Page:The World's Famous Orations Volume 10.djvu/234

 THE WORLD'S FAMOUS ORATIONS

charge in the Senate I was held to be the chief criminal. It was, in fact, a wise measure of public policy, carefully discussed and considered during three years.

"When we test the outcry against this act with the sober facts shown by official records, it ap- pears simply ludicrous. The total number of silver dollars coined from 1792 to 1853 was 8,031,238, while the number of trade dollars issued under the coinage act of 1873, containing 71/^ grains more silver than the old dollar, was 35,965,924, and the number of standard silver dollars coined under the Bland-Allison Act of 1878 was 430,790,041, or fifty-four times the number issued before 1873.

It is strange that the very men who supported and urged this coinage law of 1873 and de- manded the exclusive coinage of gold are the very men who now demand the free coinage of silver, and denounce as "goldites" and "rob- bers" all those who believe in the coinage of both gold and silver.

The question will never be settled until you determine the simple question whether the labor- ing man is entitled to have a good dollar, if he earns it, or whether you are going to cheat him with something else. That is the upshot of the whole thing. Everybody has to say that the laboring man was entitled to a good dollar. That was fought over. They will fight it over again, and the same party will win. There have been a great many battles fought against gold, but 200

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