The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1895-06-18
SILVER CONVENTION AT MEM
PHIS.
Consists of Speeches, Speeches and
Speeches-ResolutiOn Adopted and
a Brief Account of the Proceed
inps Thursday.

parties to meet together and discuss
this great financial question as non
partisans or as partisans, but 1t makes
us tired to read that a portion OF the
large number of delegates put IL much
of their time asserting their
racg." With the record of the Demo
cratic party before us so wildly IL
sounds strange that these delegates
should so enthusiastically assert their
democracy when some of them are
even now endorsing the present natlon-
al administration. But let that pass.
We give below a portion of Thursdays
proceedings, including the resolutions
adopted.
RESOLUTIONS.
''Silver and gold coin have in all ages
constituted the money Of the world,
we're the money of the fathers OF the
republic, the money of history, and OF
the Constitution.
The universal experience of man
kind has demonstrated that the just
use of both silver and gold coin as
money constitutes the most stable
standard of value, and that the full
amount of both metals is necessary as
a medium of exchange.
The demonstration Of either Of
these historic metals means an appre-
citation in the value of money, a fall in
the prices of commodities, a diminu-
ton of profits of legitimate business, a
continuing increase in the burden OF
taxation, a withdrawal of money from
the channels of trade and industry,
where it nc longer yields a safe and
sure return, and its idle accumulation
10 the banks and the great money cen
tres Of the country.
There is no health or soundness in
a financial system under which a
boarded dollar is productive Of increase
to its possessor, while an invested dol
lar yields a constantly diminishing re
turn, and under which fortunes are
made by the accession of idle capital
or destroy ed by a persistent fall in the
prices of commodities and persistent
dwindling in the margin of profits in
almost every branch of useful indus
try.
Such a sy stem is a premium on
sloth and a penalty upon industry, and
such a system is that which the Grim
inal legislation of 1873 has imposed
upon this country"
H PLATFORM
The platform adopted by the conven-
ton is as follows:
The bimetallic standard of silver and
gold has behind it the experience of
ages, and has been tested and approved
by the enlightened and deliberate judg
ment of mankind. The gold standard
is a departure from the established
policy of the civilized world, with
nothing to commend it but twenty two
years of depression and disaster to the
people, and extraordinary accumula-
ton of wealth in the hands of a few.
There are some facts bearing upon
this question recognized and admitted
by all candid men, whether advocates
of bimetall san or of the single gold
standard.
Among these is that the very year
that marked the change in the bimetal-
lie to the single gold standard is the
very year that marked the change
from a condition of rising prices, large
profits, general contentment and great
prosperity to a condition of falling
prices, diminishing profits, insecurity
of investment, unemployed labor, and
a heavy depression in all branches o.
trade and industry. 1t is not a matter
of dispute even among the honest ad
vocates of the gold standard, that gen
eral prosperity came to an end with tn,
destruction of the bimetallic system
and that hard times, falling prices, idI,
wOrkingmen and widespread depres
sion came in with the gold STANDARD
and prevails to day wherever the golC
standard has been adopted.
CONFESSION OF BLUNDER.
Every international monetary con
ference that has been called, every de
maHd in this country aid in Europ
for an international agreement to re
establish the bimetallic standard is
= confession that the demonetiz alton O
, the system was a blunder, if not
crime; that its consequences have beer
disastrous, and that that the condition
that it has wrought are full of menac
and of peril.
The logic of facts establishes beyond
intelligent question that the destruo
tlOn Of silver as nrimarv bv 49,