The times. (Owosso, Mich.) 1882-1897, 1896-10-30


money, who will take itY
Labor's Right to Good Money.
And IL anything is to be paid in good
money labor is that thing. If any man Is
entitled to pure gold, it is the man who
labors. Let the big fellows take cheap
money. Let the men living next the soil
be paid in gold.
But want the money of this country as
good as that of any other country. When
our money is below par, we feel below par.
/ want our money, no matter how it is
payable, to have the gold behind 1t. want
1t so good that when savage looks on II
his eyes will CLEAN as though he looks at
shining gold. That Is the money want
in the United States.
want to teach the people of the world
that a democracy is honest l want to
teach the people of the world that America
is not only capable of self government, but
that it has the self denial, the courage the
honor, to pay it's debts to the last farthing.
| That is what l want to do. And yet we
have man running for the presidency
who appeals to all people in debt and says,
"Vote for me, vote for me, and you can
pay your debt In so cent dollars. " That Is
what he says to them. Not very honest
| proposition, but that is what he says,
| "Vote for me, and you can pay off your
debt with half the money it requires now. "
And thereupon the creditor says to Mr..
| Bryan, You are not going to cheat me,
| are your" And Mr.. Bryan says "No; free
| coinage will make silver worth sligo an
ounce In gold; free silver will make the
| silver dollars equal to the gold dollars. -
| And thereupon the debtor holds his coat
tails and says, SIN Gods name, how is
! that going to help me?" In all his speeches
he has been guilty of this contradiction
cheap silver for debtors and silver as good
as gold for creditors-and you know that
man has not seen the Inconsistency of these
two statements yet He will make the
same statement probably tomorrow.
When he appeals to the farmers, he takes
the ground that they are all rascals and
what he has said about the farmers Is an
insult to the farmers, and the farmers Of
Vermont and Maine have replied, and if
the farmers of those states with their soil
can be honest think farmer in Illinois
has no excuse for being a rascal. 1 regard
the farmers as honest men, and when tho
sun shines and the rains fall and the frosts
wait they will pay their debts.
Talks of the Populists,
want to tell you tonight that all the
stories that have been told about farmers
being Populists are not true. You will
find the Populists in the towns, in the
great cities, in the villages All the fail
ures, no matter for what reason-they are
on the Populist side They want to get
rich by law. They are tired of work.
Then there Is another thing want to
ask these gentlemen, because / am of an
inquisitive turn of mind-if you can make
silver IS to l by law when in fact it is 81
to THAT is, it takes 10 ounces, according
to them, of silver to be worth one ounce of
gold. Now, 1t takes 81 ounces to BIO worth
an ounce of gold But they propose by
law to make Is ounces of silver the value
of an ounce Of gold.
If they can do that by law, what is the
use Of wasting all that silver? If they can
by law make it 16 to 1, why not put an
other clause on and make it to ~ And
If they by fiat can add 4S cents worth
of law to SO cents worth of silver and
make dollar, why not make all fiat and
use the silver for forks and spoons? A
Voice in the Audience-How much Is in
the dollar nowP] In silver dollarp The
Voice-Yes. Four hundred and twelve
grains standard. The Voice-That is Is
to l.. That is 10 10 1.
Now, let me tell you, one of our dollars
today, 16 to /, is made equal with gold.
And how is it made equal with goldP Be-
cause the government of the United States
has promised to redeem it in gold. If there
was only one grain of silver in a silver dol
lar and our government promised to keep
it on an equality with gold, 1t would be
just as good as If there were 412. The sill
yer Of the United States today. as coin, Is
lN1%.., 4 L. II
lar, and the moment the promise of the
government is withdrawn all the dollars of
the United States coined of silver will only
be worth 81 cents each. The rest Is prom
ise-not fat, but promise-and as long as
we believe the government Is able, as long
as we believe the government has the hon
esty to redeem its promise, that silver will
be good.
Promises to Pay Money.
Now, there is another trouble. A prom
Use to pay money Is not money. A promise
to pay money is like u nomination for an
office, and the fulfllment of that promise
is like the election to that office, and on
the 4th day of November even Bryan will
know the difference between promise and
fulfllment.
Let me tell you little something about
the history of our money which people
don't know or else they forget. In 1909
we made In this country double standard
gold and silver. And the ratio was fixed
by Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Ham,
ilton, and they both said that they fixed
that ratio ON the commercial price of the
metals. That ratio was Is to l. And we
started with double standard-gold and
silver.
But the double standard has always been
hard to maintain France has changed the
ratio more than 100 times. and, as Dog.
berry says, "where two men ride horse
one man rides behind" So in 1906 they
found there was too much silver in the sill
yer dollar, and Jefferson stopped the coin
age, and no more was coined until 1887,
and then itw that our people in congress
declared that they adopted the gold stand
ard.
They lessened In 1853 the silver in the
silver coins, and again they declared that
their object was to create gold standard,
and in all of the time from 1859 to 1873
there were coined In the United States only
S,O00,0 900 silver dollars, and they had all
gone out of circulation. There was too
much ailyer and Deople croft them and malt