The herald., 1896-08-26

abroad in a community the man who
has the least confidence gets off with the
most money. Naughter) And I am
very much afraid that the confidence
man is abroad in this campaign preach
ing Have confidence and all will be
WELL" My friends, confidence must
have basis to rest upon Our oppo-
nents say that unless we have our finan-
cial policy to suit the pleasure of foreign
nations they will not loan us any money.
We reply that as long as we shape our
financial policy according to their pleas
ure we will always be borrowers and
can never be money lenders ourselves.
Confidence must rest upon a substantial
basis. Suppose that man in your COM
munity gives out his notes until every
body has them and then somebody tri IS
to collect note and finds that the man
has no property beyond his notes, how
can you restore confidence in that man.
how can you inspire confidence in the
community? Just in one way, and that
is by putting property behind the notes
that he has out. My friends. how are
you going to restore confidence in the
United States by legislation value out
of the property upon which notes rest {.
You have tried, and you have found
that bankruptcies have increased year
by year, and the only people who have
prospered are those who own invest
merts payable in dollars or money they
are making out OF the extremities of
the government. If you want to restore
"a l.
perity to thdgreat masses of the people,
and talk as much about good property
as they have been talking about good
money. Money can be too good. 1t can
be SO good that you can long for it and
pray for it but cannot get hold of ii.
daughter) Remember, that whenever
you make money dearer, when you in
crease its purchasing power you have
simply driven down the value of other
goods. and if those who own money
and who hold contracts payable in dol
lars are willing to so legislate as -
make their property more valua BILE. how
can they appeal to those who own
property and owe debts to join them IN
that sort of legislation. / have asserted
and I assert again, that without the aid
of money owning classes the gold stand
ard would not stand for one day in any
nation under the sun. 1 assert that be-
hind the gold standard in this country
the only potent force consists of those
who hold fixed investments and those
who, as brokers, profit the greater by
bond issues
They tell the la boring man of this ma
tion that they ought to support a gold
standard. The laboring men have never
found the financiers of this nation, the
men who have eXerted themselves to
improve the condition of the laboring
man. AS a rule they are the men who
have spent their time in trying to break
down labor organizations, the only pro-
lection that the laboring man had; these
are the men who now come to the help
of the laboring man. l ask you if you
ought to expect blessings from those you
have only received cursing from in the
past. (Cries of NO no.') 1 notice that
one of our opponents the other day said
that the old soldiers would be opposed
to free coinage. They gave the impress
sion that the f1nanciers are very much
interested in maintaining gold stand
ard for the benefit of the old soldiers,
but my friends, these men forget that
all the soldiers lived during the war
and that during the war the soldiers
knew that the financiers made their
bonds payable in gold and left the SOL
dier to offer his life upon the battlefield.
(Applause.)
More than that, my friends, do not
believe that the soldiers who are willin :
to offer their lives if need be in behalf of
conspiracy to enslave 100000 of free
people by lettering them to gold stand
ard. Our opponents, at least some Of
them, have been appealing to the min
lister. 1 have noticed some of these ad-
vocates of the gold standard have said
that the preachers, that the teachers in
religion should favor the gold standard
because their salaries were so small
that they did not want them reduced
Well, now, 1 am willing to concede every
thing that is right to our opponents, but
! must confess that there is one argu-
ment which they mishtmak that would
appeal to some ministers, If there were
any ministers who were in the business
of the ministry merely for the dollars
and cents there We're in it, Gaughter.)
/ say this is one argumnt, is an argu-
ment that I cannot answer, and give it
to you for all that it is worth. The gold
standard makes hard times. Hard times
drive men out of employment. Idling is
conducive Of crime. Therefor the gold