| Show VAS JAMES G BLAINE AN ANARCHIST the words of the plumed knight of the republican party live to do good from the new york tribune feb washington february 7 the morning hour having expired in the senate today the silver bill came cifor discussion and mr bialke rep maine spoke as follows the discussion on the question of silver mr president has been prolonged able and exhaustive and I 1 may not expect to add much to ite value but I 1 promise not to add much to its length I 1 shall endeavor to consider facts rather than theories to state conclusions rather than aniu ments I 1 believe auld and silver coin to be the money of the constitution indeed the money of the american people anterior to the constitution which that great organic law recognized as quite independent of its own existence no power was conferred on congress to declare that either metal should not be money congress has therefore in my judgment no power 1 demonetize silver any more than to demonetize gold no power to demonetize either any more than to demonetize both in this statement I 1 am but repeating the weighty dictum of the first of con lawyers 1 I am certainly of opinion said mr webster that gold and eiver at rates fixed by congress constitute the legal standard of value in this country und that neither congress nor any state has authority to establish any other standard or to displace this standard few persons can be found I 1 apprehend who will maintain that congress possesses the power to demonetize both gold and silver or that congress could be justified in prohibiting the coinage of both and yet in logic and legal construction it would be difficult to show where and why the power of congress over silver i greater than over gold greater over either than over the two IF THEREFORE SILVER HAS BEEN DE I 1 AM IN FAVOR OF IT IF ITS COINAGE HAS BEEN prohibited I 1 AM IN FAVOR OF ORDERING IF TO BE RESUMED IF IT HAS BEEN restricted I 1 AM IN FAVOR OF HAVING IT ENLARGED what power then has congress over gold and silver it has the exclusive power to coin them and exclusive power to regulate their value very great very wise very necessary nece seary powers tor the discreet exercise of which a critical occasion has now alieen however men may differ about cases and all will admit that within a few years a great disturbance has taken place in the relative values of gold and silver and that silver is worth less or gold is worth more in the money markets of the world in 1878 than in 1873 when the further coinage of silver dollars was prohibited in this country to it now as though the facts and circumstances of that day were surrounding us is willfully and blindly to deceive ourselves it our were the only cause for the decline in the value of silver then would be its proper and effectual cure but other causes quite beyond our ont rol have been far more potentially operative than the simple fact 0 Con gross prohibiting its further coinage and as legislators we are bound to take cognizance of these causes the of silver in the great german empire and the consequent partial or well nigh complete suspension of coinage in the governments of the latin union have been leading dominant causes for the rapid decline in the value of silver 1 do not think the oversupply of silver has bad in comparison como arison with other causes nn appreciable influence in the decline of ite value because its oversupply with respect to gold in later beare has not been nearly eo great as was the oversupply of gold with respect to silver for many years after alie mines of california and australia were opened and the oversupply oi gold from these rich burces did not affect the relative positions and uses of the two metals in any european country 4 THE responsibility OF establishing reestablishing RE SILVER IN ITS ANCIENT AND HONORABLE PLACE MONEY IN EUROPE AND AMERICA DEVOLVES REALLY ON THE CONGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES II 11 we act here with prudence wisdom and firmness we shall not only successfully silver and bring it into general uee as money in our own country but the influence of our example will be potential among all nations with the possible exception of england INDEED OUR ANNUAL indebtedness TO EUROPE IS SO GREAT THAT IF WE HAVE THE RIGHT TO PAY IT IN SILVER WE necessarily COERCE THOSE NATIONS WITH STRONGEST OF ALL FORCES ELF INTEREST TO AID US IN UPHOLDING THE VALUE OF SILVER AS MONEY on the much vexed and long mooted question of a bimetallic or monometallic standard my own views are sufficiently indicated in the remarks I 1 have made I 1 believe the struggle now going on in this country and in other countries for a single gold standard would if successful produce widespread disaster in the end throughout the commercial world the destruction of silver as money and establishing gold as alie sole unit of value must have a ruinous effect on all forms of property except those investments which yield a fixed return in money these would be enormously enhanced in value and would gain a disproportionate and unfair advantage over every other of property it as the most reliable affirm there are nearly of coin or bullion in the world not very unequally divided between gold and silver it ie impossible to strike silver out of existence as money without results which will prove die to millions and utterly disastrous to tena of thousands alexander hamilton Ha in his able and invaluable report in 1791 on the establishment lish ment of a mint declared that to anul the uee of either gold or silver as money is to abridge he quantity of circulating medium and is liable to all the objections which aiese from comparison of the benefits of full circulation with the evils of a scanty circulation I 1 take no risk in saying that the benefits of a full circulation and the evils of a scanty circulation are both immeasurably greater today than they were when mr hamilton uttered these weighty words always provided that alie circulation is one of actual money and not of promises to pay in the report from which I 1 have already quoted mr hamilton argues at length in favor of a double stac dard and all the subsequent experiences of well nigh ninety years has brought out no clearer statement of the whole case nor displayed a more complete comprehension of this subtle and difficult subject on the whole says mr hamilton it seems most advisable not to attach the unit exclusively to either of the metal fl because this cannot be done effectively without destroying detro ying alie office and character of of them as money and reducing it to the situation of mere merchandise and then mr hamilton wisely concludes that the reduction of either of the metals to mere merchandise 1 I again buoie his exact words would probably be a greater evil than occasional variations in the unit from the fluctuations in the relative value ot the metals especially it care bo taken to regulate the proportion between them an eye to their average commercial value I 1 do not think that this country holding vast a proportion of the worlds supply of silver in its mountains and its mine can afford to reduce the metaldo met alto the situation of mere II 11 dilver ceased to he as a money in europe and great mines of the pacific slope will be closed and dead mining of the gigantic scale existing in this country cannot be carried on to provide backa for looking classes and to manufacture cream pitchers and bowls A vast dource of wraith to this entire country is destroyed the moment silver is permanently as money it Is for us to check that tendency and bring the continent of europe back to the full recognition of the value of the metal ui a medium ef exchange the question of beginning anew the coinage of silver dollars has much discussion as to its effects upon alie public debt and the senator from ohio mr matthews placed thie phase of the subject in the very torn front of the de hastine prematurely and ll logically 1 on a sort of judicial construe te insi b anre by coc conent resolution of a certain law in case that law should tin ady p be passed by Congro gs my own view on this question can be stated ten to verah I 1 believe that the public creditor can afford to be paid in any silver united status can afford to coin and circulate we need both gold and silver and we can have both only by making each the equal of the other it would not be difficult to show that in the nations where both have been ally recognized the most widely diffused the steadiest anil most continuous prosperity has been enjoyed eliat form of prosperity which reauben all clae ef but which begins with the day laborer whose toil lays thu foundation of the whole superstructure of wealth the exclusively cold nation like england may the most fortune in the ruling classes but it shows also the most helpless and bope leea poverty in alie walks the gold and silver nation like france can exhibit no such individual fortuned fort unea as abound in england but it has a peasantry that with saving can pay a war indemnity that would have beggared the gold bankers of london and to the peasantry of england vid not havu contributed a pound sterling in cold or a shilling in silver the two metals have existed side by tide in tha harmonious honorable companionship as money ever since intelligent trade was known amona men it is well nigh forty centuries since abraham weighed to Ephron the silver which he had named in the audience of the of bieth 00 of silver current money with the merchants since that time nations have risen and fallen races have disappeared dialects and languages have been forgotten arta have been lost treasures have writhed shed continents have been discovered islands have been sunk in alie sea and through all these ages and through all these changes silver and gold have reigned supreme a the of value as the media of exchange the dethronement of each haa been attempted in turn and sometimes the dethronement of both but always in vain |
