The San Francisco call., 1896-11-01


your account. If you do foolish things you
will have to suffer just as If you lived under
the effete mouarchies of the Old World If
you made foolish vote in 1892 you got four
years of suffering. And If you make a foolish
vote on Tuesday there are four more years
of suffering in store for you. Hyou plead that
you acted foolishly it won't help you. 1t is
your sense that will save you, and if you have
no. got it you won't be saved Now, want
you to keep some OF these little things in mind
and do not be deceived with the idea that
what is sanctioned by sensible men across the
waters is necessarily foolish.
The very men who sneer at the monetary
system which existed in this country Tor sixty.
two years as a foreign system are the very iel-
lows who re-established in this cou ntry, so
far as they were able, free trade which is
British invention confined exclusively to the
island OF Great Britain.
Now, then. think we may safely take it for
granted that if we establish q silver basis we
shall go down. If we coin silver at Is to we
are going to have 50-cent dollar sooner or
later. know some OF these travelling patriots
who are stopping at every railroad depot in
the country at present, say we believe that sill
yer will go up. "We believe That will
do we'll enough for theology, because the lat
ter is to be tested in the next world. Laugh
teri 1t won't do for business, because that
has to be tested in this world SO until they
give US some reasons for their belief we shall
recollect what they relieved about the mar
kets of The world and what happened. There
is no sanctity about foolish PERSONS belief.
man may believe that he is going to esce pe
cold when he goes out carelessly in a cool
breeze but he will find he is mistaken The
laws of nature are not suspended because peo-
pie are absurd.
We have this thing clearly in our minds
that we propose to do is to shift from gold
standard to a silver standard. Are ten half
dollars better than five whole ones? Do
thirty-two quarts contain any more than a
bushel? So if you have that lesser number of
dollars what effect will it have on trade
will point it out to you. saw in the pro-
cession to-day the life insurance company
people. Did it ever occur to you what the
business operation of insuring lives is? In
the first place lite insurance has its origin in
one or the noblest ideas Of humanity, the
idea of looking out beyonfth grave for those
whom we love, and it ought to be trea ted
tenderly.
What is the basis of life insurance? man
pays in year after year his money; that
money is invested; there is nothing else to do
with 1t, and it is invested for the most part in
bonds and mortgages, and if a man owes a life
insurance company on bond or mortgage
$1,000 and pays only $500. that $500 is all
that goes 10 the beneficiary of the donor
Without taking in all the life insurance
companies but only those registered in the
State of New York, those have to-day on
property 81, ia. 600, ,000-within $1,000. 600
of being large the whole debt of the
United States The men who collect those
mortgages and bonds in which that money is
invested can only collect in the currency of
the country, for they had the foresight of a
silver leader and did not put their bonds in
gold. Loud applause.1
But they went on like the rest of u.s. beliey-
Ing in the country and the honesty OF their
countrymen. Now they can only pay what they
gave. If they get one-half they pay one half
What does that affect? Ultimately 10000 600
OF people.
This little, easy scheme of relieving the peo-
pie from their debts by taking them away
from somebody else, cuts two ways Why, If
you could judge from these Populist
harangues-that is, if am not doing them an
injustice by calling them Populist, you
would think that the people of the United
States were the only people who borrowed
money and did not want to pay il back. Now,
just observe that trick IL their argument
They talk about the people owing money
Well, but whom is the money owed to? Why,
to the people. And man who cheats a life
insurance company out of half of what he owes
it cheats the widow and the fatherless TAp-
plause.l
But it strikes me there is another class of
insurance men who obtain some slight benefit
out of IL. Nevertheless, have such faith In
insurance agents as honest men that will ex-
plain to them without fear. II you have
$1,000 on your house and dollars go down so
cents your house will then be worth $4,000,
but the policy win stay at $1,000 and the re-
suit is tnat the upper part OF that house will
be sticking out through the policy and not
covered by it. Laughter and applausel
And the insurance agent will be able to sell
you some more at half price. Laughter
Now about the savings banks-I cannot
dwell upon those. You know all about them
as well as do. Iwant simply to say that any
man who has deposits of that kind-and /
hope everybody has-wOuld be dreadfully fool
ish If by law he reduced his property by one
half. No, this idea of paying off debts by law
instead of by dollars is q very short-sighted
policy.
What this country wants is not q chance to
repudiate but chance to borrow some more
and how are you going TO do 1t? You cannot
do it under this system that is proposed. Ask
yourselves the plain question.
Let me ask of any man in this audience II a
man came to you and said: "I want to Dor.
row $10 but l going to try to get law
passed tomorrow which will privilege me to
return you only $5," would you lend it to him?
If he has had sense enough to accumu ulate
$1,000 that man is not going to lend it on the
proposition of getting $500 back. [Laughterl ]
Need say to the sta te of California and the
inhabitants of its greatest city, to an intelli-
gent audience like this. that what this coun-
try needs is more capital? Not more money
money will always take care of itself-but
more capital. The United States is rich, but it
has not one-tenth of the capital necessary to
develop its magnificent resources Even Cali
fornia has not per cent of the capital neces-
sary for development.
Here is land, the richest that ever the sun
shone on. [Great cheeringl Why, the very
soil of it in some places is 20 feet thick. and
when 1 come to compare it with New England
/ simply marvel at the riches that are scat
tered on all hands; but the riches that you
have are not for one moment to be compared
with the riches that you could take out of the
earth If you had more capital. tApplausel
Why, say, should this State OF all the States
in the world so act as to scare the capital of
the globe away from It? II you want to borrow
money of any body you have to suit them, and
they will be ready enough to lend 1t as sure as
they think they are safe.
Some people do not understand the differ
ence between interest and the rate per cent. l