The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1896-08-27
TATE
Action of wisconsin Gold Democrats
by Mr.. Villas.

MILWAUKEE,, Aug. 26.-It was IL o'clock
when Provisional Chairman Ellie b. Usher
called the convention of gold Democrats to
order at the Stadt Theater. Mr.. Usher i'm
mediately introduced John Brennan. of
Stevens Point, who had been selected as
temporary chairman. Mr.. Brennan made a
ringing speech. which was received with
great applause. When he declared that the
Bryan crowd could not read the true DEM
ocrats out Of the party the delegates
cheered vociferously. Both Gen. Bragg and
Senator Villas, when they arose for the first
time TO speak upon motions. were loudly
applauded. The committees were then
named, with General Bragg at the head of
the committee on resolutions. The attend
ance was not as large as had been hoped.
but what the convention lacked in numbers
1T made up in enthusiasm and in the char
acter of the gathering. The great majority
of the delegates were representative pro.
fessional and business men and about every
congressional district was represented. Sem
ator Villas delivered a long speech. in the
course of which he said:
What are the conditions presented to our
deliberations? On all hands ii must be
seen that there is but one overshadowing
and dominant issue TO be decided i'm this
campaign. That truth Mr.. Bryan has rec
SiiEc ne dNONeu IL IN New YORK.
Whatever the interest or faulty of any
may lead them TO assert. whatever appeals
may be addressed to the ghosts of past
controversy. this fact must be recognized
by every intelligent man: The impending
crisis in our political affairs turns all upon
the solution of this one overruling ques-
tiOn: Shall the existing standard of money
be swept away with all its fatal conse-
quences TO business, to labor and to en-
terprise and new. debased and uncertain
proposal that the United States shall open
its minis TO the free and unlimited coin
age of silver at the ratio of Ii to 1. -
There can be no intelligent man who is
not to-day painfully conscious of the i'm
minence of danger which menaces our
of a sudden and radical debasement Of the
money standard by the United States. of
Reputation of public and private contracts
by decreeing their enforced payment in de-
based coin, has awakened Arrangement and
alarm not only in this country. but
throughout the world: an apprehension
such n thing is possible of accomplishment
with the American people. No advocate of
free silver even, except the noisy gabblers
who have not yet escaped their pithecoid
inheritance. but feels in his heart that the
experiment proposed is one of awful risk.
Ninety-nine out of every hundred instruct
ed financiers and intelligent business men
of this country. yea of all the world, know
as clearly as the astronomer knows the
times and seasons Of the planets that 1t is
not a risk. 1t is an assured certainty of
disaster ~unsDeakable.
mot since our sky reverberated TO the
roar of cannon when Fort Sumter fell.
followed by the unbroken gloom that over
spread IL for the many years of our ma
tional agony. has such a dark pail over
nhi US as r was cast by the convention at
been paralyzed by fear. Nobody dares loan
money on long time. Nobody dares start a
new enterprise. Nobody dares make new
engagements for the employment Of men.
Nobody dares trust longer to the spirit of
confidence and credit upon which alone
the world of Industrial affairs must be sup
ported. Some European fnanciers and in
vestors already advise the surrender of
American securities: others with anxious
issue of this extraordinary political con-
ffict.. But for the patriotic action-and
patriotic it was. however. also promoted
by self-interest-by the great bankers of
New York In their recent confederation TO
bear the losses of exchange rather than
permit the expectation OF gold, a panic
would already have been upon las. 1t is to
be ardently hoped we may pass safely
through the ensuing months of political
controversy. But nothing can save us
longer except that outcome of sound public
Judgment, that trusty resultant of Amer
lean public opinion which has never yet
forfeited its title to confidence and respect.
by which shall be stamped out at the polls
the possibility that this country may be
delivered TO ruin.
I'VE have a respite in which our saliva
of America alone 10 secure Ii 10 them
selves. The prosperity and success of our
industries. the TSSlOTdtlOn Oh energy, the
happiness of our countrymen for the years
directly before us, turn upon the event. Yea,
perchance the issue may be for greater.
Who can mediate the lessons of the past
and fail TO see q darker. more ominous
cloud above our horiZone Behind this i'm
mediate blast of Populism more perilous
tornadoes gather. Were this country to be
dragged deeper down I'm financial misery.
IL credit. now so shocked. shall be utterly
destroyed and our coming years be a
struggle between alarmed creditors and
desperate debtors, while industries lie in
paralysis and labor tramps in hunger. who
can foreSee the next stroke of a blind and
furious popular agony
IF II be indeed Il possibility that the
strudy conservatism of our Anglo-Saxon
character is gone and a mercurial instabil-
ity and ftfullness have come instead. IL not
only n convention will forego reason and
be ruled by silly emotional gales. but the
great steady American mind shall also sur
surely we have retrograded at least a nun
dred years and may find the suggestion OF
our peril I'm the bloody horrors by which
the Wild multitude of France made hideous
the expiring years of the last century. IL
the people of the United States be capable
of accepting their financial teaching from
men who never had financial training or
experience. defying the accumulated wis
dom of all scientific study and practical
lion nation Is to be taught from travelling
carts by noisy mountebanks "a quack nos
tIGms are vendcd to the gullible; If men
who were never able 10 own a boat on an
interior pond OF business shall set the sails
and take the helm OF the ship of state on
the ocean currents Of the great worlds