The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1894-08-02
GOVERNOR NELSON'S SPEECH
Present and Future Governor Talks
to the People.

10 INC TeOpkc.
ST. PAUL, July 12.-When Governor
Nelson had teen notified Of his nominal
ton by reclamation, for another term,
he was escorted to the Auditorium by
Hon. M. Fl. Dunnell, and delivered the
following address to the Repu blican
state convention:
Your kindness in again nominating me,
unanimously and by reclamation, your
candidate for the high office of governor,
not so much because it tends to give me
another term of office. as because to me it
is an assurance that you are satisfied with
the spirit and manner in which have per-
formed my duties as the chief executive of
the state. While conscious of the fact
that in many respects have been far from
infallible, and may have erred in judg-
ment, yet / can truly say that have
always aimed to be fair and just, and to
subserve what conceived to be for the
highest public good. I have aimed to be
conservative, to keep within the beaten
paths of law and precedent, and to avoid
all that savors of jingoism. I have felt
that if any radical change, any new line of
public policy was to be inaugurated, it
should come from the people, through the
| Legislative department., and not through
the executive. If am again elected gov
ernor, shall be guided by these principles
and shall aim to serve the state to the
best Of my judgment and ability, impair
TALLY and without fear or favor as to any
class, person or interest.
We have been struggling for more than
| q year, and are still deep in the midst of a
great industrial depression, permeating to
| a greater or less degree all classes, all in
terests and employments. The purse
strings of capital, through want of conf
dence, or through spirit of fear or timid-
ity, have frightened or have become entirely
congested. In consequence of this fact, to
very large extent, the field of labor has
been greatly reduced and narrowed. This
in its turn has largely increased the army
of the unemployed, and in many cases re-
duced the scale of wages of those who
who still have something to do. With
capital in hiding and labor furnishing for
something to do, economy and want have
brought about reduced state of consump-
ton and an enlarged state of over produc-
ton and over supply. The whole situa-
ton has been further intensified by pro-
longed strikes of unusual magnitude,
which, whatever may have been their in-
trinsic merits, have visibly aggravated the
industrial condition, increased the army
of the unemployed, and frightened still
more capital into hiding, and worst of
all, loosened the bonds of organized
society and threatened it with up
heaval and chaos. In the
face of an industrial and social situation
| this coor,c co1f;cb op6 hoo rf loco
in the extreme to parade before a troubled
people. az the cause Il these ills, the fact
: that wealth is unevenly distributed, that
there are few excessively rich people,
that the relative wealth of the farmers to
the aggregate wealth of the country is
not as great as in 1860, that we had great
national debt and have been paying it off
in gold, and, chief of all, that silver was
demonetized i'll 1873 The statesmen who
furnish us this diagnosis, have one univer-
sal cure all for all our ills. Need name
it? 1t is the unconditional free coinage of
silver at ratio of 16 to l.
While in critical times like these, when
when our house is afire, as it were, and
our first aim should be toput out the
fire and not dispute about the cause of it,
you will pardon me if pause to make
these remarks: 1t is at all times, and in
these times more than ever, cruel and saw
oring of foreign nihilism to seek to array
poor against rich, class against
class There has always been, and always
will be, an unequal distribution of wealth
and few who are excessively rich, as
compared with the many. But in our
country, where there is neither primogeni-
ture nor entail, and where large fortunes
are so often and so easily dissipated by
profigate sons, there is no serious menace
in rich men. If there ever was any doubt
on this point, these trying times have dis
poiled it, for who have been more worried
more harrassed and more helpless than
the rich. Watching them and their trials,
have not many of us felt like praying, 20
Lord, give me neither poverty nor riches -
The demonetization of silver in 1873 is
an obsolete fact, too remote to have any
bearing on present conditions. When sill
yer was demonetized in 1878, it was, and
for nearly half century had been, prac-
tically out of circulation. Our only circu-
lating medium from 1862 up to the time
} we resumed specie payment in 1879 was
paper, and nearly year before such re.
sumption, silver was duly remonetized
under the act of 1878. Since 1872 silver has
gradually deprecated in value, chiefly
from two causes: The almost unanimous
demonstration of the same in Europe
: and the largely increased production
thereof throughout the world. During all
, these years, since 1875 aside from India
the United States have been the best
friend the silver has had. From 1878 un
til 1890, we purchased and coined silver
bullion to the extent of over S24, OOO, 600 an
) nually, and from 1890 to 1898 we pur
chased silver bullion and issued paper cur
rency thereon, to the extent of $4,000 O(
ounces annually. And today we are car
, rying upwards of 1926, 100000 of silver in
our circulation, as against $500, OOO,O 600 Of
gold, ofwhich 500, 600, 600 is or should be
7 kept in the treasury as a redemption FUND
for the $346, OOO 600 of greenbacks. France
has silver circulation Of
$7O0,OOO,OO as against golC
:: circulation of ssOO,OOO,OOO, while India
with its population of 255, OOO, 600, has in
circulation only $500, 100000 of silver, a.
, against no gold and only SIS, OOO, 600 of un
|