Show nJ J HOKE SMITH ON SILVER Tho flection of a Silver President Would Fill tho Land With Poverty nnd Distress Uold Would Do Driven Out and the Country Flood fi cd With Silver The Cause of j Lower Prices 7 1 Gainesville Ga July 23 Secretary IlOko Smith of the Interior Department Depart-ment delivered here today the llrst of a series of three addresses In Gcoigla it i on the financial Issue A tiumemloUB piowd assembled to hear the speech t and he was cheered to the echo He was Introduced by Judge Perry who t paid a glowing tribute to President y Cleveland Mr fJmlth ppoke In part as V follows At Chicago In 1892 the Democratic party by Ha representatives for the entire en-tire t Union voted down overwhelmingly 4 he 4 proposition of n delegate from Coo ado to Insert In the platform the word free which would have made the platform declare for free coinage of silver o sil-ver verThe The free silver advocates claim first that the act of 1873 was surreptitiously passed and robbed the people of one o half the money of final payment second sec-ond that for this reason there Is not sufficient money of final payment and the appreciation of gold has depreciated depreciat-ed everything else Upon these two propositions their entire arguments are based The Secretary met the propositions by claiming first that the alleged contraction I con-traction of money of final payment had not taken place second that the proposed pro-posed remedy would In reality drive j onehalf the money now In use out of circulation and produce a contraction < ruinous In Its results FALL IN PRICES The claim that gold has appreciated thereby depreciating the value of products pro-ducts said he Is based upon the theory that the decrease In the value of silver and In the value of products has been contemporaneous A careful examination of the facts shows this not to be true The average decrease of commodities since 1873 has been about 20 per cent The heaviest decline has been In the line of those things which the masses of the people buy All those reductions In price are partly attributable attribu-table to a lessened cost of production 1 and partly to the recent panic While commodities have fallen 20 per cent silver has fallen 60 per cent The bullion bul-lion In a silver dollar Is only worth 52 cents 258 grains of standard gold are worth 100 cents To lift the value of 412i grains of silver In the United States from 50 to Li 00 cents It would be necessary to lift Irevalue of UjUie aily rJatJlR5iQJJl tothetame extent less tile cost off rw of-f transporting It to the United States it A In addition to this If the silver I I mines can afford to continue increasing 4 their production as they have from 181000000 In 1873 to 214481000 In 1S94 on a market which has fallen 50 percent per-cent what would they produce on a market which has risen 100 per cent WOULD RUIN TIlE COUNTRY The Immediate effect of the election of a President committed to such a policy would be the separation of the gold and silver dollar the gold dollar going to a premium of about two for one and we would lose at once 678 000000 of gold now In circulation and In the Treasury The greenbacks and 1 Treasury notes 375000000 of which t would still remain outstanding would be hoarded In the hope that a free sll vet bill If passed at all would be soon repealed This would take place Immediately I imme-diately after the election of a President Presi-dent in November 1896 and probably oven after the nomination by either of the great parties of a free sliver candidate candi-date The new President could not bc Inaugurated until March 4 1897 During the six months or more before It would be possible to pass free silver legislation legisla-tion thc contraction of the currenej Just described would precipitate the most serious consequences Those owning gold obligations would put n strain upon the remaining silver currency cur-rency and the bank notes to buy gol to meet their gold obligations The rnrroncy consisting of checks and bill of cKphingp amounting to 05 per cent fit our iMilIro currency would go out of Isc In eonpequence of loss of confl ilpnco and credit and the result would bp l the withdrawn of 974 per cent of our entire currency nnd the paralysis of business would Immediately follow varkr would be raided by their depositor depos-itor Indebtedness not payable In gold would be collected at once or the property owned by debtors taken from them Merchants would fall manu factories Close worKmen ue HUB farm products without a market and poverty sinCl distress be found on all sides ONI SOURCE OF COMFORT Concluding lIe said The picture Is not overdrawn When I contemplate Itt It-t Is but ono source of comfortIt Is an abiding confidence that with twelvemonths twelve-months of full tree dlsemalon the American people cnn bo relied upon to < wrwhelmlngly defeat any party which i rrojo s > B to bring such dlsuuters upon i J1H It Is a source of gratification to Democrats to know the troubles of 1893 were brought upon the country by the unwise legislation of the previous administration ad-ministration Your representatives at Washington were confronted with many difficulties No civil crisis has been more serious Let the return of prosperity let the dally newt that factories fac-tories are again at work nnd that 3000000 wage earners have had their i wfl es Increased lot thc rise In value of farm products tell how they have fwcceeded Tho McKinley bill has been re ncJiJrd thn credit of thc Government 1tns been preserved Money hns been kf pt Bound and wo will go to the I cOlin Irv In 189G with thp Democratic party flghtlng further high tariff legislation nnponln bad money and assured of 11CCSS |