New Ulm review. (New Ulm, Brown County, Minn.) 1892-1961, 1896-09-02
GIVE EVERY MAN HIS DUE.
The Illinois Governor Says the English
Shylock is Severe Taskmaster.

Gov. Altgeld addressed 10000 people
at Girard, Illinois, on Saturday. he
spoke in part as follows:
We are now in the midst of the great
est crisis thatever confronted this repub.
lie. In 1861 the union was confronted
with dissolution which meant anarchy in
respect to government and perpetual
ton of African slavery. In 1896 we
are confronted with the question of per-
petually enslaving the white race. We
are confronted with the question wheth.
er We shall install the English shylock
as a taskmaster over all the generations
of Americans that are yet to come.
We are not proposing to wrong any
body. We are proposing to give every
man his due. We are not suggesting
experiment; we are demanding return
to the experience of the world for thou
sands of years, and we cay that this ex-
pertinent of trying to force the nations
of the earth onto gold basis for the
benefit of European creditors is ruinous
to the American people. II
We propose to pay back the English
creditors in the same money they gave
us, gold and silver. We propose to give
them dollars that shall have the same
purchasing power, that will buy as much
property and as much labor of every
kind as the dollars they gave us, and we
say that their act in getting silver demon
etized and gold made dearer, after they
had succeeded in getting our bonds and
notes, so as to compel us to pay in a diff
fercnt kind of money from what they
gave us, to pay in dollars which cost
twice as much sweat, twice as much
blood, was fraud and a crime against
civilization.
This is not a partisan qQestion-not a
question of republicanism or of democ-
racy. John Sherman and Cleveland are
sleeping together. 1t is a Question of
patriotism. 1t is a question of maintain
ing the institutions Of our fathers, for if
the present standard is to be maintained
If our people must go on paying interest
and principal in dollars that require twice
as much labor, twice as much sweat,twice
as much blood to obtain as did the dol
lars that were in circulation when the
debts were created, then the doom of the
American producers is sealed. Low pric-
es will be made perpetual and there will
lie no hope for the American farmer, the
American mechanic, or the American la
borer.
You have heard glib talk about So
cent dollars. There is no such thing as
a 50-cent dollar. The silver dollars spok-
en- of as 50--cent dollars buy as much
property on the average of every kind;
buy as much of the products of the earth
On the average, of every kind; buy as
much labor on the average, of every kind,
as they did before silver was demone-
tized. Silver has not fallen. 1t occupies
the same relation to property,to tie pro-
ducts Of the earth and to labor as 1t form
erly did. 1t is gold that has gone up.
The purchasing power Of gold has dou
bled, and our people are obliged to pay
their debts, principal and interest,i4 dol
lars which, as matter o. fact, are 300
cent dollars. Who gets the benefit of this?
The English money lenders. 1t is mis-
take to suppose that a local money lend
err derives benefit from the conditions
which now exist.
We say. restore silver to where it was,
coin it free as you do gold, restore it to
its legal tender qualities, and just as
soon as this is doAe, just as soon as sill
yer can be used at the custom-h house to
pay taxes and to pay notes at the bank,
just as soon as it can lie used to do the
same work that gold does, just that soon
the Importance of gold will be lowered =;
its purchasing power will be lowered; the
Importance of silver will be raised; its
purchasing power will he raised, until
the two metals again circulate at par,
just as they did for 900 years before sill
yer was demonetized.
But some one says the idea of bin.e-
tallism is all right, but we cannot go it
alone. 'We must have Europe to help
us, otherwise gold will beat premium -
Everybody admits that if all the Euro
pean states would act together they could
60 it alone. They could absorb the sill
yer that is annually produced, and, in
fact, a great deal more without having
gold go to premium. Now, the inter
nal trade of the United States under nor.
NAL conditions is greater than that of all