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gets to him what his opinion is? They are very tender about a judgment they like--much more so than they are about a decision that they don't like.

Of all these men who are criticising there is not one of them who tells you that he lives under a government which protects him and yet that he wants to shirk his share of the taxes-not one of them!

Ah, my friends, because these men know that an income tax is just, they know that they are not doing their duty when they refuse to pay it, but they skulk around in the dark and call people hard names rather than expose their own unwillingness to support their government.

But now I must go. I want you to take this question, I want you to study it and have your own opinion. They tell you they want agitation stopped. I tell you that agitation will never stop until this gold standard is wiped out of existence in this country.

After the meeting I accompanied Mr. Williams to his home at Dedham, and closed the day with a brief speech at about midnight to a hall full of people who had patiently waited until that hour.

Early Saturday morning we took the train for Manchester, N. H., passing through Lowell and Nashua. The Manchester meeting was quite a large one. Here I touched upon the appeal made to savings banks depositors to support the gold standard, and said:

Manchester Speech.

We are told that the free coinage of silver will be detrimental to those who have deposits in savings banks. I want you who have money deposited in savings banks to remember that your deposits are secure only when the banks can collect the money which they have loaned. If you loan money on Western lands and then drive down the value of Western lands, you are destroying the securities which the banks hold for what they owe you.

At Lawrence, Mass., also a large number were gathered. Here the citizens had prepared a dinner for our party. A brief stop was made at Portland, Me., where a large meeting was held near the depot, and where we met the Bath reception committee. Upon arrival at the latter place we were escorted to Mr. Sewall's residence by a torch-light procession. Later in the evening I delivered an address to an immense audience, one of the largest, it was said, ever assembled in Maine. Mr. Sewall presided on this occasion and introduced me. A part of the address is reproduced:

Bath Speech.

This visit to the home of my colleague in this typical city of Maine is one of the most pleasant incidents of my journey from the Platte to the Kennebec. I did not become acquainted with Mr. Sewall until the Chicago convention met, but my opinion of him has improved with each passing day, and I am glad to have the privilege of spending a brief period with him and

among his neighbors. I can assure you that we have no hostile designs against the people of the east. The policies which we advocate will, we believe, help the people of every section of the country; therefore, I always enjoy defending these policies before such as have hitherto opposed them. is the all-pervading power of truth that I expect some time to see bimetallism at 16 to 1 as popular in Maine as it is now in Colorado.

Such

We are not in favor of free coinage because we desire to help the mine owner, nor because silver is produced in the United States. We would be as heartily in favor of free silver if the United States did not produce an ounce of that metal. We are for the coinage of gold as well as for the coinage of silver; we simply hold that gold should not demand a monopoly of mint privileges. If silver were now given free coinage and gold were excluded from the mint, we would be advocating the free coinage of gold.

The science of money is not difficult to understand. Our opponents say that honest money is sound money, and that sound money is honest money, and they seldom get outside of that circle. Their only definition of sound or honest money is: Money which is worth as much in the form of bullion as in the form of coin. I want to show you how absurd that definition is. If the definition is a good one, then the Mexican dollar is an honest dollar, because the Mexican dollar is worth just the same in the form of bullion that it is in the form of coin. The trouble with the definition is that it leaves out of consideration the most important thing in a dollar, namely, its purchasing power. The gold standard definition of sound or honest money makes no mention of purchasing power. Let me show you what is possible under that definition. Let us suppose that all the nations of the world should agree upon the gold standard and make our dollar the unit. Then let us suppose that the next day these nations should agree to destroy ninety-nine one-hundredths of all the gold dollars in existence, what would be the result? The dollar, according to the gold standard definition, would still be an honest dollar, because if melted it would not lose any of its value, and yet the purchasing power of the dollar would be largely increased. In fact, if a person owed a debt, he would have to sell about one hundred times as much of his property to secure the money to pay his debt; and yet he would have the consolation of knowing that he was paying his debts in honest dollars, according to the gold standard idea. But let us take another supposition. Let us suppose that after all the nations had agreed upon a gold standard new gold mines should be discovered. Suppose the production of gold increased until the world had one hundred times as many gold dollars as it had before; what would be the result? According to the gold standard definition the dollar would still be an honest dollar, because if melted it would not lose anything; but the purchasing power of the dollar would fall, because of the increased number of dollars. Would the money loaner believe that he was being paid in honest dollars if the dollars would only buy a hundredth part of what they would before? And yet the gold standard definition would apply, no matter how much the quantity of money might be increased or decreased. This illustrates the absurdity of a definition of honest money which fails to consider the purchasing power of a dollar. An honest dollar would be a dollar whose average purchasing power

would remain the same from year to year, and this can only be secured by having the quantity of money keep pace with the demand for money. Not only do the advocates of the gold standard omit all reference to purchasing power in defining an honest dollar, but they do not seem to understand that the law gives to gold money the one characteristic which they praise.

Why does the gold lose nothing by melting? Simply because the law provides for the free and unlimited coinage of gold bullion into gold dollars. If we had the free and unlimited coinage of silver as we have of gold, there would be no difference between the coinage value and the bullion value of silver. You have doubtless heard the gold standard advocates talk of the melting-pot test. A debate once occurred in our State something like this: The gold bug, in order to prove the superiority of gold, said: "If a man has in his house $1,000 in paper, $1,000 in silver, and $1,000 in gold, and his house burns down, the paper will be destroyed, the silver will be melted and worth one-half, and the gold, although melted, will be worth as much as it was before. Therefore gold is the only good money." His opponent replied: “That is true if a man puts his money in his house and the house burns down; but suppose he puts his money in a boat and the boat turns over? Then the gold and silver will go to the bottom and be lost, while the paper will float. Therefore paper is the only good money." One argument is just as good as the other, but both speakers erred in trying to prove the value of money by an unusual and extraordinary use of money.

(A voice "If I buy silver at the present price, 65 cents an ounce, into how much money can I have it coined?") Under the present law you cannot have it coined at all. Under free coinage you can have it coined, but then you cannot buy it for 65 cents an ounce. Just remember that under free coinage no man will sell his silver for less than a dollar, because he can get it coined at any time into a dollar.

The above question has often been asked, and the fallacy lies in the fact that the questioner supposes the purchase of the silver to be made under monometallism, and then supposes it to be coined under bimetallism, ignoring entirely the change which takes place upon the passage of the free coinage law.

In order to illustrate the absurdity of the argument that under free coinage a person could buy silver at 50 cents and have it coined into. a dollar, I have often told a story which I found in a book written by Hon. Ignatius Donnelly. Two men were discussing the silver question in a car, when some one asked the silver advocate, "Do you think it is right to pass a law which will enable a man to buy my silver at 50 cents and coin it into 100 cents and make the difference?" The silver advocate replied, “Under free coinage any person owning 4121 grains of standard silver can have it coined into one dollar without charge for mintage. That being the case, is there any one in this car who, under free coinage, would sell that much silver for less than 100

cents and let the purchaser make the profit?" There was silence for a moment, and then some one answered, "I would." The reply came from a young man who was sitting by his mother, and she protected him from further inquiry by saying, "Never mind him; he is an idiot. I am just taking him to the asylum.”

Sunday was spent upon the shores of the Kennebec. Church occupied our attention in the forenoon, and in the afternoon Mr. Sewall took me to Small Point, fourteen miles away, the favorite ocean resort of the people of that village. The visit to Maine was enjoyed by the entire party, and I found the correspondents, like myself, sorry when the time for departure arrived. While in the State I met ex-Governor Plaisted, and his son Fred W., who was the Maine member of the Notification Committee.

Leaving Bath about midnight we arrived at Lynn, Mass., in time for breakfast. At this place we met a number of very ardent supporters of bimetallism, one of whom since the election has been made mayor by a plurality of nearly 2,000, in spite of the fact that the city gave the Republican electors something like 3,000 plurality.

Passing through Boston, our next stop was at Providence, where, in a brief speech, I quoted the definition of "honest money" given by Prof. Andrews, of Brown University, in his recent work upon that subject, and assured the audience that the silver advocates of the West were in entire accord with their distinguished townsman. With an hour's stay at New London, and a few other stops still more brief, we bade adieu to New England, and re-entered New Jersey.

CHAPTER XXXVIII.

T

TAMMANY HALL AND VICINITY.

HE latter part of Tuesday was spent in New Jersey. Early in the evening an outdoor meeting was held at Paterson, the home of the Republican candidate for the Vice-Presidency. The interest was so intense here that I was led to expect a stronger support than the election showed.

During the meeting the electric light went out, and we were left in the dark for a few minutes.

I quote below an extract from the Paterson speech:

Paterson Speech.

Money is a creature of law, and if the laws do not create enough money, then there will not be enough in circulation. If you want more wheat, you can go out and raise wheat; if you want more of any kind of manufactured goods, you can produce them; but if the people want more money, they cannot bring money into existence. If a man attempts to add one dollar to the volume of the nation's currency, he is called a "counterfeiter" and imprisoned in the penitentiary.

Our opponents seem to act upon the theory that by making the total volume of currency less they can increase the amount which each individual has of it. This is a new principle, unknown to the arithmetic we studied when we were

young.

The last meeting of the day was held at Newark, in a very large hall at Caledonia Park. Mr. J. Randolph Woodruff, of the Essex County Committee, introduced Hon. Joseph A. Beecher as temporary chairman, and Mayor James N. Seymour as permanent chair

man.

An extract from the speech made at this place will be found below:

Newark Speech.

We are in the midst of a campaign which will be memorable in history. No matter on which side of the money question you may stand, you must admit that much depends upon its settlement. Deep feeling is aroused on both sides. We are combating a system of finance which is entrenched behind strong bulwarks and able to call to its support all those influences which have been in the habit of dominating politics. We realize what it will mean to lose this campaign and to declare-this nation has never so declared before-the inability of this nation to conduct its own business.

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