Delaware gazette and state journal. (Wilmington, Del.) 1883-1902, 1894-11-01


My friends, | know what tho past
| year has been here. II would not be
fair or ingenious to say to you that this
country alone has been selected for
business depression and disaster. There
has been u great deal of commercial de-
preston and manufacturing depression
and disaster, and agricultural depres-
sion, almost more than IN any other, in
| the country to which | have been sent
as your representative. A great deal of
suffering, great deal of anxiety, q
great deal of distress; part of it came
from causes that affect alike the United
States and Great Britain But we had
causes of our own, which | wish to
submit to you to-night-and | wish
from first to last to keep in touch with
your intelligence, your reason, your
sense Of fairness in the discussion of so
mighty u thing as the government Of
this great nation of which we arl part,
and touch upon principles which, for
better or for worse, will have their good
effects or their evil effects, far on in ages
which we shall not sec and upon that
posterity which we shall leave hero be-
hind us.
What was the cause-or I may say,
what was the law-that produced the
stringency, the commercial distress,
followed by the absence of enterprise,
checking the employment of labor,
tightening up the sources from which
men draw their credit, and their means
of carrying on their business Ali
those things that produced the unfor-
tunate condition, of which this town
afforded but specimen alike in SO many
sections of this country; and what was
| it2 Was it the want of money! No,
my friends, it was the want Of conf
dence. 1t was the fear operating upon
mems minds, and operating first upon
capital, which is the most timld of all
| species of human proper lty and operating
upon it SO that it would not and dare
not place itself out of the safety
became frightened. Credit was para
lyzed. The spirit of enterprise was gone
and as consequence labor was idle,
and faces grew wan and stomachs grew
empty and hearts grew anxious, through
this community and all over the land
1t was the want CT confidence. Was
money plentiful? Unquestionably it is
boarded up to. day in every money centre
in this country and in Europe. Money
is drug upon the market. It produces
no interest worthy of the name. All
tho money can be had that can be
imagined, for short time, ON call, but
not for permanent loan or investment
that shall wait product in order TO repay
This is the fact. 1t was SO in the great
centre whore my home has been for the
last Is months-more gold, more money,
more values than the banker or the mer-
chant knows what to do with 1t is so
in Amefica it is so in your baRks-in
| Wilmington; it is so still more in your
banks in New York. 1t is everywhere
SO that the capitalist can keep his fund
so that he can lay his hand upon it in a
| moment of danger, 80 that he can
quickly gather up his fortune ani take
il out of the reach Of danger, should
| danger come.
| My friends, what produced that sense
of dangerl Was this danger real or
was it apparent2 Was the course of
this country plainly passing towards
prosperity or was 1t passing into u
stormy sea and near rocks over which
the pillows broke and the breakers
reared themselves tell you, that the
American people, with their natural
instinct Of self-preservation, were right
in 1893, Our ship Of state was in
danger. The industries and the wei.
fare Of our people were in dan.
ger, from evil systems of taxation
and currency, and of other feelings to
which | shall refer. What feelings
that they were to suffer; capital grew
timid and locked itself up in its hiding
,,ln l,,1,, a
ployed an unrewarded.
DUE TO THE REPUBLICAN, PARTY.
To whom, to what party, to what
brains, to what leadership, ask you
fairly, squarely, substantially and solidly
was chat state of things due2
Was it not due to the party whose
laws upon the statue books We're the
only laws we had? Applause. And see.
ing those effects, wnen they We're asked
to remedy them and asked to cure them,
in response to the demand of the Amer
ican people signalized by the result of
the election of 1892, they should have
yielded; they should have assisted. But
instead of that, the policy of the Repub.
liean rarity in Congress and throughout
the country, has been to embarrass
| lFNtAloSLibiS tASNuLANO ll Ills HVlGSl
efforts to free this country and to save il
| from the evil effects and the ruin
brought upon it by unwise legislation
conducted by the Republican ptrty.
Applause.
In the year 1889 the term of the ri lem
ocratic Executive expired and Mr..
| Cleveland went back to earn his living
at the bar in New York. He lef. tue
Treasury much fuller than he wished,
because he candidly stated long bafore
he left, to the people of the U4ited
States, Il danger To the business o1 the
country arising from the fact that an
honest collection of the high taxest then
imposed congesJed the Treasury with
the excess of revenue, and locked 1t up
from the usage Of tho people.
Well, gentlemen, you can produce
stringency in money by many means.
You can produce it by wild and aIlaw-
less speculation that paralyzes con-
fidence and creates doubt and fear You
can create the stringency simply by
locking up the money in box aud not
using it. You can create q strinsency
| by having hundred million dolllrs Of
| the currency-thc money needed for the
| purposes of commerce and exchange
throughout the country-locked up in
the Treasury; for, although the law
brought it into the Treasury, there was
no law to take it out, Such was tile CON
dition, which did not produce panic;
it did not produce alarm, because the
people knew that there was money in
the Treasury for their use; but wiser
men, the thoughtful men, the financiers
of the country all saw that it Was u dan-
gerous and unnecessary thing; and our
President proposed whatg 10 spend it
wiselYs not SO; to pay 1t where it was
| not dunY NOT so. but simnlY Ia lnNnr the