Hutchinson gazette. [volume] (Hutchinson, Kan.) 1895-1902, 1896-08-20
.RIDPATH FOR CONGRESS-
Nominated blythe Democrats
in the Fifth, Ind, District.
He Takes Square Stand on the Silver
Issue and Will be Endorsed by the
Populists.

trict. and when asked for an express
ion on the money question gave the
following:
I'm regard to my nomination for
congress, strove in every way 1 could
to avoid that and to prevent it. My
personal affairs and some public duties
that lie just ahead seemed to preclude
the propriety or possibility of my be-
ing candidate for any Office. ] never
sought Office in my life and never ex-
pect to do so, for the reason that it
seems to me clear that the people have
the absolute right OF initiative in such
matters, I have always contended
that the people should have the initia-
tive in choosing those who should be-
come their servants in Office. The po-
litical life is not at all in my profession
though have profound interest in
the public welfare. have always
symyathized with the people-by
which l mean the great mass of our
fellow-beings engaged in the hard task
of making living. Isympathize with
the laborer and do not sympathize
with the idler.
According to my way of thinking,
our government has been steadily drift
ing away from the people and getting
into the power of special interests.
The circle of government has narrow
ed and narrowed, till it appears to me
the height of absurdity to call it any
longer government of the people, for
the people and by the people, 1 want
to see this process completely reversed.
/ want to see the government restored
to the people. Ibelieve precisely what
Webster and Theodore Parker and
Lincoln said-viz: That our republic
is, or ought to be, Government of the
people, for the psople and by them.
RIGHT TO GOVERN THEMSELVES.
"How can there be any harm in such
doctrine? In the name of common
sense has it come to pass that patriotic
citizens in the United States of Ameri-
ca cannot advocate the right of the
people to govern themselves? Has it
come to that that we have, sure enough
lot of self-constituted masters who
shall tell us what is good for us and
how to obtain it? Are we a lot of
younglings who are unable to lead our
selves, but must be led rather as with
a string and fed on porridge and with
a spoon?
Among the methods as it seems to
me by which the government is to be
recovered by the people is, first Of all,
as the matter now stands, the restora-
ton of our currency. We want our
currency system put back precisely
where it was under the statute and
constitution for the first eighty. one
years of our existence as a nation. Our
statutory bimetallic system of currency
was taken from us in 1878 by process
which 1 do not care to characterize in
fitting terms. Now we propose to have
it back again. The restoration of our
silver money to the place 1T held before
is the peoples cause, and the people in
this contest are going to triumph.
They are going to triumph in the open
light of day under the clear CLEAN of
light and truth.
1.-The silver dollar was of old the unit !
of money and account in the United
States That dollar to this day has never
been altered by the fraction of grain
in the quantity of pure metal compos-
ing it. Every other cuin, whether of
gold or silver, has been altered time
and again, but the silver unit never
The silver dollar was the dollar of the
law and the dollar of the contract. 1t
is to this day the dollar of the law and
contract. To the silver unit all the
rest, both gold and silver, have been
conformed from our first statute of 1902
to that ill, starred date when the con-
sp.racy against our old constitutional
order first declared itself. The gold
eagle of the original statute, and of all
subsequent statutes, was not made to
be $40, but to be of the value of $40.
The half-eagle was not made to be S.,
but to be of the value of S.. The quar-
ter-eagle was of the value of So. so and
the double-eagle was of the value of
$50 Even the gold dollar of 1S4O, mar
velous to relate, was not 81, but was
made to be of the value of 81. The
subsidiary coins were all fractions of
the dollar and the dollar was of silver
only.
NEW MEANING OF DOLLAR
Not a single dictionary or encyclo-
pedia in the English language before
the year 1s7s'ever defined dollar in any
terms other than of silver. In that
year the administrators of the estate of
Noah Webster, deceased, cut the plates
of our standard lexicon and inserted
new definition that had become necess-
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