Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1896-10-29
A Call to Citizens to Do Patriotic
Duty for Their Country
at the Polls.
THE CRISIS UPON US.
The Power of the People Win Meet the
Power OF Money at the
Ballot-Box
The Vigilance Of Patriots Invoked to See
That Fraud and Corruption do Not
Prevail Mt the Polls-Tac Disastrous
Consequence That Would Fol-
low Mckinley's Election.


crisis has been reached In the
thirty years war which has been waged
upon bimetallism by the bond brokers
and gold gamblers of the world.
The first victory of our enemies was
In 1873, when the congress of the United
States demonetized silver in this coun-
try without knowing il. through the
craft of John Sherman. Within a few
years from that time nearly all the
mints of the world were closed to silver
The friends of the double standard
have succeeded since then In forcirC
the coinage of more than Si0o. 900 900 of
legal tender silver money in this coun-
try. and have preserved 500 ooo. 900 of
legal tender silver In the circulation of
France.
The gold standard PARTY made an ad-
vance in 1898. stopping the purchase
Of silver for coinage In the United
States. and closing the minis Of India
to silver. This victory for gnonometal-
lism resulted in arousing the masses
of the people in the United States.
and inspiring them with a determine
ton to exterminate the single gold
standard.
The gold power. hitherto potential
In the councils of both parties. has
been forced by the Democratic masses
TO relinquish its hold upon the Demo-
cratic party. and in its desperation
IT has frightened its grasp upon the Re-
publican organization.
An unbought and unpurchasable
national Democratic convention gave
the friends of bimetaliism a champion
and hero in the person OF William
Jennings Bryan, and placed him be-
fore the voters of this country on q
platform which is a new declaration
of independence of foreign control.
The leading scientists and statesmen
of Europe who advocate bimetaIlisrn
have been filed with hope by these
events. They earnestly exhort US to go
forward without waiting for an inter-
national agreement. assuring US that
no such agreement can be had until
we have acted: that when we shall
have acted. the other great nations will
follow our lead.
If the battle of November is won by
the friends of the double standard il
will restore prosperity throughout the
world;
1t will give healthful uses to capital,
which is now hidden away. fearing in
vestments In anything but mortgages:
1t will curb the arrogance of the
worlds great usurers:
1t will increase the value of the
farmers products, thereby encouraging
greater production;
1t will enable the great railroad sys-
TENS of the country to double their
buiness, and send railroad receivers
into other fields Of employment;
1t will stimulate manufactures. and
give profit to capital. and labor to the
unemployed:
1t will light up homes that are now
dark. warm hearthstone that are now
cold, feed furnishing women and chill
| dren. and clothe the looped and
Widowed raggedness of the poor"
These things will be because. follow
ing the election Of Bryan In November,
| will come the restoration of silver to
its place as money. Gold will no longer
posses double purchasing power while
/ silver is degraded to a commodity. The
| purchasing power of gold will fall,
while the purchasing power of silver
will rise to meet Ii at a parity.
Dark indeed would be the future with
Mckinley elected.
The silver money ~ve have would be
abolished as q legal tender:
Gold only would be the basis Of our
circulating medium:
That medium would be changed from
| greenbacks and national bank notes To
the elastic fiat money Of private
banks. to be contracted and expanded
At their pleasure;
| The supply of gold for coinage pur-
poses is made stationary by the con-
| sumption. in the arts. of the annual
| product; and the increasing demand
for it. through the increase OF popula-
ton and business. Is the equivalent OF
constant contraction.
A fixed supply and a constantly in
| creasipg demand contract the volume
| of money as certainly as do a fixed de-
mand and constantly decreasing sup
ply.
The monometallists Of England and
! of everywhere else. except in Wall
| street. admit that contraction reduces
prices of commodities. makes capital
afraid to seek asr>stment in enter
prises. and that AIS condition causes
universal distress among the people.
Only the dealers in money. the
wealthy with fixed incomes. and the
tax caters in general. have any interest
in promoting the gold standard: and
| even they are injured In the long run
because their system brings creeping
paralysis upon civilization itself. which
alone protects them in their posses
sions.
We appeal to the people Of all classes
to enlist in this great battle under the
banner Of the double standard
To the Democrts We say:
You hold the post of honor In the
fight. II is the Democratic party which
has at last enancipated itself from
the tyranny Of the money power. and u
rising to the grandeur OF the occasion.
Your convention was worthy to be com.
pared with the Continental congress
for its fncorruptiblity. and the
courage it displayed in blazing the wsy
to freedom and Independence.
To the Populists:
The action Of the Chicago convention
went far toward redressing the WRONGS
which had been done In the name Of
democracy. and which Ia 0nnou1 -