With that debate, Mr. President, long pending and eagerly maintained on
both sides, there began in this country an educational movement among
the masses, that is destined to have far-reaching consequence. The
public attention was fastened, as it had never been fastened before, on
the subject of money, and on the forces which govern its value, and up
to this time that attention has never flagged. As a result we find the
great body of our people to-day--the farmers and artisans of the
country--after years of reflection and discussion in their lyceums and
trade organizations, adopting to a large extent the views then presented
by the advocates of an increased money volume--views which at the time
were contemptuously derided by the advocates of contraction and of gold.
The cry for relief appropriately now comes from the farmers, the
artisans, and the laboring classes, as well as from the young, the
enterprising, the thoughtful, of all classes, who have not inherited
wealth, but are hewing out for themselves the rugged path to success. It
is they who have had to bear the exactions of the system which has
prevailed. It is from the proceeds of their labor that the extortions
have been paid. If objection be made that the character of relief
proposed is not indorsed in financial circles, or by the literary guild
or professional political economists that surround them, the sufficient
reply is that the world can not wait for the correction of abuses by
those who are profiting by them. In the nature of things, all movements
for reform must be initiated by those who can not lose by the
installation of justice.
But there are others besides the laboring masses who are working in the
cause of humanity. There are noble, unselfish, and altruistic men in all
the countries of civilization, who see the wrong and are indefatigable
in their efforts to set it right.
I will read a cable dispatch recently addressed to me by Mr. Henry H.
Gibbs, formerly governor of the Bank of England, and now president of
the Bimetallic League of Great Britain:
LONDON, _May 6_.--The friends of silver deeply regret the death
of Senator Beck, whose services in the cause of monetary reform
are warmly appreciated on this side of the Atlantic. The
bimetallist party of the United Kingdom, now including over one
hundred members of the House of Commons, attach the greatest
value to the debate about to commence in your illustrious
chamber. We fully recognize not only that the support afforded to
silver by your legislation during the last twelve years has
helped the protect the industrial world from an acute monetary
crisis, but also that the debates in Congress have served more
than all else to educate our people to recognition of the
important issues involved. We believe also that the increase and
coinage of silver contemplated by Congress will restore, wholly
or considerably, your coinage rates, and will thus make
international settlement of this complex question comparatively
easy. We anticipate further and with much confidence, that the
advance in the price of silver which must follow your action will
stimulate both the export and the other trades of your country,
and, while tending to the prosperity of your agricultural
classes, will also assist the manufacturing industries of the
United Kingdom and the whole body of our wage-earners.
Mr. Moreton Frewen, of London, an able writer on economic subjects,
whose recent work on the "The Economic Crisis" I commend to the careful
perusal of Senators, says:
It may, indeed, be affirmed, without fear of contradiction, that
legislation arranged in the interest of a certain class, first by
Lord Liverpool in this country, and again by Sir Robert Peel at
the instigation of Mr. Jones Loyd and other wealthy bankers,
which was supplemented recently by simultaneous anti-silver
legislation in Berlin and Washington at the instance of the great
financial houses--this legislation has about doubled the burden
of all national debts by an artificial enhancement of the value
of money.
The fall of all prices induced by this cause has been on such a
scale that while in twenty years the National debt of the United
States quoted in dollars has been reduced by nearly two-thirds,
yet the value of the remaining one-third, measured in wheat, in
bar iron, or bales of cotton, is considerably greater--is a
greater demand draft on the labor and industry of the nation than
was the whole debt at the time it was contracted. The aggravation
of the burdens of taxation induced by this so-called
"appreciation of gold," which is no natural appreciation, but has
been brought about by class legislation to increase the value of
the gold which is in a few hands, requires but to be explained to
an enfranchised democracy, which will know how to protect itself
against further attempts to contract the currency and to force
down prices to the confusion of every existing contract.
Of all classes of middle-men, bankers have been by far the most
successful in intercepting and appropriating an undue share of
produced wealth. While the modern system of banking and credit
may be said to be even yet in its infancy, that portion of the
assets of the community which is to-day in the strong boxes of
the bankers would, if declared, be an astounding revelation of
the recent profits of this particular business; and not only has
the business itself become a most profitable monopoly, but its
interests in a very few hands are diametrically opposed to the
general interests of the majority. By legislation intended to
contract the currency and force down all prices, including wages,
the price paid for labor, the money owner has been able to
increase the purchase power of his sovereign or dollar by the
direct diminution of the price of every kind of property measured
in money.