Kansas City daily journal. [volume] (Kansas City, Mo.) 1892-1897, 1896-10-25


something. Governments may rise and fall
dynasties may pass away, fire and pesti-
lence may come, but that gold is the same
to-day. yesterday and tomorrow. ZAP
plause.) 1t has value.
'In the early days, when men could moi
trust each other. and everybody was a
Populist leader and said things that were
not so, We had to have money for all our
transactions. Now, almost any man that
has decent face may get a little. credit.
The consequence is that instead of getting
5000 in gold in payment Of a debt, my
debtor gives me his check. I know it is
good, and when confidence reigns no end
of business is done with checks. IN Lon
don. 81 has been known to be all the cash
needed in doing $500 worth of business.
Some of the fellows say the credit money
is in proportion to the cash delivered. That
is arrant nonsense. 1t has no foundation in
fact. The credit money is always in pro-
portion to the confidence of the people.
LApplause.) With all the gold and silver
in the world piled UP in one. place and this
government turned over to lunatics. there
would be no credit money at all. This is
absolutely true.
Matter of Honesty.
They say, after all, that what they said
to the New York bankers was mistake.
They are going to cut the value of our
dollars to So cents, and let the farmer pay
off his debt in 53-cent dollars. 1 take 1t
for granted that every farmer here wants
or,
> farmers want to pay Off your debts in So
cent dollars. you still want to be middling
honest. They don't dare come to you with
an openly dishonest proposition. They try
to make you believe that you would be
acting honestly. They say gold has ap-
preciated 100 per cent slbwly. 1t is true.
.but certainly. and for tYenty-thfee years.
If you ran in debt in 1873. you would be
entitled to the continued accretion, but
does any man here owe any debt twenty
three years old? I would like to see a
man who has had the confidence of his
creditors for that long. d,aughter.) You
know that debts are not more than four
years old. on an average. You are going
to take the whole 50 per cent and not the
one-sixth Of the accretion. That is not
even middling honest.
Honesty has been established not only
by religion. but by experience. Men call
that honest which experience has shown
to be profitable. Naughter.) This IS in
addition to the religious sanction.
"How will you come out of such a trans
action? Be careful about dabbling in dis
honesty. He who sups with the devil
must have a very long spoon. Let me
show you what will shorten the length Of
your spoon. II you repudiate half your
6ebt, you will still have half to pay. But
you make more when the whole country
is prosperous and there will come many
times when you will wish you had the
whole debt to pay and had a prosperous
country to help you pay 1t. ,Applause.)
1t Pays to be Honest.
"It pays to be honest; not only because
It is right, but because it is profitable. The
power to borrow Is worth ten times as
much as your debt. fApplause) Put it TO
your plain common sense. There is not a
man here but has SO or could get it with
a little effort. If any man proposed to
borrow 1t, but said to you frankly that
he would try his best to pay it back with
a S bill, would yon lend it? If you with
SO have that much sense, how much do
you suppose the man with 800 or s, 900 has?
But I tremble to; think of what a man
with 81 ,OOa is. in these plutocratic days. :.
Suppose this man, instead of being an
American. is a foreigner; will he lend?
And If you cannot borrow, how can you
get along? (Applause.) Z, Money has gone
up to tremendous extent. 1t is because
people are hiding II.
1T seems to me that the Western man
Is more distraught than any other If he
goes into this business. The United States
is a magnificent country, but it is not a
1.-THE of what 1t will be. Your children and
mine will see 1t SO great that they will
marvel at our poverty (Applause.) Do
you know what We must do? Marry labor
and capital. Applause) Set our money
to work; set our men and women to work.
We want our own capital and other peo-
pies. too. Here is great country, yearn-
ing for development; here are men yearn-
Ing for labor. and here are men trying to
stif1e the grandest instincts Of mankind.
''Mr. Bryan was nominated in June, or
JULY have forgotten which. daughter }
His shadow has been projected over the
land and in one month the great Penn
sylraria railroad has lost 81 10000 If that
is what the shadow does. what will the
substance do? Don't let the shadow get
10 be any more of a substance than it is.
Applause)
DepreciatinE Currency.
They say We want a constantly depre-
eating currency. Well. do We? Do We
want a dollar TO be less and less and less? q?
] don't believe It. want the dollar to
remain it is. You say that is bad; you
want, prices to go lower. What are prices?
They are the expression of the relation
between labor and consumption. l am
going to make some historical illusions,
and they will not be to Mexico. daughter }
/ know how badly we are off. know we
can never be. as PROSPEROUS as Mexico or
rs civilized as free silver China. which Is
sG0o years ahead OF us. As to Japan, We
are not to be mentioned IN the same breath,
with her. Q-aughter) We have had an
experience with a depreciating currency.
These gentlemen were not born at that
time. They know nothing of what took
place before they We're born, and precious
little since. Uaughter.)
There are some things that seventy mil
lion of people cannot do; they cannot make
water run up hill or the sun shine at night.
The United States is a great country. but
ii cannot add cubit to the stature of the
humblest. of its citizens. The United States
tried to keep its currency at par but some
Of IT went down TO so cents; We had a