Birmingham state herald. (Birmingham, Ala.) 1895-1897, 1896-09-30
His Speech at Jersey City.


Jersey City, N. j., Sept. 29.--On his trip
through to New York this afternoon Mr..
Bryan made a brief speech at the Acad-
emy of Music here and a br,efer one to
the crowd outside the building. In the
course of his speech he said:
"One of the reasons why, in this cam
paign, I have departed somewhat from
precedent and have gone over myself, is
because it has enabled me to reach the
people themselves, whereas if we had
more daily papers we could reach the
people through them. If my going around
results to my disadvantage, 1t is better
for the people to find me out before cleo
tion than after.
"Our opponents are all the time talking
about maintaining the parity between
the two metals, and neglecting the fact
that under the gold standard we have
failed to maintain the parity between
dollar and property. They entirely ig-
more the effect of legislation when we de-
sired legislation, although they are very
conscious of the potency Of the legisla-
tion when they use it on their side. If in
1873 they had proposed a law such as was
passed in that year closing the mints to
the free coinage of silver, and we had said
to them, Why, law can do nothing on
this subject; commerce regulates the val
ue of these things what would they have
said? They would not have been content
to let commerce regulate them. Then
they wanted the law to step in and strike
down one of the money metals and give
to gold the monopoly of mint privileges,
and when they have done that they have
blossomed out into believers of non-inter-
ference ON the part of the government.
applause and laughter) You say law
cannot affect values. Suppose a public
building is to be located in this town;
why is it that everybody wants the build
ing located near his land? Because it
raises the value of his land. A new har-
bor or the opening of river, or the open
ing of port, brings business to that 10
cality, and that new business brought
there by law creates a new demand for
property, and that property rises by act
of legislation. l have told you of this be-
cause I want you to understand when we
speak of the power of law to AFFECT the
value of silver we are simply applying to
silver the same principles which we rec
ognize
Wnen Applied to Everything Elise.
"Some people think silver can be pro-
duced without limit. l know one way to
cure q man of that idea Let him go out
and try to find the silver mines and prove
by his own experience how easy it is to
increase the supply Of silver. Qaugh-
teri It is true of silver as it is of gold
that many seek and few find. They talk
about the cost of production in silver
There is no basis upon which you can
calculate the cost of production. No.
two mines in the United States produce
silver at exactly the same price per ounce
and no one mine produces silver at exact
ly the same price per ounce year after
year in succession. Mining is gambling
and the man who gets the winning pad
die makes money but great many buy
paddles and never make anything.
Our opponents tell us we are trying to
change the yard stick. We tell them
that they have been changing the bushel
measure and are compelling Farmers to
put two bushels of products into one
bushel.
'.As the gold standard goes on doing
the deadly work. it simply means there
will be more idleness and more suffering.
We can say of the gold standard that all
it's ways are ways of wretchedness and
all of it's paths are ruin to the masses
of the people. (Applause) There is no
danger of foreign coin coming here and
overwhelming us because 1T is worth
more at home. There is no danger of all
the annual product coming to US because
all the other nations that use silver must
have their share. The arts must have
their share We simply have to use what
other nations and the arts do not con-
sumo Instead of having too much j am
afraid we will have too little money, too.
In the development of the resources of
the country we can utilize more money
than can be utilized by a similar num-
Der of people in any other part of the
world. But instead of having an in
creased amount of money to carry on an
increased business and to give us in
creased development, we have decreas-
ing currency and the republican party
offers no remedy for the situation Gap
plause.)
I'VE have in circulation among the peo-
pie S150,000,000 less this year than we had
two years ago, and yet the republican
party proposes to maintain our present
financial system, no matter what may
come, until foreign nations get SO tired
of it that they will help us to get rid of it.
(Great applause)
At the conclusion of his address Mr..
Bryan went to the balcony in front of the
hall and addressed the crowd briefly
O