The ratio is not the difficulty. Those who wanted silver demonetized do not want it added to the money volume of the world at any ratio. Why then shall we wait? Macauley, commenting on the impregnability of intrenched prerogative, observed that if the announcement of the discovery of the law of gravitation had militated against the personal interests of any vested or privileged class, its general acceptance might have been long postponed. Shall we, then, postpone relief to the suffering industries of this country till we can secure from the privileged classes, from the money-lenders of the world, an agreement to cease their exactions?
No, Mr. President, we need not wait, and we _will_ not wait. All that is necessary is to _act_, and so far as the rules of order and of parliamentary procedure will permit, we propose to act, promptly and decisively. The world can not expect the initiatory movement for any change to be taken by those whose interests are served by the continuance of present conditions. Such conditions being consistent with their own welfare, they find no difficulty in arriving at the conclusion that they are for the welfare of society at large.
The dogma that cupidity is a synonym for virtue will never fail to find ready converts among the beneficiaries.
* * * Plate sin with gold. And the strong lance of Justice hurtless breaks.
I predict that the restoration of silver to its birthright, Mr. President, will mark an epoch in the history of this country. It will place in circulation an amount of money commensurate with our increasing population. It will give assurance to our languishing industries that the volume of our circulating medium is not to continue shrinking, and that the tendency of prices shall no longer be downward. It will increase the wages of labor and the prices of the products of labor; it will reduce the price of bonds and other forms of money futures, it will lighten, but not inequitably, the burden of mortgages; it will increase largely, though not unjustly, the debt-paying and tax-paying power of the people. It will loosen the grasp of the creditor from the throat of the debtor.
By the remonetization of silver, money will cease to be the object of commerce, and will again become its beneficent instrument. Activity will replace stagnation, movement will supplant inertia, courage will banish fear; confidence will dispel doubt; hope will supersede despair.