The representative. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1893-1901, 1896-07-22

pouring out their blood on Southern battle
held1, the Shylocks Of the country were
taking their pound Of flesh from the ma
| tons heart: and the Shylocks are not vet
an dead.
The cause Of true liberty has ever look
60 ~ vain to the money lending and gold
gambling classes. A. well look for the
motto Liberty, equality ana fraternity
q golden letters upon the black nag that
Mes above the pirate ship a. to look to
Wall Street for the nation's delfverance.
ltS instincts are informal its throne II
satanic. and It waves the whitening
wand Of famine, over land fertile Ia all
that makes nation great.
1t - said that emergencies sometimes
make men, and this IS true. Out OF the
night Of civil conflict came heroes, states
men and generals who were the children
Of poverty and obscurity, and out OF this
connict between humanity on the one
nand and greed, avarice, ana oppression
upon the other. will come men from the
plain people, brave enough and courag-
eons enough to plant the nag Of truth
sn9 risnt upon the watch-tower Of true
and lasting liberty
~ Is impracticable and would be out OF
pace at this time to enter into anything
IKE thorough discussion or analysis OF
the great question which occupies the pub
Ac Mind: This IS convention OF men
VINO believe gold and silver to be the
money OF our constitution; indeed, as
James 9. Blaine said, The money Of the
world anterior to the constitution No ar
sument IS necessary to convince you Of
the righteousness Of the peoples cause A
be out Of place.
For number Of years, beginning with
1877 and down to the present time the
financial system Of the world has UNDER
gone q most radical and quite revolu-
tionary change resulting in the almost
G0mnlaf0 nft hAk <n1 $,v1s&
constituted nearly one-half of the circu-
iating medium Of the world
80 far az our own legislation OF 1873
was concerned, believe 1t to have been
inadvertent The United States was then
on paper basis looking towards resump-
ton Of specie payment. and 1t seems to
have made gold the standard almost un-
consciously, although silver at the time
had greater bullion value than gold
This concerted action Of many leading ma
lions Of the earth in demonetizing silver
came about during series of years In
| which the worlds population was increas-
Ing and the natural and healthy demands
OF business required an increase rather
than 2 decrease of the volume of money
No man can carefully and conscientiously
study the subject and say that this de-
monettzation was because of an increased
production Of silver. From 1892 to 1894,
| q period of one hundred and three years.
the worlds production Of gold exceeded
that of silver by one-half billion OF dol
lars. II you divide this one hundred and
three years into four periods of time you
find tina. In the first period twice as much
silver as gold was produced; in the Sec
ond three times as much gold as silver:
In the third, twice as much gold as silver;
| In the fourth period, from 1874 to 1894,
only 10 per cent more of silver than gold
was produced. No man, 1t seems to me In
view Of this fact, can claim that the de-
monetizatfon Of silver was because Of the
increased production Of silver.
There certainly was no need Of de-
monetizing it because Of Inconvenience
as paper based upon 1t could be used II
necessary. AS far as the concerted ac-
| ton Of foreign powers In this direction
was concerned, I believe 1t was due to the
money aristocracy of the old world. The
men who by reason Of their wealth shaped
and controlled the policy Of these nations,
saw that silver was necessarily power in
the hands of the people less easily corner
ed and controlled than gold, and legisla-
ton itself had Its origin in the selfishness
and tyranny Of the moneyed power Of
European nations.
out OF the worlds money nearly one-half
it's volume and to place an almost double
strain and burden upon gold to perform
the money functions of trade and COM
merce among mankind. BY law az natur-
al, as silent and as potent as the law Of
power Of the worlds dollar until it re-
Quires nearly twice the labor and the
fruits Of labor to obtain dollar, than It
did before this disastrous suicidal era be-
gan.
"All sound political economists agree
that an era of shrinkage in volume Of
the worlds money is and must be an era
Of falling price. We need no political econ
omist to tell us this; reason and common
sense teach it and the worlds history con-
firms it.
Between 1870 and 1884 the United States
paid of national debt $3.50, 1000. 900; yet 1t
has been shown by good authority that if
we reckoned the national debt in eight
leading commodities-beef, corn, wheat
oats. pork, cotton, coal and bar iron-the
debt was nearly so per cent greater after
than before we paid the seventy-five bill
ion dollars. 1t is said that in 1866 we
could have paid the debt with fourteen
million bales of cotton. Between that and
1894 we paid what was equal to ninety
| four million bales of cotton, and 1t would
still take fifty-one million to pay the re-
mainder
'..Irl 1866 we could have paid the debt
with one billion bushels of wheat, but in
1894 it would still take two billion bushels
after having paid in the meantime five
billion bushels in principle and interest.
And yet in the face of this alarming condi-
ton Of things we are told that we must
wait for foreign powers to take the first
step towards plain and simple justice to
mankind and to the worlds humanity. 1t
is claimed on good authority that any
strong commercial nation could maintain
bimetallism independently Of the rest Of
the world France and the Latin Union
maintained it for period Of 70 years at a
ration Of 1914 to I. ana during most of
that time Great Britain maintained the
single gold standard. have faith enough
il, the power and greatness of this republic
to believe she could maintain silver at 16
to in defiance of all the other powers of
the earth; IL she cannot do it, am In favor
OF having our nation lead the march of the
nations Of the world towards this condi-
ton Of true and natural Justice"
Here Mr.. Nye drew striking picture Of
the struggling colonist of the revolution
bidding defiance to British depression. as
compared with our expanded territory
population and resources and asked who
could doubt that we were brave enough
strong enough, and Independent enough to
stin lead the march to financial as well as
national liberty.
Il am preaching no new doctrine as "a
Republican,; have again and again as a
Republican upon the stump In this county
and in this state, maintained this doctrine
which was until the 18th day Of June. 1896
as much Republican doctrine as the SER
mon on the mount is the doctrine OF Holy
Writ The Republican platforms of 1888
and OF 1892 and the state platform of this
and most every other Republican state in
1894. proclaimed this true and essential
doctrine of the people.
Turn now to the Republican platform
adopted in ST. Louis in 1896, which declares
in favor Of the existing gold standard.
They inserted in the platform a clause
pledging the Republican party to pro-
mote international bimetallism. What
did that mean? If they honestly meant