Semi=weekly graphic., 1896-07-18


 ard Is good thing we point to their platform and tell them that their plat form pledges the party to get rid of gold standard and substitute bimetal- lism
 If the gold standard is good thing. why try to get rid of itf knight call at tention to the fact that some of the peo- pie who are iJ4 this convention today and who tell you that we ought to declare in favor of international bimetallism and thereby declare that gold standard is wrong and that the principle of bi- metallism is better-these very people four months ago were open and avowed. advocates of the gold standard and tell ing us that we could not legislate two metals together even with all the world.
 want to suggest this truth--that if the gold standard is good thing we ought to declare in favor of it's retention and not in favor of abandoning 1t; and if the gold standard is a bad thing, why should we wait until some other nations are willing to help us let go? Here is the line of battle. We care not upon which issue they force the fight We are prepared to meet them on either ls- sue or on both. If they tell us that the gold standard is the standard of ciyili- zation, we reply to them that this, the most enlightened of all the nations of the earth, has never declared for gold standard and both the parties this year are declaring against it. If the gold standard is the standard of civilization, why, my friends, should we not have itr So, if they come to meet us on that. we can present the history of our nation.
 More than that, we can tell them this-that they will search the pages of history in vain to find single instance in which the common people of any land have ever declared themselves in favor of gold standard. They can find where the holders of fixed investments have. Mir. Carlisle said in 1878 that this was struggle between the idle holders of idle capital and the struggling masses who produce the wealth and pay the taxes of the country; and. my friends, it is simply question that we shall de- eide upon which side shall the Demo- cratic party fght-upon the side of the idle holders of idle capital or upon the side of the struggling masses? That is the question that the party must answer first, and then it must bo answered by each individual hereafter.
 The sympathies of the Democratic party, as described by the platform, are on the side of the struggling masses, who have ever been the foundation of the Democratic party. There are two ideas of government. There are those who believe that if you just legisiate to make the well to do prosperous their prosperity will leak through on those below The Democratic idea has been that if you legislate to make the masses prosperous their prosperity will find it's way up and through every class and rest upon it.
 You come to us and tell us that the great cities are in favor of the gold standard. tell you that the great cities l C.. Io ries. Burn down your cities and leave our farms, and your cities will spring up again as if by magic; but destroy our farms, and the grass will grow in the streets of every city in this country My friends, we shall declare that this nation is able to legislate for it's own people on every question without wait ing for the aid or consent of any other nation on earth. Upon that issue we expect to carry every single state in this Union.
 I shall not islander the fair state of Massachusetts nor the state of New York by saying that when it's citizens '
 are confronted with the proposition, Iz | this nation able to attend to it's own business?-I will not islander either one by saying that the people of those states will declare our helpless impotency as 8 nation to attend to our own business.
 It is the issue of 1778 over again. Our ancestors, when but 3, 900. 900, had the courage to declare their political in- dependence of every other nation upon earth Shall we, their descendants, when we have grown to 70, 900, 900. de- clare that we are less independent than our forefathers? No, my friends. it will never be the judgment of this people.
 Therefore. we care not upon what lines the battle is fought. If they say bimetailism is good, but we cannot have 1t till some nation helps us, we reply that instead of having gold standard because England has, we shall restore ! bimetallism and then let England have bimetallism because the United States has. lii they dare to c0rna oTt and in kha