Page:The World's Famous Orations Volume 10.djvu/203

 BLAND

operate new places of business, to inaugurate new industries; 70,000,000 people demanding money, twice what we have to-day, a new people, a new country, a free people, — or they ought to be free whether they are or not.

Are you to give up the fight and let this vast body of our wealth go to ruin? I do not believe it. We know well enough that if we repeal this law and give nothing for it, the people of this country will regard it as a total demonetization of silver, which it will be, so far as this Congress is concerned, without any question.

What does free coinage of silver mean? It means that the holders of silver bullion, at some ratio to be fixed in the bill, may go to the mints of the government and have it struck into legal money of the government and deposit the dollars so coined, if the holder so desires, and have a certificate issued to him in place of it. What is the effect of unlimited coinage of silver in this country? and I invite your attention to this particularly, because it is a question of vital importance. It means that the silver coins of the United States at whatever ratio is fixed, and I want the present ratio that we have now, 16 to 1, maintained precisely as it is — it means that the silver of the world can come here in exchange for what we have to sell.

Yes, it means that the silver of the whole world can come here. But they say that we will be flooded with the world's silver; that it will be dumped down upon us. Now, let us see about