Birmingham state herald. (Birmingham, Ala.) 1895-1897, 1896-09-23
the papers did not seem to consider it
worth thinking about
They Regarded 1t as Crazs

the papers did not seem to consider it
worth thinking about.
They Regarded It as q Craze
and he did not have time as a business
man to pay any attention to crazes. But
when a great national party adopted
platform making the money qeustion the
paramount issue he began to think about
it. That was only few weeks ago. He
got to be crank; he said to me: If
we don't win this fight it is going on until
we win, and don't care how many years
it takes. 1Applause)
Il can appreciate the feeling of that
man. l went through the same expert
enee myself. Until six years ago l
thought any man who talked about
money was harmless crank. did not
listen to his arguments. They had no
weight with me-. Six years ago L began
to study the question, trying to find out
what was right because l was taught
to believe If man would ground HIM
self on what was right he could wait for
other people to come to him. was taught
to believe no man could afford to be
wrong, no matter how many he had in
his company. l studied the question. I
read books on both sides and compared
them and tine more l read the deeper be-
came my conviction until / became so
firmly of the opinion that there could be
no prosperity in this country until free
silver was restored, that l was willing
" iish all Hdu UT nOpeu TO nave on the
correctness of that conclusion. Great
applause)
We have gone through in Nebraska the
same process people nave gone through
in other states. We began the fight in
Nebraska. II is the pioneer. The plat
form adopted at Chicago on the silver
question was first adopted in Nebraska
by the silver democrats there. (Ap-
. plause) When we did it
We Had Boilers Then
q c hat- 6o1 r;. 10
who claimed to be democrats who would
not agree to our platform. They called
themselves better democrats than we
were and voted the republican ticket to
prove it Great laughter)
I'VE believe the democratic party
which owed its success to the toiling
masses must still stand by them in their
fight against the few If it deserves to
continue its existence. We organized in
Nebraska democratic free silver league.
The members OF that league made an
open fight. They did not go around in
the dark wearing mask. They said to
the democracy of the state: We are
going to take possession of the machin-
cry of the party If we can; we are going
to submit this question to the voters. We
went out and presented the questions
when our state convention met we had
three to one and we adopted that plat
form which has been re-adopted by the
national democratic convention. GAP
n
test ever Wagod.
Then we organized a bimetallic demo-
cratic national league, which went out to
do in the nation what the free silver
democrats of Nebraska had done in that
state. We carried the question to the
primaries and the voters instructed the
delegates to the county convention, and
from there TO the state convention, and
from there to the national convention
we never had convention in this
country which more correctly represent
ed the sentiment of the people who sent
the delegates than that convention which
met. at Chicago. 1t is honor enough to
besthe nominee Of q convention for presi-
dent. But it is a higher honor yet to be
the nominee of the most democratic con-
vention ever held in this country. Gap
plause). 1t Is sufficient honor to be nomi-
mated by the machinery of a party, but
it is higher honor still to be nominated
by the people of a party regardless of
the machinery. (Applause). Since that
platform was adopted the people have
commenced to
Study the Money Question.
What do they find? They find that the
people of the west and south, who have
been asking for the restoration of bimet-
allism instead of trying to ruin the coun-
try are trying to save it. Great ap-
plause). We are trying to help our peo-
pie. That is true, but l want to tell you
that our people cannot buy of you unless
they can sell what they raise We must
have more than appetites out there.
daughter). We must have money to
pay for those things which crafty the
appetite. Because you have food to sell
don't think you can sell it just because
people are hungry. You have got to
have people who want it and who have
the money to pay for something to eat.
Great applause).
Your people are producing manufac-
turing products here largely. Where do
you get your consumers without the
farming population, and where will you
sell the goods you produce? You vir-
tually wipe out the farmers as consumers
when you drive down the price Of their
products, SO they only realize enough
to pay taxes and interest. Great ap-
plause). You have many truck farmers.
When they take what they have to sell
into the town they find the market is
rather dull and what they get is small
compared with what 1t used to be. Does
1t mean the people of Philadelphia are
not as hungry as they ever were? ven-
ture the assertion there is more hunger
here In Philadelphia than there was five
years ago. Is it because people have lost
their taste for the good things which
you produce? No, there is as much taste
as ever If they could get chance to try
it on something. Great applause).
"How are you going to increase your
markets? BY increasing the number of
people able to buy what you produce.
Will you do that by making dollars dear
err? No; dollars do not eat. They devour
a great deal, but they do not eat Gaugh-
ter) How are you going to create mar
kets? By increasing dollars in the hands
of the few? No, you have got to restore
prosperity by stopping the fall of prices,
so men will sell what they produce to get
money to buy what you produce"
Mr.. Bryan gave quotations from John
Sherman, James G. Blaine and John c.
Carlisle, showing them to have formerly
been in favor of the free coinage of sill
yer.
Mr.. Bryan continued as follows: "Ev-
cry one of them, when the utterances
quoted were made, were older than am
now. If they attribute my division of
people into two classes-the idle holders
of idle capital and the producers of
wealth-to the fact that have not had as
much experience as some others, how are
they going to explain the language of
Blaine and Carlisle and Sherman? / d.
vide classes the same as they do, except
I should say on the one side are the
drones and on the other side the bees that
make the honey. (Applause)
"The gold standard newspapers think