Graham guardian., 1895-08-16
THE MISSOURI DEMOCRATIC
STATE CONVENTION.


ton were not borne out.
The so-called gold, or "sound
money" advocates were so over
whelmed by the superior general
ship and numerical strength of the
free silver leaders and forces that
they made but very faint effort
to stay the onslaught of the white
metal adherents. Bland said, in
Opening the convention, that the
Democrats of Missouri had as
sembled to adopt resolutions for
the free coinage of silver, and to
select a State committee which
would be in sympathy with the
popular will, and how well his
prophecy was carried out the re-
suit of,the convention tells.
That of the resolutions calling
for the free and unlimited coinage
of silver at 16 to l, regardless Of
any foreign nation, was carried
with hurrah and expedition sell
dom seen in any convention, and,
furthermore, men were selected to
nominate delegates favorable to
silver to the National Demcratic
Convention of 1896. AS a whole
the friends of silver are feeling
happy and congratulations are in
order.
While waiting for the committee
on resolutions to report the time
was taken up in speech-making, ex-
Congressman Hatch, and Hon. M.
E. Benton addressing the conven-
ton. The most remarkable por-
ton of Benton's address was his
reference to the gold advocates.
He said: "Every gold advocate in
the State of Missouri is either a
usurer, an office-holder or a man
with large prospects for an Office"
The committee on resolutions
reported the platform as follows,
which was adopted by the conven-
ton:
"The Democrats of Missouri, in
State convention assembled, make
the following declaration on the
monetary question, which has been
forced into the leading place among
the issues of the day. The FEEDER
al Constitution names silver and
gold together as they money met
ais of the United States. The first
coinage law passed by Congress
under the Constitution made the
silver dollar the unit of value and
admitted gold to free coinage at
ratio measured by the silver-unit
dollar.
"From the beginning of the gov
ernment, following a policy formu-
lated by Thomas Jefferson and
firmly established by Jackson, the
Democratic party has been the
party of bimetallism, favoring the
free coinage of both silver and
gold at the national mints and op-
posed to farming out to the bank
ing corporations the governments
sovereign power of issuelng and
controlling the money of the peo.
pie. The act of 1873 demonetiz-
ing silver was surreptitiously pass
ed, without the approval or knowl-
edge of the American people, and
from the time when the effect of
this act in fastening upon the
country the single gold standard
was understood, the Democratic
party has constantly and persis-
tently urged that the grievous
wrong be righted.
"Failure to accomplish this OBJ
ject has resulted in the steady APP
probation of gold and CORES
ponding fall in the price of COM
modities produced by the people,
a heavy increase in the burden of
all debts, public and private, the
enrichment of the money lending
class, paralysis of industry and i'm
poverishment of the people and un-
exampled distress In all gold stand
ard countries. Experience has
shown that while, under the single
gold standard there may be an oc-
casional revival of business activity
accompanied by enhanced prices
of a limited number of commodi-
ties, such revival is due to artificial
and temporary causes and cannot
permanently alleviate the suffer
mos due to the falling of prices |