectolitre of corn or of wine, the quintal or iron, or the meter of calico coinage the silver of all the world will flow in to our mints. Both will undergo the same rise, at least if no change conducive to cheapness be propositions can not possibly be correct, because there could be introduced into the conditions of their production or into the relation be­ tween the supply and demand. It will be the same eventually with the no inducement for silver to come here unless a free-coinage law wages of labor, and with all personal services, whether rendered in the fac­ had raised it above its present price. tory or on the farm, or from the liberal professions; we are warranted in be­ It is beyond dispute, however, that a free-coinage law will in­ lieving that their value will have doubled. Thus. as a definite analysis, the proprietors of lands, houses, and other crease its price, and it is barely possible that its first impulse real estates. manufacturers, merchants, and their auxiliaries of every kind; may be in this direction. But will it come in any considerable p ublic functionaries of all r~s; and also those who follow the difl'erent quantities? Nobody now pretends to believe that the silver coin learned professions, will all find themselves in the end compensated in the new tate of things with advantages equal to those which they now enjoy­ of the Old World will be brought to our mints, because 15-! all other things being equal. It is another class of persons, whom we have ounces of their silver coin will buy 1 ounce of gold, while here previously defined in a general way, who have to submit to a sacrifice in it will require 16 ounces to buy an ounce of gold, thus entailing proportion to the fall in the precious metal. a loss of more than 3 per cent, in addition to the freight and the Mr. BAILEY. Mr. Speaker, the other class of persons whom risk which must be incurred in bringing it across the ocean. this writer says he has previously defined in a general way are The only practical question for us to consider in this connec­ described on a preceding page of the same chapter as the " in­ tion, is as to silver bullion, and it will help us toward a clearer come class." The proposition asserted here is, that the increase of understanding of that to recall the amount and the conditions of money affects all classes favorably except the income class and its production. During the last year the world produced about the owners of government funds. The converse of the proposi­ $175,000,000 worth of silver bullion. Of this amount the United tion must therefore be true, that a decrease in the amount of States produced about $75,000,000, leaving $100,000,000 produced money affects the income class and the owners of government by all the other countries. Of .this $10u,ooo,ooo not less than funds favorably and affects all other classes unfavorably. The $30,000,000 will be consumed in the arts and as subsidiary coin authorities are unvarying and unequivocal in declaring that a by gold-standard countries, leaving only $70,000,000 for full decrease in the volume of money benefits nobody except the in­ monetary uses. Will that $70,000,000 come to our mints? I do come class and the holders of government funds, and that the not believe it will, because I believe that the silver-standard increase of money benefits everybody except them. countries will need it to increase their circulation, and in or­ I do not believe, sir, that legislation ought to be shaped for der to retain it they will find themselves obliged to · pay a price the benefit of any parti.ctJlar class; but if special privileges must sufficient to keep it. It will be the same case as might happen be conferred by law on somebody, they ought to be c,onferred in with our wheat. If the wheat crop of Europe fails, the price accordance with the time-honored maxim of Democracy, which of wheat advances here, and we are glad to sell our surplus at declares the sum of wise government to be comprehended in the the a_dvanced price: but when our surplus is gone our sales are motto: "The greatest good to the greatest number." practically ended, because whatever price they might offer us It is useless to disguise, or to attempt to disguise, the fact that, for that part of our crop which we need for home consumption in a large degree, this is a contest between the debtors and the we can not and will not sell it. The more the foreigner offers creditors of the world. The debtors are willing to pay in the for it, the more our own people would be compelled to pay be­ money of their contract, desiring, however, to exerciae the option cause they can not part with their bread. So it would be with which the law has allowed them. The creditors are determined silver-whatever its price might be, foreign countries which to destroy that option, and thus compel a payment in the more neel it to increase their circulation would be forced to retain it valuable money, rendered more valuable still by the aid of legis- for that purpose. · lation. . We often hear it asserted that it is not demonetization, but We have even been pleaded with in this Hall to preserve the the difference in the amount of their productions, which has faith of the Government unt::Linted. I trust, sir, that the Amer­ caused the displacement of the parity between gold and silver. ican Congress needs no such urgence. I do not believe there is This can not be true, for if this were the explanation the same a thoughtful American citizen in this broad land, and surely cause would have produced the same effect at other periods. the"re is not an American Representative in this Hall who does During the nearly fifty years from 1801, when Mr. Jeffurson not unswervingly insist that every contract of his Government became President, until after the gold discovery in California shall be fulfilled religiously and accor ding to its terms. and Australiain 1848, the production of silver more than doubled But, sir, I am no more wi.lling that Congress should take from the production of gold throughout the world, but their parities the people and give to the bondholders than I am that it shall were without violent variations. Almost in a single year their take from the bondholders and give to the people. It is one relative production was reversed, and for a series of years the of those rules which works both ways, and ought toworkeither production of gold was more than twice the production of silver, way with equal justice. and still their ratios were not seriously disturbed. Our fathers sold these bonds, and the purchasers had it ex­ From 1687, the time when the world began to renew its liber­ plicity nominated in the law that they were payable in coin of ties and its commercial vigor, down to 1873, when the silver the standard then existing. Let us pay them precisely t· s our dollar was dropped from our list of coins, the ratio between fathers agreed to pay them, and to the utmost farthing, even if gold and silver fluctuated, but it never fell as low as 14 to 1, and it takes the pound of flesh and the heart's best blood goes with it. never rose as high as 16 to 1, except in the two years of 1812-'13. This far every honest man should be willing and anxious to go, but Theywere both full money metals during that period; but since not one step farther. The law which authol;'ized the issuance -- 1873, when one was left a money and the other degraded to a and s4Je of these bonds provided that they could be paid in gold commodity, the ratio has risen from less than 16 to 1 to more dollars containing 25.8 grains of standard gold or in silver dol­ than 27 to 1. The market value of gold and silver varies to-day lars containing 412-! grains of silver nine-tenths fine. This much so widely b acause one is a full money metal and the other is a I would pay if it impoverished our children, but one scruple more commodity, and their value will continue to vary so long as this than this I will never consent to give. 0' relation continues. The way, and the only way, to elevate and It is a principle of both law and justice, sir, that a contract is steady the price of silver is to open your mints to its free faithfully kept when discharged according to its stipuhtions. and unlimited coinage, and thus create, as a great nation like This principle is as old as this Government-older indeed, be­ this easily can, an unlimited demand for silver at its coining cause it was cherished and taught by the wise men in other l ands value. before the dream of this Republic had ever glorified a p3,triot's FOR WHOSE BENEFIT IS TIDS DONE? brain. Mr. Speaker, it may not be improper for me to conclude my OUR PLEDGES. part of this discussion with a hasty glance at the classes who are Sir, I think that, under our form of government, it is just as to be benefited or injured by the enactment of this ~easure, important that the Representative should keep his faith with his \ .

1893. CONGRESSIONAL RECORD-HOUSE. 317

constituents as it is that the Government should keep its faith upon the action of' the individual members of Congress. E e has with our creditors. We made a. formal and a solemn promise performed his duty, and he has left it to us to perform ours; and last year that we would use both gold and silver as the standard I am willing to assume the responsibility along with three hun­ money of -this country; and, with the talk of" good faith" upon dred and fifty-five other gentlemen in this House and eighty­ your lips, are you willing to repudiate your highest obligation? eight membars of the Senate of the United States. Sir, the responsibility shall rest not upon us. Ne1ther the We are told that we are facing a crisis. The first question bondholder nor the people shall be able t.o charge us with b J.d that actually comes to us is, what is the crisis, and what has faith. We are not only ready to pay our bonds as we stipulated brought it about, and then what is the remedy to stave it off or to pay them, but we are also re::tdy to redeem the pledge which abolish it? we made to the people at the last election and upon which we What has caused the present crisis? Why is it that all over sought their suffrages. this land we see banks failing in all directions, find great busi­ We stmdfor nopd.rtial redemption. We goforafull, complete, ness enterprises coming to a sudden halt, and men by the thou­ and perfect performg,nce of both the letter and the spirit of our sands thrown out of employment? In my opinion there is among pron:ise. many others one gre:Lt fundamental reason that has more to do I say to the gentleman from West Virginia [Mr. WILSON], with it than anything else, and that is the lack of confidence and to those who are acting with him on this question, that if upon the part of the American people. they will first join us in reestablishing the equality of gold and The next question for us to consider is, what has brought to silver, both at- the mints and before the law, we will then join pass the lack of confidence that we now tind prevailing North, them in maintaining that equality in the melting pot as well as East, West, and South'? Whg,t is it? My distinguished friend across the counter. from the State of Missouri[Mr. BLAND], whom I ~dmireas highly In other words, sir, we will coin for them a silver dollar that as I do any member of this body, t alls us th :~, t it is because we shall stand the test of fire as well as of commerce. Place gold have failed to adopt the unlimited. coinage of the silver dollar at and silver bullion on precisely the same conditions, and we will a ratio of 16 to 1. Now, I admire that gentleman's courage. I bind ourselves to make and keep the gold and siiver dolls.r of the admire his sincerity, and, above all, I honor and rever a the loyalty same intrinsic value. There is no Democr3t here, and there are with which he has adhered to what, under the present condi­ no Democrats elsewhere, who dem!"tnd anything for silver which tions throughout the world, must be a failing cause. they do not readily concede to gold. As for my part, I would A year ago I was disposed to think differently upon this ques­ forfeit the good will of my people, and retire forever from the tion from what I think now. Then, I am free to confess, I had public service, before I would vote, after h aving restored the given it no study, and I was ready to vote as I then thought was . equal privilege of these two metals, to then permit them coined right, and I did vote at that time as I thought to be upon the into dollars of unequal value. My constituents desire no such right side of that question. Then I believed that. I believed arrangement as this. that the free and unlimited coinage of silver at the ratio of lo But, gentlemen, you deceive yourselves as to the temper of the to 1 was our safest policy regardless of the action of the other people on this subject if you imagine that you can pacify them commercial n:L tions. I h ave suudied this question, have examined by shallow declamations about a dishonest dollar. If the present and investigated it to the best of my ability, and I have found silver dollar is not an honest one, the people are willing to m ELke that I was in err.or in former days; and finding now what I believe it so, according to any reasonable definition that C3.D be proposed, to be the right cour se, I for one am ready to pursue and stand and all they ask of you to-day is an opportunity to fairly test the by it to the bitter end, .whether it lead to my political defeat or­ matter. Will you deny them this? D ELre you do so in the face political victory at the polls this coming election; and fi nding of your platform? If you do, then when you come again to ask how mistaken was my judgment in the past I am not one to stand their confidence and their support they may answer you with here and charge other men on the floor of this House with derEr the bitter words of Macbeth about the weird sisters: liction to their duty to their constituents, or with the violation And be these juggling fi ends no more believ'd, of promises which they are alleged to have m ::1de to their people. That p alter with us in a double sense: Now, what is the condition of affairs prevailing in thiscountry1 That keep the word of promise to our ear which has brought to pass the disasters and misfortunes o£ which And break it to our h ope. we complain? I attribute that condition more to the use of un­ You may go on, and in a blind obedience to the commands of s:mnd money than to any other known c :tuse. I believe that nine­ the rich and powerful, you may strike down the money of the tenths of the financial p anics, nine-tenths of the business failures people and destroy the coinage of the Constitution. You may that have been enhiled upon the civilized wor ld are due to the forget the millions who toil in the workshops and fields of this fact that the world h as time and again surrendered itself to the land, but they will not forget you. They are patient and long evils of an unsound finance. We have seen in this country every suffering, but they can not and will not endure all things, and method of finance ad vacated. We have beheld men of knO\vn when the heartless exactions of avarice h -:.ve ground their faces intelligence ad vacating every theory upon the subject, whether into the dust, and aggravated their burdenS' beyond their ca­ history has contradicted them or not. All forms of fiat money J> :l.city to bear them, they will arouse themselves to a conscious­ have found friends, and nearly every financial folly has been ness of their strength, and then~ when it m :1y be too l ate, you gre3ted with applause. will find what it is, having sown the wind, to reap the whirl­ What of other countries? Carry yourselves a hundred years wind. back, and what do you fi nd to have been the action of France, one If you do this work fflithfully and well, the people will bless of the most enlightened among the nations? At that time the the memory of this Cong ress for generations and generations to French people were embarked in a great revolution? They come. If you do it ill, they will undo what you h ave done, and thought they needed money to carry on the war that had baen t hey will not only sweep from the statute book the unjust law declar ed against them on the part of nearly all Europe. What which you have written there, but they will drive forever from did they do? They issued an almost unlimited quantity of power and place the r ecre:m t represent::Ltiveswho h ave betrayed paper money. They based it on what? Not on the only their confidence and disappointed their hopes. [Applause.] thing in which paper money could then be redeemable-coin~ Mr. PENDLETON of W est Virginia. Mr . Speaker, I think gold and silver then being the money of all nations but they that this is a question upon which Democrats can very readily first confis c e~, ted nearly two-thirds of the entire land of France, differ without being accused of h aving· abandoned their party the land that was held by the nobles and by the priesthood, and principles. I know at one time I enterained a very different said that they would make that land good for the redemption of opinion upon this question fr om what I entertain to-day. But I this currency called the assignat currency of France. am one of those who believe in the lessons of experience, and I Se\·er al thous ~md millions of francs were issued. In the course am disposed to learn by the tests o£ prosperity as well as ad­ of a few years what was it worth? Just what Confederate money versity. I am a bimetallist, and shall vote to arrive at the double was worth when L ee laid down his arms on the 9th day of April, standard by what, in my opinion, is theonly rout-e thatw_i lllead 1865. To replace the assignat came the mandat. Several thou­ to that end. I shall not quarrel with those who prefer another sand millions of them were issued, and in a few years more the ro:: d. same thing followed as to them, because the mandat was not re­ The President of the United States, following the privilege deemable in coin . not r edeemable in money that was recognized conferred upon him by the n :1tional Constitution, has called the as money throughout the civilized world. It met the fate that Congress of the United States together to meet what he says is all fi at money h as met at all times and under all circumstances, a grave and a serious crisis. He h as performed his whole duty and became absolutely worthless, and was that much waste paper in the premises; he bas taken himself from the city of Washing­ in the h ands of the citizens of France. ton to his quiet summer retreat, and has left it to this body, The lessons of history tell us that a single nation's paper money united with the Senate of the United States, to determine upon is only good when there is a promise to pay or redeem it in the the measures that should be adopted for the benefit of the Amer­ money that is current in all commercial countries, and a firm ican people. And I am glad that Grover Cleveland is not here to­ confidence that the nation has both the desire and the ability to day endeavoring to exercise any influence of any kind or character keep its pledge. The fiat money of any nation, being redeem-

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318 CONGRESSIONAL aECORD-· HOUSE. AUGUST 14, ·- able in nothing t;b.a;.t is recognized as. mouey by oth,er nat.tone, il:i Fre.ncb. Government undertook to establish a paper fiat money, valueless. And what would money of this kind be? Wb.~t effect called assignats and mandats,.. they drove out the gold and silver did it have on the pNsperity of the French p.eople? It ruined that were current then throughout the world from general cir­ thousands. It left the workip.gmeu stranded in thei\' endeavor culation and use in France. Whatwas theresultof that "action? to earn an honest livelihaod by simply transferring the gold and Several thousand millions of assig:aats or mandats were issued, silver money of the country to the pockets of a few speculators based upQn two-thirds of the land in France, and in a few yea,rs &nd the men who most thrive when money is necessary and when they were not worth more than the Confederate money was when, m,oney in use is unsound. Gen. Lee surrendered. Those who took it in payment of debts Mr. DAVIS. Will the gentleman permit me to ask him a were ruined, and it became absolutely worthless in the hands of question? the holders,_while financial distress and commercial ruin pre­ Mr. PENDLETON of West Virginia. I will. vailed throughout all France. Mr. DAVIS. What h ad been done before that paper money The attempt was a signal failure, and in my opinion this ex­ found the people? periment should be an everlasting lesson to the advocates of Mr. PENDLETON of Wes.t Virginia. That is a historical purely fiat money. You ask tow hat reason I attribute the fail­ question which I would like to explain to my friend if I had time. ure of this paper money. Why? Because the faith of the Mr. DAVIS. They were eating grass; they had nothing to French Government was not pledged to redeem a frn.n.c or a eat; they were starving, and the corn failed before the paper centime of that money in the money of the world at tb,~t time was issued. known to commercial nations, to wit: gold and silver. Mr. PENDLETON of West Virginia. The French Govern­ Mr. SI¥PSON. Does not the gentleman admit that there­ ment in 1792 and 1793 confiscated a great proportion of the landed sult which he describes was owing to the failure of the repub­ •. . property of the country-in other words, the property of the lican government and the restoration of the old regime, and not pl;'iesthood and the property of the nobility-and th'en it passed a to the failure of the money itself? law, which you and I know to ba in existence to this day, a law Mr. PENDLETON of West Virginia. No; it was due to the of inheritance that has transferred, in the course of time, almost failure of the money. The Republic of France did not go out of the entire landed property into the hands of the mass of the existence at that time, and not until long after this paper people, where it is to-day. Thatmoneyhadnothingin the world had become valueless. The consulate came in on the 18th of to do with that law; but that money was based on what? On November, 1799, when Napoleon was First made First Consul. that land that the Frencl;l. Government confiscated, and they The~ in 1804, in ~arch of that·year, Napoleon se~ aside theRe­ based it on two-thirds of the landed wealth of ,France and the publlc and establlshed the Empire. sacred pledge of the Government to redeem it in land; and in a Mr. SIMPSON. That is what I said; that it was owing to the few years 3,000,000,000 of that money was worth no more than. failure of the republican government. the Confederate promise to pay was worth when Gen. Lee sur­ Mr. PENDLETON of West Virginia. But years and years rendered. before that this paper money had become rag money. It was Mr. DAVIS. I will ask the gentleman if two-thirds of that not until April, 1814, that the old regime was restored, and it money issued by the French Government was not counterfeit? was re-restored in June, 1815. Now, I trust my friend will please Mr. PENDLETON ofWest Virginia. I cannot stop to argue let me alone on those questions. [L':tughter.] that with my friend. I have re!td French history one way and Mr. SIMPSON. But the gentleman has practically admitted you have read it another. that the failure of that money was due to the failure of· the gov­ Mr. SIMPSON. Will the gentleman permit me to ask him a ernment that issued it, the same as the failure of the Southern question, for information? Confederacy rendered its money valueless. Mr PENDLETON of West Virginia. One at a time. Mr. PENDLETON of West Virginia. The French Govern­ Mr. SIMPSON. The gentleman from West Virginia admits ment never abolished that money, and never made any effort that at the time of the breaking out of the French Revolution whatever to do anything with it except to pledge the national the lands h1,1.d passed into the hands of a very small proportion lands for its redemption, but lont5 before the Government could of the people? . carry out its promises the money had become rag money, was Mr. PENDLETON of We.st Virginia. Up to that time it had. thrown away, had passed out of circulation, and hu.d met with a Mr. SIMPSON. And the cond,ition of th~ people was very death to which there was no possible resurrection. Yet France bad? was then the most powerful nation on the Continent of Europe, . Mr. PENDLETON of West Virginia. Very bad indeed. and its armies were everywhere victorious. The republican Mr. SIMPSON. Had France teen running on a gold basis up government of France finally returned to the, then money of the to that time? world, gold and silver. Mr. PEl"l"DLETON of West Virginia. UptothattimeFrance Now, Mr. Speaker, take another gre::tt illustration or example had been running on a gold basis . in the histor.v of the world which occurred a few y-ears before . Mr. SIMPSON. Then you must admit that a gold, basis that, and I think it will demonstrate the folly of the gentlemen J;l.aturally p.rod,uced that result, and that the property had all who are preachmg fiat money on the floor of the House of Rep­ passed into the hands of a few people because of the gold stand­ resentatives·, which ought to be the most intelligent body in the ard. world, because I am sure that it represents the ~ost intelligent Mr. PENDLETON of West Virginia. No, sir; and I will tell people that breathe beneath God's sun. you more about that. If the gentleman will not interrupt me Take our old Continental currency. We fought through the he will find that I am somewhat acquainted with the history of war of independen~e, we achieved our victory and established the French Revolution as well as himself. Down to the time of ourselves as a proud and strong nationality among the nations the French Revolution nine-tenths of the lands of France were of the globe. We were flushed with triumph, were strong, and in the hands of· a few people; secondly, nine-tenths of the people were growing stronger. We had this Continental money on in that country, under the laws then existing, were practically hand. What did we do with it? Not a dollar of that Conti­ in the condition of serfs and slaves. The feudal system had not nental money was ever redeemed, and of what value did it be­ then been abolished in France, and the gold basis had nothing come? Rag money; waste paper. Why? Because the Conti­ whatever to do with it, or a silver basis, or any other basis, so nental Congress, or the Ameri9an nation never at any time far as af(eoted the welfare of the people or the ownership of pledged itself to redeem that money in gold or silver, which were land. It was the old feudal law of inheritance that maintained at that time the recognized money of the· world. property in the hands of the few and perpetuated an aristocracy. Mr. DAVIS. If the gentleman will pe1·mit me, Mr. Gallatin, Mr. SIMPSON. The gentleman from West Virginia asserted Secretary of the Treasury in 1818, delivered his opinion of that that the paper currency that they resorted to had, put them in a money-- very bad condition. • Mr. PENDLETON of West Virginia (interposing). Mr. Mr. PENDLETON of West Virginia. Now, will you let me Speaker, I would like to answer all the questions the gentle­ go on? man may desire to ask, but if I undertake to do so I shall be Mr. SIMPSON. If what I have s.aid be true, the loss·of the kept discussing this one point until my time has expired. paper currency had nothing to do with it. Mr. DAVIS. Mr. Gallatin said-- Mr. PENDLETON of West Virginia. If you will allow me, I Mr. PENDLETON of West Virginia. I prefer to go on and. will endeavor to give you the history of thatmatter. When the discuf?S the question that is before the House. What I have French Assen;~.bly, in 1788, met, it was confronted with laws that been saying so far is merely preliminary to the main question; had been upon the statute books of that country for nearly a and let me say to the gentleman, further, that it is very hard thousand ye.ars under. the feudal system. They abolished the work to talk in this Hall in hot weather, and I need whatever class privileges, and practically confiscated two-thirds of the voice I have. landed property of the country, taking it from the aristocracy Mr. DAVIS. I will not ask tbe question. ~d the priesthood, conferring it upon the national government. Mr. PENDLETON of West Virginia. Now, Mr. Speaker, I Several ye1;trs after ~at, along about 1792 and 1793s wht;~n the st~;trtedoutwith, tb.~ bol<;}. proposHi<;>n that nine-tenths of the evils ... ,' ' ..

1893. CONGRESSIONAL REOORD-HOUSE. 319 that nave prevailed in our countryhave been due toanunsound, Why, sir, to-day, what is the condition of affairs? It is true unstable currency, and I believe that whenever this country that I sympathize with the cry that Colorado is sending up to shall arrive at a period when it will establish for itself a sound the heavens. I sympathize with the feeling of the people of and stable currency it will become more flourishing than any Nevada upon this question as deeply as their own members on other country of which history makes mention-than any other this floor can do. But at the same time they can not come to country that to-day exists -in the civilized world. Why should this Congress and ask us, when the interests of 65,000,000 of it not? We have every resource here, every capacity for the people are involved, to legislate exclusively for their benefit, establishment and the maintenance of a glorious, prosperous, forgetting the interests of every other portion of those 65,000,000 powerful country. Why, then7'Should we not one and all strive who live under the s9IDe :flag and are entitled to the same pro­ to esbblish a sound-currency? tection as the people of Colorado or Nevada. Why can not we There is one style of argument used here to which I desire to make their money the exclusive money of this country? Whv call attention. There are men who argue on the silver question can we not maintain the free and unlimited coinage of thei'i· exactly as the Republicans do upon the tariff question. Our Re­ money at a ratio of 16 to 1, as they desire that we should do? publican friends, those of them at least who proceed to the ex­ In the first place, I am myself a bimetallist. I believe that treme of a prohibitory tariff, argued last fall that this country conditions oan beJ:nade to exist by the action of Congress when was sufficient unto itself; that we could legislate for ourselves silver and gold, freely and fully coined at a ratio of 16 to 1 or 15 and make whatever tariff we chose to make, regardless of other to 1, or any other ratio that all the civilized and commercial nations. The Democrats took issue with them on that proposi­ nations may agree upon, can and will circulate in this country, tion. and all other countries, as the money of the world. And that We said that all nations grow rich by trade. We proclaimed condition, I think, can be brought about by proper legislation that Europe wanted the breadstuffs, the corn, the cotton, the on the part of the American Congress. bacon, and the hams of America, while we wanted things from But why can we not, my friends, maintain this free and un­ them; that if we laid down as a fundamental rule that we did limited comage to-day at a ratio of 16 to 1, or at any ratio what­ not intend at any time or under any circumstances to pay atten­ ever? In the first place, we might even out of our _earnings tion to the wishes of foreign countries, and did not allow their present Colorado and Nevada yearly a dollar for every fifty-eight people to sell their products here, they would return to us ln cents of their silver, as we are now doing, and yet survive. The kind with retaliatory tariffs of their own, and prohibit the ex­ other sixty-five millions might do this for a time, and that is portation of our products to them. We went to battle with what we are really asked to do, and not make use of this product gentlemen on that side of the question who made arguments of as money at all. When we, however, are asked to make use of this character, and I am glad to say we have prevailed in three their product as a money metal which the other trading nations successive campaigns. · will not take, we disrupt, break down, disorganize, and steadily And now, when the battle is on for sound money, for an upright damage our whole industrial situation, and leave ourselves at the currency, we are told again by the very gentlemen on this side mercy of all nations, a subject for both laughter and universal of the House who fought against that theory of our R.epublican ·plunder. friends that this country .can maintain a currency of its own in­ In 1816 a movement against silver began on the part of Eng­ dependent of the action of the other civilized nations of the land, which movement I think has been disastrous to the world, world; that, tradingwith them and finding our great markets for as I would like to see both metals maintained, believing that our breadstuffs among the nations of old Europe, we can make old the maintenance of both metals is for the greater prosperity of Europe take anything for money that we choose to call money, all the nations. England~ it is true, in 1816 made herself a whether it be a money metal with them or no. monometallic country-decided in favor of gold and suspended There never was a falser theory; there never was a more erro­ further coinage of silver. My friend from Texas [Mr. BAILEY] neous doctrine. We can not do it. There is only one ground asks us why it was that England with her wealth and her power upon which we can do it; there is only one method by which we was able to maiJ+tain gold as her sole money metal, and why we can attain that supreme condition-when we can make a currency can not maintain silver as our sole money metal if we so desire? exclusiv~ly our own, whei! we can establish a currency which I will tell him the reason. England could maintain gold as her will circulate only throughout the United States and be the sole medium of exchange for one reason, and one reason alone, money of the American people, the balance of the world to the becn.use gold was money all the world over. contrary notwithstanding. And what is that condition? To Everywhere-in every civilized n!1tion of the world-the Eng­ build arolmd yourselves a Chinese wall, and declare that you will lish guinea was good for what it called for. But suppose under not trade with other nations; that you are sufficient unto your­ the conditions in which silver exists to-day we should att9mpt selves and intend to live unto yourselves. to make silver the solitary money metal of this country and So long, however, as you do not desire to occupy the position make it the basis of all va,lues, could we, with all the wealth, all of Chinar-so long as you desire to be a civilized nation marching the power, all the resources of this grand and magnificent coun­ onward in the path of progress and prosperity, moving forward try of ours sustE'jn silver upon that basis? I say we could not, in enlightenment, in culture, and refinement, and enjoying aU because there is no other commercial nation ready to join us to­ the blessings of civilization, you are obliged to obey the old day in such a movement-because no other nation that main­ biblical injunction-trade with all nations and thereby grow tains any standing in the commercial ma,rts of the world is rich and prosperous. These nations all have a money metal that ready to rally to our support, to uphold our hands in an event of is common with us, and is also a money metal with us, to wit, that character. gold. In 1816 England demowtized silver; in 1871 Germany sus· While you do this you must have a money to deal with; you pended the further coinage of silver. In 1873 France did like­ must have a circulating medium that is common not only to you, wise, and France was followed by the nations of the Latin Union, but to the civilized world; because when you begin to pay bal­ by Holland, Belgium, Switzerland, and Italy, and to-day the same ances, to make exchanges, you must use the money of the world policy obtains in every civilized nation on the continent of for that particular purpose. Suppose, for instance, that this Europe. The consequence is there is no commercial country in Government should carr.v out the suggestion of a free-silver the world ready to s tand by and maintain us in any such situa­ friend of mine who sits not very far from me; suppose it should tion as is asked by our free silver friends. demonetize gold-absolutely drive gold out of existence-and But there is another reason, Mr. Speaker, why ·we can not make this country an exclusively silver country. maintain silver as a money metal without the alliance of other How, then, could we carry on our trade with foreign coun­ nations, and that is that we are a borrowing nation. Why can tries? All other nations having goldfortheir money metal, the not we maintain it at 16 to 1 to-day? The first reason oi all is United States having: silver for its money metal alone, how that the United States is a borrowing nation, and ha.s been for a could we ca.r'ry on trao.e with each other? We would go back to hundred years past. And it is said that while the balance of the condition of Asiatic and Africrui savages, and our trade trade has been against us for some years, that for the past year would be trade in kind and by barter; that alone. That is why this balance of trade has been on our side and in our favor. But it is impossible as a fundamental doctrine of political economy that is not alone the question to be considered when you take for any one nation to establish for itself and maintain for itself these matters into consideration. exclusively any money which is not on a par with the money There is something els,!3 besides the balance of trade that com­ used in aJl the countries of the civilized world. Other nations pels annually the vast flow of American gold across th~ broad will demand of us the money that is common to us and them and waters of the Atlantic Ocean. One hundred millions are· ex­ will leave our own exclusive money for our use alone. It can pended every year by American tourists on the Continent of not be done; you may make whatever ratio you please, and it Europe, all of it American gold. One huB.dred millions more will not be done. The money that is unive1·sal money will leave are expended every year by American importers when they pay us and we shall find ourselves solitary, with no medium of ex­ . the freight charges on the carrying trade, nearly all of which change that is common to all the world. is in the hands of England and other European countries. Tb:ese

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·320 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD-HOUSE: AUGUST 14,

two great elements of indebtedness have to be ~et . by this coun­ to take one-half to two-thirds of the amount they have lo:tned try abroad with gold coin. These make the real balance against here, and that we shall in the end pay them this very silver us on every annu)lol settlement with Europe. which has so depreciated. There is a wish to get out first while But what else do you find? Several thousand millions of dol­ the gold is still to be had. · lars of foreign capital have been loaned in this country. Why, What has been the effect on American capitalists? American .. in mylittleStateof West Virginia! know of 'two railroads alone capitalists are governed by the same apprehension., and believe that owe fourteen million dollars of gold in London, the money that the same result will come to_them. They are withdrawing mart of the world, and 6 per cent of interest in gold has to go their money from American enterprises. They are calling it there every year to meet the obligations of these two roads. away from American industries, and are endeavoring to loan it The Northern Pacific Railroad is owned mainly by German capi­ abroad and invest it in securities that are payable ingold, which tal, the Reading by English capit:U, and the same is true o~ the is good from one end of this continent to the other, ap.d from Erie, it being also owued by English capihl, and other busmess one corner of the civilized world to the other. That has been en·terprises are run by foreign capital; until to-day the foreign the cause. investments in this country have been so great, so numerous, Now, why does such a cause as that exist? Why shall we not that it is estims,ted anywhere from thl·ee to five thousand mil­ do s'Jmething to restore the confidence both of foreign people and lions of dollars will be required to cover the investments which of home people in the faith, in the good credit and the soundness have been made by foreign capital within the limits of this coun­ of the American dollar? Herd is the greatest field for invest­ try. Now, the inter10st on this vast amount of money has to go ment that can be found in the civilized world to-day. W e have abroad every year, and in gold; and thatis far more in every re­ 3,000,000 square miles of territory, a large portion of it yet un­ spect than any balance of trade, or any possible balance of trade cultivated· magnificent rivers and grand and glorious forests; that may be in our favor. the finest climate to be found upon the globe; every room for in­ Thus we hava to settle annually with Europe. Bow can we do vestment; the land calling for capital, farmers calling for capital, it? Can we, as some gentlemen proclaim, do so with our prod­ manufacturers callin·g for money, labor calling for the dollars ucts? We can not. In 0:..1r mutual trading for the year they which will giv'3 it employment. have already t:tken all of our products they desir·e or need for Why should not capit3l come here and why will it not come the year. ·How, then, mm:;t this settlement be made? It must here when such a grand opportunity lies before it? The rate be made in money, and in money that can be used everywhere. of interest in London is 3 per cent; in Paris it is 3 per cent; in They will not t:1ke our silver, as it is with them only a commod­ Berlin it is 3 per cent, and all Europe is overflowing with money; ity, like wheat, corn, and cotton, and fluctuates while a com­ all the great money centers h ave a superabundance and no field modity, just as other articles fluctuate in value. We must, then, for investment at home. They are all anxious. They m·eover­ pay in gold. But suppose a policy should be adopted that would whelmed with a desire to invest their money wherevm' they can compel a.ll nations ·to coin silver and gold at an agreed ratio. receive a reasonable compensation with a good, sound, aud safe There would then be no greater demand for a gold dollar than a security. And here we are, giving 6 per cent for money, and silver dollar, and we could pay our debts and collect our credits in some cases 8 and 10 per cent. in either and be satisfied with either, for the use of both at the Let the capitalist abroad once come to understand that the dol­ agreed ratio would be universal~ and there would be no greater lar he loans here is to be p :1id him back in the same dollar when demand for the one than the other. it finally comes to his hands again, and just as good as he loaned, Mr. ALLEN. IIitwouldnotint.erruptthe gentleman,Ishould and European capital will come over here in overwhelming vol­ like to make a suggestion, with his permission. Does he think umes, to be invested in this country, and to continue to build up 1t well enough for us to adopt a policy that will enhance the and make it great and glorious and grand and prqsperous, as it value of these lo~s, and take more of our lahar and products ought to be under our free, equal, and just laws. [Applause.] ·. to pay that four or five billions of dollars of which you speak? Now, my friends, can we by ourselves maintain the free and Mr. PENDLETON of West Virginia. No, sir; I did not say I unlimited coinage, I mean without international agreement, of favored any such rolicy as that. the silver dollar at any satisfaDtory ratio, and at the same time But . Mr. Speaker, we not only have that question to consider, have. a sound and stable c urrency and make it equal to the gold that the b:liance of trade is really against us, that for years under dollar? present conditions, with reference to silver, this country has to To be perfectly frank, when I began the consideration of this settle with Europe large balances, and they have to be paid in question I intended to vote for a ratio of 20 to 1, and at that ratio gold. in the money of the civilized world; but there are other for the free and unlimited coinage of silver. But the more I considerations that are equally important. If we undertake to have studied the question the more I have found that we would pay those annually occurring debts in the silver that we take just be in the same trouble that we would be in with a r .ttio of 16 out of our mines, which the nations will now only take from us to 1. A ratio of 16 to 1 prevailed when, in this land? When as bullion, and send it across the water for that purpose, we get France was coining silver at 15-t to 1. When Germany was mak­ only for the quantity of silver in our silver dollar, fifty-eight or ing silver her sole money metal. When Italy, Switzerland,· Bel­ sixty cents, yet we coin it to-day, endeavor to stand alone in its gium, Holland, and all the commercial countries of Europe save mJ.intenance , and someone loses from forty to fifty cents on England were coining silver at a ratio of 15! to 1. And how much every dollar. Who sustains this loss? The sixty-five millions did we coin in this country? Why did we not coin more than of Americans. Who now profit by it? The silver kings of Nevada, we did? We coined practically none at all, except for subsidiary Colorado, and Montana, who palm it upon the American people coinage, down to 1870, because the very moment the silver miner under/his Sherman act at nearly double its real value. When we found that he could get an ounce of gold in France or other send i abroad, which trade compels us to do a~ bullion, all that European countries for 15t of silver, he naturally went there we can get for it is its value as a merchandise in the markets of with his silver instead of coming here, where it took 16 ounces of Europe. silver to purchase one of gold. We have to meet that condition; we have to be prepared to face that crisis every year, and how can we do it if we adopt for our­ So I say, when we are asked to return to this old ratio of 16 to selves in the first place the money of the civilized world, and 1, under that ratio we never coined any silver money, and we had then adopt for ourselves another money peculiar to ourselves no silver money, practically, outside of the subsidiary coinage, alone? The drain from abroad will come from what direction? ever in circulation. Now, with a ratio of 16 to 1 we could not Our balances will have to be paid year by year in gold, and gold coin it in those days when France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and all · alone, until the entire gold circulation of the country has been continental Europe stood ready to uphold our hands and main­ absorbed and evaporated, and we shall be left with sUver on our tain us in that coinage and accept silver as money. Th9.t being hands which the nations will neither take nor recognize as so, what can we do to-day, when we alone, practically, among the money. civilized nations of the world propose to establish 8. ratio of that But what has brought this crisis on the people? Why ls it character. that all through the land capital has become timid, labor doubt­ Mr. CAPEHART. Would the gentleman be willing to vote ful, banks suspending, all business industries at a standstill? for any ratio? Simply the want of confidence and the apprehension which has Mr .. PENDLETON of West Virginia. No, sir; not now, but been engendered in the public mind abroad in the holders of our will vote for an agreed ratio with three or four of the leading securities as to our ability to pay these gold balances which we commercial nations. have owed for years. When they :find we are making this sil­ Mr. CAPEHAR·.r. Did your congtituents in the convention ver currency a money metal in this country, at a ratio of 16 to 1, which nominated you, less than a year ago, give any expression equal to gold, they will have none of it; they do not want it; and of opinion on that subject? because, further, while it may be worth a dollar here, there Mr. PENDLETON of West Virginia. None whatever, except across the water it is worth only 58 cents, and they are hasten­ to adopt the national platform at Chicago. ing to call in their loans in conaequence; they are trying to get Mr. CAPEHART. I have the platform on which the gentle­ their investments at home, for they fear they may be compelled man was elected, and i! he will pardon me I will read it.

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·- 1893. CONGRESSIONAL RECORD-HOUSE. 321

Mr. PENDLETON of West Virginia. I yielded to the gen- Now, Mr. Speaker, as it is very difficult to spe.1k in this Hall, tleman for a question. I did not yield for a speech. and as I find that I am growing more than exhausted from the Mr. CAPEHART. This was last year, less than a year ago. beat, I shall conclude by simply calling attention to one other Mr. SIMPSON. Let us hear it. point to which some of our friends have adverted with a good Mr. CAPEHART. (Reading)- deal of what I think unjust criticism. I refer to what they call That we are in favor of a bimetallic currency of gold and silver- a departure on the p3.rt of a cert!l.in section of the Democracy from the n ational platform of the Democratic party. As I read Mr. PENDLETON of West Virginia. And so am I. that platform I can not find any other policy in it than the one Mr. CAPEHART. (Reading)- that I h ave been attempting to lay down here. Let us res.d it: and the free coinage of both metals, establishing such parity between the We denounce the legislation known as the Sherman act oflSW as a cow­ two as shall k eep both in circulation. ardly makeshift fraught with possibilities of danger in the future which should make all of its supporters, as well as its author, anxious for its Mr. PENDLETON of West Virginia. That is what I am in speedy repeal. favor of; I want just such a parity as will keep both in circula­ tion, and that is whn.t Grover Cleveland is in favor of, and that Its author is anxious for its speedy repeal. Its supporters are is what every bimetallist is in favor of. anxious for its speedy repeal. Its author was a good Repub­ Now, I say, how can we m aintain any of these ratios when we lican, its supporters were good and honest Republicans, and they find there is no other civilized nation with whom we are pre­ are, one and all, anxious for its speedy repeal, and so am I, in pared to deal that will sustain us in any such ratio? We find obedience to the dictates of the Chicago platform adopted by ourselves again in the situation of having one money that is cur­ the Democratic party in convention assembled. rent throughout the civilized world, and another coin that is Further: current only here. The same old result will follow as followed We hold to the use of both gold and silver as the standard money of this country, and to the coinage of both gold and silver, without discriminating before. Gold will leave the country and we shall be left here against either or charge for coinage, but the dollar unit of coinage of these entirely on a silver basis. metals shall be of equally intrinsic exchangeable value, and be adjusted by So that I can not see how we can maintain any of these ratios. international agreement. ~liver is treated as a commodity by nearly all the civilized As I understand it, the national convention gave us two roads world. Its value depends to-d.ay very largely upo.n the supply of obtaining the free and unlimited coinage of the silver dollar; and demand of the article, and if we adopted the ratio of 16 to 1 and if we could not do it and maintain a parity of the metals at we should find silver worth how much? Fifty-eight cents on a ratio of 16 to 1 or that of any other ratio by ourselves, then it the dollar. Suppose we should adopt the ratio of 20 to 1: we !eft open to every Democrat, every true follower of the doctrines should find silver worth 80 to 85 cents on the dollar. Suppose of that party, the other remedy. It left open to us thatof inter- we should adopt a ratio of 50 to 1, then silver might be worth a national agreement. • dollar and a quarter. But my objection would still be the same­ I am satisfied that a ratio of 16 to 1, or a ratio of 17 to 1, will the lack of stability, the continual fluctuations of our metal, accomplish nothing, as well as a ratio of 20 to 1. But I am satis­ while the balance of theworld would have a stationary currency fied, along with Grover Cleveland. and other good, honest, sterling that was good not only abroad, but also here, and which would Democrats, that the only way in which we can accomplish that give them absolute dominion over us. full, complete, and ample remonetizationof silver is by an inter­ That is the great cardinal objection with me to any such prop­ national agreement made with three or four of the leading com­ osition as that which is made here. But if we should obey the mercial countries of the world. When that is done, and I be­ platform adopted at Chicago and wip9 out of existence the pur­ lieve it will ultimately be done, and at no distant date, then the chasing clauf;le of the Sherman act, where would the country promises of the nationa! platform of Chicago will be kept, the faith stand? Suppose before we plunge into the free-coinage field we of Grover Cleveland will be maintained, and the Democratic party make an honest effort to h ave other nations help us. will have fulfilled every financial pledge to the people of this Let us not take this step alone and expose ourselves to be country for the future as well as it has done in. the past; and I fleeced, bled, and plundered by all the nations. If they see us for one am content to wait for that, expecting we shall see the fighting alone, not one will come to our rescue. Some think that dawning of prosperity once more come upon this beautiful land we would make debts greater. No at all. We shall, neverthe­ of ours. [Applause.] less, have all our present currency lefT. to us. Not a dollar of sil­ If we should fail in obtaininginternationalagreementi should ver will be demonetized, and not a debt would be increased the then favor an issue of Treasury notes redeemable on demand in hundredth part of a cent in value. The same currency that we gold. A gold reserve in the Treasury of one hundred millions now expect to pay our debts with we would still have. sustains three hundred and forty-six millions of Treasury notes What would necessarily follow such a course? Simply this and one hundred and forty-seven millions of silver certificates, would come to pass: As soon as it was found that this country and no holder of a Treasury note ever calls for a dollar of that no longer intended to coin the silver of the world, as soon as it gold bec3.use the Government promises to pay in gold and the was known thatcontinental Europe had ceased to coin the future creditor is satisfied with the promise This is confidence. Issue silver product, and that the United States had joined with con­ one hundred millions of bonds for another one hundred millions tinental Europe upon that line of action, what country of all the of gold. Put the gold in the Treasury as a reserve. On that civilized nations of the earth would be the first to call for the issue $500,000,000 in Treasury notes, the good old greenbacks, free and unlimited coinage of silver at a ratio to be agreed upon ·and send them into circulation from time to time as they are by an international convention? Why, the country called Great needed. Get them out among the people just as the first three Britain would be the first to make that demand. Why? Because-, hundred and forty-six millions were thrown into circulation. with $10,000,000,000 loaned out to the balance of the world, she Not a dollar of the new gold would be called for as long as our would find it necessary to devise some means of bringing about, faith was pledged. We would know that we could get the gold at some time in the near future, the payment of that ten thou­ when we wanted it. Confidence would be just the sam9, money sand millions, amounting to one-fourth of the entire wealth of would be plenty, and this great old land of ours would march the British people. onward in happiness, honor, and long-continued prosperity. Where is that money loaned? Mainly to countries that have Mr. LACEY. Mr. Speaker, as a member of tlie minority of only silver with which to pay, and as soon as Great Britain found this House I can not but complain of the form in which this de­ that the gold for the payment of the interest and principal of bate has been brought upon us. The division of the question her vast foreign investments was exhausted she would naturally by the special rule adopted h as been left wholly to the members demand the remonetization of the metal in which alone that in­ of the majority of this House, and we are called upon to decide debtedness could be paid. Further, when she found that all simply between two propositions: An absolute and unconditional South America, with India, China, and other countries with repeal of t.he so-called Sherman act upon the one hand, or on free which she carries on trade, and with whom the balance of trade coinage upon some ratio less than•the commercial one upon the is always in her favor-when she found that those countries had other. No middle ground is offered; no opportunity to present not th9 gold with which to pay her, she would be down on- her a new or different proposition has been g-ranted to the Republi­ knees again calling upon the nations of the civilized world to cans of this House. provide some means by which she could collect her loans and I desire at sometime before the vote is taken to submit and have her balances paid. In that way we should find that she ask unanimous consent that the following amendment may be would be knocking at our doors in less than three years, demand­ offered to the bill as introduced by the ·gentleman from West ing that silver and gold should be again made the money of civili­ Virginia [Mr. WILSON]. zation, at a ratio to be agreed upon by an international conven­ The Clerk read as follows: tion. In order to have us remonetize she would gladly do the To amend the bill by adding the following: same. "Provided, This act shall not take effect until the silver circulation of the That is the course I favor, and that is what !believe will come United States shall have been increased to $700,000,000." to pass if this Sherman act be stricken from the statute book of Mr. LACEY. Mr. Speaker, it seems that there is a fair the United States. [Applause.] . ground for an adjustment between these two extremes of the ques- :XXV--21 322 CONGRESSIONAL REOORD-HOUSE. AUGUST 14, tion. It is not the mere fact that the Sherman law exists, and sure the people of the world that we are not going to a single is adding about 4t tons avoirdupois every day to the Treasury silver basis upon a ratio of 16 to 1, and at the same tin;te you do stock of silver; but it is the idea that this addition is to continue not, in the hour of this nation's greatest need-at a time when without limit, that there is no end to it, that has frightened the banks are failing, workshops closing, and when furnace fires are foreign investors of the world. They fear that we will come to going out all over the land-stop the issuance of the additional a silver basis under the Sherman act, and they fear free coinage supply of money which the country needs. For, if the Sherman at a ratio less than the commercial ratio. It is not the silver of law is repealed some other method must be devLed, and you, gen­ the Sherman law thus far purchased that they are afraid of, but tlemen of the Democracy, are responsibleand mustpresentsome it is that its purchase will continue without limit. It is the addi­ new means of supply to the people. We should know what you tion of an uncertain volume of silver money that has influenced propose. We should know what is to take the place of this law. foreign investors and cauaed them to withdraw their money Is it to be State-bank money? Let us know what you have in while it could be done in gold. And it is to this extent, and this ex­ reserve. tent alone, that the Sherman act is responsible in any degree Mr. BLAND. If the g~ntleman will allow me, I would like to for the present condition of the country. The tide of foreign ask him why he proposes to stop at a limit of $700,000.000 if investment has in part only been checked by this law. France has that amount of silver coinage? Is not our country We were told when the Chicago convention met that the Mc­ twice as populous as France? Why not put the limit at $1,400,- Kinley bill would destroy the industries of this country, and the 000,000? Democratic party denounced in its platform "a policy which Mr. LACEY. I thank my fr~end for that suggestion. France, fostered no industry so much as that of the sheriff." The sheriffs, with 38,000,000 inhabitants, uses more gold and more silver per after the election of Mr. Cleveland, were expected to go out of capita than any other country in the world, because of her pecul­ business, but theirs has been the most profitable pursuit since iar method.s of doing business and her custom of hoarding. We the 4th of March of any in the country. There has been no con­ have nearly double the population oi France, but our mode of traction of sheriff's deputies. business is to deposit our money in the banks and they loan it It is not true, Mr. Speaker, that the Sherman law did excite out; we carry on a credit system and a check system. The bulk great fear in this country. No panic ensued until a Democratic of payments are made by checks. Senate became certain at the other end of the Capitol. I assume that we can not carry, that we do not need, so large I remember well, Mr. Speaker, in the Fifty-first Congress, a circulation as a people who do business under the methods when this compromise was brought about, that only fourteen adopted by the French nation. But I assume, Mr. Speaker, Democrats could be found to vote against the free coinage of that we can maintain with perfect safety as large an amount of silver at a ratio of 16 to 1. silver coinage as France. Therefore, I have suggested the idea Our opponents have now divided, and have taken charge of of fixing the limit at $700,000,000 here and now, and the future both sides of the discussion. Each side is claiming to represent can take care of itself, because we shall have the light of ad­ the orthodox principles of tho Democracy. "While the c .:tt is ditional experience and shall have had time to adjust ourselves away at Buzzards Bay the mice will play;" and the discussion to the new policy of the party in power. By fixing this limit thus far has been between the two wings of the Democratic party. we restore confidence to the countryupon this question; we tell They can not flap together, and their discussion on the meaning the people we are not going to a silver basis alone. Then this of their platform is highly amusing. One wing says it is a gold­ scare, so far as silver may be to blame, ceases; for there will standard platform and the other wing says it is a free-coinage be a line beyond which we are not to pass without involving an document. It was admirably adapted to campaign purposes in instantaneous cessation of the issue of the currency provided for either New England or Texas. by the present law. What, then, may be asked, is the principal difficulty with which :Mr. WILSON of Washington. I would like the gentleman to the country is confronted to-day? When it became certain that state how much gold France has back of the silver. we were to have a revision of the tariff laws, then loss of confi­ Mr. LACEY. I am not sure of the exact amount; nor do !re­ dence came and the business of this country was put into cold gard that as a vital question. Her supply of both gold and silver storage, where it has since remained, and where I fear it will is large. stay until our brethren on the other side give the country some Mr. WILSON of Washington. Francehas $900,000,000of gold assurance that the nation is to be left alone to resume the pros­ and $700,000,000 of silver. perity which it enjoyed when the ~lection of 189~ took place. Mr. LACEY. The question is not so much what amount of You gentlemen on the other Side have been returned by a gold France has back of the silver, but the extent of her credit­ large plura.lity of the voters of the United States. Your major­ the amount of faith that is given to her financial standing. We ity in Congress is one of almost unexampled magnitude, chosen have $GOO,OOO,ODO of gold and can maintain a ~old basis upon a upon a mistaken belief as to the effect of your t:1riff policy; yet smaller reserve than any country in the world. At this very the gentleman from New York [~r. HENDRIX], who spoke the time, when all this complaint is made, the people are hoarding other day, told you that there was nothing the matter with the silver in exn.ctly the same way that they are hoarding gold. Sil­ country except the Sherman act. "Repeal that act," he said, ver and silver certificates are beinz drawn from the banks and "and go home and let the country alone until December." If locked up in safe-deposit vaults. No distinction has been drawn the country could be sure that you would spare its industries between the two kinds of currency. Whatever doubt may exist after December all would be well. abroad, we see no evidence of any American discriminating be­ Why was there no difficulty up to the 4th day of last March? tween the different kinds of currency. By the proposed amend­ This law had been in force for more than two years. Why was ment we would ea.sily maintain the parity of the two coined met­ there no panic previous to that time? You must recognize the als; by fixing thislimitwe would be tided over the present diffi­ fact that there can be no revision of the tariff laws of a great culty. country like this without unsettling values and demoralizing a This compromise, it seems to me, ought to restore confidence great many of its industries; and the sooner you determine what in our ability to maintain the equal value of all our money_ industries are to be spared, the sooner the country will adapt The Democratic party, powerful as it is, but divided as it is, itself to the proposed change of conditions and go about its owes it to the country to give to those who are not in favor of business. the proposition of either wing of that party an opportunity to But to simply repeal this law and give us no proper substitute­ vote for something between those lines. This question is one to stop the increase of currency under the present statute and upon which the people are divided; it is one upon which we provide for no other form of increase, is not, in my judgment, have very many different theories. All our silver legislation in wise le~islation. The sailors have a motto to never to let go a Congress since silver started on its world-wide downward march rope with one hand until they have taken hold with the other. from a parity with gold until it reached 58 cents on the dollar­ You ask us to repeal the Sherman law without knowing what is all our silver legislation has of necessity been the result of com­ to take its place, or ofi'er only as asubstltute free coinage at such promise. ratio as would bring us at once to a silver basis. A majority It is perfectly evident, Mr. Speaker, that neither of the two can repeal that law; but when it comes to passing separately a wings of the party in power has yet been sufficiently clipped by new law ·to take its place, a two-thirds vote may be required, be­ patronage to be certain to be in the minority, and you may have cause a Presidential veto must be provided against. You ask us to call upon our side of the House to determine which way this now, without any conditions, to repeal absolutely that law. question shall be decided. And yet you have excluded us; you In the amendment which I sent forward and had read at the have wholly disregarded us; you have drawn your propositioDB Clerk's desk I have suggested a limit of $700,000,000, because the in such a way as to give to the gentleman from Missouri [Mr. Republic of France with 38,000,000 population has, withoat any BLAND] as many difteren t amendments as he chooses to propose, difficulty whatever, maintained her silver coinage up to that and have given to this side of the House not even the little, feeble limit. We have to-day between five hundred and six hundred opportunity to make one single amendment to your proposed million dollars of silver. Ii you adopt a provision such as I pro­ measure. And yet you appeal to us, and to our side of the House, pose, fixing the limit at which this coinage will cease, you as- bidding us to be patriottc : ''Forget your party, forget your past, 1893. CONGRESSIONAL RECORD-HOUSE. 323 and come over to us and help us rescue the country frem the Massachusetts, that I am emboldened to rise for the purpose of deplorable condition it has been in ever since the 4th day of last presenting a memorial of the Chamber of Commerce of the City March." of New York, in accordance with its request. Now, my friends on the other side of the Chamber, permit me And, sir, to avoid any misunderstanding, I beg to be indulged to say that in all justice and in all candor an opportunity to vote for a moment while I introduce to this House the gentlemenin on some other proposition, to offer some 3Jllendment, some other whose behalf I sp ~ak. means of solution than the one which has been proposed by the NEW YORK AND NEW YORKERS. gentleman from Missouri should be afforded. I do not here or It is a mistaken idea, sir, that there are no institutions at New now desire to discuss at leng th the great question of free coinage York other than banks. It is a great mistake to imagine that on the one h and, or limited coinage on the other. BimetalliEIIl there are no people in New York other than bankers. It is a can only be maintaine4 under free coinage by putting a dollar's fact, sir, although gentlemen from the interior m ay perhaps be worth of silver into each coin of that denomination. The form pardoned for occasionally forgetting it, that the reason New York in which this proposition is thrust upon the House, and the utter City is where it is is on account of the Almighty having put refusal to give anybody an opportunity to present anything un­ New York Harbor where He put it; and we are there, not be­ less it has been ag reed upon in the Democratic caucus, is are­ cause it is a particularly good place to build 'banks, but because markable specimen of unfairness in partisan politics. And \ve iii is the place which we have selected as the best one at which are expected to listen in silence to the claims that the present to do business. condition of business is wholly due to the silver law, and are The Chamber of Commerce of the State of New York is, as I warned that any claim on our part, indicating that the proposed know some here will be surprised to learn, not composed either tariff revision is the cause of depression, will be regarded as an exclusively or mainly of bank ers. On the contrary, it is com­ unpatriotic attempt to make political capital. ' posed of business men who stn.nd in the same relation to banks Mr. Speaker, we are now called upon to decide a question as do the farmers and the business men of the West and South. for the whole country. There has seldom been a time when We are borrowers fr om the banks, not lenders to the banks. It the plain people have looked to Congress in the same spirit that is to our interest to have money as easy as possible, in order they do at preEent. They feel that some action is needed, but that we may be facilitated as far as possible in doing our busi­ they are not disposed to dictate what it shall be. The troubled ness and yours. condition of our finances has shaken the confidence of many The first man upon the committee named in this memorial is people upon this question-people who have heretofore enter­ Mr. John Claflin, a man whose business is to find wherever in tained very decided views upon the subject. Many have asked the broad United States he can sell on credit the greatest amount for the unconditional repeal of the Sherman law. Others have of dry goods. The next is Henry Hentz, a man who is known as asked for free silver coinage upon the ratio of 16 to 1. But when one of the leading, if not the leading, cotton-buyers of America, your constituent asks what youare going to do in Congress, and whose business consists in making as good a market as possible you respond by inquiring what he thinks you ought to do, there for every pound of cotton that he can find in the South and South­ has never been a time when the voters throughout our country west. The next is n. man engaged in foreign commerce, and have so unanimously conceded that this is too great a question to whose livelihood consists in the extent to which, by the develop­ dictate upon, and they reply by hoping that you will consider ment of that commerce, a market can be found abroad for the it and settle it in some proper way that will be for the good of most wheat, the most cotton, the most pork, and the most of the the country. other products of this great country. I believe that there can be no solution except one which will Each is engaged in getting from the banks every bit of credit recognize the views or give proper consideration to the views of he possibly can, in order that he may be able to extend it to all parties in the House. No question of this character can be those with whom he deals in every part of the country. Upon fairly considered with all right of amendment cut off and ig­ your prosperity depends our possibility of prosperity. When­ nored. ever there is a State to be developed in any part of the Union It is claimed that all that is needed to restore the halcyon it is we who are interested in the prosperity of that State, in days of the Harrison period is to pass this bilL order that we may get more trade. Whenever there is an It is said that then we may go home and give American in­ abundance of currency needed to move the crops in any part of dustries a commutation of their sentence until December. You the country it is we who are interested in making that cur­ should be sure, gentlemen, that you have discovered the real seat rency more abundant. It is we whose business consists in having of the disease. He is a bad dentist who pulls the wrong tooth. those crops as great as possible, in order that we may have more We may return to our homes, sir, but confidence will not fol­ business to do with you for your profit as well as ours. low us unless we take some affirmatiye action on the other great Now, sir, I do not wish to infer that the strictures that have question which has closed the factories of the United States. been made against the bankers of the city of New York are in That is a question that must be settled in some way. There are anyway deserved. As a m atter of fact, I believe that their in­ industries to-day which are paralyzed, that have suspended bus­ terest as well is bound up in the prosperity of the whole coun­ iness, that will probably not be touched by any legislation this try. As a matter of fact, I know that, before the banks of uny Congress will ever enact; but they fear and dread what may be part of the rest of the cotmtry even considered the question, the put upon their shoulders .and act upon the theory that the worst banks of New York made preparation to advance funds to all is to come. The old cry has been that the tariff is a tax. It is parts of the country, in order to keep from coming on-and understood now that Democracy is a tax, and the most burden­ when it came on, to keep from coming to a crisis-the very situ- • some one ever put upon the backs of the American people. ation with which we are now confronted. Butat the same time Nothing short of some absolute settlement of the tariff ques­ it is not the banksof New York, as such,forwhich I speak. And tion will entirely restore the confidence of the country, reopen if there is any·reason why they should be offered up as a sacri­ the banks, and put the wheels of progress again in motion. And fice, not to the golden calf, but to the silver pig, I beg that the while our brethren on the other side of the House appeal to us Chamber of Commerce at least may be exempted from that con­ to be patriotic, let us appeal to them to lay aside their mistaken demnation. principles. They appear to have had little difficulty in doing TJm BUS:Th':ESS SITUATION. so up to this time; they have said that their platform means this Now, sir, we £nd ourselves in this position. We have ex­ or that; that it was to go in on and not to stay on after they got hausted our credit. We can, therefore, no longer extend credit in. Kindly give the people the assuran-ce that the platform is to to the rest of the country. We find ourselves unable to sell your be followed no further. We have heard gentlemen on both sides merchants dry goods unless they will pay us cash, which they of the question read the same plank in different ways or repudi­ cannot raise. We find itimpossibleto buy your cotton and your ate it altogether. wheat, because we cannot obtain the funds wherewith to pay for Now, I ask you to lay aside the bold proposition of that plat­ them. We find that, instead of b eing enabled to do your business form that protection is unconstitutional. Lay aside your con­ to your profit and ours, the situation is such ns to enforce a par­ demnation of that system under which the country prosperedfor feet paralysis alike upon the prosperity of the country, upon thir ty years under Republican rule; resolve toletour industries your opportunities for prosperity, and upon our possibilities in alone, and the people will rise up and call you blessed, not for that line. what you have done, but for what you have forborne to do when Now, sir, there have bee n presented to this House , too ably to you had the power. [Applause.] leave any excuse that I should repe3.t them, some of the argu­ Mr. WARNER. Mr. Speaker, I am so well aware, not merely ments to account fol' the present sit u'ltion. I will omit them. I of the importance, but also of the urgency of this question, that will only attempt to tell you the facts, with the sense oi the I should not allow its decision to be postponed to permit me to r esponsibility that comes f1·om knowing tha.t upon the correct m ake any r emarks upon it, except that I have a duty to perform. solution of the situation with which we nre faced depends our I have been so reassured, sjr, by the remarks of my new-found commercial prosperity-the very exis t.ence, indeed, of the busi­ friend from Colorado fMr. PENCE], who broke all precedent and, ness of New York. If we are mishkeu, we are mistaken upon omitting to attack New York, fired his sharpest arrows at a matter which most directly and most vitally concerns our own 324 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD-HOUSE. AUGUST 14, interest. If we fail in our efforts, the result will be that we shall business men throughout the world will be led to lose faith in be the first and the worst sufferers. the honesty of American finances and the soundness of American Mr. HEPBURN. If it will not interrupt the gentleman, I securities. would like to ask him a question. INDEPENDENCE. Mr. WARNER. I shall be glad to hear the question. The suggestion, however, is made in answer to this, that we Mr. HEPBURN. I understood you to say a moment ago that should ignore other nations, and we are twitted with being de­ the banks of New York were unable toextend to the country the pendent upon the "money sharks" of the East and the money­ money to do their business. lenders of Europe. Mr. Speak er, the one m an who is inde­ Mr. WARNER. They are unable to extend to us, the business pendent in this world is the man who has nothing. Take a man men of New York, the funds and the credits which we need to who lives upon a r ugged mountain side, which no amount of have to discount your notes and give you the credit upon which C l~ltivation can coax into productiveness, and he is independent your enterprises depend, and which will enable us to do your alike of the money market and of the labor·market. 'lhere is business. nothing under heaven that he can do with money, and- there is Mr. HEPBURN. Will the gentleman kindly tell us why the no excuse for any labor to develop his estate. banks are unable to do that ? But take the man of brains, who sees an opportunity fo r the Mr. WARNER. That is what I am going to do. development of a great, rich, growing neighborhood, and he Mr. HEPBURN. Is it not this, that they h ave been doing needs all the money that, from every part of the world, confi­ business on other people's money who are no longer willing to dence in the future of that neighborhood-confidencein th e hon­ trust them with their money? esty of that neighborhood-confidence in the security of invest­ Mr. WARNER. The gentlemanisentirelycorrect. Now, sir, ments in that neighborhood-can bring. We are the greatest the situation is not one which has come upon us without warn­ borrowing nation of the world, simply beca use the star of our ing. Three yea.rs ago we began to be questioned by prudent in­ promise shines brighter than that of any other n ation in the vestors in our own country, and more generally byinvestorsfrom world, and we shall best fulfill our grand destiny by getting as abroad, as to whether or not American investments were entirely much help as we can from all parts of the worl

explained to us that it was our duty to stand by 16 to 1, that the platform, and I fail to appreciate the consistency of gentlemen power of this Government is sufficient to put the two metals to­ who stand in their places and say they will .tight the Democratic gether at that ratio, we might have more confidence in their con­ party in behalf of their consciences, and yet do not insist on sistency, even if not in their judgment. But the very moment carrying out the other planks of the platform to which they pro­ that they admit it is necessa.ry to bring the ratio of coinage to fess loyalty and allegiance. There is a tariff plank in that plat­ coincide with or to approach the commercial ratio, they have form, which is, as far as possible, the representative of that issue convicted themselves of fallacy in the very ground of their ar­ upon which we went to the people; and yet no one on the Demo­ gument. cratic side of this question has been so conscientious as tosa,y we If we are going to have any ratio, Mr. Speaker, for Heaven's have got to have a repeal of the McKinley bill tacked on to the sake give us 16 to 1. If you put the ratio at 16 to 1 we know ex­ repeal of the Sherman law. There is also in the same platform actlv what will happen so far as financial prescience can prophesy a proposition for the repeal of the ta.x on Shte-bank notes, which anything. This ratio is so low that we know th-:tt it will imme­ my friends seem entirely to have forgotten. diately depreciate our currency to the present ruling commercial Now, Mr. Speaker, I may have a poor conscience, but at all basis of silver; and we shall know how to prepare for it. events it is not of the elastic kind, and if it occurs to me that I But, sir, if you put us on a ratio of 18 or 20 or 24 to 1, or any must insist on the whole platform being put into a single bill be­ ratio which in your judgment seems to approach, or which does fore I will help to carry out any plank of it, I shall be careful approach, the commercia.! ratio, we are then face to face with not. to omit the leading provisions of the platform to which I ap­ this dilemma. Should silver rise 3 per cent, or 2 per cent, or peal. even 1 per cent, in its commercial value as compared to gold, it Mr. COX. You will vote for it all, then? would destroy the efficacy of your ratio and would bring us to Mr. WARNER. I will vote forit all, altogether, or seriatim. gold monometallism. Mr. COX. I am with you. If silver should fall in value 2 or 3 per cent so as to change to Mr. WARNER. Even if we are to pass over for the moment that extent the relation between the ma,rket values of the two this extraordinary development of conscience, there is another metals, we would immediately be driven to silver monometal­ consideration. We have a number of distinct pledges in this lism. We would be exposed to the alternation of silver mono­ platform, none of them more direct than-- metallism and gold monometallism with invariable depreciation. Mr. COX. Mr. Speaker-- If you are going to break down the present status, if you insist The SPEAKER. Does the gentleman yield tothe gentleman upon breaking up our business and yours, for Heaven's sake let from Tennessee? , us die in peace with the paralysis from which we are now suffer­ Mr. WARNER. Yes. ing. Do not first stretch us upon the rack of silver monometal­ Mr. COX. I have the promise of the gentleman from New lism and then upon the rack of gold monometallism-the two con­ York [Mr. WARNER] that if we will put the entire Democratic · stantly meeting and passing each other-first doubling, and then platform in one bill, he will vote for it. halving, the metallic currency of the country. If you are going Mr. WARNER. Every time. to give us anything in the line of a free coinage ratio give us Mr. COX. Now, your objection at present is, that we have something that, when we have taken the plunge, will assure us taken a part of the platform but not all of it? we have struck bottom. Mr. WARNER. No, sir, I have no objection; I am perfectly willing to vote for this bill. It is the gentleman himself who THE CIDCAGO PLATFORM. proposes to object; and my suggestion to him is, that it will be It is suggested that we must carry out the Democratic plat­ well to hke up the planks of our platform just as fast as we can form. I agree to that; but, sir, there appears to be a misunder­ and put them into law without loading up one with another, to standing about that platform. I thought I knew what it was. the danger of both. It was my good fortune to hear it read to the convention which Mr. COX. That is all right. Now, let us be fair with each adopted it. I have a copy of it here.• I had supposed that it was other. Do I understand the gentleman correctly, that if we will an authentic copy. I find the pledges in that platform upon the vote for the repeal of the Sherman act he will vote for free coin- financial matter to be these: First, for a repeal of the Sherman age?_ • silver-purchase provision; next, the use of both silver and gold Mr. WARNER. I will vote for the free coinage of silver as the standard money of the country, and the coinage of them either protected by an international agreement or by such safe­ both without discrimination. I think that means free coinage; guards of legislation as will keep the metals at a parity; and I will admit that it does. that is verbatim what the platform promises. But it is also provided that the dollar of coinage of. both Mr. COX. Will you vote for the free coinage of silver at any mebls must be of equal intrinsic and exchangeable value, and ratio? be adjusted through international agreement or by such safe­ Mr. WARNER. Yes, under proper legislation, in the very guards of legislation as will insure the maintenance of the parity words of your platform. of the two metals and the equal power of every dollar at all Mr. COX. What do you mean by" proper ratio?" times. Mr. WARNER. There is no reference to ratio. Then follows a solemn assert,ion that we do this in order that Mr. HOLMAN. Proper legislation. the farmer and the laboring man may be spared from the evils of Mr. WARNER. The platform says- · unstable money and a fluctuating currency. or by such safeguards ot legislation. Mr. Speaker, if there was ever a pledge made by man that was Mr. COX. What do you mean by" safeguards of legislation?" ­ sacred, I think we have it here. But these gentlemen come to Mr. WARNER. My dear sir, that is for you gentlemen to us without any pretext that an international agreement has been propose. [Laughter.] We know what we want and can formu­ arrived at, without any suggestion of legislation, except such as late it. has been discredited by the experiments of the past, and ask us Mr. COX. Well, we know what we want; but you propose to to help them to inaugurate a new and worse series of financial leave us to work it out, and when we getit done you will say experiments than any which have damned theirinventors during ''amen." the last hundred years in the nation's history. Whenever, sir, Mr. WARNER. Until you find out what you want we are not there shall be made a reasonable international agreement--al­ going to attempt to tell you. though in this personally I have little faith-yet as a Democrat Mr. COX. We know what we want. I will vote for it for the purpose of trying the experiment. Mr. WARNER. Now, sir, I shalldetain this House but for a Whenever any legislation shall be proposed which has not al­ few words more-- ready been discredited by the experiments of the past, I will try Mr. CANNON of Illinois. If I understand the gentleman to sink my doubts as to the nrobable value of it. But until one aright, if this bill passes without an amendment, and if there­ or the other condition is fulfilled, the Chicago platform expressly peal of the purchase clause oi the Sherman act be stricken from forbids free coinage. the statute books, then the gentleman shnds ready to keep the It may be, however, that I have wrongly read the Democratic next plank in his platform and to repeal the tax upon State-bank platform; and my respect for the gentlemen who agree with me issues? in loyalty to the grand old party permits me to assume for a mo­ Mr. WARNER. I do. I voted for it in the last Congress. ment that they are right and I am wrong-and either that there [Applause on the Democratic side.] I want to say right here, in is some twist of language that will pu_t an entirely different con­ answer to the gentleman, that while it is not peculiarly to the struction upon that paragraph from what appears on its face, or interest of the section from which I come-and I am glad he has else that the copy I procured from the national Democratic com­ brought it up just at this time-while we are not particularly mittee is nota correct one. But, sir, suppose that they are right. troubled with a dearth of circulation, yet we recognize that the They appeal to us to carry out the whole platform; and with pre.sent system of currency is a financial straight-jacket into their hands on their breasts they appeal to their consciences in whwh no free country ought to be pressed. [Applause on the behalf of this suggestion. Democratic side.] Now, sir, I find a great many other planks in the Democratic And more than that, sir, while my friends, although they are 326 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD-HOUSE. AUGUST 14,

so conscientious, have forgotten that plank of their pwn platform, '?urrentmoneythroughoutChristendom. If thatlaw, which puts this memorial of the chamber of commerce asks not merely for It out of our and your power to restore that confidence, is once one thing, but for two. It asks for the repeal of the purchasing repealed we can cooperate with you in helping on what will be clause of the Sherman act, and also that measures be taken for the greatest reaction of prosperity that this country has ever the maturing of a plan for a safe and an elastic currency-an en­ seen-in which, from Texas to Maine, from Florida to Washing­ tirely different one from that with which we are cursed to-day. ton, all will be blessed, and we with you will share in the ben~? Mr. McRAE. Are you willing to put that in the Wilson bill? diction. [Loud applause.] . Mr. W ABNER. No, sir. Memorial of the Chamber of Commerce of the State of New York. Mr. McRAE. Why not? JULY 6, 1893. Mr. W ABNER. Because I do not propose to load up one Whereas this country has often su1rered greatly by reason of hasty and plank o-f the Democratic platform with another. plank which a ill-advised financial legislation; and part of the Democratic members in this House repudiated when Whereas it is now su.ttering from the effect of the silver-purchasing clause of the Sherman act, which, by creating distrust as to the interchangeability they refused to join with us from the North in supporting that of our currency based on silver with our currency based on gold has caused very proposition in the last Congress. widespread alarm, and has almost created a commercial panic; and Mr. MoRAE. Since you take the initiative in the one, will Whereas in consequence ot this alarm money is being withdrawn from circulation, business is greatly depressed. many mills and manufactories your friends also take the initiative in the other? are closing or preparing to close, and thousands or laboring men are about Mr. WARNER. We will take the initiative in introducing to be thrown out of employment; and those matters which appeal most directly to our interests, and Whereas business enterprises will not be resumed nor labor be steadily until we shall have been appointed the g¥ardians of the rest of :~J>loyed until money ca.n be obtained by manufacturers at reasonable rates; the country, we propose to leave it to take the initiative in those Where~ ordinary interest rates can not be expected until con.fl..dence in matters which most directly affect it. the stability of all the money or the country shall be thoroufchlY l"eesta.b­ Mr. McRAE. Should you not, then, apologize yourselves for ~~th~~et~!\!~~sl:e~~eft may not fear repayment in dollars ess valuable introducing a measure to carry out only a part of one .flank of Resolved, That the repeal o! the silver-purchasing clause of the Sherman the Democratic platform and not to carry out the other. act, which, month by month, renders incr·easingly dimcnlt the maintenance of the parity of each dollar with every other dollar, is essential to tbe prompt Mr. WARNER. My criticism is not that you do not intro­ restoration of national prosperity. This chamber, therefore, urges the duce your measure; but that, without doing so, you ·interfere speedy and unconditiona.l repeal of such silver-purchasing clause. with the carrying out of the plank of the Democratic platform BeJ~olved, That in the judgment ofthis chamber a representative commission should be appointed by Congress, at the special session about to convene, which we are insisting upon. which commission should diligently study the whole body of coinage and Mr. McRAE. Give us a chance and you will see whether we currency laws of the United States and other countries. and report at the will or not. regular session ot Congress, to the end that a comprehensive plan for a safe and elastic currency may be carefully matured in the light of the world's ex­ Wr. WILSON of Washington. There isnochance now. You perience. have cut us off. FRIENDS OF Sll..VER. M1·. MEIKLEJOHN. Mr. Speaker, as the hour for adjourn­ Mr. WILSON. Now, 1'.1r. Speaker, I have explained, I hope ment under the special order has n _.ll'ly arrived, I move that the intelligibly even if not convincingly, that the people of the city of House do now adjourn. New York, the members of the New York Chamber of Commerce The SPEAKER. Before putting that motion the Chair would whom I represent, are borrowers instead of lenders of money; suggest that there is a very large number of gentlemen upon the that their interests are the same as that of the rest of the coun­ list of those who are to address the House upon this subject. try; that their prosperity depends upon that of other parts of the "Generally gentlemen prefer to speak between 12 and 3 o'clock in country, and that therefore your cause is theirs. · the afternoon, but it is not possible that all can speak between I ought to mention, sir, that there are others in the State of those hours. New York who do not come within that category. They are the Mr. HUTCHESON. Mr. Speaker, I have only forty minutes, people who withdraw their funds from banks, not because they but-- • have any doubt as to the soundness of the bB.nks, but in order to The SPEAKER. There is a motion to adjourn pending, but ruin the merchants who 'd.re straining their credit in order to if the gentleman desires to address the House, perhaps the increase yours, men who are going about damaging the reputa­ mover will withdraw it. 'tion and killing the fame of sound institutions, h~an hyenas Mr. MEIKLEJOHN. I withdraw the motion, Mr. Speaker. I • who stab reputations in order that they may fatten upon the Mr. HUTCHESON. Mr. Speaker, it is with some degree of ruin they hope to produce. Every one of them is listening with timidity that, at this time of day and upon a question which h as eagerness t:) every word of my friend, the g·entleman from Mis­ been developed on this floor with so much eloquence, I venture souri [Mr. BLAND], who, indeed, doesnotsympathize with them, to add anything to the discussion; and, sir, were there involved but with whom they sympathize. Every one of them is endeav­ in this discussion anything less than the integrity of the Demo­ oring to convince the business public of New York and the cratic party and the best interests of the country I should feel financial authorities of Europe that the President's recommenda­ that it was temerity on my part to venture upon any observations tion will not be earried out, and that the plans of the gentlemen before this assembly. But, Mr. Speaker, though this is my first on the Democratic side whom we oppose here will succeed. session as a member of this House, yet I represent to-day the We have such men· there-only a few of them, however, and Democracy of my State and the interests of my country just as God be thanked for that-the bears of Wall street and the Shy­ sacredly as gentlemen who have been in this Hall for the last locks of Europe; and 'we wish you joy of your friends; they are fifteen years, and I feel that I owe to them such suggestions as I not ours. On the other hand, sir, we are interested in having a can make regarding the question now before us. plentiful currency of sound money; and, as I called to your atten­ Ordinarily in the Congress of this nation we find the parties tion, we ask not merely for a repeal of the Sherman act, but for arrayed in prearranged andde:finiteparty lines upon the one side a plan to be matured for a sound and elastic currency. and upon the other, and we draw our arms and bare our breasts, THE TROUBLE AND THE REMEDY. neither asking nor giving qua rter. For such a conflict, Mr. I believe that there is no need of longer dwelling upon the Speaker, a spirited man is always ready, and in such a conflict causes of tight money. Gentlemen in this House have taught he gives nothing that he is not willing to receive. But, sir, for years and years that it depended upon the action of Congress when we come into a. contro\ersy like this, where brother shnds in issuing a few millions, more or less, of silver or of notes. If opposed to brother, the case is different. I do not agree, of this country has learned anything from the present crisis so that course, with the position of the gentleman from New York [Mr. it has been burned into its memory as with a red-hot iron, it has WARNER], but I would not. except in admonition or suggestion, learned this, that while the currency has been increasing as lay my h and upon his shoulder, and when the controversy takes fast as gold can be brought from Europe, and as fast as Govern­ such a shape as that it embarrasses the conduct of the discussion. ment notes can be printed, money has been getting scarcer than Nevertheless, Mr. Speaker, I propose to treat this question a.s before. Men are beginning to learn that the real money of com­ if every Demoorat stood where he ought to stand. I believe, merce, the real currency for the transaction of business, does not sir, that before this contest is over every Democrat will stand consist in silver or in gold, but in the confidence of business men. where he ought to stand. That, sir, is the matter in which the chamber of commerce is Permit me now to review the arguments of gentlemen who primarily interested. We want the Government, not to help us have preceded me. The gentleman from Ohio [Mr. HARTER] to do business, but to let us alone, so that we can have facilities to began the discussion by presenting to this House the inquiry: do business. This law is a destroyer of confidence, an interfer­ "If you found a man drunk, would you give him more whisky?" ence with the development of this country; and we ask to have Now, Mr. Speaker, the very question before this House is: Is it repealed. We want that repeal, not as an end, but as a means; this man drunk? [Laughter.J It is the diagnosis of the disease as a means to the reinstatement of the public confidence, so that, that is first to be determined. I admit, sir, that we find the as in former flourishing times, every bale of cotton as it reaches country sick. The first doctDr, the gentleman from Ohio [Mr. the press, every bushel of wheat as it res.ches the elevator, every HARTER], pronounced the disease drunkenness. The gentleman ton of ore as it lies on the dock, shall be a basis of credit and be from Texas [Mr. BAILEY] tells us that the disease is depletion-

' 1893. CONGRESSIONAL RECORD-SENATE. 327 the want of substance. Carry out the figure: Is this country almost wholly to the question of the ratio between the two drunk with an excess of money, or is it weak and dying from a metals, instead of covering the question oi the function of money. defect of money? Let us settle this question first, feel the pa­ This discussion has been devoted to determining whether a fixed tient's pulse, consult his appetite, and by the ordinary methods ratio can be maintained between the two metals, while in fact decide what the disease is, and then treat it. the paramount question is, can one or two, or more than two, If this country is sick from the effects of the Sherman law, metals meet the functions of money and discharge the obliga­ then you will diacover the fruits of that law rejected. But, tions of money in transwting the business of the country? The Mr. Speaker, this sick country is crying with the agony of star­ gentleman from Ohio told us that while the ratio is one thing vation for more of the very silver certificates which they say has and while the abundance of money is another thing, yet the brought on this panic, and no man doubts that a sufficient sup­ volume and abundance of money are the most insignificant and ply of them at this moment would allay this panic and set the least to be considered of all its elements. wheeLs of commerce in motion. My people and your people are Mr. Speaker, I stand here to maintain the reverse of that prop­ crying, Give us more of all money, including the Sherman cer­ osition; that so far from its being true that the volume of money tificates. This country is starving for money. is its most insignific:mt element, it is in fact the most paia­ M7. HENDRIX. About what is the size of the appetite? mount and important considerntion connected with it. Pardon Mr. HUTCHESON. Well, sir, if it is to be measured by that me if I ~ive you a figure of speech to illustrate this matter. If of New York, it is measureless and insatiable. If it is measured we stood to-day at the point where time first began, and the by the country, 10 per cent. [L!!.ughter and applause.] I am question was presented to us wh t we should fix upon as money, glad the gentleman from New York asked me that question. how would you decide that question? You would ask, "What New York comes and tells this country that she is in a panic, is to be its office?" If I should reply that money is to operate but I wish to tell the gentleman that my constituents have been in the buying ·of every bale of cotton, every bushel of wheat or in the same kind of panic for the last ten years-moneyless­ corn in this country-that such is to be its function and office­ and have had to st:md it. what, then, would you determine? You would see what there Mr. HENDRIX. I make it 12. was in nature or art, in the province of man or in the gift of God, Mr. HUTCHESON. I will accept your amendment, sir. It is which would answer such a relation totheproductsof this world the best st::Ltement that you h ave offered to this House. [L::tugh­ as to perform the function for which you were to provide a me­ ter.] Mr. Speaker, I admit that it is a little immodest in me to dium of exchango and insure a fair recompense to labor. Would speak during the first or second week of this session, but when I you not? If you loved justice ~nd your fellow-man you would. remember that the gentleman from New York has set me the ex­ If, Mr. Spea.ker, you were to dividetheworldbyariver,plant­ ample, not only of makingaspeech, but of prescribing the entire ing the medium of exchange upon one side and asking those who business of this session-for he t.old us to repeal the Sherman h ad products which they wished to exchange to come to the law and then adjourn and go home-I am encouraged to hope other, what would you require? That the men who stood upon that the House will pardon my presumption. [L::tughter.] With that river with the medium of exchange should have in their these compliments to the gentleman I trust he will let me pro­ possession enough to pay the men who c3JD.e upon the other side ceed without interruption. with their products--enough money to defray the expenses of '.rhe other day I asked the gentleman a question while he was the production. And I care not whether the medium of exchang-e speaking, and he said he was unaccustomed to public speaking was gold or silver _or diamonds or dirt, if the man coming to that and declined to answer me. He had stated to this House, as I original congress to make a settlement should offer any commod­ understood, that the high tide of gold was reached in 1885, and ity which would not meet the demand, you would reject that that from that time forth it declined until 1893. Mr. Speaker, commodity and look for those commodities, one or more, which I wish to make a point upon that proposition and to show that would answer the requirements. the gentleman is mistaken in his facts ; that the logical truth of Why would you do it, Mr. Speaker? Becausethemomentthat the facts when stated is the very reverse of the gentleman's po­ river was approached by a bushel of wheat, for which there was sition. The gentleman t-elLs this House that after the passage no corresponding dollar, the bushel of wheat would be rejected of the Bland act in 1878, and after the passage of the Sherman and would perish in the hands of the man who produced it. act in 1890, gold became timid and did not come to this country. Now, let me illustrate this matter so that every man will un­ If that were true, the gentleman's argument would be sustained. derstand it. I am going to try to make it so plain that even my The truth is, however, that at the time of the passage of the Republican friends can understand it. [Laughter.] Bland act the amount of gold in this country (I do not undertake Mr. CULBERSON (before the conclusion of Mr. HUTCH­ to speak with exactness, but only approximately) was $278,000,000. ESON'S remarks). Will my colleague yield for a suggestion? It If the Secretary of the Treasury tells us the truth, we have to­ is now near the hour of adjournment. day $650,000,000 in this country. I ask the gentleman why gold, Mr. HUTCHESON. Mr. Speaker, my colleague suggestB to which is so timid, came here notwithstanding its blushing me that the hour has arrived for adjournment. I would liKe to timidity, and was willing t.o wed its fortunes to this country? proceed in the morning, if it be the will of the House. They tell us that New York and the cities say we are in dan­ Mr. WILSON of West Virginia. I move that the House do ger of a financial panic on account of silver; that it does not now adjourn. matter whether we are really in danger, but because New York Mr. CULBERSON. With the understanding, of course, that and the cities say so, therefore we must accept their dictum and my colleague has the remainder of his hour in the morning. vote in accordance with their request. Let me test that propo­ . Mr. BLANCHARD. I understand, Mr. Speaker, that the sition a moment. When did this Congress come here to enact gentleman from Texas will have his time to-morrow. the clamors of the country into laws? Congress comes here to Mr. CULBEHSON. Certainly. enact laws according to the facts. If a clamor were to be started The SPEA.KEH. The gentleman has an how· under the rules in this House to-day-if there were an outcry that the building of the House. He has consumed twenty minutes and will be en­ was on fire-what would be the duty of every man here? To · titled to forty minutes to-morrow. accept the clamor and rush out like a madman? The motion of Mr. WILSON of West Vir~inia was then No, sir; if the alarm were not well founded it would be the agreed to. · duty of every reasonable man to stand before this House and And accordingly (at 4 o'clock and 58 minutes p.m.) the House appease the clamor by denying the alarm cry. That would be adjourned. the duty of a patriot and a humanitarian. If a certain num­ ' ber of people in this country were to tell you that they were - opposed to white dogs because white dogs were assumed to be mad dogs, and then if you found some of the very gentlemen SEN.ATE .. who had undertaken to raise this alarm rushing about the streets picking up the white dogs, taking them in their arms TUESDAY, August 15, 1893. (as they take these white silver dollars), I would say: "It is not Prayer by the Chaplain, Rev. W. H. MILB"'J'kN, D. D. hydrophobia you are afraid of ; you have gone short on dogs, and The Journal of yesterday's proceedings was read and approved. you want to create the impression that a white dog is not a good thing for anybody to have." [Laughter.] When you undertake WOOL SAMPLES. to state a fact I test it by your manifestation of the faith that is The VICE-PRESIDENT laid before the Senate a communica­ in you. tion from the Secretary of the Treasury transmitting further But, Mr. Speaker, the question of the gentleman has led me information in response to the resolution of February 27, 1893, int.o a desultory debate when I was undertaking to state a proposi­ relative to the report of the commission to select samples of tion upon which I desired to base an argument. It is this, and I wool for use in the custom-houses; which was read. beg the attention of gentlemen to it. In my opinion, Mr. Speaker, Mr. SHERMAN. Towards the close of the last session of Con­ this discussion has taken a direction which is unfair to the cause gress the report of the commission called for in the resolution of silver and to the cause oi the country. It has been devoted was sent in without the papers. The papers are now communi-