The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1896-09-02

1t, ana persons VINO were htCulpCAS oA
Congress-, and who voted on the meas
rwe, testified that they did not under
Stand that the bin demonetlzed silver.
When the crime was discovered, and
when the American people attempted
to restore silver to its ancient place by
the side of gold. the opponents of free
coinage forced the Bland act upon
Congress as a compromise, and as soon
as the Bland act went into force, the
enemies of free silver proceeded to re-
Deal the Bland act and left nothing in
It's place. But the silver sentiment
GREW until 1890. and in that year the
onponents of free coinage, being afraid
Of the passage of free coinage bill,
secured another compromise, which
was known as the Sherman law.
In the support of that measure
Sc enator Sherman made a speech in
which he said it required more than
S42, ,00o,00 new money every year TO
keep pace with population and indus
try. and he advocated that measure on
the ground that it gave to the people
that money, and yet, in his 'Recollec-
TONS published only a few months
ago, YOU win find that Senator Sher-
man there says that he was in favor
of the Sherman law simply to prevent
free coinage, and that he was willing
to vote for it's repeal the day after it
was enacted if he could prevent the
substitution of free coinage. There
Won will find the ehief-the chief sup
porter of the gold standard policy in
| the United States, supporting bill
| because it gave money to the American
| people and then declaring that he
| would have voted for the repeal of it,
4g,a xa1.v upxt daV
After speaking some time ON the IS
sues Mr.. Bryan said:
| s.Now if YOU Will be on the quiet a
| while / viii talk to the people on the
other side and come back to you later.
FLOOD OF SILVER.
Turning to the crowd on the other
side he said:
.eYou have been very patient. hope
others viii now do as well as you have
| dome. I do not know whether / can
keep track of my speeches or not. !
have been trying to tell those people
| some of the things which l would have
/ told YOU if they had been here.
| Tomorrow you will find people who
i are afraid of flood of silver. There is
/ nothing that excites my sympathy
| more than to find man who never had
1 enough money in his life, wll@ has not
| enough TO pay his debts and does not
| know where the money is to come from
/ to buy food for the next week. There
| are some people, who have an idea that
| the free and unlimited coinage of sill
| yer would in some way, they know not
| how. bring ruin to this country. Did
| YOU ever try to figure out just how a
| man was going to hurt MS, by bringing
| silver here. Let us suppose we had
free and unlimited coinage Of gold and
| silver at the present ratio of 16 to l;
then what? Why, any person in the
| world owning silver bullion could
bring that bullion to our mints and
have it converted into full legal tender
silver dollars just like the ones that
YOU use to-day. Now how could you
he injured? Suppose some man made
up his mind to iniure the American
people under free coinage; how would
he do it? Why, he would take his sill.
yer to our mints. Suppose a thousand
dollars of it. and have it coined into
dollars, then he could take these dol.
lars out to hurt the American people
with them and how would he do it,
He could take that money home and
4
on II, and he would lose the cost oi
coinage and lose the freight both ways
and we could stand it longer than he
could. All, you say that he would
trade that silver for gold and take the
gold away and leave the silver. Where
would he get the gold? Would he
get is at the Treasury of the United
States? Not under bi-metallism, be-
cause under bi-metallism, the govern
ment does not agree to swap, but un-
der bi-metaIlfsm the government con
verts the silver bullion into silver
money and gold bullion into gold coin
and makes them legal tender for all
debts, public and private. But it does
not agree to redeem a gold dollar in
silver of silver dollar in gold.
MORE MONEY NEEDED.
so that under bi-metallism, this for.
eigner could not exchange his silver
at the mint for gold unless the govern
ment was disposed to let him do it
Where would he get the gold? He
would have to find somebody with the
gold; he could not hurt anybody by
trading silver for gold unless he found
somebody who had the gold, and that
would let most of the people of the
United States out of danger In Hi.
Inois last year in a debate my opponent
was very friendly, and we called each
other brother, and in the course of the
speech he turned to me and said: Bro
Bryan will you loan me silver dollar
to illustrate my argument; | have not
Iany." When it came my turn / thought
/ would try an experiment, and / said:
Brother , / want to use gold coin
to illustrate my argument; / have not
Iany; vii You let me have one? He got
red in the face, he did not have any
And then called the attention of the
audience to the fact that I was de-
Tending silver and / had the silver
but he did not have the gold with
which to illustrate his argument and
he bad just told them that gold was
the only good money, but he did not
have a dollar of it, and they did not
have any of it.
sWe are opposed to the gold stand
4 and because the gold standard means