Twelve Tears of National Administration, 1888 to 1900—
The Fallacies of W. J. Bryan Exposed.

IDo

SPEECH

HON. OHAELES N. FOWLEK,
of new jeesey,
In the House of Bepkesentatives,
Saturday, June 2, 1900.
The House having under consideration the joint resolution (H. J. Ees. 138)
proposing an amendment to the Constitution of the United States-
Mr. FOWLER said:
Mr. Speaker: This Government being one of, by, and for the
people, is in effect a great corporation, in which every voter is a
stockholder. Every four years the stockholders have a meeting to select a
manager of its affairs. It is a simple, plain, business proposition.
On the 6th of November every voter will have an opportunity to
express his opinion as to the honesty and capacity of the two great
parties. No one will have the hardihood to say that either of the
great parties, if intrusted with power, would proceed to steal
money out of the Treasury.
Nor will any sane man have the audacity to say that either Mr.
McKinley or Mr. Bryan is personally dishonest, however widely
he may differ from the one or the other upon political questions.
Capacity alone, then, of leaders and parties is left for comparison,
discussion, and decision. It is not sufficient that a national Ad
ministration, through its policies, shall keep some of the people
employed some of the time or some of the people employed all of
the time or all of the people employed some of the time. But a
truly wise, patriotic, and American Administration should keep
all of the people employed all of the time, and that, too, at the
highest wages paid to man.
To every intelligent, fair-minded man, who is a patriot before
he is a partisan, the experience of the past twelve years must be
suggestive at least, if indeed not conclusively convincing upon
his judgment, absolutely binding upon#his political conscience,
and all-controlling upon his action on election day.
Do you candidly, honestly, and earnestly seek to know the
truth? Go to the exchanges of the clearing houses of the coun
try, where the products of labor upon the farm and in the factory
are so well and accurately reflected. No broader generalization
of the activities and prosperity of our people, in every trade and
occupation, in every nook and corner of our Republic, can be
found. 4M7 1

Amount of the exchanges of the clearing houses of the United States from
1SSS to September, 1900.
1888  $18,750,886,813
1889  53,501,411,510
1890  ;  58,845,867,995
1891  -.  57,298,737,038
1893  60,883,572,438
1893...  58,880,683,455
1894..  45,028,496,746
1895  50,975,155,046
1896  51,935,651,733
1897......  54,179,545,030
1898  1,....  88,909,661,776

1900 (seven months)  53,689,443,478
1900 (estimated Ave months)  38,347,745,340
Total for 1900  92,037,588,818
From 1888, during the four years of Republican Administration,
exchanges of our clearinghouses steadily increased from $48,750,-
886,813 in 1888 to the magnificent total of $60,883,572,438 in 1892.
But from 1892, during four years of Democratic rule, our clear
ings fell from $60,833,572,438 to $51,935,651,733 in 1896, running as
low as $45,000,000,000 in 1894.
Mark this, and how great the contrast: From 1896, during Mr.
McKinley's Administration, we have gained on an average more
than ten billions each year, the exchanges having gone up from
§51,935,651,733 in 189C to the surprising sum of $92,037,588,818 in
Do we hope to keep American labor employed, with our vast
mechanism of production, two-thirds or even one-half of the time,
to supply our own needs, we must capture the markets of the
world. We must send out our manufactured goods as well as
our raw materials. The mechanic and the farmer are alike
equally and mutually interested in this conquest of the fields of
consumption. Therefore your interest, indeed the interest of
every man under the flag, is obviously with that party which has
achieved this much desired, indeed necessary, result

us supply the fatal comparison of policies
 Exports of the United States from 18S9 to April, 1900.

Again, let

Year.

1888.
1889.1890.1891.
1893.
1893.1894.1895.1896.
1897.

For ten months up to May , 1900, they were
Estimated for two months 

Total for 1900 
Manufactures exported this year

Amount.

730:
845!
872;
1,015, 831,869, 793,
863,
1,033,1,210,
1,203, 1,172, 234,

954, .507
282,609293,828270,283732,011
030, 7B5
204, 937
392, 599
200. 487
007, C03
291.913 931,22:;
74'J. 430
649. SS6

1,407. 442,

299,316189,794

Per cent
of manu
factures.

19
1817191519
213326272828

30

From 1888 to 1892, during a Republican Administration we in
^^.^JT'™**'™'**** ^ then^tS^g
4547

From 1892 to 1896, during a Democratic Administration, our
exports decreased by $153,531,534, falling from $1,015,733,011 to
$863,200,487. From 1896 down to June 30, 1900, with two months estimated,
during McKinley's Administration, our exports have gone up
from $863,200,487 in 1896 to $1,400,000,000, gaining $537,000,000,
or nearly doubling; and of this vastexport of $1,400,000,000 more
than $100,000,000 are manufactured goods, and would require in
their production more than a million of American mechanics.
Nor need we limit the comparison of the exports of the last four
years to those of the preceding four years nor any four years in
our nation's history, but boldly challenge a comparison of these
matchless years with the whole previous life of the nation. Mark
this: The excess of exports over imports during President McKin
ley's Administration is nearly four times as great as it was for
the one hundred and six years before be became President of the
United States.
To attest this fact 1 submit the following letter received by me
on June 1 from the Bureau of Statistics:
Treasury Department, Bureau of Statistics,
Washington, D. C, June 1, 1900.
Sir: In reply to your verbal inquiry of to-day, I have to inform you that
the excess of exports of merchandise over imports from 1790 to March 1,
1897, was 8383,028,497, and the excess of exports of merchandise over imports
from March 1, 1807 to March 1, 1900 was $1,483,537,094.
Very respectfully, J. D. WHITNEY, Acting Chief of Bureau.
Hon. Chas. N. Fowler,
House of Representatives, Washington, D. C.
"The poor ye have always with you" is as true to-day as when
the morning stars sang together, and no one need go far to find
poverty and suffering in the most prosperous days of the most
prosperous years of the most prosperous nation of the world's his
tory, because incompetency, shiftlessness, mistakes, and misfor
tunes always have produced and always will produce want and
woe. But when the great mass of the people, as the decades come
and go, get higher and higher wages, and live in better and better
homes, and constantly increase their holdings in the building-
loan associations, life-insurance companies, and savings banks of
the country, you may depend upon it that we are moving grandly on
to a higher and better civilization, and that the party whose poli
cies render these improved conditions possible is indeed the true
party of the people, rather than that political organization which
sings a tale of woe and feeds upon ignorance, prejudice, discon
tent, and every ism that springs from shortcomings and mental
disorder. Actions speak louder than words. Let the facts show which of
the great parties is the true benefactor and real party of the
people. The comparative resources of the savings banks from 1S88 to 1900.
1888-89  $1,622,612,215
1889-90  -  1,742,617,001
1890-91  -  1,854,517,069
1891-92  -. 1,964,044,861
1892-93  2,013,775,147
1893-94  1,980,744,189
1894-95  2,053,701,338
1895-96  2,143,307,163
1896-97  2,198,824,474
1897-98  -  2,241,344,991
1898-99  2,400,831,473
1899-1900 (partly estimated)  2,550,000,000
4547

4
It will be readily observed, that the savings increased dur-
ins President Harrison's Administration from $1,622,612,215 to
$2 013,775,147, or $391,162,434; and that during President Mc
Kinley's Administration they increased from $2,143,307,163 to
$2,550,000,000 or more than $400,000,000, while they only a little
more than held their own during Mr. Cleveland s Administration.
Hence, it would seem to be very plain where the real interest of
the honest, frugal, American laborer lies.
It is well known that during those frightful, those distressing,
those horrifying years of Democratic rule many business men
placed their capital with savings banks to get some interest tem
porarily while awaiting the return of Republican days of hope
and prosperity, and that if this amount were known and could
be deducted there would have been a great falling off from 1893
to 1897- . ,
What is so apparent in this table can be demonstrated in a hun
dred other ways; but nowhere more authoritatively, plainly, and
significantly than here. American toilers, do you wish to con
tinue to thrive and save, or again to swear because you " did not
think" or " did not know that it was loaded? "
Does the country need any additional proof of this overwhelm
ing contrast? Look upon the scenes around you, and then think
of the days, the weeks, the months, aye, the years, when employer
and employee alike sweat blood because of anxiety that ruin would
overtake the one while want and starvation faced the family of
the other.
Let no man venture to assert that the unparalleled activity of
all our productive energies, human and mechanical, marks a tem
porary outburst peculiar to the last year of the expiring century,
for a review of the commercial banking institutions of the coun
try speaks more loudly for the policies of the Republican party
than any facts yet submitted. Through them flows the blood of
commerce, and in them will be found at any given time the com
mercial power of the nation to employ labor and distribute its
product. Resources of national banks for years 188S to 1900.
1888  :  $2,815,700,000
1889  2,998,300,000
1890.  3,141,500,000
1891  3,213,100,000
1893  3,510,100,000
1893  3,109,500,000
1894  3,473,900,000
1895  3,423,600,000
1896  3,263,600,000
1897  3,705,100,000
1898  4,003,500,000
1899  4,650,300,000
1900  4,811,956,000
From the fall of 1888 to the fall of 1892, during a Republican
Administration, national banks gained in resources $694,400,000,
going from $3,815,700,000 to $3,510,100,000.
From the fall of 1892 to the fall of 1896, during a Democratic
Administration, the national banks lost in resources $256,500,000,
going down from $3,510,100,000 to $3,263,600,000.
From the fall of 1896 to April 26, 1900, during McKinley's Ad
ministration, the national banks have gained in resources $1,548,-
856,000, going up from $3,263,600 to $4,811,956,000. It will be ob
served that the increase in both Republican periods was constant
4547

and gradual throughout, demonstrating the influence and power
of far-reaching policies which alone can bring about uniform and
universal prosperity worthy the genius of the American people.
The Democratic party came into power in 1892, and had com
plete control of the legislative department, the House of Repre
sentatives and the Senate, as well as the Executive, and left be
hind a wreckage of business and a slaughter of enterprise, a
destruction of values, and a period of suffering without parallel
in American history.
President Cleveland denounced the tariff bill then passed as
one of perfidy and dishonor, and refused to father it. But it is
not too much to say, in the light of subsequent events, that had
he had his way hardly one stone of American industry would
have been left upon another.
The ostensible object of the Wilson bill was to secure cheap
raw materials and, with constant labor at low wages, capture the
markets of the world. The actual result was that we lost our own
markets, the exports fell off more than two hundred millions, our
labor was thrown out of employment, and the only promise real
ized was low wages, but our people had very little of those.
The Republican party came into power in 1896 upon two distinct
pledges: The maintenance of the gold standard and a tariff for the
protection of our labor, which should at the same time produce a
sufficient revenue to support the Government. The very day the
decision of the people was known capital sought the channels of
trade, and then was ushered in a period of prosperity without a
parallel in the records of mankind. This favoring circumstance
was supplemented in the spring of 1897 by the passage of the
Dingley law, wisely adjusting our tariff to our conditions and our
needs. Other important events, materially affecting the operations of
the Treasury, followed in quick succession. In December, 1897,
the Pacific Railway debt was adjusted, and within ten days
$58,448,223.75, in equal installments, was paid to the Government.
In January, 1898, $29,904,952 of matured bonds were paid off, and
in September, 1898, $14,004,560 more were paid. The Spanish-
American war soon brought in its train large appropriations,
which of necessity became significant factors in the operations of
the Treasury.
The fifty millions defense fund was at once placed at the dis
posal of the President. In June the war loan of two hundred
millions was effected. Upon the ratification of the Paris treaty
in April, 1899, the sum of $20,000,000 was paid to Spain.
In November, 1839, because of our irresponsive system of cur
rency, the commercial conditions of the country became so dis
turbed that the Secretary of the Treasury came to its rescue and
wisely relieved the situation by purchasing twenty millions of
Government bonds.
As a result of the war three hundred and seventy-two millions.
have already been paid out.
Finally, in perfect accord with Republican policy, the Secretary
has begun the reduction of the public debt by calling in twenty-
five millions of Government bonds now subject to redemption.
To all these vast movements of money in and out of the Treasury
another stupendous transaction has been superadded by the ful
fillment of the remaining pledge of the Republican party at St.
Louis when it declared in favor of the maintenance of the gold
4547

6
standard. The very hour it became known that the control of
the United States Senate had passed to the Republican party this
pledge was started on its road to redemption; and now, thank God,
our standard of values is no longer subject to the caprices of a
President or Secretary of the Treasury, and our Government credit
has been raised above that of any other nation, Great Britain pay
ing 2f per cent upon her debt, while nearly one-third of our Gov
ernment obligations has been refunded at 2 per cent, the amount
reaching $290,000,000, and the saving in interest being more than
$8,000,000. , . . , ., .
All these gigantic transactions have been crowded into the short
period of three years, and yet, notwithstanding the fact that every
movement of money or currency to or from the Treasury must
necessarily correspondingly affect the quantity of money and cur
rency in the hands of the people, Mr. Gage, perfectly familiar
with banking, thoroughly Informed upon all economic questions
involved, and with a broad and statesmanlike grasp of the situa
tion, has kept the money of the Treasury and that used in com
merce in constant equilibrium, so that through no act or word
even of his has the slightest shock been given to trade, com
merce, or the finances of the country.
In strict accordance with the law of June 3, 1864, and the well-
established practice of the Government — notably, in 1879, upon
the resumption of specie payment, when John Sherman deposited
$279,544,615 with the banks to prevent contraction, and again in
1888, when Mr. Fairchild, a Democratic Secretary of the Treasury,
for the samereason deposited with the banks §61 ,546,000 — Mi . Gage,
carefully avoiding all favoritism or local advantage, expansion
or contraction at any point, distributed the Government deposits,
which at no time reached one hundred millions, among 260 banks
located in 43 different States.
With what masterly skill he kept our money and currency,
which is the very lifeblood of commerce, running a natural
course, and prevented the vast transactions of the Treasury from
producing any adverse influence upon trade, the amount o'f cash
in the Treasury at the following dates clearly demonstrates:
July, 1898  $232,601,739.13
October, 1898  304,550,685.89
January, 1899  282,086,984.43
April, 1899  275,986,434.22
July, 1899..  273,859,780.70
October, 1899  283,497,897.49
January, 1900  273, 159/422. 86
When the administration of the Treasury from 1897 to 1901 and
the achievements of these four years are viewed by the historian,
the name of Lyman J. Gage will be written with those of Robert
Morris, Alexander Hamilton, Albert Gallatin, Hugh McCulloch,
and John Sherman; and, with passing time, will shine more and
more as this galaxy of names brightens.
The Dingley bill, the war-revenue measure, the establishment
of the gold standard, and the funding of the debt into 2 per cent
gold coin bonds, with the currency privileges, have had a most
marvelous and salutary effect upon the balances of the Treasury
and the monetary condition of the country.
In the light of coming events we should not fail here and now
to compare and observe the effect of Republican policies upon the

circulation of the country, more especially because of the unwise
and unfortunate relation of the United States Treasury to the
business of the country growing out of our demand obligations.
Under present conditions it is of the utmost importance that the
business of the Treasury should be wisely and profitably managed
and that our revenues should always exceed our expenditures.
Conscious of this fact, let us see to which of the parties should
the business affairs of the country be committed.
Excess or deficit of revenues over expenditures from 18S9 to June 1, 1900.

Year.

Surplus.

Deficit.

1889 

$87,761,080.59 85,040,271.0726,838,541.96 9,914,453.66

1890 

1891 

1892  

Total 
309,554,348.18 3,341,674.39
1893 
1894 
$69,803,266.58
1895. 
43,800,223.18
1896 
25,203,345.70
1897 
18,053,454.41
1898 
38,047,247.60
1899 
89,111,559.67
1900 (11 months)
63,334,317.37
Although the Democratic party was in power and in charge of
the Government for four years in time of peace, it increased the
bonded debt $262,335,800, and yet had an aggregate deficit of
$135,470,055.17. The Republican party had a surplus for the four years 1889-
1892 of $209,554,348.18, and for the four years 1897-1900, within
which time a Republican Administration carried on the Spanish-
American war and so adjusted the revenues to the needs of the
country as to produce a surplus in excess of expenditures of more
than $63,000,000 the present year, and yet the increase of the debt
was not so great by sixty-two millions as during the four years
of Democratic rule.
The Republican party turned over the Government to the Demo
crats in March, 1893, with a bonded debt of only §585,029,330, and
this was increased to $847,365,130 in times of peace.
For the purpose of prosecuting the war the debt was increased
in 1898 by $200,000,000, and now stands at $1,046,048,750, less such
an amount of the twenty-five millions of 2 per cent bonds as the
Secretary of the Treasury may have already redeemed.
Confronted by these facts, must not every fair-minded man
who appreciates the absolute importance of the successful opera
tions of the Treasury to every business enterprise, to the employee
as well as to the employer, confess the unwisdom, the risk, the
danger of again turning over the affairs of this country to the
Democratic party, which has had no business experience for more
than fifty years which has not resulted in dire disaster, not only
to the Government but to all the people as well?
Do you need further evidence to completely overwhelm you and
4547
remove the last vestige of doubt, turn to the gold movement for
the past seven years: Gold imports and exports.

Tear.

Imports.

Exports.

1893 

$87,506,463

1894 

4,538,943

1895 

30,083,731

1896 

78,884,882
1897 
$44,633,200104,985,517 51,452,517
1898
1899 
Total 
201,071,234
201,003,808
During the four years Mr. Carlisle was Secretary of the Treas
ury §201,003,808 of gold was exported; while during the first three
years of the recent Administration, or down to June 30, 1899, we
imported §201,071,000, making a difference in favor of Republican
policies of $402,070,808.
Nor is this all. When the people voted to turn over this Gov
ernment to the Democratic party in 1893, there was in circulation
among the people S24.44 per capita; but when the people elected
William McKinley in 1896 there was but $21.10 per capita in cir
culation. After a little more than three years of Republican rule there
was, on the 1st day of June, 1900, $26.77 per capita in circulation.
Money in circulation.
March 1, 1897.
June 1,1900.
Gold coin (including bullion in Treasury)
$516,315,696 37,544,81955, 378, 763
363,709,501 60,709,595 85,546,631
260,734,616 76,525,000
219,230,343
$618,535,530 204,049,299 67,645,538
408,477,649 75,658,58778, 636, 759
322,753,949 4,785,000
294,057,570
Standard silver dollars 
Silver certificates 
Subsidiary silver 
Treasury notes of 1890 ....
United States notes _ 
Currency certificates, act of June 8, 1.873
National-bank notes...
Total 
1,675,694,953
2,074,687,871
cufatFon pi?nca0pitae$in97ted Stat6S Mar°h *' 1897' eStimated at ^W' «^
latioTperXit^S!"63 StateS Jane *' 1900' estimat<*l at 77,676,000; circu-
•^V-8!?"- taWe> Rowing the actual amount of money of va-
SXwt™ ^wf UTatl,°n' more interesting or important than the
tttTS^ £¦' * ™h d}sf°?es the general stock of money. in the
United States March 1, 1897, and June 1, 1900-
4547
General stock of money in the United States.

Mar. 1, 1897.

June 1, 1900.

Gold coin (including bullion in Treasury) .
Gold certificates 
Standard silver dollars 
Silver certificates 
Subsidiary silver 
Treasury notes of 1890 
United States notes 
Currency certificates, act of June 8, 1873 ..
National-banknotes 

Total .

$703,531,724
""436,'808,'343

76,514,618
117,550,280
346, 681, 016

234,236,337

1,914,373,308

$1,041,531,374
""""437,"497,"076

81,673,075 79,440,000
346,681,016

300,569,759

2,337,292,200

However, it should be observed before leaving these tables that
there is scarcely anything which is more likely to mislead the
public mind than the statement so often made by the Democratic
party as now organized, that the amount of money in any country
bears any relation to the prices of that country or in any way
reflects the commercial condition of that country. Local condi
tions, under the operation of economic law, will invariably con
trol the per capita circulation.
In support of this statement I desire to call your attention to the
following facts:

Per capita circulation in the United States.
1802  $5.00
1845  9.00
1873  15.85
1892  24 .40
1900  26.77
Per capita circulation in different States in 1899.
New York  $87.00
Rhode Island  26.00
Washington..  23.00
South Dakota  8.00
Mississippi  2.00
Arkansas  3.00
Per capita circulation in different nations in 1899.
Straits Settlements  '.j  $53.82
Hawaii  50.00
Siam  42.68
France  36.15
South American States  33.18
Australasia-   31.68
Holland  26.76
Germany  19.84
England  17.05
Spain  15.22
Canada  12.13
Sweden  9.80
Mexico  912
Norway  7.62
Russia  6.32
Turkey  3.75
Bulgaria  2.36
Japan  1.75
4547

10
Certainly no one will contend that Great Britain, with only
$17.05 per capita, is not a far more progressive and prosperous
country than the Straits Settlements, with its $53; Hawaii, with
its $50; Siam, with its $12; France, with its $36.15, or the South
American States, with their $33. Nor will anyone think of com
paring the prosperity of Siam, with its $42 per capita, with that
of Japan, with but $1.75 per capita.
Anvone who cares to investigate at length the question ot per
capita circulation and prices will find that there is no more rela
tion between them than there is between the Chicago platform
and the eighth commandment.
Mr. Speaker, so many of the specious statements, unsupported
declarations, and fallacious arguments made by Mr. Bryan in 1896
have been exposed, controverted, and utterly destroyed by the ex
perience of the past four years that I can not refrain from calling
the attention of the House and the country to a few of them.
At Newton, Iowa, on August 10, 1896, he used the following
language: The law upon which we base our fight is as sure as the law of gravitation.
If we have a gold standard, prices are as certain to fall as the stone which is
thrown into the air.
In the following November, the people voted to maintain the
gold standard and elected McKinley; and prices have been rising
ever since. Just the reverse of what he prophesied.
At the notification meeting, held at the Madison Square Garden,
New York City, in his speech of acceptance he used this language:
A gold standard encourages the hoarding of money, because money is ris
ing; it also discourages enterprise and paralyzes industry.
The people established the gold standard by their votes, and
every dollar of every kind has come from its hiding, enterprise
has been encouraged beyond the dreams of any man, and industry
has called for more men than the country could supply. Just the
reverse in every particular to his dire prediction.
At New Haven, Conn. , he said:
No party ever declared in its platform that it was in favor of hard times,
and yet the party that declares for a gold standard in substance declares for
a continuation of hard times.
The very hour that the result of the election was known, times
began to grow better.
At Minneapolis, Minn. , he said:
The gold standard means dearer money; dearer money means cheaper
property; cheaper property means harder times; harder times means more
people out of work; more people out of work means more people destitute;
more people destitute means more people desperate; more people desperate
means more crime.
Every month since the national election money has been grow
ing easier, lower, and cheaper; property of every description has
been gradually but constantly rising; fewer and fewer people are
out of work; fewer people are destitute and crime has constantly
decreased. These statements, with the various changes rung on
them, constitute all that Mr. Bryan said in those unnumbered
speeches in 1896, andthereis hardly a shred of fact or truth left in
any one of them.
Mr. Speaker, to demonstrate how little Mr. Bryan knows or
comprehends of economic principles and the experiences of our
country, or how much he must suppress, if he does know, I desire
4547

11

to call the attention of the House to Bulletin No. 37 of the De
partment of Labor, now under the supervision of that greatest
and most reliable of our statisticians, Carroll D. Wright. On
page 363 Mr. Wright gives a tabulated statement of prices from
July 1, 1890, to July 1, 1899, which I now include in these remarks:
Wholesale prices of commodities, January, 1890, to July, 1899— Relative prices.
BUHMARY BY GROUPS.

Date.

¦a

ft

3} a
a J

aS

6fl . 13
as aj&

d tag
a s^

3"

January, 1890 
April, 1890 
July, 1890 
October, 1890-.". 
January, 1891 
April, 1891 
July, 1891 
October, 1891 
Jannary.1893 _ 
April, 1893 
July,1893  -_ 
October, 1892. 
January, 1S93 
April, 1893 
July,1893 
October, 1893 
January, 1894 
April, 1894. 
July,18H4 
October, 1894 
January, 1895 
April, 1895 
July, 1895- 
October, 1895 
January, 1896 
April, 1896 
July, 1896 
October, 1896 
January, 1897 
April, 1897 
July, 1897. 
October, 1897 
January, 1898 
April. 1898 
July, 1898 
October, 1898 
January, 1899 
April, 1899 
July, 1899 

101.9 102.2
102.1
103.4 100.3 98.5 97.0
97.6 97.0
96.096.296.398.9 98.395.6
93.090.0 87.8
86.285.480.079.4

87.383.381.4

81.4
81.4 83.080.880.980.980.3
80.783.584.6

99.0 99.5
100.7100.6 100.6 99.7
100.7 99.8 99. (i
97.9
98.999.3
104.1103.3105.2
105.2105.8100.8 102.0101.6
100.8 96.496.4 98.0
97.597.7
100.1100.9 99.397.897.897.8
96.194.4 95.593.690.891.3

106.8103.5105.3105.7 98.197.595.1
94.094.1 93.3
93.390.788. 9
89.4
87.684.480.679.079. 1
78.376.175.984.789.183.785.685.483.780.1 78.877.4
80.679.479.781.481.683.398.1
107.9

104.1104.2 98.8
101.1100.5 99.3
97.197.797.196.995.094.697.794.593.6
93.1 91.288.7
87.486.987.888.4 86.485.485.683.181.883.483.183.082.085.7
86.586.786.0 8S.3
94.197.199.9

104.5113.1104.5105.4 97.4
100.1 93.0
93.3 91.2
85.7 88.387.6S8.391.4
87.0 81.9813.1
88.883.683.133.782.078.9 75.781.9
82.0 83.480.181.977.977.0
81.586.385.492.183.990.797.8 95.9

100.0 100.0100.0100.0103.3 100.0
100.0100.0 98.396. 8
96.595. 9
93. 7
90.788.987.984.383.083.383.7 78.579.5
70.281.879.2 77.8
78.1 79.3
76.778.778.476.474.174.973.874.979. 5
86. 5
92.1

94.197.6
103.8104.5100.4104.0101.5 97.596.899.3 95. 9
90. 9
89.8 92.7
80.987.187.0 65.1
80.3 84.5
84.383.383.183.984.382.388.588.588.4
89.389.6 91.6
90.5 94.1
94.6 93.694.396.6
95.7

102.0101.9 100.4
103.1100.6100.7 97.7 97.9
96,594.3 94.5
94.797.396.693. 1
93.089.686.786.984.784.785.2
86.385.3 83.081.583.483.0
80.9 79.983.683.3
83.384.3 84.486.590.8
93.9

From this table one may learn that practically all that Mr.
Bryan has ever said on the money question and prices is not so.
Taking 100 as the price level, from 1890 to 1892 prices gradually
fell, until they reached 81.5 on July 1, 1896. On October 1, six
months after Mr. McKinley became President, the price level had
risen to 83.6. In July, 1899, the price level had risen to 92.9 per
cent, or 15 per cent; and, after a somewhat careful and quite gen
eral investigation, I am convinced that the price level, July 1,
1900, will be approximately what it was in 1890, or at 100, or show
a rise of 25 per cent in four years.
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In October, 1890, when the price level was the highest, stand
ing at 103, the per capita circulation was $22.82; and in July, 1897,
when the price level was at the lowest point, 80, the per capita
circulation was just the same, or $22.49; and now, though our per
capita circulation is $26.77, we have not yet reached the price level
of 1890.
That the opinion of Mr. Bryan upon the gold and silver ques
tion and upon money and prices has been proved utterly worth
less, I believe ail students of economics will agree.
Mr. Bryan, believing that there are more people in the United
States who have nothing than who have something, has laid down
his platform in the first sentence of his article in the North Amer
ican Review for June, 1900, when he asserts that " the issue is
between plutocracy and democracy." Again he is to bear the
torch of unrest, discontent, and disorder, bringing forward the
walking delegate, and again is he to try to array class against
class, when there is not and can not be any such thing as a class
war in this country. Only an enemy to the nation and the people
would seek to engender it for his own personal, ambitious, and
selfish ends, caring not what havoc might be wrought. He knows
and everyone knows that nearly every brilliant star in the firma
ment of success has won its way through a bitter struggle, steadied
always by hard necessity.
On page 757 of this article, he makes an attack upon the protec
tive tariff in these words:
High duties were placed upon the necessities of life on the ground that
infant industries required assistance, with the result that the owners of the
aided industries grew rich, while home owning decreased and tenancy in
creased among the consumers.
If he has taken pains to investigate this question, he knows that
just the reverse of his statement is true; but he is bent on making
a large porlion of our people believe that they are about to be
eaten alive, and therefore they should proceed to fight their sup
posed destroyers.
One page 759 he uses these words:
After six thousand years of search and saving, the total volume of gold
and silver money is about eight billions, nearly equally divided between the
two metals.
Upon this basis of metallic money rests a large volume of paper money, and
upon the various forms of money rests the world's indebtedness.
Think of this supposed economist saying that the debt of the
United States rests upon the money in the Treasury of the United
States; for all outside of the Treasury is owned by whomsoever
may at any time happen to have possession of it. Did our debt of
nearly three billions at the end of the civil war rest upon ths few
greenbacks that happened to be in the Treasury, or did it rest
upon the property, credit, and honor of the nation?
Does the enormous debt of the city of Chicago rest upon the
few hundred thousand dollars there may be in the coffers of the
city at any given time, or upon the property, credit, and honor
of that great municipality?
Does the mortgage of $500 upon a farm rest upon the $5 in the
pocket of the farmer, or on his land, credit, and honor?
He sells his wheat crop in the fall to the grain buyer and re
ceives a check for each load, and from day to day deposits the
checks in a bank, and at the end of the season gives his own check
4547

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for $500 to the man who holds the mortgage, which is then can
celed, and a part of the world's indebtedness is paid; and that
night the evidence of a part of the world's indebtedness is burned
up in the kitchen stove, with the happy wife and children standing
by. Not a dollar, not a 5-cent piece, has ever figured in the trans
action. The production of gold last year was $315,000,000. It will ex
ceed that this year, and 1 am informed by the very best authority
that it will in all probability reach $400,000,000 in 1901, an amount
equal to both the gold and silver produced in 1892, or in the next
twenty years the world will produce as much gold alone as the
world has collected of both gold and silver in all its history.
In the same article can be found these remarkable words on
page 761:
A currency issued and controlled by banks and secured by government
bonds creates a paper-money trust.
Mr. Speaker, it is very doubtful whether the writer of these
words knows what a bank is. or what a bank does.
If what the gentleman says is true, then there has been a bank
trust since the national-bank system was established in 1863.
There are 3,583 national banks, hut there are 9,732 other banks of
various kinds in the United States, any one of which could be
come a national bank if good enough and it desired to do so. A
bank is nothing more nor less than a merchant, precisely as the
groceryman who sells vegetables and canned goods is a merchant.
The banker deals in credits, selling his own, which are well-
known, and buying those around him, which are little known;
and if he can use his credit profitably in the form of a bank note,
he will proceed to take out circulation; and if it proves unprofit
able, as it often does, he will retire the circulation, precisely as
the grocery merchant quits dealing in canned tomatoes or any
other commodity if it proves unprofitable. The national-bank
circulation was $352,000,000 in 1882 and only $122,000,000 in 1890,
showing that credit in the form of bank notes was unprofitable.
Mr. Bryan has detected a prejudice against national banks in some
quarters, and desiring to avail himself of it as a political asset, he
considered that a sufficient reason for an attack upon them, and
his false and senseless remark just quoted.
If one believed what the Democratic candidate says in this
article about monopoly and trusts, he would be compelled to
think that more than half of the American people were in favor
of both, when no intelligent person is in favor of either.
In the light of the decisions of the Supreme Court, interpreting
the constitutional provisions with regard to interstate and foreign
commerce, Mr. Bryan's suggestion that a license be granted must
appear to every intelligent business man or lawyer whose opinion
is worth having as most superficial and trivial.
Again, attacking the tariff, he observes:
The tariff has been a bulwark to the trusts.
If the democratic free-trade country of Great Britain did not
contain more trusts and great aggregations of capital than any
other country in the world, we might be called upon to seriously
consider his assertion. Again, the greatest and most conspicuous
trusts in the United States are not protected to the millionth part
of a cent, viz, the Democratic ice trust of Tammany Hall and tha
Standard Oil Company.
4547

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Again, in his article in the North American Review he vapor
ized as follows on page 765:
The Democratic party is better able to undertake this work now than it
was a few years ago, because all the trust magnates have left the party. The
Republican party is less able than ever before to make a successful war
against trusts, because it numbers among its membership all the trust mag
nates it ever had, and in addition to them it has all the Democratic party for
merly had.
Does Mr. Bryan believe one single word of that paragraph? If
so, let him read this list and, rising, like an honest man, retract.
The following is taken from a published list of Democratic
stockholders in the ice trust:
New York City officials.
Robert A. Van Wyck, mayor.
J. Sergeant Gram, dock commissioner.
Charles F. Murphy, dock commissioner.
H. S. Kearny, commissioner, public buildings, etc.
M. P. Breslin, dock department.
John Whalen, corporation counsel.
Randolph Guggenheimer, president of council.
E. R. Carroll, clerk, general sessions.
Q. V. Brower, Brooklyn park commissioner.
Democratic judges.
Martin McMahon, general sessions.
E. L. Fursman, supreme court.
H. A. Gildersleeve, supreme court.
Q. C. Barrett, supreme court.
G. L. Ingraham, supreme court.
James Fitzgerald, supreme court.
Miles Beach, supreme court.
J. E. Newberger, general sessions.
Edward Patterson, supreme court.
Democratic leaders.
Richard Croker.
Augustus Van Wyck.
Eugene D. Wood.
A. N. Brady.
Thomas F. Gilroy.
John F. Carroll.
Hugh J. Grant.
Hugh McLaughlin.
Arthur Sewell, of Maino.
John D. Crimmins.
Maurice Untermeyer.
Theodore W. Myers & Son.
Does not Mr. Bryan know that practically all the wealthy Demo
crats who have ever been identified with the Democratic party are
still within its fold, and that of those men now conspicuously
identified with the great aggregations of capital quite as many
are Democrats as Republicans? Then why, if he is an honest man
does he attempt, under this cloak of false pretenses, to steal what
ever prejudice there may be against these aggregations of capital?
Falsus in uno, falsus in omnibus.
Practically the whole civilized world has now gone to the gold
standard, Japan and India being the more recent and important
countries. Commenting upon the effect of its adoption by Japan
the Financial Chronicle of New York of June 5 said: '
Steadiness in exchange, resulting from Japan's abandonment of a fluctu
ating standard had one immediate and natural consequence : It greatly stimu
lated the country's aggregate foreign commerce. Total volume of outward
and inward trade rose from 177,970,037 yen in 1893 to 443,225,900 yen in 1898.
4547

15
The government of India, in its financial statement for the year
ended March 31 last, sums up its achievement in monetary re
form in this sentence:
India has at length emerged from the period of transition in her currency,
has reached the goal to which she has been struggling for years, has estab
lished a gold standard and a gold currency, has attained that practical fixity
in exchange which has brought relief alike to the private individual and to
the government finances.
And the minister of finance for India, in his report for March
31 last, says:
I do not venture to claim for one moment that government foresaw the
enormous inrush of gold which has been brought about by the withdrawals
of silver upcountry on account of famine relief, by unusual movements of
grain, and by the requirements of an exceptionally large rice crop in Bur-
mah, and also by capital coming out of India. But it is not unfair to claim
that the reasons which decided government to take instant action have
E roved sound, and that, independently of the abnormal causes to which I
ave referred, the operation of other causes on which government relied
has not disappointed us.
As I have said, we have been nearly swamped (temporarily) by gold.
The amount in our currency reserve on April 1, 1899, was £2,030,000 (§10,150,000).
It stood on March 7. 1900, at £7,009,800 ($35,349,000) ; the amount accumulated in
London under Act II of 1898 stood at £1,500,000, making an aggregate of
£8,563,800 ($42,845,000). The difficulty has been that of meeting the demand
for rupees in exchange for the gold tendered to us.
In the face of these figurse; in the face of the result of our own
decisive action in 1896; in the face of the fact that our foreign
commerce, in and out, now approaches twenty-five hundred mil
lions; in the face of the fact that the rank and file of the Demo
cratic party, as you meet and talk with them privately, declare
that sixteen-to-oneism4s deader than Hector, will not every intel
ligent man, when he reads these words in Mr. Bryan's North
American Review article, page 761:
The contest upon this question must be between those who believe in the
gold standard on the one side and, on the other side, those who believe in a
financial policy made by the American people for themselves—
I say, will not every intelligent man doubt either the good faith
or the good sense of Mr. Bryan?
Are the American people so bereft of reason, so completely
hoodooed, that they will not question anything and everything
he may say hereafter? Let us be frank with each other. Let us be
honest with ourselves. Is not William Jennings Bryan the veriest,
the humbuggiest humbug that has ever played in the r61e of a
Presidential candidate?
The whole campaign of the Democratic party in 1892 was waged
against high prices as a result of the protective tariff.
The whole campaign of the Democratic party in 1896 was waged
against low prices as the result of the gold standard.
The whole campaign of the Democratic parly in 1900 is likely
to be waged against high prices as a result of combinations.
Oh, consistency, thou art indeed a jewel, but thy name is not
Democracy. Mr. Speaker, every American citizen who has a day's work to
Bell, every man who has a dollar to make, every man who has a
dollar to save, is deeply interested in the result of the coming
election. Like wise, patriotic business men, let us review the
achievements of the last three years. Let us consider what they
mean to us as a people, to us as individuals, and hold ourselves
personally responsible for the resuii of our action.
1547

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3 9002 08937 3568
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16
When was our condition worse than during those four Demo
cratic years of 1893-1896? When was it better than during the past
three years? When have there ever been, not only in our own
history but in that of every other country, such mighty strides in
clearings, in foreign exchanges, in gold accretions, in bank re
sources, in savings deposits, and in universal prosperity as since
Mr. McKinley became President of these United States? What
naval achievements of the world's history can shadow the valor
and glory of Manila Bay and Santiago Harbor? When was so
vast an army mobilized and sent to the field of action with equal
dispatch? When, in commercial diplomacy, was Hay's "open
door " to the Orient matched?
Will a too kind and generous act of the President toward a hot
headed but tried and true old soldier, who had often bared his
breast to death's messenger; will a delayed baggage train, a box
of spoiled meat; will a dishonest public official, quickly removed
and looking through an iron grate; will a constitutional quibble;
will any or all of these nothings weigh against the stupendous
achievements and eternal glory of the last four years of the cen
tury? The American people stand for fair play and love justice. They
symbolize those immortal sentiments and saving virtues of the
human race:
Love, not hate.
Concord, not discord.
Reason, sot prejudice.
Wisdom, not passion.
Truth, not error.
Pacts, not fiction.
Experience, not experiment.
Construction, not destruction.
Law and order, not anarchy.
Honor, not dishonor.
On November 6 we will move grandly onward and upward, not
backward and downward, and this nation will be saved through
the intelligence, justice, and patriotism of the American people.
4547

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