The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1896-09-04

presented. MT. Bryan 1nSre Was di-
most a panic just after Mr.. Bryan be-
= gan, owing 10 the attempts of those
who came late to get into positions
near enough TO hear. The pressure
from the outside STARTED the srowd
swaying back and FORTH and as this
spread over the vast mass of humanity,
the throng became a series Of surglng
waves, that caused some excitement.
MIR. Bryan WAS obliged TO pause, and
Mr. ShaVeley realizing the serious as
pect of affairs, began addressing the
people in calm, clear tones, begging
for order HIS words brought the audi
ence to its senses and Mr. Bryan went
on. When the cheering that greeted
him had ceased, Mr.. Bryan spoke as
follows:
HOPEFUL OF CONVERSION
Our opponents are in the habit Of
declaring the money question too
deep to be considered by the masses OF
the people and our former government
is based upon the theory that the
American people not only have patriot
ism but the intelligence necessary 10
sit i'm Judgment upon any question
which can arise. (Applause.) When l
find a man who says than the money
question is 100 complicated for you L
I generally find a man who says that it
| is just complicated enough for him.
! Oaughter) 1 want TO argue this
question upon the theory that we are
able 10 decide for ourselves how the
question affects you
! AT this point the surging in of the
crowd began to look serious and Mr..
Bryan, after appealing for order, sat
down
Mr.. shiveiey also begged the audi
ence to remain quiet Finally Mr..
1 Bryan was enabled to continue, and
said:
Il want to talk about some questions
which are asked that you may better
answer them in your conversation with
| your neighhors. 1 suppose there are
several different classes of people here
tonight There may be those who be-
lieve in a gold standard because they
are peculaaariay benefited by rising dol
lars. If there are such I am not very
/ hopeful of bringing them to bimetal-
lism. / have learned that as a rule
people are inclined TO judge others by
themselves; they take it for granted
that the thing is good for Others and
/ when a man makes up his mind that
a gold standard is good for himself.
he is generally willing to take it for
granted that it is
GOOD FOR EVERYBODY ELSE.
1 say if there are those who are bene-
fitted by gold standard, l am not
hopeful of converting them If, how
ever, there are those who advocated
the gold standard under a mistaken
idea that it would be a good thing
for them, hope l may be able to lead
! them to better understanding of the
subject. If there are bimetallists here
who have been troubled by questions
| put to them which they could not read
lily answer, 1 desire to suggest answers
to some Of those questions, in order
10 aid you in your work of spreading
this gospel. If there are those who
believe in birneta1lisTn, 1 desire to
deepen their convictions.
Now, the first question to be con-
sidered is, what is an honest dollar?
We hear people talking about honest
money. What do they mean by honest
money? DID you ever he&r an advocate
of the gold standard give the definition
of an honest dollar? L wild teil you the
/ definition which you generally hear. 1t
is this: An honest dollar is a dollar
which when melted loses none of its
value. That is what they tell you is
an honest dodiar. l want TO say to you
my friends. that the man who gives to
you that definition of an honest dollar
has yet to learn the first principles of
monetary science. (Applause.)
AN HONEST DOLLAR
is the dollar which retains the same
general purchasing power yesterday,
today and forever. (Great applause.)
That would be an honest dollar Pur-
chasing power is the test of honesty
A dollar which rises in purchasing
power is just as dishonest as a dollar
which falls in purchasing power. Cap
pdduSe-) The only difference is that
when the dollar rises it helps one
class of citizens. when 1T falls it helps
another class OF people. and when you
md person who IS always afraid
that dollar viii fail in its purchasing
power and never fearful that it may
rise in its purchasing power, you have
1ound a man, who, being interested in
having dollars grow largely, is, of
course, in favor Of a gold standard.
suppose all the world should join in
| a gold standard and make our dollar
| the unit under that standard. and then
suppose the next day all nations should
| get together and decide there was too
much money in the world and decide to
gather up ninety-nine one-hundredths
OF all the dollars in the world and sink
them in the ocean. What would be
the result? You would have one dollar
! where you now have one hundred dol
! lars and according to the definition
| OF the gold standard men you would
still have honest dollars, because
IF YOU MELTED ONE
of them it would not lose anything in
| its value. If, however, you owe a man
thousand dollars and to go out and
sell property in order TO get a thousand
dollars 10 pay your debts, you have to
| sell about one hundred times as mush
property to get the money to pay your
debts. would they be able to convince
/ you that it was an honest dollar? No.
my friends. And yet, that would be
an honest dollar according to the def
milton of the man VINO thinks that the
metal melted in pot itself is the only
test of the money. Take the other
side, suppose that after the nations had
agreed upon the gold standard, that
somebody had found enough gold to
coin into one hundred times as much
money as we have today what would
be the result? Where we now have a.
dollar we would then have g hundred
dollars. What would be the result?
Why it would be honest money accord
ing to the definition of Democrats of
the gold standard because if you
melted a dollar it would not lose any
thing. But suppose yoJa owe a man
a thousand dollars and pay him a
thousand; when there was hundred
times as many dollars, the dollars that
you pay to him would not buy as much
property as il did before. Would you
be able to convince him that you had
paid your debt in honest dollars? oh,
no. He would have a different idea of
honest money than that which he had
given you. Why is it that gold loses
nothing by melting? 1t is because
me law says you can