The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1896-10-06

on the silver track and he found u
hard to put on the breaks, though
chairman ASHLEY got restless, and MT
Clark coughed loudly and flashed ms
eyes. But the speaker had aroused
enthusiasm in himself If not IN has
audience. and did not notice the danger
signals hung out by his colleagues.
The act Of 1873 was disastrous, ann
| The silver men say they want to make
II better. We realize that and we
| want to produce good times too. How
can II be done? In only one two per-
| hans three ways-yes, in three ways.
| They are: Lessen production, increase
| consumntion. cheaper the standard.
| The last is wha4 the free siIverites pro-
| pose to DO"
But the speaker here seemed to real
ize that he was on the wrong track
| and so forgot to tell his audience
which one of these panaceas his par
| tv proposed to adopt to help the peo-
ME out of their troubles. Instead of
This he fished out a mint Report and
shot another string of figures at his
audience Then he wandered off a.
cross the Rio Grande into Mexico, along
the Isthmus of Panama into the South
American countries, which, he said,
were wasting away because they could
not get back to the gold standard.
Thence he jumped to Japan, took an
excursion into China, then came back
to New York and found a panic rag
ing such as the world never before
saw.
He then read two or three pages of
one of Webster's speeches to show that
free silver will not help the wage-earn-
err. Said it would not help the farm
er, would not help the man to whom
money was due. would not help savings
banks-no it would not help anybody"
Then he added in most indignant tones,
1T will rob the money-lendeT, the
holder of the bonds Of this country.
Here the first applause OF the even
ing was awakened by negro who had
gone to sleep and fallen off the seat.
This caused the speakers mind very
naturally to revert to panics and he
began to tell how runs would be made
on banks if Bryan should be elected,
and said that there was no man in the
United States whom it would help eX-
cept the silver mine owner.
After roundly denouncing the miner
the speaker closed with a description
Oh TIE B8Ol SlAiti Nt% NAAN7~' -
America under the single gold stand
ard and sat down amid dead silence.
But his audience soon seemed to realize
that something was lacking to COM
plete the effort and tardy but vigor-
Gus hand-clapping relieved the embar-
rassment
MR.. CLARK'S SPEECH.
When Chairman Ashley introduced
Mr.. w. w. Clark, who has most en-
viable reputation as a public speaker,
the audience aroused itself and well
coined him with warm round of APP
plause.
Mr.. Clark prefaced his remarks by
saying that he had never been candi-
date and never expected to be and had
never before taken part in political dis
cussions. He said that he would not
now do so did he not believe that the
free coinage of silver would bring upon
the people disaster. He sought to dis
abuse the minds of the people of the
idea that he advocates of gold were
the enemies of the people, and aroused
loud applause by saying that if he did
not believe it would result in the great
est good to the greatest number Of the
peopIe he would never raise his voice
{
. in it's favor.
The speaker said that he could not
hope to discuss every phase OF the IL
nancial question in a single speech,
but there were underlying principles
which could be examined in so short
time. There were two he said, which
he wished to discuss. These We're:
4 The ability of this country alone
To maintain the value of silver under
| free coinage at tl@ ratio of is to L.
2. The alleged evils of the gold stand
ard.
Under the first head the speaker
discussed the question of ratio and
. elected applause and shouts of laugh
ter bv saving that there were some
who thought it meant 16 silver dollars
to one gold dollar, others thought it
meant Is jobs to one idle man, while
/ still others said it meant IS patches
where there was now one on the labor
| er's pants He then discussed the diff
ference between the present CONNER
| cial ratio of silver and the proposed
| monetary ratio and referred to the sill
yer men as alleged anarchists" The
! history of silver coinage in this and 9TH
/ countries was reviewed in a simple and
| interesting manner.
He claimed that all history went to
prove that this country could not
maintain the value of silver under free
coinage. He further said that the advo-
Gates Of free silver did not
want to maintain it, but
wanted cheap money that
would put prices up and that involves
| financial wreck and ruin" '"Fhey are
arraying the poor against the rich, and
the debtor class against the creitor
class a negro in the audience-''Tell
it'') The speaker claimed that under
Gresham law silver would drive gold
out of circulation and instead of in
| ereasing the currency free coinage
would cause a contraction of two-thirds
Of the circulation.
Instead of claiming, as is usual, that
the country would be flooded with sill
yer, Mr.. Clark said that in case silver
went up to thep rice claimed by the sill
yer advocates the owners of bullion
would have no inducement to have it
coined and no miner had never yet had