UNLIKENESS IN ORGANISMS. 143 



when made in the highest places, there is nothing 

 short of this conclusion before us, namely, that to 

 break the nation's pledge to pay its debts in coin of 

 full value is national infamy. It is national gam- 

 bling, national cheating, national robbery. It is 

 deliberate national injustice, not only to the rich, 

 but to the poor. [Applause.] 



Why should the President veto the silver bill? 

 Because it contains elements of cool, treacherous 

 unfairness, not merely to the capitalists of Europe 

 from whom we borrowed, not only to the wealthy 

 citizens here who assisted us in our necessities, but 

 also to a great mass of men of moderate means who 

 have the government promises to pay in coin. 

 Bondholders are not all capitalists. Many of them 

 are persons of small incomes. In these days when 

 so many other forms of investing money are unsafe, 

 it will not do to let it be understood that govern- 

 ment bonds mean less in fact than in promise. 



If legislation in one country ascribes to gold and 

 silver coins a relative value as legal tender, material- 

 ly different from the relative value of gold and sil- 

 ver bullion, of course in that country such legislation 

 will succeed only in compelling the acceptance of 

 the over-valued metal in debts and contracts. The 

 law will not change the commercial value of coins. 



A level of values throughout the civilized nations 

 must ultimately be reached under the natural law of 

 supply and demand. In the country that has over- 

 valued silver coins, there will be an excessive supply 

 of them from other parts of the world, provided the 



