The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1895-06-13

NO.
He paid his respects to the President
and Secretary Carlisle in very plain Ian
guage, calling them TRAITORS for their
part in the conspiracy to demonetize
silver and fasten upon the country the
hardships of gold standard. All such
outbursts as this were greeted with
tumultuous applause.
Mr.. Sibley paid an eloquent tribute to
Andrew Jackson, the great Tennesseean.
who achieved fame through his successful
antagonism of the money power as well as
by his military career.
He related the story of Jacksons re-
fusal, when captured by the British as a
boy, to blacken the boots of an English
officer, who struck him with a sword
leaving scar that he bore until his death.
He gave it political turn by exclaiming
that there were Democrats in Tennessee
who would blacken those boots to-day and
lick the hand that struck them. Con-
tlnuing he said:
We must win this fight in 1896, or we lose it
beyond the lifetime of our generation, or the
one that follows It. You cannot put this fight
Off beyond 1896 and win it. IL the monomet-
tallists win then comes the retirement of
greenbacks-the forging of $500 900, 900 letters
tons to be considered, but they are insignifi-
cant as compared with this one
If we lose this fight in 1896 two great condi-
lions are to be neutrality-suspicious. or revolu-
ton. One or The other is sure to come.
Mr.. Sibley expounded the political AK
IONS which he read and which contained
the result of his study of the money ques-
ton. They were:
First-Double the volume of money and you
double prices
Second-Divide the volume of money and
you divide prices.
Third-Double the volume of money and you
divide the debts.
Fourth-Divide the volume and you double
the debts.
At the conclusion of Mr.. Sibley's speech
there were persistent calls for Bryan of
Nebraska, but that gentleman evidently
desired more favorable opportunity and
more time in which to deliver his views
upon the silver question, for he declined to
respond. Then, upon invitation of the
chairman, Charles s. Thomas of Denver
occupied the remainder of the time of the
evening session. He said:
If the people of the South and West are ad-
vocates of friendly measures which are false in
Nation the fault does not rest with them Be-
ginning with Hamilton and Jefferson and con-
tinuing down to the present time every polit-
lcal organization which until 1873 had been
engrafted into the forms of great national
parties has been blamed by the other for
silver's overthrow and continued degradation
Men like John G. Carlisle and Josiah Patter-
son have in days gone by taught the virtues of
blmetallism and denounced the legislation of
| 1873 as a crime against humanity whila tho
| bill repeating the purchasing clause of the
Sherman law and approved by Cleveland him.
| self contains solemn declaration that BIZ
| metallism is the established policy of the Re-
| public Every public teacher of note, includ-
ing Senator Sherman, has, until the present
administration came into power, ranged him.
self upon the side of free coinage and taught
| the masses to believe its doctrines If they
have gone astray the men who now picture
visions of disaster to the Republic should
money become stable and abundant through
return to the system of their fathers, must
bear the responsibility.
But the people are not wrong. They know
that the present contest is battle of gold and
the classes against silver and the masses.
They have listened patiently to every legisla-
ton of their condition, have waited patiently
for the fulfllment of every prophecy as to re-
turning abundance. They have weighed
recommendation in the balance only to find it
wanting They have determined to restore the
system of their fathers. and neither recreant
executives nor apostate secretaries can long
prevent them. No one cause can be assigned
for worldwide depression and commercial
collapse. yet in 1868 Seyd and Woloski graphi-
cally foretold the consequence of monometal-
ism and Rothschild warned the Brussels con-
ference that its adjournment without action
would cause depreciation of silver, resulting
in financial panic. whose far-reaching effects
could not be foretold. The cry of sound money
is delusive one. No money is sound which
gives the creditor more than he loaned or per-
mits the debtor less than he borrowed. The
debtor is now paying twofold more than he
borrowed, while bimetallism would enable him
to liquidate his debt on the terms of more
perfect equality.
The effort to fasten the gold standard ire
vocably upon people of this Nation will be
the elimination of that conspiracy which Mr..
Carlisle so graphically foretold in 1873. 1t
will deliver the Nation hand and foot to the
money-changers, and must result in the ex-
tinction of individual liberty. Land ownership
would be concentrated in a few hands, and our
freeholders will give way to q body of tenants.
All sources of production and industry will be
exhausted in the payment of interest and all
kinds of property will be massed in few hands.
The men who are crying out loudest against
an inflated money have been initiating the
stocks and values OF trusts and combinations
for years. Their faithful ally is Mr.. Cleveland.
In 1883 he said:
GAS we view the achievements of aggregated
capital we discover the existence of trusts,
combinations and monopolies, while the cit
izen is struggling far in the or is trampled
| to death beneath an iron heel. Corporations
which should be the carefully restrained
creatures Of the law and the servants of the
people are fast becoming the masters. Com
munism is hateful thing and a menace to
peace and organized value But the COM
munism of combined wealth and capital, the
outgrowth of overweening cupidity and selfish
ness, which insidiously undermines the justice
and integrity of free institutions, is not less
dangerous than the communism of oppressed
poverty and toll, which, exasperated by in
justice and discomfort, attacks with wild dis
order the citadel of rule
In his letter to the Chicago bankers last
April the President denounces the ssinsidious
attempt made to create prejudice against the
advocates of safe and sound currency" by the
insinuation. more or less directly made, that
they belong to financial and business classes.
and therefore are out of sympathy with the
common people