Gloucester County Democrat. (Woodbury, N.J.) 1878-1932, 1896-09-17

very much afraid that the confidence man Is
abroad in this campaign preaching, Have
confidence, have confidence and all will be
we'll " My friends, confidence must have a
basis to rest upon. Our opponents say that
unless we shape our financial policy to
suit the pleasure Of foreign nations they
will not loan us any money. We reply that
as long we shape our financial policy
according to their pleasure we will al
ways be borrowers and can never be
money loaners ourselves. Confidence must
rest upon substantial basis Suppose
that man in your community gives out
his notes until everybody has them, and
then somebody tries to collect a note and
fnds that the man has no property behind
his note. How can you restore confidence
In that man? You can inspire confidence
in the notes just in one way-that Is, by
putting property behind the notes that
are out. My friends. how are you going
to restore confidence In the United Statess
By legislating value out of the property
upon which notes restg You have tried 1t
and you have found your bankruptcies
have increased year by year, and the only
people who have prospered are those who
own investments, people who make their
money out of the extremities Of the gov
ernment.
II you want to restore confidence you
have got to restore prosperity to the great
mass Of the people and talk as much
about good property as they have been
talking about good money.
Moneys Purchasing Power,
Money can be too good. 1t can be so
good that you can long for it and pray for
1t, but can't get dollar Of 1t. Remember,
that whenever You make money dearer,
when you increase Its purchasing power,
You have simply driven down the value Of
other things, and If those who own money
and hold contracts payable in dollars are
willing to so lcgislate to make their prop
erty more valuable how can they appeal
to those who own property and debts to
join them in that sort Of legislations
have asserted and assert again that with
out the aid of the money owning classes a
gold standard would not stand for one day
in any nation under the sun.
1 assert that behind the gold standard in
this country the only potent force consists
Of those who hold fixed investments and
those who as brokers provide or carry out
greater bond issues They tell the labor
ing men of its nation that they ought to
support a gold standard The laboring
men have never found the flnanciers of this
nation the men who have injured them
selves to improve the condition Of the la
boring man. As rule, the men who have
spent their time trying to break up labor
unions, the only protection the laboring
man has had, these are the men who now
come to the laboring men. / ask you II
you are to expect blessing from those
from whom you have only received cursing
In the past.
notice that one of our opponents the
other day said that the soldiers-the old
soldiers-would be opposed to free coinage.
They gave the impression that the finan-
ciers are very much interested In maintain
ing the gold standard for the benefit Of the
soldiers. My friends, these men forget that
all Of the soldiers lived through the war
and that during the war the soldiers knew
that the financiers made all their bonds
payable In gold and left the soldier TO offer
his life upon the battlefield More than
that, friends. / don't believe that the sol
diers who were willing to offer their lives
II need be in behalf of their country are
today going to join in conspiracy to en-
slave 70,000,000 free people by lettering
them to gold standard
A General Principle.
Our opponents-at least some OF them
have been appealing to the ministry. 1
have noticed that some of these advocates
of a gold standard have said that the
preachers or teachers of religion should ia
yor gold standard because their salaries
were 50 small that they didn't want them
reduced Well, now, am willing to con-
cede everything that is right to our opp
nents, and must confess that there is one
argument which they might make that
would appeal to some ministers, IL there
were any ministers who were in the bust
ness of the ministry merely for the dollars
and cents that were In it. 1 say there Is
one argument, which Is an argument that
l cannot answer, and give it TO you for
all 1t is worth, A gold standard makes
hard times, hard times drive men out OF
employment, idleness Is conducive to crime.
Therefore, a gold standard, by increasing
the amount Of crime, increases the demand
for ministers to put down crime. If there
is any other reason why a minister should
favor gold standard have not heard of
1t. Even the most astute OF our opponents
have, as far as | know, never urged the
reason which have suggested to you.
MY lEi5uuS, JHef6 Is bfllS HeUeTdi pTDlcl-
pie that you can use in governing your
course. You can rest assured that in the
long run any policy which brings prosper
ity to the great mass of the people shall be
shared by all the people. III you cannot
see just In what particular way any given
measure is going to benefit you in your
business If you can satisfy yourself that
the general public will be benefited by that
measure, you can rest assured that you
will receive your proportionate share Of 1t,
but l challenge you to search In all the
pages OF history for a single instance where
the mass of the people were ever benefited
by legislation that increased the value of
the dollar in which debts had TO be paid.
Modern Yellow Fever.
My friends, our opponents sometimes
tell US that this silver sentiment Is dis
ease. They say it will run its course like
whooping cough or measles. No, my
friends, 1t is not disease. The silver SEN
timent is the outgrowth of a condition.
You cannot destroy the sentiment until
you have removed the condition out Of
which that sentiment arose. | can retaliate
upon our opponents and tell them that this
gold standard idea Is a disease, 1t Is the
new yellow fever. But there Is this differ
ence between the new yellow fever and
the old yellow fever. The old yellow fever
killed the people who had the fever. The
hew yellow fever is death to the people who
don't have the fever.
How can you restore bimetallisms You
have got TO have plan If you want to do
1t. Our opponents tell you that our policy
would disturb business. We tell them that
business Is already disturbed. They tell
us that If we succeed in this election
there will be an interim Of few months
before we cln put our policy in operation.
We tell them that If they succeed there
will be four years interim before they
can put their policy into operation. You
say you want to stop the agitation How
are you going to stop the agitation so long
as you have no fixed policyf What is the
policy of the Republican party upon the
money question: 1t is to wait until some
other nation tells us we can act for our
solves How long win we have to waltz
Oh, my friends, If our opponents succeed
In this election, can they give us any as
surances as to how long 1t viii take foreign
nations to help us restore confidences There
is no assurance. The success Of our op-
ponents In this campaign simply means
four years more of agitation and then the
trial OF the remedy which we ask you to
try today. We propose that this agitation,
which has lasted for 90 years, shall cul-
inmate now in the restoration of the gold
and silver coii.age of the constitution.
That is all we ask. NV friends, there Is no
other way by which you can stop the agi-
tation. You say you don't believe In the