Show 1REE COINAGE Of SIIftER r f Harvey and Laughlin Meet k in a Stirring Political F f Encounter J THOUSANDS ARES ARE-S TURNED AWAY Coin Shows What the Silver Sil-ver Men of America Demand L SILVER IS THE PEOPLES MONEY America Capable of Financial Independence In-dependence d bniI Do Coined Equally WHIZ Gold tile Money of the Classes Schemes of the GoldBug to I Drive Silver Out of tile Market nnd Thus Enhance the Value of the Yellow Me < al and Further Enslave lave the People The First Tins Was a Money Trust and it Has I Proven More Disastrous Than I s Any Other AVhen Silver Wan at a Premium Over Gold How the Two Metals Should Be Coined in Order That the Sun of Prosperity Iay Again Shine Lauehllns An I L 1Tcr Chicago aiay TZA stirring encounter en-counter took place tonight hardly paralleled in the west since the famous struggle between Lincoln and Douglas just on the eve of the civil war Tonights platform combatants were two giants of the opposing sides in the r aglnb financial controversy J law > rence Laughlin professor of political feconomy in the University of Chicago the favorite authority of President Cleveland and William H Harvey author of Coins Financial School Not half the people clamoring to be present could have been accomodated had the Auditorium itself been secured for themeeting of the champions The spacious rooms of the Illinois club on I Btately Ashland boulevard were crowded to almost suffocation when the president of the club Dr Homer m 1 thomas announced all in readiness tel dress suit gladiators J The Proposition j ere it not for the fashionable sur roandings the seriousness of the occasion occa-sion and the dignity of the audience the majority of whom were promlnen business and professional men the eager interest displayed would have been an Instant reminder of the moment when Corbett and Mitchell faced each other for their celebrated bout at Jacksonville The proposition to be discussed was read as follows Resolved that the United States should at once enter upon the free coinage of silver at the ratio of 16 to 1 independently of the action of any other nation Mr Harvey it was stated would speak for an hour in the affirmative RM Professor Laughlin an hour and > < tty minutes in the negative Mr Vfirvey then having thirty minutes for n rejoinder Mr Harvey 5s a rather tall spare dark complexioned man of engaging presence but nervous tem perament He was evidently full of suppressed excitement when he came forward to begin his address but he won steadied himself admirably troiessor uaugnun wiry of frame and blonde but stern in appearance Fuggestive of a less emotional make I up and he had the advantage of not being the first to spealr Both men were liberally applauded Coin Opens In opening for the affirmative air Harvey said 1 The first reason why I am in favor of independent action by this coun try is that we should not be subjected to the influences of the governments of Europe When our forefathers declared de-clared their political independence from Europe It was to free them slves f J fis the class of legislation of those KTernments justly termed plutocracies plutocra-cies If people can be reduced to poverty pov-erty and the prosperity of the United States can be ruined by hanging to the financial policy of Europe then we can be reduced to the same condition by financial legislation as a war of conquest con-quest would reduce us Our friends the monometallists mostly say We admit bimetallism would be good if we could get international bimetal lism In other words they agre that there is something radically wrong but claim we are tied to the financial policy of Europe So that if a war of conquest in this country by the monarchies mon-archies of Europe whose form of government gov-ernment is different from ours would reduce us to the position that the people peo-ple of those governments are in and they can accomplish the same purpose by financial legislation then there is a necessity for independent action When there is a necessity there is a remedy Governments of Europe The governments of Europe are plu tbacies They squeeze the lemon of the p fecrple about every so often The few control class legislation and the masses are hewers of wood and drawers draw-ers of water for the titled few Like the farmer who goes and robs the bes nests they rob the people and then give them time to fill the nests again 1efore going out to rob it again We i ve certainly not forgotten the his ry giving the reasons why our fore piers established this government Jd that was the reason Now if I financial legislation is one of the classes of class legislation by which the many are robbed and the few enriched en-riched by which the lemon is squeezed then it is one of the institutions of the European governments that we as a nation of people republican in form should declare our independence of That is the first reason why independent Indepen-dent financial action should be taken by the United States If they say We must hare the same money that they have in order to carry on business busi-ness witb them my reply is that the biggest business we ever did carryon carry-on with the balance of the world and particularly Europe was the time when they had gold and silver as aioney and we had neither Financial Independence Jt if one of those peculiar argu mcii rat wears its way into A mans rj C 4 < > 1 brain when reiterated and monoto I nously given out Ty the daily press that we must have the same money that the other great commercial nations na-tions have We never stop to investigate Investi-gate This nation can have an independent in-dependent financial system without any reference whatever to the balance of the world and can carry en its own commerce by ocean and by and with the other governments of the world notwithstanding We do not now settle our balances with Europe in coin except on its commercial value I and by weight Our coinage has nothing noth-ing to do with it Primarily balances balan-ces of trade are settled with trade We give them our wheat and we take their silks and the balance that we may owe them or that they may owe us will be settled just as the merchant between the importing points may agree to settle They can settle it n gold for so much a pennyweight as measured in the money of their country or our country or in so much silver or in so much copper or so much of any other marcnandiss maybe may-be agreed upon between them and their relations iVo International Money There is no such thing as an international inter-national money What wa are Contending con-tending for is the opening of the mints to the free coinage of silver they are nwv open to the free and unlimited coinage of gold and have never been closed to that metal and the establishment estab-lishment ot bimetallism on those simple sim-ple and fixed principles that were adopted by those statesmen who had in view the interest of no class but all tie people What we want Is bimetallism bi-metallism and scientific bimetallism Is this FirstFree and unlimited coinage of both gold and silver these two metals to constitute the primary or redemp tion money of the government SecondThe silver dollar of 371j grains of pure silver to be the unit of value und gold to be coined into money at a ratio to be changed if necessary from time to time if the commercial parity to the legal ratio shall be affected by the action of foreign for-eign countries ThIrdThe money coined from both metals to be legal tender In the payment pay-ment of all debts FourthThe option as to which of the two moneys is to be paid In liquidation liqui-dation of a debt to rest with the debtor and the government also to exercise that option when desirable when pay Ing out redemption money Silver EmusenUited The mints are now open to the unlimited un-limited coinage of gold Such portion of the product of that metal as does not find an immediate demand to be used in the arts and manufactures is taken to the mints and coined into money and becomes at once the object for which all other products seek the market It thus has an unlimited market I mar-ket as the mints are open to all of it that comes This was true also as to silver prior to 1S73 but by operation of section sec-tion 13 of the act of that year the mints were closed to the unlimited coinage of that metal Hence when silver now seeks the markets and exhausts ex-hausts the demand supplied by the arts and manufactures and the small purchases pur-chases of the government to coin it into token money the demand for it ceases Silver is now a commodity to be measured in gold It is an object to ne gore ana kIcked oy onus I ana Dears It is shut out from the United States mint It is token money It has been deprived of that unlimited demand it enjoyed prior to 1873 We would restore re-store it to that unlimited demand we would open the mints to it again we would leave the mints open to gold as they are now we would give silver the same privileges as gold Restoring to it this unlimited demand would cause the value of silver to rise as compared with gold This Is what we want this Is what we would do We would again make the standard silver dollar the unit of value as it was before 1S73 It would thus be a dollar and the bullion in it would be worth a dollar as the number of grains ot bullion in a dollar would have the right to walk into the mint and be i coined into a dollar No man would take less for it when he could have it coined at pleasure into a dollar We would make gold coins of the value of so many silver units or dollars as the law existed prior to 1S73 The Peoples Money Silver is the peoples money It was so regarded by our forefathers and was the favored money of the two It was given the position of honor in the coinage of our two metals met-als by having the unit of value made from it and gold its companion metal measured in it Gold was and is the money of tne rich ThiS was to ue a government of the people and the peoples money was to be the most favored fa-vored Twice when the commercial ratio of the two metals made it advisable ad-visable to change the legal ratio the change was made by recolning the gold coins This was In 1S34 and 1837 The spirt of our forefathers then lived In their sons The gold coins were changed in weight and size In 1834 the gold eagle had 12 grains taken out of it In 1837 the gold eagle had twotenths of a grain added to it No change was ever made in the quantity of pure silver in the silver unit There vas to be no two yard sticks The rich mans moneygoldwas recoined when the commercial ratio Interfered with the legal ratio This is the law we would reenact We would make both legal tender in the payment of all debts We would repeal the law of 1878 and the Sherman i Sher-man law of 1890 authorizing contracts I bonds notes and mortgages to betaken be-taken payable only in gold Tl e would allow no discrimination to be made between the legal tender character char-acter of the two metals Ao Private Uictatlon We would allow no private Individual to dictate to the government what its legal tender money Ishould be We would place the white metal on an equal footing with the colored metal without regard to previous condition i I of race or servitude We would give the option to the debtor if there was any preference as to which of thetwo he would use In he payment of a debt A break in tho commercial parity causes the cheaper metal to be used This increases the demand for the cheaper metaL This Increased demand restores the value of the metal that had thus fallen below a parity and brings it back to parity To give the option to the creditor causes the dearer metal to be demanded and it thus grows dearer and dearer and a parity is broken and the gap grows wider and wider When the debtor has the optfon the two metals will oscillate close to a parity and substantially at a parity This oscillation is the elasticity elas-ticity that bimetallism gives to primary money If one becomes scarce the ther fls used If one is cornered the other takes its place < Either answers for money S of S Sclllilmcnt Stalked In A true knowledge of bimetallism and the simplicity of that system died i with our ancestors Selfishness stalked Into the American Congress at a time when neither metal was being used as primary money our primary money was then paper moneyat a time when corruption was rife in our national legslature followed by articles of im peachment against VicePresident Col fax for complication in the Oakes Ames affair the resignation of Seem ary of War Belknap for bribers the charge of corruption against numer ous congressmen In connection with I the Credit Moblller scandal and land grant swindles at a time when statesmanship states-manship was dwarfed to personal selfishness men who knew what the effect of such a change in our financial finan-cial policy meant organized successfully success-fully the first trust to be benefitted by national legislation in this country It was a money trust It was the de monetization of silver the money of the pepolewas destroyed Silver at that time was at a slight premium over gold By this act the mints were closed to the unlimited coinage of silver sil-ver except the trade dollar which was overvalued by eight grains and Intended In-tended only for export to China and it was shut off by the act of 1876 except ex-cept as the secretary of the treasury might permit it to be coined Sold to Gold Gambler Let us have nothing more to do with the men who have assisted in tying the hands of this great nation and delivering de-livering its financial policy over to the gold gamblers of the world The bank of Rothschilds in England Is now behind be-hind the United States treasury They I are our financial agents our financial managers We are paying them the I princely salary of eight million dollars I for each six months of their valuable I services We are in the hands of the pawnbrokers of Europe How long is our reserve stock of gold to last How are we to replenish it There is only one way that Is to borrow it from those who have it and that means England and that Is what we are doing That means more Interest more gold annually to go to England Where will it end It means the dismal dis-mal swamp on Hells half acre beyond be-yond This is what having a gold standard means a money that is easily I cornered But how are we to pay these debts to England It is in this way restore silver put it in competition with gold on a legal ratio of 16 to 1 repeal all laws allowing a discrimination discrimina-tion between the two metals stop gold notes from being taken put silver in competition with gold as quick as possible pos-sible We can show gold that we do not depend on it for money It will then be our slave it is now our tyrant It will then come back and beg us to take it as in 1873 when itone of these gold dollarswas worth two cents less than a silver dollar Cniitnl i Humanity When a < great government like the United States says Here is equal change 16 to 1 gold for silver a man in France is not going to part with his silver for gold unless he gets that much for itunless he gets as much for it as the United States will pay for it less the cost of the exchange This is a question of capital on one I side and humanity on the other One sound moneythe sound of the clod on i the coffinone one side and souna I money the sound that has the honest ring of the peoples money in iton the other side It is a question of an English policy or a nation policy j Which shall it be I |