The gold leaf. [volume] (Henderson, N.C.) 1881-1911, 1893-10-26
cultural classes of this country.

participated in the general prosperity
of this great country. On the con.
trary, fellow citizens, under the State
legislation for the last twenty or twenty.
five years the laws of your State have
been favorable to you and so far as
the State government of North Caro-.
lima can promote the wealth of the
agricultural and all other classes,
challenge any other State in America
to show more disinterested legislation
than that exhibited by North Caro-.
lima. Show me government in
America anywhere that has been better
administered; that has been more
wisely administered where the taxes
have been more justly laid and where
everything has been more equalized
than it has been under the government
of North Carolina. Why is this
Why is it that the National legislature
has been SO hostile to your interests
and the State legislature SO favorable
| will tell you why. The answer is not
far to seek. 1t is because this legisla-
ton has been moulded by the farmers
of North Carolina who have been
either present in the legislature as
members, or you have selected and
elected those who should represent you,
and therefore the benefcent legisla-
ton; whereas in the National legisla-
ture, although you constitute largely
one-half of all the workers and wage
earners of this great nation, your
strength has been dissipated. The
bond which has held you together has
been mere rope of sand and your
influence in the National legislature
has not been felt-has scarcely been
there at all. Why has that been9 l
perceived long while since that was
because you lacked organization, you
lacked the means of combination and
the bringing of strength to bear at a
given point.
Napoleon's great maxim was to
throw great masses of troops upon the
weakest point Of his enemy; and as
one of our cavalry generals during the
late war expressed it, man of more
courage than education he said the
great secret was to get there first with
the most men. You have never been
able to do that in national politics.
The banks have got there every time
with all four feet; the railroads have
got there every time, and it is the
only part of their schedule in which
they have never been behind time the
manufacturers have gone there every
time all the balance of them have.
Why? Why, simply because they
have been organized and have got the
start. I have no quarrel with them
for it. My quarrel is with you for
neglecting the means OF grace which
has been offered to you.
Now it is known to you that great
contest is pending in the Congress OF
the United States and is dividing and
agitating the people all over this great
land on the question of this money.
Propositions have passed the House OF
Representatives and are pending now
in the Senate which would demonetize
one-half of our currency. Do you
know what that means, my friends ?
You do not. You think you do but
you do not. If you would take the
trouble to sit down and read the
history of the English people about
the time that Great Britain demone-
tized silver and destroyed one-half OF
the currency of the people and read OF
the vast multitudes of hungry men
that paraded the streets of London
and of wailing women that surrounded
the Parliament House, holding up
children crying for bread, and of the
horrors of actural starvation through
which those people had to pass to come
to gold standard ; if you could bring
those times back, you would see
something of what was before you in
case that one-half of our money is
wiped out. Do not let any man
deceive you by saying that one-half of
it will not be wiped out. For the
only law which is upon our statute
books now that binds US to silver is
the Sherman law which is threatened
with unconditional repeal. You can
see the gradual effects Of legislation.
Since 1873 when silver money was
demonetized, for the first time all
products began to 60 down, the most
important of which are wheat and
cotton, and you will see that as the
price of silver sank because its money
value had been taken away from it.,
that wheat and cotton went down
precisely, every penny that when one
went down the other went down as
though they had been joined together,
and they have been sinking ever since,
and the days wage has been going
down and everything else that is
produced on the farmers plantation
for the sustenance of mankind has
been going down in the same proper
ton.
Silver is making its last stand as the
money of the American people. There
is not bank or mandatory that has
not sent its petition and whose voice is
not heard in behalf Of the repeal.
There is not Chamber of Commerce,
there is not a merchants exchange or
a brokers' exchange in America that
has not made its voice heard in Wash
ington City; and even not content with
sending OH their petitions they haye
sent large delegations to buttonhole
members Of Congress, and senators
especially, and tell them that the end
of the world is at hand and that
Gabriel's horn would be heard the day
after tomorrow if their wishes were not
complied with. I have been listening
every day to these delegations and these
petitions and have been hoping II
would hear some voice from the
farmers of North Carolina, but heard
not one. Why have not the farmers
orpanized Themselves into a hodv and