The representative. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1893-1901, 1896-09-09
Mr.. BRYAN'S SPEECHES.


Continued from First Pagc.)
many months to relieve the people of
the United States from the gold standard,
and, more than that, in my judgment,
just as soon as the nations of Europe find
that instead of waiting upon them we
are going ahead ourselves, the other ma
tions of Europe will come and join in in
ternatiOnal bi-metallism. But, whether
they do or not, the American people
should not be compelled to bow down
and wait for relief from abroad. (Great
applause.)
AS TO CHEAP MONEY.
Now, you are told that you do not
want cheap money. Well, those of you
who produce more property than you do
money do not want cheap money either
How would 1t do to turn your attention
from good money for awhile and fasten
your eyes upon good grapes and good
wheat and good corn? These are the
things which you produce and convert in
to money, and when you make money
dear you make your property cheap.
Whenever you push money up you push
property down.
For 20 years and more we have been
increasing the purchasing price of the
dollar by creating a new demand and as
the new demand has been created by law
the purchasing power Of an ounce of gold
has been raised throughout the world
What is the effect? To the man who
owns money and loans money, whose
wealth is invested in dollars, and in con-
tracts payable in dollars, that legislation
has been a good thing What other class
has been affected by it? The debtor. A
man who has certain amount of money
to pay has to pay the debt by selling
something which he produces, and if the
price OF his products has gone down it re-
qu1res more of the products of toll to buy
an amount of money sufficient to dis
charge that debt
But they tell us that if the farmer has
lost in the falling prices of farm products
he has gained on the other hand, in the
falling prices Of things he buys. They
forget that the farmers sell at wholesale
and buy at retail, and that wholesale
prices fall before retail prices. There are
also certain fixed charges that do not
fall. You know that taxes do not fall.
On the average the taxes which the farm
ers have to pay are as high as they were
~ years ago, although it takes nearly
Twice as much of the products of the farm
10 pay the same amount of taxes. If YOU
nave mortgage of $1,000 drawing per
cent interest, and sell your wheat for 81
bushel, it takes 60 bushels of wheat to
pay the interest; but if wheat goes down
to SO cents perbushel, it takes 12O bushels
of wheat to pay the interest
There are other fixed charges Freight
rates have not fallen. Some one told me
that for some reason or other freight
rates had recently risen in this commune
ty And it is true there has been no fall
in freight rates commensurate in the fall
in prices of property. It means that the
farmer has to live on less and less each
year, that living expenses have been re-
duced.
HIS IDEA OF SOCIETY'S sTRUC-
TURE.
l assert that the producer of wealth,
the farmer and the laborer, are the foun-
datlon OF our society, and that the bust
ness men are the SuperStructure and the
financiers are the roof of the house zap
plause) and yet so enlarged an idea have
these men OF their Importance that they
think society is supported from the top
instead of supported from the bottom
My friends, how can you make your
business men prosper? By enabling more
people to buy at the stores. From whom
do the business men derive their prosper
ity? From the people from whom they
borrow money? No. That is the chan
mel into which they pour a part of the
money the people pay them for the
goods They derive their prosperity
from the people to whom they sell goods
The free coinage of silver will not give
you what they call 50-cent dollar Why
is it they call our dollar 5O-cent dollar?
1t is because this silver which cannot get
to the mint sells for about that much It
did not sell for less than a hundred cents
as long as it could go to the mint. 1t
was not until after demonstration that
the people began to find out that it was
cheap dollar, and we believe that the
opening of the minis to the free coinage
of silver will create demand for all the
surplus silver of the world, so there will
not be a man who can buy an ounce of
silver for less than $1.29 in gold.
We apply the law of supply and de-
mand to silver. We point to the fact that
the repeal of the Sherman law reduced
the price OF silver bullion; We point to the
fact that the suspension of silver coinage
reduced the price of silver bullion, and
point to the fact that just after the pas
sage of the Sherman law in 1890, when
the holders of silver thought that the law
was going to create market for all sur
plus silver of the world, it went up to
$1.21 and it was up until after they found
that after all the Sherman law provided
for there was surplus of silver on the
market. 1t proves that you can regulate
the price of silver by legislation.
RAP AT OPPONENTS OF FREE COIN
AGE.
Some people believe there would be
great speculation If we had free coinage
of silver. They say that men would go
out and buy silver for SO cents and sell it
for 100 cents You will find eminent
financiers telling you what a great bo-
nanza they will have under free coinage.
These men, who never lost an opportuni-
ty to make a great amount Of money,
tell you that they do not want free coin
age of silver, because they do not like to
make money.
There is no speculation in gold here.
Why? Here comes a man with enough
gold to convert into gold dollar, and he
can take that gold to the mint and have it
converted into gold dollar, and there
fore whoever comes to buy that gold from
him must pay him the mint price for the
gold. We do not now, under our present