The representative. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1893-1901, 1896-09-02

country public men, nor a great party
which took position that this nation
must submit to this heartless domination
until the heartless dominators
came and broke our shack
les. But in this campaign for the
first time in the history of this govern
ment, great party proposes to surren-
der the right of self government, and in
vest in foreign legislative bodies the
power to legislate for the people of the
United States. (Cries of No, no. and
great applause.)
THE GOLD STANDARD IS NOT GOOD.
What does the Republican platform
say? Does it say that the gold standard
is good thing? No. No platform ever
written by national party in the United
States ever said that the gold standard
was good thing. Why don't they de-
fend it? Because they dare not defend it
among those who toll. Why do they not
excuse it? Because the wall Of distress
would drown any excuse which they
could present. 1t has been we'll said that
gold in it's last analysis is the sweat Of
the poor and the blood of the brave, and
you can see why the gold standard ad
vocates do not invite contest In the
open field. (Applause.) And when they
say that this nation shall submit to the
evils of the gold standard until relief
comes from other nations, in our judg-
ment they do declare for gold standard
permanently because we do not believe
that relief will come from other lands.
Some of them say that If we will just
wait, other nations will come to our re-
lief. We have heard that preached in
every presidential campaign, and the
ones who have been solid in their decla-
ratiOns in favor of international bimetal-
lism, during the national campaigns are
the ones who, after the elections, have
done all they could to prevent bimetal-
lism, independent or International. The
people will not longer be deceived. If
you wanted to reduce the rate of interest
would you wait until the people who are
loaning money petitioned the legisla-
lures to reduce the rates of interest?
applause and cries of No, no.)
you never appeal to anybody to Sc
cure legislation which will be hostile to
his private interests; then why should
we say that this nation, a great debtor
nation, must wait until the creditor ma
lions come to us to help us stop the ap-
probation of the dollar in which they are
paid. You live here in community
which is both agricultural and manufac-
turing, and l appeal to you to examine
the money question and ascertain for
yourselves whether the restoration of
silver is not good for you.
FARM PRODUCTS AND GOLD.
If you are farmers l beg you remem
Der that under this appreciation of gold
your products have fallen in value, while
your debts and your taxes have remain
ed as high as they used to be. l notice
one of the opponents of free coinage said
the other day that if the farmers had
suffered from falling prices when he
went to sell he had gained in falling
prices when he went to buy. That may
all be we'll enough for some one who is
not a farmer to tell man who is a farm
er. (Applause.) 1t would never be told
by a farmer himself. (Applause.) Be-
cause the farmer knows that while he
sells at wholesale he buys at retail, and
that retail prices do not fall as fast as
wholesale prices, and he knows that
there are certain fixed charges that do
not fall at all. Have your taxes fallen
at all. Have your taxes fallen in the
last 20 years? My observation is that
taxes are are as high or higher than they
were 20 years ago; but If it requires twice
as much of the products of the farm to
pay your taxes they are in effect twice as
high as they were then. If it takes twice
as much farm products to pay the inter-
esSt upon your mortgages then that in
terest is in effect twice as high as it was
20 years ago. If it takes twice as much
of your farm products to pay the princi-
pal on your debt as it took 20 years ago.
then your debt is in effect twice as high
as it was then.
"My friends, you can talk to the
farmers from now until election day, but
you will never convince him that gold
standard has brought anything but ruin
and distress to the farmer
LABOR AND THE GOLD STANDARD
"How about the laboring man? Well,
my friends, there is one good way to
Judge whether those men who now ap-
peal to the laboring man to stand by a
gold standard because it Is a benefit to
the wage Garner, there is good way
of knowing how much faith you can put
in these prOtestations of friendship.
Who are the men who are now telling
the laboring man he must stand by the
gold standard If he wants to prosper?
Why, whenever one of these Eastern
fnanciers is troubled with sleeplessness
the doctor does not ask any questions,
he just says: Just stop your worrying
about the laboring men and go to Sleep
Are these the men who have been leading
the labOring men up to higher ground.
No, my friends. They are the men who
have been too busy trying to moke
money out of the appreciation of the dol
lar to spend their dollars in giving en-
ployment to the men in developing the
resources of this great country.
you cannot employ labor unless you
can sell the products of labor at profit,
and unless money goes up the products
of labor must go down, and the man finds
it more profitable to lock his money up
in the vault and collect it's increasing
value than he does to invest it in enter
prise under a prospect of loss CAP
plause.)
ITO whom do you sell those things
which you produce? Do you send your
shoes to the farmers out West? How
can they buy shoes of you unless they
can get for their products more money
than enough to pay their interest and
taxes? You destroy the consumption
power of the people, and you destroy the
market for your products. More than
that, we owe money abroad, and we must
pay that debt either in products or
money. If we drive down the value of
our products it simply means that we
must send more money abroad to make
up the difference. 1t means that when we
send goods abroad we must send them at
| MI L,