The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1896-11-01

Promised Land OF political ana imam
cial freedom" Great applause..)
Mr.. Locke Craig, of Asheville, was
then introduced by Mr.. w. j. Peele,
who prsdicted that Bryan would carry
the State by at least $4,000 majority.
Mr.. Craig was received with enthu-
siastic applause. He began by refer
ring to the great fertility of the State,
its great resources and vast possIbill-
ties. Yet, he said, the people were get
ting poorer all the time.
Il was in Currituck county the
other day and talked with farmer
there. He told me that a neigh
Der of his had given him
600 bushels of potatoes this summer
and he shipped them to market and
lost 5000 on them. This shows that
there is something wrong-radically
wrong in the financial policy OF this
country"
The making of the National platform
was reviewed and Mr.. Craig said many
of the Republicans of the West were
not going to stand by the st. Louis
platform.
THE power of money was at Chi
cago, the power of Grover Cleveland
was there, the allurements OF Federal
patronage were there, but they were
not able to cause the representatives
of the people to deviate from their de
termination to make one great effort
to give the people financial freedom.
They tell us that William {. Whitney
went there with $20,000,000 OF corrup-
ton money, but even that was not
sufficient to buy even one delegate.
They adopted a free silver platform
and on it nominated William j. Bryan
(Great applause), and there is not
money enough on the top siGe of the
earth to compass his defeat" Gap
plause.)
Mr.. Craig then went into an elo-
quent discussion of the financial ques-
fion He prefaced his remarks by say
ing: 81 hope the gold-bugs will let me
talk about money for a few minutes.
They say that nobody has any right
to talk about money except finan-
ciers. Well, now we people who are
not gold-bugs have no money to ex-
pertinent with so as to learn finan-
ciering, 50 we can only theorize about
it,
Under the present system, Mr.. Craig
said, it is possible to corner the money
of the world and put up the prices of
the necessities Of life and coin into
dollars the very blood and muscle of
the people. He said one member of the
Rothschilds family controlled one-half
of the gold of the country.
Mr. Craig now turned his attention
to the gold-bug objection that the silver
dollar under a free coinage law would
not be worth but SO cents.
Col. @. Bent Afford Fifty cents, its
gone down since Bryan has been can
didates."
Mr.. Craig-"So much the better
Now, here is a silver dollar coined in
1897, while Washington was President,
and it is worth 100 cents, measured
in any of the products of human effort
anywhere on the top side of the earth.
Now I'll ask my friend, Mr.. Afford,
here to lend me a gold dollar to illus
trate my argument"
This caused great applause and
laughter which swelled into a mighty
roar or shouts and yells as Col.
Afford fished in his pocket for the coin
which he knew was not there. Then,
as he rose to his feet, with his back
bent like a cancels in his effort to
reach the bottom of his pocket, the
whirlwind of applause increased to a
cyclone of shouts and stamping. Afford
Craig stood by laughing. Finally, as
red in the face as boiled lobster, Mr..
Afford drew forth silver dollar say
ing: That's as good as gold''
Mr.. Craig took the coin and de-
nounced the men who were defending
the characterization of silver and then
declaring that the silver dollar was
not an honest dollar. He exposed
Jeter Pritchard's sudden change from a
silver man to a gold-bug and said he
had betrayed his people and they
should now tell him to go to Wall
street and to England, whom he is
now serving, for the votes to send him
back to the Senate.
When Vance's name was uttered by
the speaker a great burst of applause
broke forth and lasted nearly a minute.
Mr.. Craig read the great commoner's
last eloqent words in the United States
Senate, predicting the great uprising of
the people which was so soon to follow
upon his death.
1.-THE gold standard is guilty, guilty.
guilty, and on next Tuesday the peo-
Pile viii come in with that verdict
which has already been registered
against it in high Heaven. The case
has already been argued before the
jury of the great common people of this
country. | have no doubt of the verdict.
If it is not unanimous it will at least
be 16 to l." Great applause.)
At the close of Mr.. Craig's speech
Col. Rent Afford was called for. He re-
sponded with alacrity, but the audience
was not in a humor to listen to his
"nnanswe-rables, so part of the crowd
went out and the rest howled so that
the Colonel had to sit down