The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1896-09-17

! Of ssHit |eln ON the head harder.") The
!! restoration of bi-metallism is demand
! ed on behalf of those who are the
strength Of every nation, and the gold
! standard is desired by those who profit
most as business is paralyzed and the
/ masses impoverished. The best evil
| dence that the gold standard is not
| good is found in the fact that no party
| has ever endorsed it in the United
/ States.
THE REPUBLICAN PLATFORM.
"The Republican party did not de-
clare the gold standard was good
thing. There were in that con-
| vention men who had been
| irving for years to fasten the
| gold standard upon the American peo-
| Dle. but the Republican platform did
not declare the gold standard good,
| but pledged the party to get rid OF 1t.
But instead of trying to get rid of it
now, the Republican party said we
are going to get rid of it as soon as
| foreign nations take more pity on the
| American people than the Republican
party was willing to do. Applause. The
Republican platform declares for the
maintenance of the gold standard I'M
| til-that is the long word-until the
| leading commercial nations of Europe
| ioin in international bimetallism. How
| long is that? No man can tell. 1t is
! equivalent to saying we must main
| tain the gold standard permanently,
| and the reason | believe it is, is that
| the men who put that in never made an
| effort to have the gold standard aban-
| doned. Those who framed that plat
| form have been advocating the gold
| standard as the standard of civilization
| and telling you that we had out grown
| the use of silver If the gold standard
| is the standard of civilization, why
| abandon it? Those who pirate most
| about international bimetallism are
| the ones who do not wanAat. They are
| in the position of a defendant in law
| salt who is always ready for con-
| tinuance or hung jury" (Applause.)
| Mr.. Bryan then went over some of
| the arguments used by him before
| and continued as follows: Il denounce
| the idea some seem to have that the
| government has a right to lessen the
volume of money, but no right to in
| crease it. / denounce as false and in
| famous the doctrine that the govern
/ ment has a right to starve the people,
| by taking their money from them, but
| has no power to feed them by increas-
| ing their supplies. When they tell
| you that you ought to invoke legisla-
| ton for the purpose of increasing the
| volume of currency, tell them you are
| following the example set in 1878 when
| the money owning classes invoked the
| power of legislation to strike down a
| portion of the nations money in or
| der to raise the value of the other por-
ton. Great applause.)
eff they can appeal to the law to
| take away some of the money you had,
why can you not appeal to the law to
| place you back where you were? Cap
plause.)
''FTFTY-CENT DOLLARS"
"Some are afraid if we pass a free
| coinage law, there will be such an
| enormous increase in the volume Of
| our currency that we won't know what
to do with it. For instance, man
| will say if we had free silver it would
give the mine-owners profit of one
| hundred per cent.
when he takes his bullion worth
| fifty cents to the mint and has it
| coined into dollars it is a terrible
| to let him make that profit. After he
has worried about that he will tell
you as a matter of fact that law adds
nothing to the value of the metal un-
| der the free coinage of silver and fifty
cents of bullion will only be fifty
| cent dollar. Both the statements can
not be true. If you coin fifty cents
worth of bullion into fifty cent dol
lar there is no profit to the mine own
ers. And if the mine owner makes
| ,N,.o4e4 I,xr oniYiY,oc S0 capfs xxs1Y,th Of
| bullion into one hundred cents, then
there are no fifty cent dollars. Then
you will hear that under free coinage
we would be flooded with silver until
| money would be so cheap we would
not have any use for it, and when you
have been frightened as badly as you
can be that way, they will tell you
this cheap money will run the dear
money out and it will take fifteen years
with our minis running at full capaci-
ty to make money enough to take the
place of gold and that viii make mon
ey so scarce that a silver dollar will
be harder to get than gold dollar.
(Laughter.) You can't have too little
and too much all at once. An oppo-
nent once put that proposition to me,
in debate. There / was fifteen hun
dred miles from home among strang
ers. / had to answer on the spur of
the moment. just blurted out / would
make more minis. (Laughter.) He had
not thought of the possibility of max
ing more mints.
after making that explanation
lawyer told me he was glad [ had called
attention to it as he had never thought
of the possibility. In order that / may
not leave any special cloud on the
| lawyer, want to say in another State
a doctor made the same remark. You
can understand how a great man
might be unable to think of so small
thing as opening more mints. That
is one of the disadvantages of being
a great man; you can't always think
of little things. Great laughter)
They say cheap silver dollars win come
in and run the gold dollar out and
then money will become so scarce the
silver dollar will be worth more than
the gold dollar. just think of it.