The representative. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1893-1901, 1895-08-21
SILVER CONFERENCE.
THE DEMOCRATIC CONFERENCE
GETS DOWN TO WORK.
Some Speeches Not Complimentary
to Cleveland, Carlisle and
German.

called the silver conference together
promptly at 10 o'clock today. AS soon as
the delegates were seated he stated that
the committee on resolutions, though 1t
had worked most of the night, was not
yet ready to report but would be able to
do so in about an hour.
1t was agreed to devote the hour wait
ing for the committees report in speech
making and the conference was made
public
Col. Casey Young, of Tennessee, who
acted as secretary of the committee.
which had called this conference, said
that he had received thousands of let
tiers from representative Democrats fa-
voring the conference and expressing
their willingness to stand by any action
1T might take. Among these were letters
from Senators Morgan, Gorge, Walthall,
Chiffon, Blackburn, Blanchard, Tillman,
Cockrell, Voorhees, and Turpie. He be-
lieved that the friends Of silver would
be numerous enough to control the ma
tional convention Ex-Representative
Fithian, Of Illinois, said that he had been
defeated for reelection because he had
to bear the odium of the administration g
action In the last congress. He was be-
lever In free coinage and would abide by
the action or the conference.
Representative Livingston, of Georgia,
said that trade, commerce and agricul-
ture CT the United States were again in
Jeopardy and that another declaration of
independence was needed. If England
were given the control of our money sys-
tenn she would control the country-a
thing which she could not do by iOrce of
arms. He referred to the recent bond is
sues and said they were the most dis
graceful acts that the party have ever
done.
Senator Call, of Florida, was in accord
with the movement now proposed and
said that the people were now ready to
Join the march. Mr.. Hill, of Missouri,
when called, responded by thanking God
that he was not Hill, of New York. In
two short years Mr.. Cleveland had led
the Democratic party to defeat and dis
grace by a series of acts of perfidy and
treachery unprecedented in the history Of
this country. Mr.. Cleveland and Mr..
Carlisle, he said, would go down the lanes
of oblivion hand in hand, amid the cries
of indignation of the people. Senator
Brice, he said, was the black-white man,
and as great a traitor as Cleveland, Car
Isle and German.
When the committee reports were an
nounced as complete shortly before noon,
Senator Jones took the chair and Gov
Stone, of Missouri, presented the address.
He announced that it was substantially
the same as that partially adopted by the
toto by the Mississippi convention. The
address is as follows:
At conference between a number Of
Democrats from different states who at
tended the non-partisan convention re-
Gently assembled in Memphis, Tenn. for
the purpose Of promoting the cause Of
free silver coinage (Which conference was
held after the adjournment of the con-
vention) a committee consisting of Sem
ators Jones, Of Arkansas; Turpie, Of In
diana, and Harris, Of Tennessee, was ap-
pointed and authorized to invite Rep
resentative Democrats from silver states
to meet together at Washington for con-
sultation with the view Of securing CO.
operation and concert of action among
those Democrats throughout the United
States who believe in adhering to the
Democratic policy of actual bimetallism
and who are opposed to committing the
party to the plutocratic Republican doc
trine of gold monometallism.
The present conference is the result of
action taken This is purely voluntary
assemblaHe and therefore does not as
sumo to speak with party authority.
Disclaiming all right to bind any person
by our action but profoundly conscious
that the Democratic party today con-
fronts crisis, the most momentous in
it's history and fraught with far reaching
peril to the people and the country, we
are assembled as individual Democrats
to take counsel and for the. undiSguised
purpose Of inaugurating and promoting
a thorough and systematic organization
of the Democratic masses so that they
may go forward as one man with a reso-
lutte purpose to rescue the old party
founded by Jefferson from plutocratic
domination.
Therefore, with this object in view this
convention of Democrats, composed of
representatives from % of the leading
states of the Union, make the following
declara ton OF the monetary question.
which has been forced into the leading
place among the issues Of the day. The
federal constitution names silver and
gold together as the money metal of the
United States. The first coinage law
passed by congress under the constitution
made this unit of value and admitted
gold to free coinage at ratio measured
by the silver dollar unit.
From the beginning Of the government
following policy formulated by Thomas
jefferson and firmly established by jack
son, the Democratic party has been the
party of bimetallism, favoring the free
coinage of both silver and gold at the ma
tional minis, and opposed to farming
out to a banking corporation the govern
ment's sovereign power of issuing and
controlling the money of the people,
The act of 1873 demonetizing silver was
surreptitiously passed without the ap-
prevail or knowledge of the American peo-
pie from the time when the effect of this
act was felt upon this country and the
single gold standard was understood the
Democratic party has consistently and
persistently urged that the grievous
wrong be righted.
Failure to accomplish this object has
resulted in the steady appreciation OF
gold and a corresponding fall in the
price of commodities produced by the
people, a heavy increase in the burden of
all debts, public and private, the en-
trenchment of the money lending class:
paralysis of industry and the impover-
ishment of the people and unexampled
distress in all gold standard countries.
Experience has shown that under the
single gold standard there may be an oc-
casional revival of business activity ac-
companied by enhanced prices of a limit
ed number of commodities, such revival
Is due to artificial and temporary causes
and cannot permanently alleviate the
sufferings due to the falling of prices. The
rights Of the American people,. the in
tereStS Of American labor and the pros
perity of American industry have a high
er claim to the consideration of law MAX
ers than the greed of foreign creditors or
avaracious demands made by idle holders
of idle capital.
The right to regulate its own monetary
system in the interests of it's own people
is a right which no free government can
barter. sell or surrender. This. reserved
right is a part of every bond, of every
contact and of every obligation No
creditor or claimant can set I'D a right
that can take precedence over a nations
obligations, to promote the welfare of the
masses of its people. This is debt
higher than all other debts and one that
is not only dishonest but treasonab BILE to