Evening star., 1896-07-08


tronage. That bill got its death blow in
the Senate but there was not a single DEM
ocrat in New York or New England to vote
against 1t. If you. gentlemen; have helped
to save the south, 1t has also helped to
save you in the east; but whether the
south should be saved or not, those great
American republican Senators from the
vest, Teller and Wolcott, and your Jones
and your Stanford of California. sank their
partisan feeling on the altar Of their pa
triotism and came forward to the rescue
of American institutions.
No gentleman, in this high noon OF our
ccuntryS fraternity, can revive force bills
now In this reconciled and reunited repub-
lie. Our opponents themselves have aban-
Gcned them There Is none that can stand
between the Union Of hearts and the union
of hands that Grant, in his dying vision,
saw was coming on angels wings to all
the sons of our common country When
Chicago dressed southern graves In flow
ers she buried sectionalism under noun
tain OF fragrance. When southern soldiers
north. in Richmond. the south answered
| back: Let us have peace: peace, union
and liberty, hcw and forever.
Republican Legislation.
"As the majority Of the democrats is not
sec tional, neither does it stand for any
privileged class legislation. TIE active
business men of this country, its manufac--
IL rers. merchants farmers, sons Of toll in
counting room, factory, field and mine
sweeps away with the silent and resistless
force of gravitation the annual profits of
their enterprises and investments They
know, too. that the gold standard means con-
traction and the organization Of disaster.
What h6 pc is there for the country. and
what hope for the democracy, unless the
views of the majority here shall be adopt
ed? Do not the people know that it was
not silver legisla ton, but legislation die
tated by the advocates of the gold STAN
Gard that has caused and now continues
the financial depression? Do they not
know tha- when their demands upon de-
mocracy We're complied with in 1893 and the
Sherman law repealed without substitute
that the very states of the east that de-
manded it turned against the democracy
who granted 1t and swept away their ma
jCrities in torrent of ballots?
Had the silver men had their way then,
instead of the gold monometallists. what
storms of abuse would here today be
enDtied upon their heads: but the people,
applying the power of memory and analy-
sis alike to discover the causes of their ar
rested prosperity need not go far to find
them. They do not forget when democ
r;.cy came to power in 1893 1t inherited
from its republican predecessor the tax
system and the currency system of which
the Mckinley law and the Sherman law
were the eliminating atrocities. 1t came
to power amidst a panic which fifty fol-
lowed upon their enactment. with strikes
lcckoutS. riots and civic connections, while
the scenes of peaceful industry in Pennsyl-
vania had become military camps Besides
manifold oppressive features, the McKin-
lev law had thrown away fifty millions of
revenue derived from sugar under the plea
of free breakfast table. and had substi-
tuted bounties to sugar planters, thus de
creasing revenue and increasing expendl-
ture, thus burning the candle at both ehdS
and making the people pay at least for all
the alleged free breakfast
Mckinley and Sherman Laws.
From the joint operation of the Mckin-
ley law and Sherman law, an adverse bal
ance of trade was forced against US III
1893, surplus OF one hundred millions OF
dollars in the treasury was converted into
d deficit of seventy millions in 1891. and en-
graved bonds, prepared by republican
Secretary to borrow money to support the
government We're the i'll omenS OF the pre-
organized ruin that awaited the incoming
democratic Secretary of the Treasury.
More significant still, the very authors OF
the ill-starred Sherman law makeShift
already at confessional upon the stool
of penitence. and were begging democrats
to help them to put out the cCnfiagrat ton
of disaster that they themselves had kim
died. So far revenue to support the
government is concerned the democratic
party. with but a slender majority in the
Senate. was not long providing 1t. and mad
rot the Supreme Court of the United States
reversed its settled doctrine of 1UD years,
the income tax, incorporated in the tariff
bin. would long since have abundandy sup
piled it,
Respecting finance the republicans.
pcpulists ami democrats while differing
upon almost all other subjects. had unite1
in 1892 III declaring for the restoration of
cur American system of bimetallism. Ey
republican and democratic efforts alike, the
Sherman law was swept from the statute
books. the easerness to rid the country OF
the republican incubus being great that
prudent effort was made to provide a
substitute. III the very act of the Sherman
law repealed it was declared to be the
policy of the United States of America to
a n "a gold and
as standard money ana to coin them into
dollars of equal intrinsic and exchangeable
value.
The republican party has now re-
nounced the creed of its platform and of
our national pledges and presented to the
country the issue of higher taxes. more
at last. throwing away disguises. the Brit
Is n gold standard. We can only expect
should they succeed. my countrymen a
specimen of panic and a long protracted
period of depression. Do not ask u.s. then
to join them in any of their propositions
Least of all. ask not to join them upon
the money question and fight a sham battle
over settled tariff. for the money question
is the paramount issue before the Ameri-
can people, and 1T involves true American
ism more than any economic issue that
ever was presented to a President at the
presidential election.
The existing gold standard. Whence
comes the idea that We are upon 1t? Not
in the democratic platform of 1892 and the
promise to hold to both gold and silver:
not from the last enactment of Congress
on the subject. which, in repeating the
Sherman law, pledged the whole country to
the continuance of the double standard:
not from any statute whatsoever now in
force in the United States. No: we are
not upon any gold standard, but We have
a disordered and miscellaneous currency
of nine varieties. three of metal and six
of PAPER. the product. for the most part of
republican legislation rendered worse by
treasury practices begun by republican
secretaries and unfortunately copied by
their democratic successors. (Applause)
No Authority for Gold Bonds
"Then consider these facts. gentlemen
The federal. state, and municipal taxes in
this country are assessed and paid by the
standard of the whole mass of money in
circulation. No authority has ever been
conferred by Congress for the issue of any
bonds payable in gold. but distinctly re-
fused. The specie resumption of 1878 gave
the surplus revenue in the treasury-not
god. ouly-the money of redemption. Pro-
vision made by the Bland-Allison act of
1873 added to our circulation some $780,
U0.0O0 of standard silver money, or paper
based upon 1t. and all that mass Of silver
money is sustained at parity with gold by
nothing whatever on earth but the silver
in it and the legal tender functions impart-