The Lexington dispatch. [volume] (Lexington, South Carolina) 1870-1917, 1893-09-13

is our pride and boast that we have
the best of every thing else, why
| then should we not have the bes
money. Nobody disputes that golt
is the best money-best for our OWL
business because we are no longer al
isolated people: circumstances which
separated us from the great common
wealth of nations have fallen away
we stand among them as equals and
as rivals for the worlds commerce
Gold is the money Of the world. 1t
is best for the laboring man, for it is
the wages of his toll. In the good
old days there was no question about
it among our fathers, they discussed
and accepted it as the proper none
tary measure; those who favored it
were not villihed as traitors to their
country. There were no Silver Kings
in those days who made life a burden
by their harangues.
Finding our people in the South
and West suffering from real griev-
ances arising from causes which are
little comprehended, for we are a
simple people not versed in monetary
science, they have by constant itera.
tion, by sophistries and falsehoods,
propagated delusions which have
taken possession Of their minds and
they honestly believe that the alleged
demonstration of silver is the prime
cause of all of their troubles. Many
of those who ought to know better
were dupes at first, but now are i'm
posters, for finding the silver cult so
firmly fixed they prefer to be its
priests and to perpetuate ignorance
lest they should be diseredited when
the people awaken to the truth. It.
is loudly proclaimed that the public
opinion of this country is overwhelm-
innIy IN favor of free coinage of sill
yer, that it is DOW aroused and will
sweep ont Of power the party Or the
men who oppose it. An enlightened
public opinion isl sssistable. It
would be foolish = co.,! gsrd it.
That opinion, in :, so-Sssitry, un,
doubtedly favors a bi-matellic sys-
ten to be secured by international
agreement, or by the safeguards of
Legislation. It does not favor the
ala4aa:aDal, = 4
value wlgR prevails today q ~
na ions, and which las prevaa~, 'oo
this country for more than half "a
century, for an inferior, uncertain
and fuctuating standard,
That there is an uninstrueted pub
lie opinion that clamars for free COIN
age at all hazards, that men blinded
by the extremes of misery, are ready
orany desperate measures that prom
ises relief, and that self seeking dem
agogues are stimulating their pas
sions to such degree that their rea-
son is for time in abeyance is, un-
happily too true, and it is not with
out some peril that men resist these
demands when the public mind is in
a fever and ferment. But it is only
the base and timid who are fright
ened by the threats that have been
uttered here.
Majorities are not always right. 1t
was the voice of the majority that
cried, "Crucify him; cruelty him." it
was The majority that sent Arislides
into exile and gave Socrates hemlock
for his supper.
My people are a borrowing people,
they need capital to unlock the stores
of nature, to develop to the highest
degree their agricultural resources,
to build factories and to multiply all
those industrial pursuits which in
this day are the apparatus of civil
zation. The capital they need must
come from the older communities. Tc
obtain it we cannot afford to juggle
with the currency. Least of all car
we afford to separate ourselves from
the great nations where the greater
part of our products find a market
There is among those nations large
accumulations Of capital seeking in
yestment, but frightened by repeated
and disastrous experiences it de
mands above all things else, security
Any possibility of repayment il
money of less value than that which
is loaned will drive it from US.
My people are by tradition ant
habitan honest people. They want N
mans money without an equivalent
They have suffered as few people hav
suffered from expressions, the I'D
Just determinations, and the intolera
BILE exactions of this government, bu
their crowning misfortune would b
the imposition, of an unsound,
fuctuating and vitiated currency
I know there is strong opinio
among them opposed to the views