The Mason County journal. [volume] (Shelton, W.T.) 1886-1927, 1896-09-25

| to youthful not one of these professors
| in foreign universities, not one or tnese
economists whose name and fame are
worldwide. and not one of those great
tnancers who haveSgiven days ana years
of thought to this subject, not one, anu
nobody except the leaders of the modern
Democracy and Populism. has ventured
to advise his own country i'll Europe to
undertake that task alone. tApplause.)
The question is this. and nothing more:
Shall the United States. alone. under
AXE the free and unlimited coinage OF Sill
yer at Il ratio of 10 TO /: "a few cries
of yes and no" and repeated cries OF
mo- Now. see YOU gentlemen over
there who called yes" and you gentle
men here who called no, shows the
difference of opinion upon this subject
Qaughter). and 10 you over there VINO
come to listen to me. YOU will listen DIS
passionately, you will digest my argu-
ments, and | hope finally that by. the
time you have done SO thoroughly that
you will be inclined to shout no with
the gentlemen who responded when you
responded. Cheering and applause)
Now, let us be entirely go0d-natured
about this. | am going to try TO give
you the facts. and l repeat it. the issue
is whether the United States shall at
tempt to do that thing alone. Ill the
face of the controlling fact that every
civilized commercial nation upon the face
of the earth, except the Central Amer
lean and South American statcs.- years
ago and before we did abandoned it ut
tcrly. And if | shall succeed i'll con-
yincin% any of our friends that we are
not lii position to do it without intlicting
upon the country and upon us all injuries
which it will take Il generation to re-
pair. | shall be more than rewarded
for the pains that | have taken, the OBJ
servati0ns that | have made, the studies
/ have gone through and the reflections
which have brought me to my present
convictions. (Applause)
Shall We Go Backward or Forward?
Shall we. for our own interests stand
along with those nations with which we
have classed ourselves and who are lead
ing the march of humanity. or shall we
go with Mexico. South America. China
and Japan, the rearWard half of the
great army of human progress. and join
those imperfect and rudimentary civilian
tons. which are an occular dcmOnStra
ton that no nation ever undertook alone
the coinage of free silver that did not de-
prive itself Of gold entirely. (Applause)
And you have but to glance upon the
map of your school boy or school girl.
your little son or daughter, to see the
ihNt lCNolNt;t tutlc TIE cuUcdllOll Ol
youth. to know that every one of those
nations stands upon lower scale of
progress than the nations which have
declared the policy upon which the Unit
ed States now stanGs
My fellow citizens, the warnings of his
tory are all against it. The present eX-
ampleS of nations who Singly are endeav-
orlng to sustain themselves under a single
standard forbid us TO enter upon a yOy-
"a 70, ,t,,..,.
waters. but no, upon Il voyage which we
can plainly see other nations are making
at the present time where we can plain
ly view rocks of distress, the shoals and
qulckSandS OF their course from the So
cure mainland upon which the American
people now stand. and from which our
opponents are attempting to lure them
by false lights and false alarms. (Ap-
plausc.)
Now we have got to take facts exactly
As they are. We are not dealing with
glitterng and glowing genpralities. We
are administering society and human con-
Germs: society, a being perfectly concrete,
practicable. somewhat selfish,
and l am going to appeal to the selfish
ness of this audience to know whether
they will assist in bringing about that
which | think [ can prove will result
from the arts of the gentlemen who are
attempting 10 mlSlPaU them.
Now. my friends. the world is divided.
just as sharply as it is by oceans and
mountain chains. between the gold coun-
tries. who employ concurrently with gold
more silver money than all the silver
contain or circulate. (Ap-
planse.l | say that tho gold countries
of this world. including the United States
land | call them gold countries for the
not of definition. hut Of clear,
ness of cXprpsSionl. employ and circulate
more silver than all tho silver countries
of the world employ. contain or circulate.
L make another proposition I apneaI
TO history and to contemporary facts
which no man can dispute. that every
tree coinage country is on silver basis.
Isn't that so? OricS of "Yes.0 I make
another statement for Won to think of.
for am not going TO elaborate it, am
going to get into the figures pretty soon
every gold country uses silver and gold
IN amounts nearly equal by money ma
tons. Isn't that 500 Cries of "Yes.'0
Isn't that so in the United States
Cries of ''Ycs.O In France? Voices
Yes. | mike another statement for
yonr calm and cool reflection. that no sill
v"r standard COUNTRY has any gold mon
ey whatrver. (Annlause) Don't fake
nv word for it. Go and investigate this
subject. | say that no silver country has
search from Mexico to Cape Horn and
Ind that this statement is correct.
Another tement-and I make it I'D
on a sense OF my responsibility after an
exhaustive examination of statistics. in
designations end recOrds-that in every
silver standard country wages are pressed
down to the very minimum of wretched
subsistence. 1t is so in MEXICO. it is so
III JaDan. 1T is so in South America
say that in every silver country wages
are pressed down TO the very minimum
OF wretched subsistence.
The Reasons.
Now if it is true Il will not 90 into
the reasons for it, hut if it is true as n
concrete. absolute fact. that no silver
country. no country which has adopted
the silver standard has any gold circulo-
tion whatever. say that it follows that
the only practicable bimetallism on the
planet Is by the nations with which itbe
United States has classed itself. and II
is TINS hlmetalliSm in the United States
which the new Democracy and POM
ilsm are endeavOring to destroy by s1h-
shutting silver monumetallism (An-
piause.) The bimetallism which tbiS
country and the nations of which have
spoken enjoy is the binlctallism of foct.
ana actual enjoyment extending TO that
full extent which human Judgment. bu-
man experience, human aDnrehpnsion-
call 1t what YOU will--teach is the nro-
portion IN which the metals can he em-
ployed IN degree that one will not do
stroy or drive out the other and that
both can co-exist together. (AnnIansa1
FOR mere is my fellow citizens. an I'M