The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1896-09-02

q u1reu TO make dollar created great
amusement when he said, There is one
thing about it. A man wants a medal
of d size that he can lift. Who wants to
load himself down with silver dollars.
How many of you have silver dollar
in your pockets? ] do not ask how mary
of you have money in your pockets for
you are intelligent people and Intelligent
people generally have money. But how
many of you are shouldering silver dol
lars. (Laughter.l Why I had to send
down of the platform to get uae to illus
trate with.
l ask you what is the advantage of
going from gold to silver standard?
Mr. George Fred Williams who has gone
into my district to educate them-and
expect much larger vote because h%
has done so-Mr. George Fred Williams
says there will be furry. A furry
(Laughter.) They do not heed scar
who never felt "a wound. A furry They
ask US to go to fluotuating standard,
because silver is now nlinted in quanti-
ties great or small and its value conse-
quently fuotuates. t is a matter of his
tory that bad money always drives out
the good. Thomas Jefferson, q good
Democrat but a dead one (sughtar)
stopped the coinage Of silyor for this very
reason. And away up in the corner of
Maine Jewett and Pitcher had lumber
their workmen in notes and che men
took the notes because they couldn't get
anything else. Those notes drove all the
greenbacks out of sight. Everybody had
JeweIt and Pitcher notes and every body
was Try ing to pass the notes on his
brother because he thought Jewett and
Pitcher was going to fail. an they did
and wan ted to get rid of the notes.
There is one thing which would ad-
just itself to this new standard. That is
human labor. But you say to me :" You
don't labor" Well, don't. I can't re-
member OF doing any manual labor, any
that could get rid of (laughter) and yet
am interested in the price of labor.
WbyM You all know of the furniture in
dustry in the great state of Michigan.
They send furniture even to Maine. And
the prosperity of that industry, the pros
perity OF she men who work at IL has
enabled them to sell furniture SO cheap
that man who filed his house with
furniture 20 years ago could now get fur
nituro equally as good at half the price.
Mr. Reed read figures to show that dur
ing the OWL war the prices of commo-
dit1es advanced on a depreoiated curreu-
cy much faster than did the rate of la b.
or. We know that is SO because the fig
ures show it and they are figures which
were made by committee of senators,
men of both parties, and which have
never been questioned. Now when you
have proved that thing is SO it some
times olinohes the argument to show
why 1t is SO. Well, will tell you why
the price of labor will not go up as fast
ms the price of commodities. Groceries
will keep. Labor WON'T. You must sell
today's labor today. While you are try
ing to convince your employer that q
silver basis your wages should be raised
the day may be gone and that days lab
or you can never sell. And you can sell
today's labor in Rumford, Me-, and no.
wares in Europe or South Africa.
There is one GLASS of citizens who
would be benefited by a silver standard.
They are the silver mine owners and we
are asked to aid them. If a man fall
over board we should try to save him, but
we should not oapsize the vessel in doing
so. sThere were S3l, 900, 600 of silver pro-
duced in this country last year. That is
a very large amount but it looks small
when compared with others. There were
three thousand, five hundred million
OF agricultural products in this country
last year and four thousand, two hun
dred and ten millions of manufactured
products. We have already bought $780,
coo, 600 of silver and 1T is worth now
3 Oh, but they say we can lift silver if
the United States will only take hold.
Now don It you know that is most deli
cate fiattery. Oh they say we are go big.
But the United States cannot add one
cubit to the stature of you or nus.
With 2, 600, 600 men in arms it couldn't
make 80 cent greenbae pay for dol
lars worth of starch. We know that for
we tried it and failed.
There are two ways they LOOK at this
question and they depend upon the kind
OF people who are listening. The people
are debtors they say We want silver be-
cause 1t will reduce your debts. But if
they are talking to the other kind of peo-
pie they say We will raise silver to the
level of gold. Now, my friends, look
upon you as honest people. If you aren't
you ought to be because honesty is the
best policy. You can pay your debts in
deprecated currency once but when you
try to borrow again the men you want
to borrow of will either refuse to lend to
you or he will charge a premium on your
dishonesty.
Here are two silver dollars. You will
observe that one is larger than the other.
That large one is worth 53 CENTS The
other is worth 100 cents. Why, because
Mexico does not care whether that silver
dollar is worth 80 cents or not whils he
United States promises to pay 100 cents
for the other With that promise we can
circulate silver and paper TO a reasonable
amount, but there is a limit. IheTesare
some things which this country could not
do if it were as big as the planet of
Jupiter. Do you want to go to silver
standard? You can if you want to-
Did you ever watch the fluctuatlons of
silver as reported in the columns of the
daily paper. Probably not, but the
storekeepers do and when they find that
silver ia falling they will put CORES
ponding increase on the price of their
wares. And when silver rises again they
won't be half SO fussy about taking it
off again.
Remember that the election of Presi-
dent is a serious thing. He must be
elected for four years. If Mr.. Bryan
could be elected for "a hours should be
In favor of eleoting him just so that the
people could find out what he represents
but don't want four years of time just
to educate the rest of you. (Applause.)
In concluding Mr.. Reed said that the
paths which in the past had lead to pres
perity were the paths which continued
into the future would lead to light, pros
perity and happiness. Maine sounded the
bugle note to tho rest of the people and
would be heard from as Of old at the
coming election.
The meeting dispersed with cheers for
the ticket and for Mr. Reed
--