Little Falls weekly transcript. (Little Falls, Morrison Co., Minn.) 1894-19??, 1894-07-13
[;Oyr(NUED FR IN >lXrH sPA'iE.]
GOVERNOR NELSON'S SPEECH

GOVERNOR NELSON'S SPEECH
Present and Future Governor Talks
4 to the People. S
ST. PAUL, July l2.-When Governor
Nelson had been notified OF his nomina-
ton by reclamation, for another term,
he Was escorted to the Auditorium by
Hon. M. II. Dunnell, and delivered the
following address to the Republican
state convention:
Your kindness in again nominating me,
unanimously and by reclamation, your
cand date for the high Office of governor,
is greatly appreciated, and is dear to me,
not 50 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 Ihave 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-
1nent, yet I can truly say that I have
always aimed to be fair and just, and to
subserve what I 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. l 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, sh all 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
g. 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
a. very large extent, the field of labor has
been greatly reduced and narrowed This
in it's 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 a 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
such as this, it seems selfish and heartless
in the extreme to parade before troubled
people. as the cause of these ills, the fac
that wealth la 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 Is to l.
While in critical times like these, when
when our house is afre, as it were, and
our first aim should be to put 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
orlng OF foreign nihilism to seek to array
poor against rich, class against
class. There has always been, and always
81 ic+, ;I,,4; ofx ~,
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,
nave not many of us felt like praying, 20
Lord, give me neither poverty nor riches"
The demonstration of silver in 1878 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 a century had been, prac-
tlcally out of circulation. Our only circu-
latlng 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 1875 Since 1872 silver has
gradually deprecated in value, chiefly
from two causes: The almost unanimous
Of the same in Europe,
and the largely increased production
thereof throughout the world. During all
these years, since 1878, aside from India,
the United States have been the best !
friend the silver has had. From 1878 I'M
til 1890, we purchased and coined silver !
bullion to the extent of over $24, OOO, 900 an
nually, and from 1890 to 1898 we pur-
chased silver bullion and issued paper cur
rency thereon, to the extent of $4,000, 600
ounces annually: And today we are car
rying upwards of 1926, 100000 of silver in
our circulation, as against $3.50, 600, 900 of
gold, of which s10O, OoO, 600 is or should be
kept in the treasury as a redemption fund
tor the s346, 000,O 900 of greenbacks. France
has silver circulation of
soc, 100000 as against a gold
circulation of $500, 100000, while India
with its population of 255, 100000, has in