Ex-president Harrison On The Powers Of Government

I will olí yon what this government can do alone. It can fix its mon, unit. It can declare. by law what hall be the relativa valué pf au ounce of gold anJ au ounce of silver, but ir. annot make that last declaration good. It is unquestionably fully withn the power of this government to bring this country to a silver basis ly coining silver dollars and making hm legal tender. They can do that. 'his government can say you shall ake one of those dollars in discharge f any debt owing to you for $1, notwithstanding you may have loaned gold dollars; but it cannot say, and nforce its decree, if you should cali ut the regular army and navy and muster all our great' modern ships and add the militia, and pot William J. Bryan in command of them - it cannot nforce the decree that 1 ounce oL gold s the equivalent of 16 ounces of aller. Not only that, not France and Sngland and Germany can do that unoss the markets respond. Why? You nay malte mo take a silver dollar for i debt, but if I have bought my goods at gold prices you cannot make me ive as many yards of cloth for a silcr dollar as I have been in the habit of giving for a gold one. If I have a gold dollar in this hand and a silver one in that, and you declare they are equal, and I take hat gold dollar to a bullion broker and get ?2 for it, I know it is a lie. f I have nothing but a gold dollar, and sugar is 20 pounds for $1, I will net give that gold dollar for 20 pounds of sugar. I will take It around to a jrokcr and get two silver dollars for t and get the 20 pounds of sugar and have one eilver dollar left. So it is, my friends. We can 'íf ourselves, of our own wisdom, declare the unit of value. We can coin silver freely, but we cannot make 16 ounces of silver equal to 1 ounce of gold unless it is. And it is not unless the merchants take it at that rate. That is where all this tlíing comes in. It is trade, it s the merchant, it is the man who exchanges and deals in these things that fixes the relative value, and if you do iot take the value he fixes the gold ollar -will go back to the gold vault, and the gold will go out of circulation.