The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1895-10-05
The Silver Champion Scores
the President for His
Policy.
LEAGUED WITH THE BANKERS.
He Declares That Both of the Great
Parties Are Dominated by
Bondholders.

crowd gathered on the Plaza tonight to
hear the debate between Colonel John P.
Irish and Thomas V. Gator on the money
question. Congressman Bowers presided.
Colonel Irish led, taking the gold side,
and from the first had to fight an audience
antagonistic to him. He held its atten-
ton, however, and made strong presen-
tation of his case He said if it had been
advertised that the debate would be on the
question of two standards nobody would
have come, and that if two yardsticks
were to be discussed the crowd would have
said that the man who held for one stick
Interchangeable in length was right, as a
matter of course.
He held that one standard of value, non
variable and Notwithstanding, was the only
possible standard, and he stood for that
which by natural selection was chosen by
dealers of value in all countries.
The crowd was overwhelmingly in favor
of Gators cause, and greeted him with
deafening applause when he arose to an
swer Colonel Irish. He began by saying
that he had profound respect for a man
who would stand up in California and say
his party was in favor of gold standard.
In fact, he had respect for any man who
did not stand with his feet in one party,
his hand in another and his nose in the
third, trying to get Office from all.
"The Democratic party" he said, ''1s
dominated by domestic and foreign bond
holders and gold ring, and Cleveland is
for gold because his party is dominated
by the gold power"
Each party. Democratic or Republican,
he held to be consolidated with the gold
power to form gigantic trust against the
producers of the country. He said mis-
party demanded relief of the ground OF the
law that, all things being equal, the vol
ume of currency determined prosperity,
and that shrinkage of the circulating
medium was invariably followed by panic
and poverty.
He quoted Jefferson where that states
man concurred with Alexander Hamilton
that the country must maintain stand
ard of both gold and silver.
when my friends appeal to the labor
ing man to sustain his argument for gold, -
he said, "he must think the Rothschilds
nights in a terrific philanthropic desire to
aid the American workingman."
Gators argument was that an increased
volume Of currency would bring higher
prices, Danish debts, increase business, put
business on a money instead of credit
basis, furnish employment and prevent
failures.
He held that the volume of money had
been contracted by the goldbugs for the
purpose of putting producers into a posi-
ton where big interest could be collected
on credits and bonds. He cited eleven
English banks doing a business ten times
larger than the actual cash on hand and
| FIVE New York banks with cents on the
dollar of actual cash. This he called in
hation of the wrong kind and putting
power into the hands of the bondholders.
| He declared that matters had reached a
| stage where mother earth could not pro-
duce enough to pay interest on the enor-
nous amount of inflated credits, and that
the producers were on the point of be-
coming bondsmen, shaving to pay usury to
foreigners.
When Irish arose to reply he was scoffed
He told the crowd to scott if it liked He
remembered reading in the Bible of a
nation led to believe a lie, and it was
damned. [Laughter.] He was repeatedly
interrupted, and finally exclaimed:
"If any man wants to debate let him
come up here on the platform, and I'll
lam the devil out of him till daylight"
Referring to Gators statement that in
fation of currency did not bring on panics,
he said:
ooh no! Getting drunk does not bring
on headache. It's getting sober that
does"
| He ridiculed the idea of stamping a BIZ
OF paper and calling it dollar withou,
gold behind to redeem it as equal to calling
Il milk ticket milk and bread ticket
bread.
"If you crumbled up bread tickets" he
said, "and put them in bowl of milk
tick cts and stirred them up and fed them
to the babies what kind of children would
you raise?''
Mr.. Irish wound up by declaring that
the only safety of the country and the in.
dividual consisted in being honest and
paying dollar for dollar, and that no sys.
tenn of laws could be devised to avoid re.
sponsibility for an honest debt. The
speakers adhered closely to their subject
and did not refer to political topics.