Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1896-08-29

| WnObG HuUe anu lulHt uTe
worldwide, and not one of those great
! hnanciers who have given days and years
of thought to this subject, not one, and
nobody except the leaders of the modern
Democracy and Populism, has ventured
to advise his own country in Europe to
undertake that task alone. (Applause.) }
The question is this, and nothing more:
snail the United States, alone, under
take the free and unlimited coinage of sill
yer Mt ratio of 16 to 1? "a few cries
of yes" and mo-" and repeated cries of
no.'D Now, see you gentlemen over
there who called ives" and you gentle
men here who called no." shows the
difference of opinion upon this subject
laughter), and to you over there who
passionately, you will digest my argu-
ments, and l hope finally that by the
time you have done so thoroughly that
you will be inclined to shout mo" with
the gentlemen who responded when you
responded. Cheering and applause)
Now, let us be entirely good-natured
about this. l am going to try to give
you the facts, and | repeat it, the issue
is whether the United States shall at
tempt to do that thing alone, in the
race of the controlling fact that every
clvlliEed commercial nation upon the face
or the earth, except the Centr"l Amer
lean and South American states, years
ago and before we did abandoned it ut
terly. And if / shall succeed in con-
vinclng any of our friends that we are
not in position to do it without inflicting
upon the country and upon us all injuries
Wnlch II VIII take generation to re-
pair, L shall be more than rewarded
for the pains that l have taken, the OBJ
servations that l have made, the studies
L 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 civiliza-
tions, which are an ocular demonstra-
ton that no nation ever undertook alone
the coinage of free silver that did not de-
priye 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
fact recorded there for the education of
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 stands.
My fellow citizens, the warnings of his
tory are all against it. The present ex-
amples of nations who singly are endeav-
oring to sustain themselves under a single
standard forbid us to enter upon Il voy-
age upon, L was going to say, untTied
waters, but no, upon n 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
quicksands of their course from the Sc
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. Cap
plause.)
Now we have got to take facts exactly
as they are. We are not dealing with
Slittering and glowing generalities. We
are administering society and human con-
Germs; society, being perfectly concrete,
infinitely 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 to mislead 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
countries contain or circulate. (Ap-
lliiuSt.I say lIdL inc EOl1 countries
of this world. including the United States
land l call them gold countries for the
purpose not of definition, but of clear.
ness of eSpression), employ and circulate
more silver than all the silver countries
of the world employ, contain or circulate.
| make another proposition. l appeal
to history and to contemporary facts
which no man can dispute, that every
free coinage country is on n silver basis.
Isn't that so? (Cries of "Yes.'o I make
another statement for you to think of,
for L am not going to elaborate it-I 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 so? (Cries of "Yes.'0
Isn't that so in the United States?
(Cries of "Yes.'O In France? Voices
'1es.D L make another statement for
your calm and cool reflection that no sill
yer standard country, has any gold mon
my word for it.. Go and investigate this
subject; l say that no silver country has
any gold money whatever and you can
search from Mexico to Cape Horn and
hnd that this statement is correct.
Another statement-and I make it up-
on sense of my responsibility after an
exhaustive examination of statistics. in
vestlgationS and records-that in every
silver standard country wages are pressed
down to the very minimum of a wretched
subsistence. 1t is so in Mexico. II is so
in Japan, it is so in South America.
say that in every silver country wages
are pressed down TO the very minimuzn
of wretched subsistence.
The Reasons.
Now II it is true q will not 60 info
the reasons for it,, but if it is true os
absolute fact, that no silver
no country which has adonted
the silver standard has any gold circuIa-
tion whatever, I say that it follows that
the only practicable bimetallism on the
planet is by the nations with which the
United States has classed itself, and II
is this bimetnllism in the United States
which the new Democracy and POM
lism are endeavoring to destroy by snb-
silver monometallism, IAN
plause) The bimetallism which this
country and the nations of which / have
spoken enjoy is the bimetallism of fact
and actual enjoyment extending TO that
full extent which human Judgment. bn- |
man experience. human apprehension~
call it what You will-teach is the nro-
portion in which the metals can be en-
ployed in a degree that one will not de-
stroy or drive out the other and tbo+