The Lexington dispatch. [volume] (Lexington, South Carolina) 1870-1917, 1896-07-22
The SPEECH THAT NADE BRYAl.
Continued from First Page.

that the gold standard is a good
thing, we point to their platform and
tell them that their platform pledges
the party to get rid Of a gold stand
ard and substitute bimetallism. zap
plause) If the gold standard is a
good thing why try to get rid of it?
daughter and continued applause }
If the gold standard, and I might
call your attention to the fact that
some of the very people who are in
this Convention today and who tell
you that we ought to declare in favor
of international bimetallism, and
thereby declare that a gold standard
is wrong and that the principle Of
bimetallism is better, these very
people four months ago were open
and ayowed advocates of the gold
standard and telling US that we could
not legislate two metals together even
with all the world. (Renewed ap-
plause and cheers.
Iwant to suggest this truth, that
if the gold standard is good thing
we ought to declare in favor of its
retention and lot in favor of aban-
doning it, and if the gold standard is
a bad thing, why should we wait un-
til some other nations are willing to
help us to let go9 (Applause) Here
is the line of battle. We care not
upon which issue they force the fight
We are prepared to meet them on
either issue or on both. If they tell
us that the gold standard is the
standard of civilization, we reply to
them that this, the most enlightened
of all the nations of the earth, has
never declared for a gold standard,
and both the parties this year are
declaring against it. (Applause }
If the gold standard is the standard
of civilization, why, my friends,
should we not have it? So, if they
come to meet US on that, We can pre-
sent the history of on nation.
More than that, we can tell him
this, that they will search thepages Of
history in vain to find a single instance
in which the common people Of any
land have ever declared themselves
in favor of a gold standard. (Ap-
plause,) They can find where the
holders of fixed investments have.
Mr.. Carlisle said in 1878 that this
was struggle between the idle hold
ers of idle capital and the struggling
masses who produce the wealth and
pay the taxes of the country, and,
my friends, it is simply a question
that we shall decide upon which side
shall the Democratic party fight?
Upon the side of the idle holders of
idle capital or upon the side of the
struggling masses! That is the
question that the party must answer
first, and then it must be answered
by each individual hereafter.
The sympathies of the Democratic
purity, as described by the platform,
are on the side of the struggling
masses, who have ever been the found.
alton of the Democratic party. ZAP
plause.) There are two ideas of
Government. There are those who
believe that if you just legistate to
make the well-to-do prosperous that
their prosperity will leak through on
those below. The Democratic idea
has been that if you legislate to make
the masses prosperous their prosper
ity will find it's way up and through
every class and rest upon it. (Ap-
plause.)
You come to US to tell US that the
great cities are in favor of the gold
standard. I tell you that the great
cities rest upon these broad and fer
tile prairies. Burn down your cities
and leave our farms, aud your cities
will spring up again as if by magic.
B 1t destroy our farms and the grass
will grew in the streets of every city
in this country. (Applause.) My
friends, we shall declare that this
nation is able to legislate for its own
people on every question without
waiting for the aid or consent OF any
other nation on earth. (Applause.) }
Upon that issue we expect to carry
every single State in this Union.
(Applaus':)
I shall not slander the fair State Of
Massachusetts, nor the State of New
York, by saying that when its citizens
are confronted with the proposition,
is this nation able to attend to its
own business-I will Lot SANDER
either one by saying that the people
of those States will declare our help