Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1895-04-17

political moves that has been fathered
by any set Of political nondescripts
since the birth OF the devil. 1t is for
the democrats to stay in the old party
and try to select delegates to the next
National Democratic convention that
will force the adoption of a free silver
plank in the platform. Then what?
They had an expression on silver in
their last platform which Messrs.
Bland and Bryan and nearly every
other speaker in the political cam
paign of 1892, said meant free silver.
Mr.. Bland, in speech in the house
August II, 1893 Congressional Rec
ord, special session, page 252), said:
We voted the ticket in good faith;
we expected that the platform would
be carried out as was promised-that
we would have tariff revision, and that
when we came to the money question
1t would be regulated according to the
Chicago platform, that we should have
free coinage Of silver, which in itself
would destroy this makeshift. But 10
and behold, we find that we were
tricked, that we were deceived. And
use that language advisedly."
Mr.. Bryan, in a speech in the house,
August 16, 1893 Congressional Record,
special session, page 410), said:
The last platform pledges us to the
use OF both metals as standard mSney
and to the free coinage of both metals
at a fixed ratio. Does any one believe
that Mr.. Cleveland could have been
elected president upon platform de-
clarlng in favor of the unconditional
repeal of the Sherman law? Can we
go back to our people and tell them
that, after denouncing for twenty years
the crime of 1873, we have at last ac-
cepted it as a blessing? Shall bimet-
allism receive its death blow in tie
house of its friends, and in the very
nall where innumerable vows have
been registered in it's defense? What
faith can be placed in platforms if their
pledges can be violated with impu-
nity?"
This is what Messrs. Bland and
Bryan said with regard to the demo-
cratic platform adopted at Chicago in
1892. They said that that platform
meant free silver. They insisted that
no other construction could be placed
upon it. On that platform, declaring
as they said, for free silver, they both
went into the campaign and worked
for the democratic party They led the
people "as sheep to the slaughter" and
their party through a slaughter
house to an open grave"
Mr.. Bland, in the same speech from
which we quote above, said:
MY God, shall we do such a thing as
that? (demonetize silver) Will you
crush the people of your own land and
send them abroad as tramps? Will you
kill and destroy your own industries,
and especially the production of your
precious metals that ought to be sent
abroad everywhere? Will you do this
simply to satisfy the greed of Wall
street-a mere agent of Lombard
street? Any political party
that undertakes it will, in Gods name.
be trampled, as it ought to be trampled,
into the dust of condemnation, now
and in the future Speaking as a dem
ocrat, all OF my life battling for what
/ conceived to be democracy and what
i conceived to be right, l am yet an
American above democracy. l do not
intend, we do not intend, that any
party shall survive, if we can help it,
that will lay the confiscating hand up
on America in the interest of England
or of Europe. Now, mark it, this may
be strong language, but heed it. The
people mean 1t, and, my friends of
eastern democracy, we bid you farewell
when you do that thing. Now, you can
take your own choice of sustaining
America against England, American
interests and American laborers and
producers, or you can go out of power.
We have come to the parting of the
ways. l do not pretend to speak for
anybody but myself and my constit-
uents, but / believe l do speak for the
great masses of the great Mississippi
valley when say that we will not sub
nit TO the domination of any political
party, however much we may love it,
that lays the sacrificing hand upon sill
yer and will demonetize it in this coun-
try.
Gentlemen, you cannot hold the
democratic party together on that line.
You cannot pledge yourselves to BIZ
metallism in your party and ignore
it in your legislation. We pledge our
selves in the first place to tariff reform,
and the people had a right to expect
us to deal with that first. In my part
of the country we were told to let sill
yer alone; that we already had a law
on that subject. They said to us: DO
not disturb that question, but take I'D
the tariff; we are united on the tariff;
let us take up the tariff and reform and
reduce it; the tariff Is doing us great
injury; let US attend to that first We
thought that declaration was sincere
and We thought the first thing to be
taken up was the repeal of the Nc
Kinley bill. l believe IL was
not intended by our eastern Democratic
friends that tariff reform should be
considered first, but their main, if not
their sole, object was to put their
hands upon silver and demonetize it
and let tariff reform take care of itself
afterwards. And here we are Just in
that situation. Reduce the tariff 25
per cent, yet make money in gold 25per
cent more valuable, the tariff remains
as great burden as ever. 1t takes the
same quantity of wheat, corn. pork and
cotton to pay it as before. Now 1 tell
you / am not going to submit to 1t.
You may pass your bill and do these
things; but If you do we are going to /
cut loose from you. You may go ahead, !
but you will never trick us again. |
DO not charge me with being a radical !
or fanatic,or with indulging in threats. |
l speak the sentiment of the masses
l would not say it il 1t were not true. |
You propose to remit us to the demon
etizing act of 1873, which in all my
section OF the country the democratic
party on every stump has denounced
as the monumental fraud of the nine
toonfh Coufr1rv Uara fo