Hopkinsville Kentuckian. [volume] (Hopkinsville, Ky.) 1889-1918, 1896-09-05
which was known as the

collections, published only a few
months ago, you will find that Sena-
tor Sherman there says that he was
in favor Of the Sherman law simply
to prevent free coinage and that he
was willing to vote for it's repeal the
day after it was enacted if he could
prevent the substitution of free coin.
age. There you will find the chief
the chief supporter OF the gold stan
dard policy in the United States
supporting a bill because it gave
money to the American people and
then declaring that he would vote for
the repeal the very next day. Zap
Piiaase.1f
They secured the repeal of the
Sherman law and they pretended
that when they got that out of the
way they would restore silver to its
former place. There were some who
said that the trend of the Sherman
law was to that end and that we had
to clear away the rubbish before we
could build up good system; and
there were others who said that if we
stood by free silver we would drive
Europe to bimetallism. But those
who made this argument have proven
that they were not sincere and that
their purpose was to deceive the
American people. (Applause.)
In this campaign even party in its
platform so far, has declared that
the principle of bimetallism is
better than gold standard; and yet
in spite of these declarations you
known there is body of people in the
United States who, under the cover
of frendliness to bimetallism, are
seeking to fdsten gold standard up
on the American people.
Mr.. Bryan then went to another
part of the platform and said:
Now you will find people who are
afraid of flood OF silver. There is
nothing that excites my sympathy
more than to find man who never
had enough money in his life, who has
not enough to pay his debts, and does
not know where the money is coming
from to buy food for the next week
There are some people who have an
idea that free and unlimited coinage
of silver would in some way, they
know not how, bring ruin to this
country. Did you ever try to figure
out just how a foreign man was go
ing to hurt us by bringing in silver
here? If not, suppose you examine
the situation and see whether you can
find any way in which you can be in
jured. Let us suppose that you had
free and unlimited coinage of silver
and gold at the present legal ratio of
16 to l. Then what7 Why any per-
son in the world owning silver bull.
lion could bring that bullion to our
minis and have it converted into full
legal tender dollars, just like the ones
that you use to day. Now, how could
you be injured?
Suppose some man should make up
his mind to injure the American peo-
pie under free coinage? How would
he do it? Why he would take his sill.
yer to our mint, suppose thousand
dollars of it, and have coined into
dollars; then he would take these dol
lars out to hurt the American people
with, and how would he do it? He
could take that money home, and he
would &c required required &c pay the ffrei ghht
on it, and he would lose the cost of
coinage and lose the freight both
ways, and we could stand it longer
than he could. All, you say that he
would trade that silver for gold |
and take the gold away and leave the
silver. Where would he get the gold
Would he get it 10 the Treasury of
the United State? Not under bimet
allism, because under bimetallism the |
Government does not agree to swap,
but under bimetallism the Govern
ment convert the silver bullion into
silver money and gold bullion into
gold coin, and make them legal ten
den for all debts, public and private.
But it does not agree to redeem a
gold dollar in silver or silver dol.
lar in gold. (applause.) So that under
blmetallism this foreigner could not
his silver at the mint for
gold unless TIE Government was dis
posed to let him do it. Where would
10 oOo VIC sun Lie NOull nave W
find somebody with the gold; he
could not hurt any body by trading
silver for gold until he found some.
body who had the gold, and that
would let most of the people
out of danger. In Illinois last year,
n debate my opponent was very
and we called each other
brother, and in the conrse of the
speech he turned to me and said:
Brother Bryan, will you lend me
/ silver dollar to illustrate my argu-
nentl | have not any" When it
zane my turn, l thought / would try
md experiment and said: Brother,
want to use gold coin to illustrate
ny argument. l haven't any. Will
you let me have one?"
He got red in the face; he did not
nave any, and then / called the at
IGNITION OF the audience to the fact
hat l was defending silver, and /
had the silver; but he did not have
he gold with which to illustrate his
,rUument and ha had inst told than