The record-union., 1896-10-29

though perhaps we can whip our weight
In wildcats. Now, these gentlemen are
around thinking that the United States
- 50 big that the laws of nature are
going to be suspended. Don't give your
selves any uneasiness about that. There
are no miracles that will be wrought
for us. We were tremendously big in
1882. and look at us now. applause
and laughter.)
Oh, but they say, the farmer, If we
would only give him a 5O-cent dollar,
could pay off his debts at half-price.
Well, of course, If you are a farmer
and want to pay off your debts at half
price you want to be niddling honest
about 1t, don't you? So they furnish
You with an argument which makes
up the honesty to their minds. What is
that argument? They say gold has
been going up ever since the awful
crime Of 1878, been going up for twenty
three years, and therefore it will be
perfectly proper for you to pay off your
debts In a deprecated currency because
gold has been going up for twenty-three
years. Yes? Have you owed your
debts twenty-three years? II there is
any one i'll this country who has been
able to keep up a debt for twenty-three
years I wish he would get UP and let
me look at him, because If he has done
that it shows the community has a
confidence In him which I know he
won't betray. (Applause) Your av-
erage debt is only about four years old.
and you are entitled to only four twen-
tythirds of that sum, and guess you
had better not take that. I will tell
you why You would still have one
half of that debt to pay and you would
have repudiated one-half Of it. That
would sound unpleasant to the COM
munity and you would throw wet
blanket over business, and you would
be paying the other half Of the debt
while this community was suffering
just the way it is suffering now. But
if you could get an opportunity to have
a country that was busy from sea to
sea, you know then you could pay off
than you can pay off half Of your debt
to-day. (Great applause)
My friends, it pays to be honest
pays in the good oldfashion, and it is
worth while to struggle to be so. Did
it ever occur to you what effect it would
have to go down so cents on dollar in
diers ought to know.
1t means cutting their pensions in
two, and when you consider that the
United States is under the present
regime running in debt 100000 or
100000 a year, want to know how
you are going to raise the pensions so
as to meet the deprecated dollar? You
cannot do it.
Let me ask what effect it would have
on your savings institutions. All have
got to say about the savings institu-
tfonS is this: Whoever has deposit in
a savings institution and deliberately
reduces the value of that deposit 80
per cent. is not only foohng with his
money, but unfortunately with the
money of a good many honest men be-
sides
How is it with your life insurance?
Do you realize what the extent is of
of life insurance? Since I began to
speak about it on the stand I received
a note from gentleman pointing out
the immensely of that business. Now,
what is the origin Of it? 1t has it's
origin in one of the noblest feelings
which can possess the human heart
the desire to provide after we are mold
ering in the grave for those we loved
in life. How Is that done? It is by
piling up property in the hands of the
life insurance companies and that prop
erty is let out on bond and mortgage,
and every dollar Of those bonds and
| mortgages will be cut down so per
cent. and the good people who are the
trustees of the policy holders and their
| beneffciaries can only pay out the
money which they receive. That is
ALL Now, how extensive is that busi-
ness? They already have one thou
sand one hundred and fourteen mil
| lions of dollaars-within a few millions
of the whole national debt Of the United
States. But that does not show the
extent of the business. The values of
| all the policies in the United States
affect twelve million three hundred and
| fifty thousand five hundred and rinety-
| one men, and the amount is ten thou
sand seven hundred millions. OF that
| the larger part is in the West and
| South.
I could go on giving you any number
| Of instances Of what the effect of this
thing will be ON the business Of the
country, but you want to take this
| home to yourselves. You want to ap-
ply Ii 10 yourselves, you WdUl 10 see
what effect it Is going to have OF your
business. And tell you that the total
effect upon all the business of this
country Of adjusting itself to a so per
cent. basis, the total effect of it will be
ruin, and you have not got to trust my
word for it. Mr.. Bryan was nominated
| for the Presidency in June Or July
That was the first time he began to
cast any shadow In this land, and in
| the month of August the Pennsylvania
Railroad Company, a single corpora
| ton, in a single month, lost a million
and a quarter of dollars. Now that
means something. You may say that
railroad is corporation and has no
soul, but the stockholders have, and the
trainmen have, and certainly we can
espouse the cause of the trainmen a
little. AS / came across this country
| I noticed everywhere that the train
men and the railroad men We're begin
ming to comprehend that if the one
hundred cent dollar went down there
would be no way Of raising rates and
fares, and consequently the pay Of the
trainmen would have to go down, too,
and there would be no way of lifting
| il up.
1 suppose there is no class of people
on earth that is so disastrously affected
| by a depreciating currency as the la
| boring men of the country. I mean
| rhe men that get wages and the men
that receive salaries, for in reality there
| is no difference between them; and they
constitute together 20 per cent of the
people of the United States; and what
ever concerns them concerns every one