Freeland tribune. (Freeland, Pa.) 1888-1921, 1896-10-22
FREE SILVER MEETING.
DEMOCRATS HELD THEIR SECOND
RALLY TUESDAY EVENING.

Despite the Inclement Weather a Large
Audience Turned Out to Hear the Issues
of the Campaign Discussed-Speech by
w. L. Marston, of Jefferson County.
The free silver people of town held
their second public meeting on Tuesday
evening. The weather was very dis
agreeable, and but few from the outside
towns were present. The audience at
the grand opera house when the meet
ing opened was small, but in short
while the crowd increased in size and at
$50 o'clock several hundred people were
in the building. Owing to a change in
the arrangements of speakers by the
state committee, Senator Brown, who
had been advertised to address the meet
ing, was sent to another part of the
state, and in his stead came w. L, Mars
ton, prominent business man of Brook
vile, Jefferson county.
The meeting was opened by James F.
Sweeney with several bright remarks.
He dwelt at some length upon the more
important parts of the Chicago platform.
The contents of that document were
commented upon in an intelligent man
ner, especially those sections which re-
fer to federal interference in state af-
fairs, government by injunction and the
supreme court. The speaker pointed
out the danger to the liberties of the in
dividual if the abuses which are grow
ing up under these heads are allowed to
continue, and his able defense of these
important planks Of the platform placed
the matter in new light to many in
the audience.
The speaker Of the evening, Mr..
Marston, followed, and captured his au-
dience at the outset by his humorous
references to 5o-cent dollars. He spoke
on the financial question from the stand
point of business man and made a
number of illustrations to prove the
business of the silver advocates claims.
What was probably the best part of his
address was his remarks upon the ability
OF the United States to establish, single
handed, the ratio of the two metals at
16 to 1. He claimed that America owes
it to the world to repair the wrong done
to silver in 1878, inasmuch as it was by
our act that the demonetization of silver
was made successful in the other lead
ing countries.
The speaker said that one of his be-
liefs was that when he did wrong, he
should right it, and as every prominent
statesman in every political party is on
= . u inf hnf l,,n n,t Nft o
u wrong, he believed the rule should APP
ply to nltions as well as to individuals,
and that justice can only be done by re-
turning to the money system in vogue
previous to the year that John Sherman
sneaked his 9,000-word bill through con
gress.
In giving brief history of how the
demonetization bill went through con
greSs, the speaker was particularly Sc
we're on Sherman, and from the official
records of congress and authentic let
ters, he cited the statements of men like
President Grant, Judge Kelly, James G.
Blaine and others to prove that they did
not know that the bill was demonetizing
silver.
Mr.. Marston took up the International
agreement plan, and ridiculed the idea
that England would over consent to any
system of finance which would give
American energy and American indus
try an opportunity to compete with her
in the worlds markets. He told of how
she was so willing to help (?) us in 1776,
1912 and 1863, and nothing more Suh.
stantial than that kind of aid may be
expected from that government.
The speech throughout contained
many salient points, and with the humor
injected into the address, the audience
went away perfectly satisfied that the
Democrats are endeavoring to make this
a campaign of education, so that every
voter may understand the issues at
stake.