Birmingham age-herald., 1895-05-29
THE EAST SENDS GREETING
TO THE SOUTH ON SOUND MONEY
hon-Partisan Meeting of Philadelphia's Repre-
 sentative Men Form League e-Points te of TrenhoIm's Speech.

iiNItihS iiCAu III tic ACeldSulS Ol in favor of sound money.
 The meeting was held under the aus pices of the leading business and profes- sional men of Philadelphia. Party lines were obliterated, and democrats and re- publcans, who have always been ar rayed against each other on all national questions, testified by their presence their opposition to free coinage. The non7parusan character of the meeting was fully illustrated in the list of speak CTS. These were: EX-United States Senator George F. Edmunds of Vermont, William l.. Trenholm of New York, who was comptroller of the currency during MT. Clevelands $ first administration; Ex-Congre ssman Michael D. Harter of Ohio, and EX-Minister to Russia Charles Emory Smith. Besides these gentlemen there were sevral other speakies prom inent in the business life or Philadel- adelphia.
 The Academy of Music, while not crowded was well filled. The character of the audience was worthy of any speaker, being much superior to the usual crowd that attends a political mass meeting. An intelligent and attentive observation was given to the various speakers and their exposition of the financial question was listened to with the deepest interest by the audience.
 George B. Roberts, president of the Pennsylvania Railroad company, was made chairman of the meeting The meeting adopted, with a long preamble, the following resolution:
 Resolved, That a sound money league be organized in the city of Philadelphia fori the purpose of assisting in the de- ;vel3pment of an intelligent public opin- ion upon the question of the currency, and that all citizens be invited to be- come members of the league upon the basis of the principles herein set forth.
 After the adoption of the resolution and the election of officers for the league the meeting adjourned.
 Senator Edmunds spoke for nearly an hour.
 y Mr. Trenholm was the next speaker. His address was an able and compre- hensive exposition of the financial con- ,ditipns existing today. He sa d: iiat There is no need to exaggerate the crisis that Is upon US We are here<)- night because we recognize the grav.ty of the situation and appreciate the i'm portance of doing all we can towards bringing about right solution of the free silver coinage system.
 Tt is a serious thing when men differ as to the ideas that underlie ther re- ligious and moral convictions, their lib critics or their material welfare. All the great conflicts which by their results have the most profound influence on the destinies of our day have been conflicts ns to such ideas. Not to go further back in history, we have had in this country great conflicts between adherents to op- poSite ideas. Our revolution came of the contention between the monarchial and the republican idea. Nothing but the civil war put an end to the long conflict between the slavery idea and the aboli- tion idea.
 Today two Fundamental ideas are struggling for supremacy in controlling the 6aatinias n a II iOIi trial and commercial interests. For brevity's sake let us call them the gold idea and the silver idea. These two ideas are declared by their respective adherents to be irreconcilable with each other, and therefore if one is true the other must be false. Whosoever adopts the one must discard the other.
 "The time is at hand when every cit izen of this country should form his own judgment in the light of his own reason and under the sanction of his own con science as to which is right and which is wrong. No one can morally dodge this duty or disregard his conclu- sions, because every vote will count and on a question like this, who votes against his convictions votes against his country. These two ideas are con tending each for exclusive applications to the questions of right, justice, of con tractual obligations and of public policy, which are inextricably bound up with our monetary system. Ine ueclSlOn aS to which of these two ideas is the true one must be reached by reasoning, pred icated upon facts and guided by logic. The decision as to which shall be adopt ed rests with the people. If the people adopt that which Is true all will be we'll; if they adopt that which is false, dis aster and ruin will cover the whole face of our land"
 MT. Trenholm had no intention in de- claring himself of the firm belief that if the gold idea planted in 1873 had been in sole possession of the soil of our na- tional finances we should today have been far more prosperous and far more wealthy than we are. He described the growth and spread of the silver idea until it has become so prevalent, so strong that it threatens to overrun the whole country. We, who believe it to be wrong in principle and in the applica- tion, now perceive that it must either be eradicated or we must abandon to it's destructive ascendancy our proper ty all our means. of livelihood and all our pride in our country's place among the foremost nations of the earth. Will you abandon these? Can you as citi- zens of Philadelphia remain passive spectators of conflict upon the issue of which depends so much that you value most dearly?
 .'Let us consider the means whereby this contest may be decided as we think, nay, as we know 1t should be decided. cided. First, we must recognize that the ranks of the silver party contain many thousands of our fellow citizens who are just as good Americans as we are, just as devoted to the principles, just as firm in maintaining what they believe to be right To those we must address argu- ments in favor of our views. We must appeal from their prejudices to their reason; we must substitute for their short-sighted conceptions of personal and local interests broader perceptions of natural laws and natural welfare. In one word, we must carry on the campaign of enlightenment into those communities in which false ideas pre-