Custer weekly chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, S.D.) 1890-1931, 1896-07-04
DRAMATIC INCIDENT
Speech of Senator Teller at Re-
publican Convention.
The Silver Leader Points Out His
Objections TO the Gold Plank
and Bids Goodby to
the Party.

st. Louis, Mo, June 1S.-The following
Is the speech made by Senator Teller
on the motion of Permanent Chairman
Thurston to adopt the report Of the com
mittee on resolutions on platform:
Gentlemen Of the convention: / Will
not attempt to infict pom you a dis
cussion OF the great financial question
which Is dividing not only the people Of
this country but OF the whole world.
The few moments allotted to me will
not enable me to do more than state in
the brlefest possible manner our objec-
tons to the financial plank proposed for
your consideration. | am a practical
man and ] recognize the conditions ex-
listing in this convention, f~oreshadowed
as they have been by the action of the
committee on resolutions to whom this
proposition was presented and by whom
Ii was rejected.
Loyalty to my own opinion compels
me in the face of unusual difficulties To
present this substitute for you consld-
era ton. not with that abiding hope, o
with that courage with which | have
presented the same views in other bod
les with a greater measure of success
than I have hoped for here. The great
and supreme importance of this question
Is alone my excuse for the few words !
have to say to o I have dealt with
this subject in a public capacity for
now twenty years. / represent a state
which produces silver. but I want to say
TO YOU here now that my advocacy OF
the proposition Is not In the slightest
degree influenced or controlled by tina
fact. Applause). / contend for II
because ! believe there can be
10 sound financial system in any coun-
Try in the world that does not recognize
this principle. ! contend for 1t because
plnce 1873, when it was ruthlessly strick-
en- from our statutes, there has been
continued depreciation Of all the pro
ducts Of human nature and human ener-
gy. contend for il because, in this year
1895, the American people are in greater
distress than they ever were in their
history. / contend for 1t because this,
II my Judgment, is the great weight, the
great incubus which has weighed down
enterprise and destroyed progress I'm
this favored land of ours. l contend for
II because I believe the progress of my
country Is dependent upon II. ] contend
for It because l believe that the civil
iZation of the world Is to be determined
by the rightful or wrongful solution of
this financial question. ] am tolerant
OF those n differ with me. ] act from
my Judgment, enlightened IA ! have
been enabled to cnlighten II by many
years of study and many years of
thought. In my judgment the American
people in the whole line of their history
have never been called upon to settle a
question so great to them as this.
What is more important to the Amer
lean people than the question Of a prop
er solution of what shall he the money
system of this land. / have said enough
to show you that l think this is not a
question Of politics. but a question of
principle. 1t Is not a mere idle thing
but one on which hangs the happiness,
the prosperity, the morality and the
independence of American laborers
and American labor and American
producers. For the first time in the his
of this great country we are con-
with the danger of "A great
system. which in my judgment
will be destructive of all the great inter
of the land.
w are called upon to give to this
PROVISION of our platform u adhesion