The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1896-10-24
MCKINLEY TO KANSAS.


difference to the railroad men of the coun-
try, whom you represent, what kind of finan-
aclal legislation we had, or what kind of
tariff policy we pursued in the United States
have heard it said thousand times from
the public rostrum, that while the tariff
might help the men engaged in the factories
IL had no influence upon the wages OF the
0men who were engaged upon the great trans
portat1on lines of the country. If any of
you believed that statement four ears ago
you do not believe it now, because you know
that upon the general prosperity of the coun-
try depends the prosperity of our great rail-
roads and upon their prosperity depends
your employment and wages You will have
nothing 10 do, if there is nothing to haul
And the more there is to haul, the more and
steadier employment you will have and the
better wages you will get for yourselves and
families
4, In the last three years and a half no char
acter of property has suffered more than the
railroads. Many of them have been COM
PEELED to go into bankruptcy into the hands
of receivers. Many of them have been un-
able to pay either their bonds or the interest
on them; and that is only because the change
in 1882 settled paralysis upon the business
of the United States. Now what we want to
do is 10 get back our prosperity; whatever
will do that is what allsof us ought to be in
favor OF, no matter what may be our several
occupations and employments. A number of
reasons are offered for this congested condi-
ton of business. and number of prescrip-
lions are offered for it's cure.
- The most prominent one is that we will all
be made prosperous and happy if we only
open our minis to the coinage of all the silver
in the world Can any workingnan or en-
ploye of the Santa Fe system tell mo how
the free coinage of the silver of the world
will it benefit him? VIII it increase your
traffic transportation? Will it increase
consumers in the East or the products of the
farms Of the West? Will it increase the de-
mand for a single days labor anywhere?
Will it increase the wages of any working
man to have this government declare that
the pieces of silver that you can buy any
wi m he world for y hall 10
coined as dollars by the government without
expense. and we fool ourselves by calling
them dollars? VIII that help anybody?
viii that help any American interest any
where? All it will do will be- to increase
the production of the silver of the world and
with the increased production CT silver will
come its certain depreciation, and with the
depreciation of silver will be the still Eur
Their depreciation of the silver coins of the
United States. Surely no man wants that
It is not the minis we want to start it is
the great industrial enterprises of the United
States that must start.
( You are prosperous when every factory in
the country is busy and every workingman
employed, making products in the East that
are shipped to the West and growing products
in the West that shipped to the East.
And what we want is. first market for the
products of the great West, so that you can
haul those products from the West to the
Eastern shore and not have products sent
them from the other side of the Atlantic.
You want them interested railroad men,
but you do not want cheap dollar, any
how. This is not a cheap country CA
Voice-And this is not a cheap crowd.)
And as my friend says, this is not cheap
crowd. crowd that will journey more than
a thousand miles; giving up more than twen-
ty-four hours Of time to make the trip, Is
crowd that IS interested in the future pros
perity of our common country which all of
us love so well.
I do not know of any patriotic citizen who
wants US TO adopt the financial system of
either Mexico or China We have today the
best money in the world-the gold dollar
the silver dollar and the paper dollar, each
worth hundred cents because each has the
government of the United States behind it.
Such money is good enough for US and we
have enough of it, but the trouble is 1t don't
circulate. Everybody that has q hundred
dollars is boarding 1t today, for he don't know
what the future is going to bring. There
is not man in the audience who Is making
hundred dollars who is willing to loan it out
unless he is certain he will get 1t back, prln-
cpal and interest; is not that so? There
is not railroad employe who has laid aside
a hundred dollars that will not hold on to it
until he knows what the future currency
of the United States is to be. As you feel
in regard to savings. so Ne men with thou
sands and millions of dollars under their
control are unwilling to part with that money
so long as there Is great party IN this cou IN
try threatening to repudtate not only public
but private debts, and as / have said before,
money does not make business, business
makes money; money does not pflng work,
work brings money.
So ali the years of my public life have
been advocating an industrial policy that
will protect the American producer against
the cheaper products Of other countries and
other lands. l have always advocated
policy that protected and defended the
American workshop against the products of
the alien CT the stranger who comes from
another land and owes no allegiance to the
flag of our country and contributes not a
dollar in taxation to support this great gov
eminent of ours, There is place like
home and the United States is our home.
1t is our business to make home an
ideal one and for third Of century the
United States was an ideal home for all
our people engaged in every occupation. We
abandoned that splendid policy three and a
half years ago. and when we did we
abandoned our prosperity and good times.
What we want to do today is to get them
back again. How can We get them back?
You can get them back by steadily and
firmly setting your faces against the doc
trine Of repudiating the public or private
debts of the country and against the de-
basement Of its currency scand, by voting for
the restoration Of policy that win not only
protect every American citizen and invest
ment, but will put enough money into the
public treasury every twenty hours to
pay every debt Of the government.