Decorah public opinion. (Decorah, Winneshiek County [Iowa]) 1895-1928, 1896-09-01

of silver; and / want to say one thing
70 you--that not one Of these professors
In foreign universities, not one of these
economists whose maine and fame are
worldwide, and not one Of those great
nnanclers who have given days and years
OF thought to this subject, not one, and
nobody except the leaders of the modern
democracy and Populism, has .yentured
70 advise his own country In Europe t.
undertake that task alone. {Appl0nse.)
ca The Question Il. this, and nothing more
S5aii the Tinted States, alone; r- .ac..
.ake the Tree and unlimited Coinage Of sill
eT at a ratio, Of is TO 1? CA few cries
81 ~. yes and mo-" and repeated cries OF
,h no. , NOW, see you gentlemen oyei
n rnere who called yes" and you gentle;
ainerence Of opinion upon this subject
c..aughteEt and 70 you over there who
cohae to iisfen to me, you will listen dis
pasnlonately, you will digest my argu-
ments, and l hope finally that by the
time you have done so thoroughly that
you will be inclined TO shotit 'no" with
the gentlemen who responded when you
responded. Cheering and applause.)
Now, let us be entirely good-natured
about this. / am going to try to give
you the facts, and | repeat II, the issue
is whether the, United Suites fhali at
tempt to. do that thing alone, in the
face of the controlling fact that every
civilized commercial nation upon the face
or the earth, except the Central Amer
lean and South American states, years
ago and before we did abandoned il dt-
terly. And if | shall succeed N con-
vinclng any or our friends that we are
not IN position to do it without inhicting
upoh the country and upon us all injuries
which it will take generation to re-
pair, i shall be more than rewarded
for the pains That l have taken, the OBJ
sseryat;ons that l have made, the studies
l nave gone through and the reflections
which have brought me to my present
convictions. (Applause.l
Shall We Go Backward Or Forwarde
Shall I've, for our own interests stand
along with those nations with which we
have classed ourselves and who are lead
ing the march of humanity, or shall we
so with Mexico, South America, China
and Japan, the rearward half of the
great army Of human progress, and join
those Imperfect and rudimentary civiliza-
tons, which are an ocular demonstra-
ton that no nation ever undertook alone
the coinage of free silver that did not de-
prive itself of gold entirely, (Applanse.)
And you have but to glance upon the
map of your school boy or school girl,
your little son or daughter, to see the
fact recorded there for the education of
youth, to know that every one of those
nations stands upon a lower scale of
progress than the nations which have
declared the policy upon which the Unit
ed States now stands.
My fellow citizens, the warnings of his
tory are all against it. The present ex-
ampies of nations who singly are endeay-
orlng to sustain themselves under single
standard forbid us to enter upon a yOy-
age upon, l was going to say, untried
waters, but no, upon a voyage which we
can plainly see other nations are making
at the present time, where we can plain
ly view rocks of distress, the shoals and
quicksands of their course from the Sc
cure mainland upon which the American
people now stand, and from which our
opponents are attempting to lure them
by false lights and false alarms ZAP
plause.)
Now we have got to take facts exactly
as they are. We are not dealing with
glittering and glowing generalties. We
are administering society and human con-
Germs; society, being perfectly concrete,
infinitely practicable, somewhat selfish.
and | am going TO appeal to the selfish
ness of this audience to know whether
they will assist in bringing about that
which l think | can prove will result
from the arts of the gentlemen who are
attempting to mislead them.
Now, my friends, the world is divided.
just as sharply as it is by oceans and
mountain chains, between the gold coun-
tries, who employ concurrently with gold
more silver money than all the silver
countries contain or circulate. ZAP.
plause.) say that the gold countries
of this world. including the United States
land / call them gold countries for the
purpose not of definition, but of clear,
ness of expression). employ and circulate
more silver than all the silver countries
of the world employ. contain or circulate.
l make another proposition. l appeal
to history and to contemporary facts
which no man can dispute, that every
free coinage country is on n silver basis.
Isn't that so? (Cries of "Yes.'D ! make
another statement for you to think of.
for | am not going to elaborate i'll am
going to get into the figures pretty soon
every gold country uses silver and gold
in amounts nearly equal by money ma
tons. Isn't that so? Cries of "Yes.'0
Isn't that so in the United States?
Cries of "Yes.") In France? Voices
"Ies.D 1 make another statement for
your calm and cool reflection. that no sill.
ey whatever. (Applause) Don't take
my word for it. Go and investigate This
subject. / say that no silver country has
any gold money whatever. and YOU can
search from Mexico to Cape Horn and
find that this statement is correct.
Another statement-and I make IL up-
on sense of my responsibility after an
examination of statistics. In.
yestigatiOns and records-that in eyery
silver standard country wages are pressed
down to the very minimum of wretched
1t is so in Mexico, it is SO
in Japan, 1t is so in South America.
say that in every silver country wages
are pressed down to the very minimum
OF wretched subsistence.
The Reasons.
Now If 1t is true Q will not go into
the reasons for iD, but If it is true as
absolute fact, that no silver
no country which has adopted
the silver standard has any gold circula-
ton whatever, l say that it follows that
the only practicable bimetallism on the
planet is by the nations with which the
United States has classed itself. and il
is this bimetallism in the United States
which the new Democracy and Popu-
|isu are endeayoring to destroy by sub
stitgting silver recommendation. AN
plause.) The bimetallism which this
country and the nations of which have
spoken enjoy is the bimetallism of fact
and actual enjoyment extending to that
full extent which human judgment. hui
man experience, human apprehension
call it what you will-teach is the pro-
sr,x s.. sal, l.