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  MONEY.


    "Gold is a wonderful clearer of the understanding; it dissipates
    every doubt and scruple in an instant, accommodates itself to the
    meanest capacities, silences the loud and clamorous and brings
    over the most obstinate and inflexible. Philip of Macedon refuted
    by it all the wisdom of Athens, confounded their statesmen, struck
    their orators dumb, and at length argued them out of their
    liberties."
                                                            --ADDISON.


  SPEECH
  OF
  HON. JOHN P. JONES,
  OF NEVADA,
  ON THE FREE COINAGE OF SILVER;
  IN THE
  UNITED STATES SENATE,
  MAY 12 AND 13, 1890.

  WASHINGTON.
  1890.




  SPEECH
  OF
  HON. JOHN P. JONES,
  OF NEVADA.

  On the bill (S. 2350) authorizing the issue of Treasury notes on
  deposits of silver bullion.


Mr. JONES, of Nevada, said:

Mr. PRESIDENT: The question now about to be discussed by this body is in
my judgment the most important that has attracted the attention of
Congress or the country since the formation of the Constitution. It
affects every interest, great and small, from the slightest concern of
the individual to the largest and most comprehensive interest of the
nation.

The measure under consideration was reported by me from the Committee on
Finance. It is hardly necessary for me to say, however, that it does not
fully reflect my individual views regarding the relation which silver
should bear to the monetary circulation of the country or of the world.
I am, at all times and in all places, a firm and unwavering advocate of
the free and unlimited coinage of silver, not merely for the reason that
silver is as ancient and honorable a money metal as gold, and equally
well adapted for the money use, but for the further reason that, looking
at the annual yield from the mines, the entire supply that can come to
the mints will at no time be more than is needed to maintain at a steady
level the prices of commodities among a constantly increasing
population.

In view, however, of the great divergency of views prevailing on the
subject, the length of time which it was believed might be consumed in
the endeavor to secure that full and rightful measure of legislation to
which the people are entitled, and the possibility that this session of
Congress might terminate without affording the country some measure of
substantial relief, I was willing, rather than have the country longer
subjected to the baleful and benumbing influences set in motion by the
demonetization act of 1873, to join with other members of the Finance
Committee in reporting the bill now under consideration.

Under the circumstances I wish at the outset of the discussion to say
that I hold myself free to vote for any amendment that may be offered
that may tend to make the bill a more perfect measure of relief, and
that may be more in consonance with my individual views.


THE CONDITION OF THE COUNTRY.

The condition of this country to-day, Mr. President, is well calculated
to awaken the interest and arouse the attention of thinking men. It can
be safely asserted that no period of the world's history can exhibit a
people at once so numerous and homogeneous, living under one form of
government, speaking a common language, enjoying the same degree of
personal and political liberty, and sharing, in so equal a degree, the
same civilization as the population of the United States. Eminently
practical and ingenious, of indomitable will, untiring energy, and
unfailing hope; favored by nature with a domain of imperial expanse,
with soil and climate of unequaled variety and beneficence, with every
natural condition that can conduce to individual prosperity and national
glory, it might well be expected that among such a people industry,
agriculture, commerce, art, and science would reach an extent and
perfection of development surpassing anything ever known in the history
of mankind.

In some respects this expectation would appear to have been well
founded. For several years past our farmers have produced an annual
average of 400,000,000 bushels of wheat. Our oat crop for 1888 was
700,000,000 bushels, our corn crop 2,000,000,000 bushels, our cotton
crop 7,000,000 bales. In that year our coal mines yielded 170,000,000
tons of coal, our furnaces produced 6,500,000 tons of pig iron and
3,000,000 tons of steel. Our gold and silver mines add more than
$100,000,000 a year to the world's stock of the precious metals. We
print 16,000 newspapers and periodicals, have in operation 154,000 miles
of railroad and 250,000 miles of telegraph. The value of our
manufactured products at the date of the last census was $5,400,000,000.
Our farm lands at the same time were estimated at $10,000,000,000, our
cattle at $2,000,000,000, our railroads at $6,000,000,000, our houses at
$14,000,000,000. It is not too much to say that there has been an
increase of fully 50 per cent. in those values since the taking of the
census of 1880. Our national wealth to-day is reasonably estimated at
over $60,000,000,000.

