Birmingham state herald., 1895-11-10

withstanding the fact that rain poured Tn torrentsa about the time of the. assem- bling of the crowd at the speaking here today, and the further fact that Satur- day is always Tuskaloosa's busy day, an audience of about. 500Jl heard Senators Morgan and Pugh discuss the political situation here today. When it is recalled that Tuskaloosa county. has less than 2OO0 voters, more than half of whom are populists and, negroes, and when it is re- called that populists held meetings of their own today to select delegates to the Birmingham convention on the 18th and therefore few, If any, attended the speaking. it will be seen that about half the democrats in the county were pres ent. s
 Mayor Jemison presided and introduced the senators most gracefully In pre- senting Senator Morgan, who spoke first, he recalled the fact that the splendid buildings on the university campus were monuments to his efforts in behalf of the people of Alabama: that the senator had championed. through congress the ,bill by which the federal government granted some ten years ago to the uni Versity some 1000 acres of coal lands as a compensation for the loss of its build ings, which were burned during the war by federal soldiers. Some $200,000 have already been realized from the sale of these lands and more than two-thirds of the grant still remains intact.
 Senator Morgan made one of his char acteristic speeches. He maintained his we'll known position on the currency question and charged tile recent election waterloo to demons in the party. He re- viewed the present political situation He ho tbo a1QctfOna had D. suited in the defeat of the democrats In two southern states and the success of the democrats in two southern states and the success of the republicans in all the states north of Mason & Dixon's line. We used to have solid south. Now we have a solid north and divided south He said the north, by means of legislation, had grown rich; it had be- come the creditor section and we were the paymasters. 1t proposed to tighten it's grip on us and some of us were con tributing to aid it in its design. He ex- plained how, when the democrats went into power in 1898, they found an enor- nous debt had been left them as legacy by the republicans; that the democratic party had temporized and disagreed as to how best to proceed. In consequence little had been accomplished
 He shows how. since Mir. Cleveland had gone into office the public debt had in-
 
 really republican debt, they charged it to us in the recent campaign and this contributed to our defeat. The rank and file divided and auarreled with each other. Many declined to vote, others voted against the party nominees, for sock their ark and covenant. He begged the democrats of Alabama to stand to- gether, to form living wall around their senators and congressman and let the party be brought back together on the old-fashioned democratic theories. He showed the government was living on borrowed money and showed how the free coinage of silver was it's only salva- ton. He said if the present policies con tinued the younger men in the audience would some day see the people in open rebellion against their government. He said he would die before he would con tribute by his vote to tighten the yokes upon the necks of the people of Alabama. He said he would stand by the principles of the democratic party despite who will; that the democratic party would die only when virtue died in the bosom of the American citizen. i-t53t
 The senator told the history of Amer ican finances in detail and showed how the democratic party had always been in favor of bimetallism. He thought Cleve- land had not shown sufficient backbone in declining to wipe out MT. Sherman's reserve. He said this government re- quired no deposit to back its oblig ations. The senator said his proposition was to open our mints and coin the silver and gold that God had given us and then we could retire the greenbacks and the Sher- man certificates. He said 16 to 1 was the natural and established parity, and the legal tender laws would amply cover it. He charged the contraction of the cur rency with the depreciation of values in Alabama, and begged the democrats of the state to return to the theories of their fathers. The senator was generously ap- plauded throughout. He spoke almost two hours
 Chairman Jemison introduced Senator Pugh and reminded the audience that to his efforts in congress were due not only the inauguration of the big government work in the Warrior river but a good title to all of the property in Tuskaloosa limits That titles were seriously i'm periled at one time, but thanks to the sen ator's effort they had been settled for ever.
 Senator Pugh exchanged compliments with Mr. Jemison and dived deep into the currency question. It seemed that sound money democrats were expecting the senator to trim little, but if they were he fooled them. He made the most un- compromising free silver speech that has been heard about here in long time. He said the value of every dollar was measured by it's purchasing power, and that this was determined by the number of dollars in circulation. The demand for money fixed the demand for all other commodities becauseg it purchases all other productions.
 That the demand for silver bullion. was limited to the law of the jeweler. where as the demand for gold bullion was uni yersal because 1t was admitted to free