gal effect to the House bill.

On the next day, August 30, I took the floor and made one of the
longest speeches in my congressional life, covering more than forty
closely printed pamphlet pages. I quote a few of the opening
paragraphs:

"The immediate question before us is whether the United States
shall suspend the purchase of silver bullion directed by the act
of July 14, 1890. It is to decide this question the President has
called Congress together in special session at this inconvenient
season of the year. If this was the only reason for an extraordinary
session it would seem insufficient. The mere addition of eighteen
hundred million ounces of silver to the vast hoard in the treasury,
and the addition of fourteen millions of treasury notes to the one
thousand millions of notes outstanding, would hardly justify this
call, especially as Congress at the last session neglected or
refused to suspend the purchase of silver. The call is justified
by the existing financial stringency, growing out of the fear that
the United States will open its mints to the free coinage of silver.
This is the real issue. The purchase of silver is a mere incident.
The gravity of this issue cannot be measured by words. In every
way in which we turn we encounter difficulties.

"If we adopt the single standard of gold without aid from silver,
we will greatly increase the burden of national and individual
debts, disturb the relation between capital and labor, cripple the
industries of the country, still further reduce the value of silver,
of which we now have in the treasury and among our people over
$593,000,000, and of which we are the chief producers, and invite
a struggle with the great commercial nations for the possession of
the gold of the world.

"On the other hand, if we continue the purchase of 54,000,000 ounces
of silver a year, we will eventually bring the United States to
the single standard of silver--a constantly depreciating commodity,
now rejected by the great commercial nations as a standard of value;
a commodity confessedly inconvenient, by its weight, bulk, and
value, for the large transactions of foreign and domestic commerce,
and detach us from the money standard now adopted by all European
nations, with which we now have our chief commercial and social
relations. In dealing with such a question we surely ought to
dismiss from our minds all party affinities or prejudices; all
local or sectional interests, an