The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1896-08-25
TOM REED AT
OLD ORCHARD.
CONTINUED from First Page.1

was ruin.
Then began the slow growth of con-
! hdence again, which took years, but
| England's prosperity did not perish In
| our own country we have had many
such instances, many more than mean
/ to mention, for history on that subject
| is as cheap and abundant as wheat
\ when times are hard.
| We have just passed through an
\ other of those terrible crises, and are
| on our way to other years of wealth,
| with this additional benefit, that the
| distribution of wealth, when we reach
! it, will be more even, as well as more
| abundant, than ever before. In 1898 we
| had as great a crash as we had in 1873
| and all the world went with us but for
| special causes we had gone further
and it is for us a long way back. In
| 1892 we thought hard times were ban
! Ished forever. We were sure that work
! and high pay were never more to be
/ separate. But we were mistaken. Pride
goeth before destruction and naughty
| spirit before a fall. The election of 1892
| was a great misfortune. 1t may be we
| would have had a collapse then any
! how, no one can be quite sure. But if
we had been in skillful hands we
| should never have gone so far or suf-
/ fered so much.
When the Sherman law was strug-
| Cling to be repealed the Democratic
press and even some Republicans, told
| US that repeal would be the final RENE
| dy and business would revive. never
| shared that belief. On the contrary. Just
! three years ago today, lacking two days
| While l was consOrting with good Dem
| ocratS and hope to consort with the
| like in this campaign, I took occasion
| IN the presence of 5000 men, women
and children. to declare that the repeal
| OF the Sherman law was only one step
| in the onward march. Since then many
! bad things have happened, plunging us
| deeper and deeper in the nlire. In that
| very discourse I told the Democrats
that did not expect the Democratic
! party 70 be utterly bad, but l had not
at that time the slightest idea what the
| Chicago convention would do or say in
| 1896. Since that speech we have had
/ severe lesson. When the tariff act pro-
posed by Mr.. Bryan and his associates
! was presented in the house, it was GER
! tainly a great shock to the business in
I tereStS of the country. The change was
| radical and men like Mr.. Bryan were
carried away with the possibilities of
| their own elOQuence there seemed no
possibility to the limit of the evil. Now,
1 do not propose to charge Democrats
! with that bill. The one they finally
passed was vastly different one. But
the mischief had been done. The shock
| had stopped business.
Then came the income tax, uncOn-
| stitutional and destructive, declared so
| by the supreme court, and then the at
! tendant deficiency. The deficiency has
been a broadening sore ever since That
deficiency, in the way it has been man
| aged, has scared and frightened our
people beyond all reason. What are
$4OO,OO0OOO increase OF debt to nation
so rich that one of its big railroads, on
half its lines, can lose twice much
as paid the whole revenue of good
| Queen Bess in the days of her highest
/ glory and never pass coupon or re-
! fuse a dividend? Why has this four
hundred millions frightened us so? Be
| cause the government has refused
| either TO raise a revenue or separate
/ the deficit from the redemption of
greenhacks. Had the house revenue
! bill of the last session passed congress
i and become law. the country, with
full hope in a Republican administra-
ton in the near future. would then
have started upward and onward.
But the condition has been peculiar.
We have a three cornered. triangular
government. Everybody has been in
the minority, and hence nobody has
had any responsibility, and we have
drifted sailless and rudderless, but,
thank God, with stout ship, Stouter
than all the winds that blow. When
next you put that ship in commission.
had you not better have harmonious
captain and crew, all of them men who
have been to sea? know that the
four gentlemen, Messrs Bryan and
Watson and Bryan and Sewall have
been at sea for many years, but that is
q different thing.
I'VE must restore confidence How
confidence? First by putting anarchy
down, and all manner of disturbance.
Peace and a stable government are the
first necessity. This is a borrowing
and a lending world. No amount of
denunciatiOn of money lenders. no wild
talk about Wall street, which, by the
way, is the greatest money borrower in
the world, will ever put down that fact.
Enterprises are carried on by the unit
ed confidence of men and money and
men of brains. Bring this thing home
to yourselves, and then you will I'M
derstand it. If you had money or any
other capital you had earned yourself
or your father had left you, or even if
you had won in the luck of lottery,
would you let it out to anybody on
earth who was liable to give you back
I7aTf of n
square? If you were business man
would you make things on gold basis
and sell them on credit to a people who
were trying to see if they could not
pay you on a silver basis?
with the defeat of the Bryan Wat
SON Sewan combination will come the
certainty of the repayment of capital
borrowed at home and abroad, certain
ty that business enterprises will have
firm foundation, and 1897, with its at
tendant years of success, will lift us to
another height of success, where, per-
haps, another set of misguided citizens,
fOrgetful of the past, will waylay US,
and we will beat them again.
Remember that this contest today is
not between bimetallism and mOnOmet-
aIIism. That subject would bear dis
cussiOn. This contest is between sill
yer nonone tallism, which we have not,
and gold recommendation, which we
have. That subject will not bear can
did discussion. This contest also is not
between the east and the west. There
can D6 no SuNu NOAANNoAs Jul AAANCACSlA
are Identical With their growth comes
our growth. We cannot go on alone.
We have sent our children there; our
money is there No misfortune can
happen to them that does not happen to
us We here have full esteem for the
pioneers of the west and rejoice in their
prosperity. Every wise man agrees
that beyond the Mississippi lies the
great wealth of the days to come. In
the development of this wealth we are
all interested, and we, in the east, are
not the unwise men to believe that we
are not concerned in the progress and
future of the west Unfounded sec