Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1896-09-10

restoring prosperity must inevitabl,
delay, and for a long time, il not per.
manently prevent its return.
The reduction in the value and
amount of the present currency. by the
expulsion of the gold and the fall from,
gold to silver basis, would be SC
great it could not fail to bring about
such business disaster as this country
has never known.
Let this agitation cease and business
will revive and prosperity return
- The great beneficiaries of the free
coinage scheme, are its originators-a
small number of rich owners of the
silver mines. They have been moving
in it for years with matchess energy
and skill. and they have indoctrinated
large sections of the country with their
fallacious theories. They furnish the
brains and the money. and they have
their advocates in every part of it.
They act in concert and thus consti-
tute rich, powerful and dangerous
trust. They demand that the product
of their mines. silver. shall be the
basis of the currency. 1t is now fully
Yer mines of the world.
Forty years ago their annual product
was worth 30 thousand dollars. In 1895
it had reached at the ratio of 16 to /,
- million dollars.
Who can estimate what it will be in
the future; and what kind of a basis
1t could be made, with so large a per
centage of the annual supply in the
hands of an INSCRIPTIONS trust. with
power to increase or diminish it as its
interest should require?
| commend it for the business men
and the producers of the great crops to
make the estimate, and consider how
stable q basis silver would be likely TO
prove
The scheme also provides that the
silver which the mine owners should
have on hand, now worth a trifle more
than 80 per cent, could be taken to the
government mints and coined into the
new 30 cent dollars. Last year their
product was worth SIG, Az. o0o in gold
This amount would he coined into y
million dollars.and give modest bonus
to the trust of sc million dollars of the
new coinage.
But it does not stop here. The gov
eminent by free coinage would furnish
an annual market for the product of
the mines whenever the trust wanted
it coined.
We can now see the motive at the
bottom of the wicked scheme of re-
dishonor and wide spread
destruction of property amounting to
thousands of million of dollars
As citizen of Maine | cannot see
how l can honestly aid in taking 50
per cent of the 90 million dollars in
the savings banks of the State belong
ing to 100 thousand depositors land a
like percentage from our colleges and
others,) amounting to more than 30
million dollars, and giving it to the
large cities and towns in the West and
the corporations and others who do not
need it,-a gift that the best men in the
W est do not ask for.
| must enter my protest against such
and | cannot vote for any can
didate who stands upon a platform that
it.
While | remain a Democrat with UNI
attachment tothe old Demo-
cratic principles and party. to give
effect to my protest. and as | stated
before I knew there was any sound
money Democratic candidate for gov
ernor in the field, that | should vote
for the Republican candidate who stood
for honest money, | intend to
vote for Mr. Powers
The recent nominations by the Demo-
iff I,,fl
cellent ticket upon a sound Democratic
platform gives assurance that the
Democratic party still lives, and is
destined to live. to continue to be the
defender of the constitution and con-
rights.
No party can long survive that has
in it's platform the rotten undemocra-
lie planks of anarchy and communism
Very respectfully yours.
(SigneD JAMES w. BRADBURY.
The reading Of the letter ELECTED
great applause.
When the chairman read the para
graph stating that the writer should
,ast his vote for Mr.. Powers on Mon
lay next there was a burst of APP
plause. Mr.. Titcomb then introduced
Sen. Chas. II. Grosvenor, who in his
opening said this was not the first time
when party lines had been broken
down in this country. Many Of his
hearers could remember. as he did,
when Sumter was fired on how peo-
Die united in efforts to save a common
and refused to discuss poll
les until the issue was decided
While the present revolution was
heralded by no gun at Sumter it is
more insidious. more coWardly. and if
t can succeed. more deadly in effect
han war itself.
If this campaign shall lessen the
bands of craftsmanship / shall believe
The country will be the better for it.
The declarations in that Chicago plat
form are just as reasonable as the
declaration at Montgomery, or the
firing upon Sumter Our people are
,oing to keep an eye on incipient reyo-
ution. In 81 they denied the power of
he constitution and of the govern
nent to save the country.