The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1896-08-28

ance. Can they. where the policy reads $1,000,
| make 1t $4,000? Can the managers of these
/ institutions make 1t right with them? No.
This policy coerces integrity. However hon
est president of a savings bank may be,
| however full of sympathy the president OF a
life association may be, he is compelled to
say:
| down to 50-cent dollars. We loaned dollars
that were worth 1C0 cents; we are now being
paid in the reduced dollar; although the in
tegrity reyolts against IT, our honesty Is co.
creed and we must pay the widow half.
! (Applause)
My friends, these men surely do not con-
! template the irretrievable and extensive char
acter of the disaster and disturbance and dis
ruption which they are proposing for all of us
In all of our business affairs, great and sim
pie. Take the laboring man. How full of
sympathy they are for him! My countrymen
l never spoke false word to the laboring
man in my life. Great applause.) l have
never sought to reach his vote or influence
him by appeals to that part of his nature
that will pollute the intellect and the con-
science. have believed and believe today.
| that any system that maintains the prices OF
labor in this country, that brings hope into
the life of the laboring man. that enables him
to put by, that gives him stake in good
order, In the property of the country, is the
policy that should be our American policy
| (Applausel / have resisted in many cam
paigns this idea that debased currency could
! help the workingmen. The first dirty errand
that dirty dollar does is to cheat the work
ingman. (Applause)
My friends, cold statistical inquiry, non
! partisan in its character, made by a
/ committee of the senate in $780, The commit
| tee was composed of Democrats and Repub-
licans and they set out to study statisti
clans the relative prices of commodities and
| wages at different periods in the history of
our country. This investigation covered the
years of the war. 1t showed how prices of
goods went IN and in what proportion labor
advanced. Goods went up rapidly, because
the pencil process is quick process Wages
went up haltingly ond slowly because the en-
! ployer has to be persuaded, and the pencil
| won't swerve. Now, l have here somewhere
| memorandum of some of these facts result
ing from that investigation. Labor in one
period advanced per cent. Goods, the things
| the men had to buy out of their wages for
! their families and living, advanced 16 per
cent. Through another period the laborers'
| wages advanced 1012 per cent and the prices
| of goods advanced 40 per cent. In another
| period the wages of the laborer went up %
per cent and the prices of merchandise adj
! vanced 80 per cent. In another period the
4 laborer's wages went up 40 per cent and the
prices of goods lit per cent.
Now, these statistics are the result of
cold scientific inquiry, made by men of both
! parties to determine what the truth was,
and the truth they found was that the enor
| nous disparity between the advance of the
/ cost of living and the advance of wages, falls.
in exactly with what we would conclude in
/ advance Laborers, men who work, whether
| with head or hand, in salaried positions,
would do well to take these facts to heart and
| settle the question attire that broad, deep
! inquiry to which Mr.. Bryan invites YOU as
! to whether you want to enter into another
/ experience such as you had during the war
! when wages advanced so slowly and tedious
| ly and the cost Of your living moved on so
swiftly. QMr. Harrison looked at his watch.
! Cries of go on, we are all here.') All of
my strength and my voice is not here
have sketched very hastily some of the evils
that will result from this change to
| A DEBASED DOLLAR.
contraction of our currency by the export
| ing of our gold and readiustment of every
thing. I read the other day in paper
most amusing description of the troubles Of
the ticket agent at Laredo, a station on the
Mexican railway, who had to sell tickets to
people who came from the United States with
United States money going to Mexico, and
then to people who came out of Mexico and
who gave him Mexican money. He had a
large book bound up with yellow paper, and
he had to cover one whole sheet in his cal
culation usually when he sold a ticket.
Naughter.) That is what would happen ev-
erywhere. Everything would have to be re-
adjusted, the prices of everything, the whole
intricate business adjustments of the coun-
try would have to be readjusted, and while
that process is going on uncertainty would
characterize business, resulting in panic and
disaster. m
Now, who will get any beneft?. Well the
man who owes a debt that he contracted upon
a gold basis and is able to pay it with a So
cent dollar. He and the mine owner who
gets an exaggerated price for the products of
MS mine are the only two people or classes
OF people that can see that would have any
benefit out of it. My friends the people who
advocate this class legislation, this Iegis-
lation favorable to the mine owners, to double
the price OF the products of their mines and
otfer this temptation Of reputation to the
debtor class, is the party that has for twenty
years been proclaiming against class legis-
lation Applause.)
They make a strong appeal to the farmer
They say 1T will put up prices. Well, in a
sense, yes Nominally yes; really no. If
the price has increased, you will say but
II the price Of everything else has gone up
IN the same proportion bushel of wheat
won't buy for the farmer any more sugar or
coffee or farming implements or anything
else If that dollar won't buy for the farmer
any more or be better dollar than the one
we nave now, where is the good to anybody
OF introducing these fictitious prices that are
now real? They would work very well for the
r1e II the o Prices Of wheat hay oats and
double, but If everything doubles who is
richer than he was before? Only the men
who bought when we had an honest dollar
and paid in a debased one only the mine
owner who uses this government to add fifty
cents to the value of every dollars worth Of
metal tnat ne produces from his mine: ZAP
plause.) That is not even Democratic doc
tr1ne. 1t involves the idea that this govern
ment of ours shall pay not only it's debts Of
honor, but that it pay the interest on it's
bonds and the circulating notes in debased
currency.
My countrymen, this country Of ours, dur
Ing the troublous times Of the war, may have
had several trials, but these financial ques-
| lions are scarcely less troubous than those.
| During those troublous times we had accum-
| ulated debt SO large that many Of our pes
| simistic Democratic friends told us we could
never pay it. We had had a currency which
| we were compelled to make a legal tender
| and use that the constitution might live but
/ no sooner had the war ended than the great
| conscience Of this people declared the nation
that had crushed this great rebellion, that had
lifted itself in its pride and it's constitutional
| glory to q fearless position among the nations
| of the earth, should not continue to have
| deprecated and debased currency and we
walked up to resumption and we made the
| greenback dollar par dollar in goS. Shall
we now in these times when all the ills we
| suffer are durable If we only pass a revenue
| bill that will generally replenish the treasury
| of the United States. that will generously
! protect American labor against injurious COM
| petition and bring back again full prosperity
| to all our people-shall we now contemplate
| for a moment. allow any power over our
hearts and minds, this temptation to debase
| our currency and put 1t in It's financial posi-
| ton alongside Of the Asiatic countries or our
weak and struggling sister republic of Mex
| leo? Does not every instinct of pride, does
not every instinct of self-interest, does not
| every thoughtful, affectionate interest in
others, does not our sense of justice and honor
rise UP to rebuke the Infamous proposition
| that this government and its people shall be-
| come nation and a people Of reputation.
| (Cheers.)