The times. (Owosso, Mich.) 1882-1897, 1896-08-21

"
1 am not here TO infer In any terms the
reproach of the party, or by what terms
II secured majority Of the votes of the
people of the United States; but call your
attention to this important fact, that four
years ago the issue before the American
people was the tariff. made so for the first
part by the men who are here to-day pre-
senting another Issue. / happened to hear
William j. Bryan four years ago, I'm his
congressional campaign In the First dis
strict or my state. pledge you, my coun-
trymen. and II Is a solemn fact, that from
the beginning of that campaign to the end
William j. Bryan advocated no other issue,
made no other argument than that upon
the tarin. / say to you, In all honesty and
sincerity, and the record is my proof. that
neither he nor his associates ever took up,
ever advocated, ever attempted to carry
campaign upon the issue OF the free coin
age of silver until they had discovered that
the judgment of the American people was
everlastingly against them upon the issue
of free trade, that they secured ma
tority of the votes upon four years ago.
IApplause.]
-Four years ago I heard William ].
Bryan say to great audience in my
state: Give us free trade and the Ameri-
can workingman's wages will go up but
they went down. He said: Give us free
trade and business will BOOM but It
busted. Applause and laughter.]
IrOmiseb OF the SltVerltes
''The same man to-day comes BEFORE you
with new promise. They have discarded
the issue of four years ago, and they say
now: Give us free silver and the wages of
men will increase; give us free silver and
new avenues of employment will open up:
give us free silver and the business of the
country will BOOM My countrymen, as
business proposition on which depends
your welfare and mine, In view of the
value of their predictions of four years ago,
don't you think 1t would be advisable to
ask for a little collateral security in aid
OF that promise? Loud applause and
cheers.] Do you think that the man who
defaulted on his promise to pay at q coun-
try bank 500 note four years ago could
make a new promise to pay at the same
bank to-day without at least two or three
reputable Endorsements? [Laughter.]
They say now we have discovered a
nostrum for the ills Of men, and you know.
my countrymen, that nothing sells in the
United States so well as patent medicine,
or a new kind of chewing gum. [Applause.l
You know that nobody secures an audi
ence so quickly as the man upon the street
corner, who promises something for moth
ing, and to-day the whole campaign for
free silver Is waged upon the promises to
this man and to the other man of something
better when free silver comes. In tho
little time / have to-day will discussed
course, in q general way, for cannot with
in these limits so into detail-some of the
arguments that are presented. You are
asked to sail out onto an unknown sea, to
cut loose from all well-defincd land marks.
to go beyond any anchor, and to follow
that glittering sheen that comes from over
the water, that fees before the mariner as
rapidly as his Prov goes.
Prevalence of tho Gold Standard.
Ibid they say to us that this country
has been on gold basis since 1873? And so
hoc and II M 10 OIL irer
tie understood. or so poorly understood, as
that question. What Is q gold baslS7
Since 1873 the standard of values under the
laws of this country has been the gold dol
lar 1 admit 1t, and 1t is true. So has the
standard for England, for France, Great
Britain. Germany and Italy, for Russia
and for all of the great commercial and in
dustrial nations of the earth. 1 put 1t
to you that this Is the accumulated wisdom
of the successful people Of this globe In
every country which has been preeminent
in its advancement along the lines of pros
perity, that all of these countries are on
q gold basis, and In all of them the gold
dollar Is the standard of values.
What of 1t? Why, 1t has taught to the
people of this country that a gold basis
means gold alone, and the exclusion of
tho use of silver and Of paper money. No
statement moro false, no statement moro
designed to deceive has there been made
in any gold country of the universe There
Is in circulatpion, side by side, money
Of equal power to purchase and pay all
the profit of labor and in the field of cap
ital. There is side by side in every gold
standard country of the globe gold, silver
and paper money, all Of II in use.
Let mo tell you another thing. There
Is no country on the face Of this earth. I
care not where you go, that opens its mints
to the free coinage of silver, but what
all other kinds of money than silver and
promises to pay in silver have fled the
land. You cannot go into q country of this
earth where its minis are open to the free
coinage of silver and find a gold dollar cir
culating among the people. Not only that,
but you cannot go to-day into any country
on earth that opens its minis to the free
coinage Of silver but what your dollar,
gold, silver or greenbacks, will buy twice
ns much as the best dollar that Is In the
hands Of the people of any of these coun-
tries. Loud applause.]
Against q DECEASED Currency.
ct am an American. [Applause.] be- |
lieve my country is greater and grander |
than any other. ] have Travelled outside |
this land-upon either side-in Mexico and |
In Canada. If had gone across the water |
and roamed through the great capitals of |
Europe my experience would have been |
the same as It was In Canada. The Ameri- |
can citizen, in travelling outside of his own |
finds that his dollar, with the |
American eagle on one side and the Cod
less Of Liberty on the other, or his dollar
IN paper, representing the promise of his
nation to pay in the best dollar that is OBJ
will be taken without one cent |
discount in every capital city and every |
house Of the civilized world. |
[Applause.1 II It were no more than a mat
er of national pride should prefer not to
Mexicanize American citizenship, for,
wherever I go, pray God may not have
10 go around apologizing for the stamp on |
he dollar and accepting half price for 1t.
.Applause.1
I'VE have coined under the gold standard
n this country and put in circulation more
silver dollars-S0 times more--than we ever
coined and put in circulation before 1873.
stop one moment and look. To-day your
lollar in silver, coined by this government,
g dollar In gold. [Applause.1 And why?
I is because you have surrounded the legis-
alton that authorized II by such safe
guards that the man who takes II, the man
n the store and the man on the farm and
he man In the shop, knows when no
axes Il that not only to-day, but to-mor-
low and next week-aye, and as long as the
republican party lives-the dollar will be
ust the same as II Is to-day, the best dol
ar OF the civilized globe. [Applause.l
Reply to Democratic Theories.
"They tell me, and am urged to II, by
Zones n ha har In, bao hax |