Newspapers / The Charlotte Democrat (Charlotte, … / April 9, 1896, edition 1 / Page 2
Part of The Charlotte Democrat (Charlotte, N.C.) / About this page
This page has errors
The date, title, or page description is wrong
This page has harmful content
This page contains sensitive or offensive material
.-. '- 1 CmW H )FRTF! UilM AM) Mill II UMA1L.; JlONi.V (U KSTION DS.HAT1 l KYTlli: ;;ok;ia (ii.VMs. Opein'-i:; of the Seri' of .Joint Debutes at ,i,,; .t:i -A ;r':it ".'rvI ami- a Notable Occasioii-lieview oi the Snot-elies. reta-v Smith and ex-Speaker Crisp, who beg in ;i s ries of joint tie- bates on tho financial (pn stion at Augusta, a. on the evening of March 31. were applauded to the echo when the sentiment enunciated met with indorsement, and it was notieeable th.it the same me-n ap plauded either spe.V er. There was no such division of -ntiment as for bade champions of Mr. Crisp to ap plauds Hemoeratie Fentimei.ts utter ed b Mr. Smith, ai d n advocacy of the e gold standard 'rinded applause r popular sentinu-its declared b' for mv. I risp. T!ie sc.-ue which g ec'ed the de baters when the curlaiu ro-c m the Grand Opera House was one calcu lated to inspire them o their best efforts." All of the scenery had been removed, and ."H'O chairs tilled tlie h.rge stage. Tii. s we!'- cuj'.i-d bv promi nent (i-.-or -ians and Carol. nians, headed b (Joy. A ! k inso!! . e Sena t or Patrick Walsh. ex-Congressman ( Jro. VP. Banes. Controller (Jener.il 'light, mayor of Augusta, W. H. O! ng an f others. The orchesta sace j u l in front of the stage was Silled with tables for newspaper men, ho were present from Atlanta, Sa vannah, Miicon and other Georgia vities. In front, pan net, balcony and gallery were crowded and chairs filled all available space in the aisles. Exactly at S:oO o'clock Chairman iKuiirhtvof the Richmond county Demo 'ratio executive committee stated the terms of the debate. Mr. Crisp to open the discussion m one hour and ten minutes. Mr. Smith to follow in one hour and thirty minutes, and Mr. Crisp to conclude in twenty minutes. Judge Crisp opened by stating "that both he and Mr. Smith were Democrats, and whatever happened, both of them would support the Democratic - nominee. "We differ,'' said he, "on the financial question; 'Ave dillei as to money." A IIlsl'OiiY OF MONEY. Judge Crisp then began a brief history of money, telling how money Had been established, and what were its uses. He told the history of the establishment of the ratio of 10 to 1 as between silver and gold. He ex plained how it was that France had established the ratio of 15-1 to 1. It was because we then had a ratio of 15 to I. When France established a higher ratio, the gold went there, because it brought more in silver Then we changed our ratio to 1G to 1, and the gold began to flow back. liieht here Judge Crisp made the point that the gold men confom-dd the standa'd w i h currency, and .predicted that Mr. Smith would fall into the s:'tue error. "sui'Kkst; : mrs mkmox etiza ! ionv' Judge Crisp w-nt into a. history of the demonetization of silver bv the several grvat nations of the world. He expl .jned the true meaning in explanation of the alleged rise -,i-.d fall of demand of things but money, and held that you could compare money to nothing on earth. The de mand for money could not be com pared to the demand for anything else on earth To 1873, gold and silver were linked together. To that time there had never been any great divergence. The real reason why silver was demonetized in 1873, said he, was to diminish the supply of money and increase the value of that in exist ence To 1873, he s 1, you could pay a balance in Eny, d in silver bullion, but the day afu-r silver whs surreptitiously demonetized in this country, such was not the Judge Crisp explained that he spoke knowingly when he said "sur reptitiously demonetized," even the president who signed the bill not knowing its full purport. No man, f iid Ise. in concluding his explana tion of how silver was demonetized, could go before the country advocat ing a single gold standard, and ex pect the support of a majority of the people. At this the house broke forth in loud and prolonged applause. THE JJLAXD-ALLISOX .LAW. Immediately after the act of con gress demonetizing silver was dis covered, its restoration began to be agitated. The Bland-Allison law was the result of this; and that was passed by congress over the veto of a Republican iVesident. He held and explained how it had always been that the Republican party advocated a gold sta; dan! and the" Democrats had advocated the restoration of silver. It was not until -very recent ly that any Democrat had advocated the gold standard. Judge Crisp here went into a de tailed history of the repeal of the island -Allison lav, the passage of The onerman law. and thp ronooi the latter. Immediately aftr v. VA V 1YT FPTf T FIVFT1 Passage of the law of 1873 prices going down. Whv Q .lnu,,, v a ked he. "Tie Bland-Allison law , ver, I an. not lighting silver and do gave a little more curacy, and ! not seek to reduce its use or its le helped lo arrest the fall of price., gal tender value. I favor all the After prices besran to fall again. The goM, silver and paper that can be t 1 , : .i u.. Zn o.m.JL-Mot Hnii.i, iv hs irooil." In answer what, but when that makeshift wji ! repealed prices again fell, and j since been falling." nave He referred to the fall in the price of cotton "Our friends, said he, ''declare its price is regulated by supply and demand. Why should not they admit the same about mon- V" ev . wrox; to i'A ix fioi.n. AfUr explaining t hi-, .Indue Crisp averted that there had b en no effort on the part of the Tinted Mates to o.( d tQ tookVp t he fact i pantv. II -re lie , i M a i . . . u i :. .. . up the racr mar ait me oon- : tions of our government were paya ble in coin, gold a ad silver. Hut the . men who have administered the gov ernment have hot executed the law properly. It was instituted by the Republican party. He re-retted I that Democrats luul fol'.awed the picctdfut. ot fat- party. H' was i u ro.ig t j pay these obligations in gold j when tin were made payab'e in j com. lie torn or rue private saie ui 000, M)0 of bonds, of how the president had asked congress to al i low him to make these bomls paya- b!c in gold, stating that he wcukl save sixteen million dollars th- re by. i Congress refused because there was no law of this government making .gold the standard. Congress taid i they should b1 made payable in coin, i notwithstanding the cost. I "Yet the adminisration now says j these bonds should be paid in gold. ! If it would carry out the law con ! givss has made, there would be no ! trouble, but the past several execu I tives have refused to do this, and in- , -r , in ch.ir,re nave persisted in paying in gold." (iOLP NOT XKCKSSAin. Then he went into the bond question. "In times of peace si;p, 000,000 of bonds have bteu sold in two years, not, the president tells us, for want of monev, but for want of gold. Who wants gold ? Fnder the law we do not need it. Coder the law the government can pay the b nds in silver. It can pay the iiheraian notes in silver. It can pay all the obligations in coin, sold or silver. Who wants sold !" We don't need it, but Wall -streets wants it. "VJiy should the government be asked to buy gold wh n we have some 170,000.000 of .-Iver in the treasury which could b- legitimately coined and used to pa thf obliga tions of the government 1 These great issues of bonds make an obli gation upon the people tax the people to furnish Wall stieet with go'd The people have been taxed about 87 a head to furnish gold to a few mi n." lie spoke of the old Lug a'ga me; it that the silver dollar had but a half do'lar of silver in it. It was b ause the same people who made t his claim have stricken silver from its pi ce as a money metal. "We are told," said he, "tho the United States alone could not r store the value of silrer " He was not in favor of doing anything that was not just. He explained the increase in the value of money before silver was demonetized and how now it took twice the quantity of a product cotton, for instauce that if took sewral years ago to pay a debt. "It was admitted," he said, "that England, France, Germany and the United States could re-establish the value of silver. If it was admitted the four could do it why not three, perhaps tjvo, aud possibly one of these great nations could do it." Judge Crisp then began to com pare the worth and business ability of the United States with other na tions f fie world, to demorsTate its power by legislation to restore silver ti i s old place as a money metal, but in the midst of this his his time expired and he was compell ed to yield the floor not by the rap of gavel, but by a gentle tap upon his back by Chairman Doughty, who sat behind him. SECRETAIOYSMITU'S SPEECH. About the Same He Made on His Former Visit. Chairman Doughty immediately introduced Secretary Smith, and his friends in the audience determined that he should have no less enthu siastic greeting than lh Crisp. He had to pause until the applause end ed and then .began as follows: "You have just listened to aglnw ing description of our country's re sources. My distinguished friend only needed to complete the picture by saying that since lS?:i the devel opment in all lines has been twice as great as during any other like period of its history. (Applause.) We are here tonight consulting to gether as Democrats upon party pol icy. AVhen the national convention shall authoritively declare that par ty policy then all differences will be at an ena among: us. and we will line up shoulder to shoulder as j ft 1 T DTT A T?T,Q1 TF. THURSDAY Democrats sand stand solidly on the I party platform (Applause.) i 'flu onnosinc free coinage of Ml kent eoualiV hs to thecha-ge that they were seeking f the use of silver or to con tract the currency he iav.- the amount of gold and silver . : circu lation in 18(50, in 1875 and in lS'.b". showing that the total today is eig ht times that of 187:, and that tlie per c ipita circulation b-ul creased from $18.04 in ls;: t ; tween '22 and $23 in 18.. . "We are not trying to contract t ie (" -rency. and our silver friend nrsh-;. I you, if they make you beii- we d not mean to accomplish tii - u e of both gold and silver as the moeev of final payment for all obligations of this country. (Applause.) erUKENCY A XI) STAN I) A It I - ".Mr. Crisp talks about my con fusing circulation and standar I value, and his own argument shows that he entirely misconceives the matte- Currency is .. something which circulates and furnishes the means of exchange, but a standard is a measure of values, and to be a standard it must perforin the func tion of measuring. Mr. Crisp says we had a double standard prior to i 17.3, but what is the use of a stan dard you do not measure by? "Whenever you coin two metals ami put into one greater value than the other you become monometal lists on the cheaper nietil. I am not here to fight bimetallism, but silver monometallism v Applause) to liijht the contraction the silver men arc advocating." He said that when this country lixed the ratio in 1702, Jefferson did so after finding out the commercial tatio. I believe in that kind of bimetallism. I he S'amp or ine ifoverumeui uoes nou p j I j. 1 L tm part tlie value to the com, 1 1)1,1 simplv be irs witness that the coin contains a certain amount of valua ble metal. I'apef monev doe1 llOt' acquire value from the stamp of the government, but from the govern ment's promise to redeem it in some thing of value. (Applause.) '-Jefferson found gold worth fif teen times as much as silver and fix ed the ratio at 15 to 1. Our latter day statesmen lind gold worth thir ty times as much as silver, but want to fix Hie ratio only 16 to 1 . Why not 15 to 1, or U to 1, or 10 to lr""' KKYI EWEI) FIXAXCIAI. LEG IS U. A TIOX. lie then reviewed the history of financial legislation, showing how the ratio had been changed and how one metal had left the country at one period, and the other at a later pe riod. He declared that we had sil ver monometallism up to 1 H: 4 and 11 .11' t 1 IT yoiu monometallism arterwaros. ue said we had been unable to brinirthe : wo hieials together wnen they va lied only 5 per cent in value and now he proposed to do so when they differed 50 per cent. "I am oppos ed to the trial simply because 1 know they cannot do it "Mr. Crisp says this idea that we were on a gold monometallic basis before UsVJisof modern statesman ship. I will read him from the re port of the chairman of the ways and mjaris committee of the house of representatives in 1853, as fol lows: "'We have had but the single standard for the last three or four years and that is gold and we pro pose to remain there." "It is easier to captivate an audi ence by appeals to prejudice against Wall street and Lombard street th in by agreement. There is something popular in this idea of free silver, i hough we do not understand it, like the Populists, that it is to be given away. I fancy that the ap plause which greeted this phase of hi' speech must have comeftom rep reseutatives of that party. He char ges that the act of 1S7 was sur reptitiously passeJ. I do not care how it was passed. If it is bad, let us repeal it, if good let us keep it. Before 1873 only 8.0: 1,000 sil ver dollars had been Coined. Since then 425,000,000 have been coined. Not only that, but this vile admin istration at Washington has coined between seven and , eight million standard .dollars and within two months will have coined more silver dollars than were coined during the eighty years of bimetallism." He then replied to Mr. Crisp's reference to France, and declared that the efforts at bimetallism had been going on in France for two hundred years nrior to 1S03, and that the ratio had been -chanced twenty-six times within a century. He read French authorities which took the ground that at times France, while claiming to have bi metallism, had in fact been on a silver basis alone up to 1X50 and af ter that upon gold, necessitating the appointment of a commission in 1857 in the effort to get silver back into circulation. "The gentleman has seen fit to criticise the course of the secretarv . 1 .1 of the treasury in his efforts to keep silver at a parity with gold. In Fratice they paid not only in which ever metal th ci fitor demanded, S but would red em-' ver with g.ild; i but in spite of all i)va tVom 1820 to ! 1850 France had si ver monometal ! lism, and from from 18 gold'mon- oni' tallism." He declared that the ratio of 16 ' to 1, which is not, in aceofM with the commercial ratio, is undemocratic i and violates the teaching of Jeffer- - -i, J ickson and of Cleveland. I "It accords with the teaching of J,t,.fl c. Nevada, Bryan of Nebras and Tatson of (ieorgia. I dare to l-a Democrat who differs from thos hi-t three distinguished g'n t'etnea. (Applause.) "Ir. is impossible to have bimetal 1 sm at a legl ratio which disre gards th- commercial value. Eng land tried it in vain and the very conn ir v 'he gentleman cites, I have shown by history, failed and aban doned the effort If co tures will pass the necessa ry lgi-d t'io i and aliovv us to pay off nd cued t;ic gt'cnbacks and sil ver notes we-aM do so without issu in j- an taer bond. Though some of our friends a-1 dispo-ed to critici - i the administr t o ., taking the C administrations -together, Presidf ::D Cleveland has reduced the indebt edness of the country four hundre I millions, and we have cut off annual ly $25,000,000 of fraudulent pen sions. If he h :d served only one term and we could nominate him gam we w -uld elect him and before .he end of his term you all would ' ss him (Applause.) He then referred to the fact that under the Democratic administra tion four men had been put in the cabinet as a recognition to the south, two supreme court judges, Fitzhugh Lee in Virginia, Mat Kinsom of North Carolina, and Wade Hampton tl OUULU J ill Li I 11. HUC 1JW hold- : . . . 11 11J 11)11' .'I III Jl .V-VV..' administration. "I love the Democratic party for pilHUipiCS IUU iUi nil H 11; liilO done, ana l appeal to you to save it from the disgrace into which this mistaken statesmanship would plunge it." ((Ire it applause.) Mr. Smith then argued that the great interests in the production cf silver, the establishing of railroads to the mines and the improvements of machinery for mining had caused the fall in the price of silver He declared . i Iso that since 1S73 four teen nations had demonetized silver and it was impossible to restore the conditions that obtained in that year. "The silver men tell us to restore the conditions of 1873. It cannot be done. They s ly let us try it. Will you voluntarily do a thing that is unspeakably stupid?" Turning to Mr. Crisp, he said: "Don't lead your people, sir, into the folly that your statesmanship should tell you will be ruinous to their b-st inter ests. We have seen fourteen centu ries stagerinc uikLt x load which they could not carry and now you say for only one of them to try it and see. There would be nothing left financially to see after we tried. NTo country could, and certainly not ours, restore the parity of silver at lb to I. It is not in the Democratic platform, and while God gives me a voice I am going to urge that it shall not be put there (Great ap plause. 'The standard in this country to day is gold. Twenty-three, twenty two grains of gold. For the sake of the people it is necessary to keep both silver and gold dollars equally good. When the proposition was made to put gold in these bonds it was because the secretary knew we could not maintain the credit of this country without allowing the credi lor to choose in which money should be paid." The secretary then argued that should a change be made to a silver standard, the laboring man would be I he one to suffer; that while the commodities which he must buy would donblein price it would be a long time before his wages would double. I would rather put my arm in the flames and burn it to the shonldeo than injure one of them in his effort to make an honest living "Mr Crisp has asked me to say what remedy I propose for the ex isting evil- I find that I cannot complete my argument in the time remaining to me and I will give the remedy which I propose on Thurs day night in Atlanta. I put him on notice in general terms that it it will be along the line of the pres idents message and of Mr. Carlisle's suggestion in 18i4. I agree with Mr. Carlisle that the double stand ard is a physical and metaphysical impossibility. We are on a "gold standard, but this is a bimetallic country. Jl'lKll-: HISP'S HKJOINDEK. He Pours Hot Shot Into the ;oll Standard Advocate. "I have listened to my Brother Smith," began Judge Crisp when the cheering greeting him had sub sided, "with wonder and .astonish ment. When he began I wondered Concluded on Seventh page. APRIIt 1896- - .. . V'.: ; f- : The largest piece of ,goo iuuqlu evtsK sola jor io cen ana The 5 cent piece is nearlu ar.ge as yew .get of ofh TABTELE3S HI I Li is just as cood for Adults. WARRANTEb. PRICE 50cts. Galatia, Iixs., Nov. 16, 1833; 7ari8 Medicine Co., St. Louis, Mo. Gentlemen: We sold last year, 600 bottles of : ROVE'S TASTELESS CHILL TONIC and have bought three gross already this year. In all our ex perience ot 14 years, in the dm? business, have oever sold an article that gave such universal satis action as your Tonic Yours truly, ABSET, CARR & CO. S L. ALEXANDER & CO, Druggists, 207 W Trade St.. Charlotte, N- C. Every ::: Farmer in Mecklenburg and adjoining country that spends cah (or his Hardware, will (io well to see our, stock of cotton hoes, Dowlaw cotton planters, trace chains plow stocks, etc. We have a general stock of hardware, tinware, cast iron ware, barbed wire etc , We have the goods that you want and the price: are right. Call and see us. J. B. WeddiDgton & Co. 29 East Trade Street. JUST MY SIZE" su 5i r ror 10 cent FAR ME! Bring us Your t our Tannery isno for Them. i o you need any tbi;. line come and s-e Harness, Co lars, S r n 1 Bicycl In fact everything is will be found in our eJ on Fourth Street. IT Can't Be B Having madu In rue J'Urs! casn. we arc rrena; t a i .t . largest aud bot r Surreys, Phaetons. ever offered on t;.i We buy only rcli ble manufacturers ujmJjI, ami can good work as any rake i Ii'.t.l ' "' We invite every: . iy amine our stock t the3'- want to buy : ' We know an t v. our assertion: "'Y as good work b " " can. Our Mr. J. M pleasure in show stock at any time Remember ai-" ' ' Hickory" farnf ' we'll known to n It'will pay oi; ' ejsewheie. Good lu.rses j:- a"' for sale. SBAW-flOW J. W. WaW1 it' 1 ' -"' j .'ft.-., v. 7
The Charlotte Democrat (Charlotte, N.C.)
Standardized title groups preceding, succeeding, and alternate titles together.
April 9, 1896, edition 1
2
Click "Submit" to request a review of this page. NCDHC staff will check .
0 / 75