The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1896-10-20
AT R 1.

6e Advocates Nothing Revolutionary
An Honest Dollar Does Not Change it's
Purchasing Power.
a crowd of Is, coo people greeted
Wm. J. Bryan when he reached Pfovi-
donca, r l., where he spoke as follows:
Il do not come to preach 10 you a
new gospel. The position which we
5ake on the money question is an old
position, not q new one. We are not
flying in the fac9 Of natural laws, as
u opponents some times assert, nor
are we trying to Overtusn the princi
pies of political economy. Those who
advocate bimetallism are the only ones
IN this campaign who are telling eco
nomic truths and defending the natural
laws Of trade. When l define an hon
est dollar as an honest dollar which
does not changein it's purchasing power
it may give to you a definition which
has been a sound definition among all
writers on political economy. When
l give you that definition, l am simply
giving you a definition which has been
given TO the world by that distinguished
educator who lives in this city and
who as an honor not only to the city
and to this State, but to the nation.
(Applause)
Professor Andrews, in a recent work
entitled: IAN honest dollar" com
mences the first chapter with the words
which 1 shall quote: cit is always as
sumed or admitted that the ideal sort
of money would be money with a unit
having a steadfast general purchs sing
power" When Prot. Andrews de
scribes the ideal money as a money
whose unit is the steadtast general Or
average of purchasing power, he
planted himself upon the solid rock
and all the fnanciers Of this and other
countries cannot prevail against the
character Of this definition. CAP
plause) TIE poet has told US that IAN
honest man is the noblest work Of
God" We may supplement this state
ment by adding that an honest dollar
wherever it is found or made will be
the noblest work of man, but my
friends, the gold dollar which is praised
to day as the honest dollar, is not the
honest dollar, and those who love it
most, love it because of its own dishCn-
esty as a dollar. (Applause.) An hon
eat dollar is one which preserves it's
general purchasing power from day to
day and from year to year. Then the
dollar which rises in purchasing power
is just as dishonest a the dollar which
falls in purchasing power.
II one Of our Western men advocat
ing bimetalIism calls attention to the
injustice OF the gold standard, they say
that he lacks education, and when i
learned man like Prof. Andrews advo
Gates bimetallism and denounces the
gold standard with emphasis which
cannot be surpassed, what do they say
of it7 Much learning hath made him
mad" We say that any body who
hasa piece Of gold suf1 ;ien6 to
make one dollar can have that dollar
coined into a dollsr, And the fact that
any holder OF gold bullion can at any
time convert that bullion into money
enables him to charge for that gold
bullion the mint price. The mint price
for silver would be established the same
as the mint price for gold has been
established. Under free coinage at Is
to 1 a man who owns silver bullion
knows that he can take it to the mint
and have it converted into dollars of
100 cents of Uai5ed States money.
Some of our opponents have been eel
culating as to how much money they
could make under free coinage in buy
ing silver at 50 cents and having it
coined into 100 cents. If any of you
held silver bullion would you sell it to
anybody for half the market price and
let the purchaser make the proft7 The
Republican party does not present any
financial policy and say that they pro-
pose that the policy will benefit the
people. The Republican party simply
proposes to maintain the policy of their
platform and that platform proposes
be bad when it promises to maintain