Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1896-08-20

/ people come face to face with great eco
nomic questions. Every political question
must. If II remains before the public long,
be based upon economic truths, and every
economic question IS at last a moral ques-
1 ton, a question Of right or wrong. and no
/ question has ever been settled until IL mas
teen settled upon the basis OF what Is
| right.
Thomas Jefferson never said a truer
i thing than when he said that the art OF
| government is the art Of being honest,
! and that to discern right from wrong re-
i quires not the help of many councillors.
/ He was right. The great principles Of right
and wrong are easily observed, and that
| f. why the people are competent to settle
| every question that can arise in govern
/ rnent like ours.
Not Too Deep for the People.
"And when find people who say that
/ this is a great question, a complicated
| question, as they say the money question
IS, / find that they conclude by saying
| that they have made study of comDiicat-
| ed questions. lLaughterl When see a
person who says IL IS too deep for the peo-
| PIE ] find some one who says II IS just about
| deep enough for him. Applause and
| laughter.I No question IS too deep for the
| American people Egreat applausel, and TO-
J eOO.eOO people. acting az a great jury, must
! finally decide, and they alone can decide
every public question. lApplause.l
81 read the other day in little pamphlet
| sent by some OF the advocates Of the gold
EEdHudEus Cdil themselves aONOcd les OF
| sound money and il contained this para
graph, that all of the fnanciers and capa-
| talists, the only people who are competent
| 90 express an opinion on the subject, are
| in favor of the gold standard. fGreat ap-
plause and laughter.J It first appeared
| in an article I'm the Forum. written by a
| distinguished Frenchman, and was then
| reproduced and scattered over the coun-
| try as literature by the advocates Of the
gold standard, and, therefore, VIC must
| thar 81 their idea that
Only capitalists and nnanciers are COM
petent to express an opinion upon this
| subject. And they are not slow 70 ex-
press their contempt for the intelligence
| and patriotism of all the rest of the peo-
| pie, whom they would exclude from par
| ticipation in the settlement of this ques-
ton" [Great applause and laughter
A Voice-But they can't do 1t.
Each Man the Best Judge.
Mr.. Bryan-My friends. I believe that
| each man, whether he be high or low, rich
| or poor, is the best judge of the effect of
| any proposition upon himself. tGreat ap-
\ plause.J And he alone has the right to
! say how his vote shall be cast and on
| which side his influence shall be thrown
/ My friends, II is the principle of the broad
| est democracy that these questions must
/ be settled by the common people, and
Slat this government has never created
| n particular class to legislate for others
| Tremendous applau1e.l When / say that
no man can accuse me OF attempting to
/ deny the capitalist or the financier the
| right to have his views and to have his
! opinion. and express that opinion, sim
ply deny to him the exclusive right to
think upon these subjects; ] deny 10 him
! the right to act for anybody but himself.
| IGreat applause.1
| I'VE stand upon the declaration con-
| tanned in that immortal document penned
by the greatest constructive statesman
| the world has ever seen, TIE Decla ration
| of Independence. tApplause.1 We stand
| upon the proposition therein laid down,
| and would apply those propositions to
every act of the legislature as proposed.
That declaration says all men are Gre
| ated equal [great applausel, and / chal-
| lenge you to search the constitution,
| founded upon that declaration-search II
/ IL you will, and point to single sentence
| that gives to any class of society superior
rights or privileges to any other class of
society. IApplause and cheers.1
Not Preaching a New Doctrine.
Now, my friends, we are not preaching
| a new doctrine; we are not preaching new
| idea. We arc simply asserting that the
principles that underlie this government
| should apply to new conditions al they
arise. and that you can find out what ought
| to be done by measuring every proposed
| public act by the propositions contained in
| the Declaration of Independence and by the
provisions of the constitution which is
based upon that declaration. That is all
we ask. We simply mean this, that legis-
lative government shall know no disttnc-
| ton, that there shall be known by gov
| eminent no difference between men be-
cause of birth, because Of position in So
| ciety, or because of the manner in which
| they worship God. [Long and continued
applause.I That Is the substance of the
| declaration. That is the substance of the
| constitution, and those principles must
underlie our government while IT continues
in its present form.
Have n Right to Speak.
"You, as citizens. have a right to speak
upon this subject. care not what your
| past party connections may have been.
| Party is but an instrument by which the
| citizen serves his country. Ecu tell me
| you owe something to your party: tell
you that your party owes higher duty
to you than you can owe to 1t. LGreat
| applause.I
ct would not say one word that would
lessen the esteem which any one OF you
nay have for the achievements tx the
pSty to which you have belonged. but
say that such parties cannot live upon the
past. Parties must face the present. Par
ties must be prepared to meet and solve
every issue as 1t arises, and the party
that does not care enough to meet an issue
is not great enough to govern the United
States. IGreat applause.J Parties do not
make issues. Issues make and unmake
| parties. IGreat applause. and cries of
| Right you are.1
IAN issue has arisen. II was forced upon
| growing, and during the last three years
it's growth has been more rapid than in any
three years before this issue was presented
to the American people. The republican
party met in convention. 1t had It's op-
portunity When Abraham Lincoln was
| the idol of the republican party the re-
publican party was willing to meet the
issues of the day. tGreat applause.l
Not willing to Meet Issues.
1.-THE republican party at st. Louis was
not willing 90 meet the great issues of the
| day. tAppIause.l The people were suf-
| fering from a gold standard. The leaders
4 of that party knew IL. In the platform they
| declared that the gold standard is a bad
| thing, because they said they wanted to
| get rid OF IT as soon as they could. Zap
| plause.l II any republican tells you that
the gold standard is a good thing tell him
| laughtcr.l His platform says that the re-
/ publican party will substitute blmetal-
/ lism for gold recommendation whenever
| some other nation will help Us do It, ZAP
| pIause and laCughtc-.i
| II have said and / expect to keep on say
| ing that there are two questions which
\ will drive the republican party from the
| field. The first is: If the gold standard is
/ good thing, why not keep IT? If IL -
/ bad thing, why should we keep it? tGreat
| applause.l If It is q good thing, why try
\ to get other nations to help us to deny
| TO our people the benefits of IL? Applause
| II IL Is a bad thing, who dares to say that
/ the American people shall suffer for a bad
thinS7 lGreat applause.l
Nov. my friends. did not intend to
| make q speech. tCries of Go on; go on. ]
| must stop now"