The Windham County reformer. (Battleboro, Vt.) 1876-1897, 1896-05-15
THE REAL CAUSE OF THE HARD
TIMES.
The Result OF Republican Legislation
Facts Within Every Mans knowledge
That show L..

(From Z. II. Davenp0rts Speech before VI
Young Mems Democratic Club at 81. Albai
Wednesday Evening"
What is the real cause of the har
times 1t is the Republican policie
and Legislation in the past and Republl
can puttering and paterng and foolin
with the silver question-the very pol
icy to which the party is committlnl
itself afresh in the candidacy of tn
estimable Mai. Mckinley. The truti
of this assertion our Republican
friends must admit, if they will thinl
of the subject candidly. The proof o
ii is in every mans experience II III
will hut look back few years. he
publican policy has driven out of cir
culaton and ont Of active use Al
money well toward third of TIT
money of the country. You all remem
Der how ) years ago, before the passage
of the Sherman act, you handled golt
in your every day transactions. DO you
han He any of it now? How much Of j.
have you seen for the past 5 Eears?l vii
venture ito say the avearge business
man doesn't see a piece once IN three
months. 1t began to move about lit
tie a year or two ago. after the return o
the Democratic party to power and thu
repeal of the Sherman act, but fol
some reason it has again fled back tt
| its hole. That reason is but in small
part the rise OF the free silver agita
ton again in this country. because il
is entirely clear that free silver cannot
win on straight issue it is far more
the fear of more. Republican compromis-
ing and fooling, something again ike
tt al. t.,,. 30 F.an
silver, a fear of p linking together Of the
causes of protection and silver, the very
thing we see developing when the Cal
ifornia and Michigan Republican con
ventions declare for Mckinley and free
silver. Experience has forcedsthe con
yiction upon thoughtful people that
there is no safety for our financial sys
TEN in Republican methods of shifty
compro mise and principleless deals.
Gold hides, while there is a chance
of fall to a silver standard because
in that case gold dollar would be worth
wo dollars of the country's money. In
other words the men and institutions
that are able 10 do so, keep it within
reach tor the chance of big specula
ton, and fellow, citizens, what state
of affairs is that in which therescan
be speculation with the very life blood
of business! How can there be ought
else than paralysis?
OF the money of the country $500,
coo, 600 in round numbers is gold or
of gold. nearly half Of
the whole. Under the first Cleveland
administration every dollar of ii was
and doing the work Of
money, and there WAS business. health |
and prosperity Today practically the
whole OF it is hiding and has been for 3 |
years aud little of il doing the work of |
money, except what is kept in bank re-
serves the treasury vault and what cir
,ulates on the Pacific coast. When the
Sherman act was passed and passed, as
as been conclusiyely proved. upon the
" erwhelming testimony OF Republican
themselves, by corrupt
ticker to'get the votes of the Western
liver men for the Mckinley bill, ev-
ybody who could see an inch beyond
lis nose knew it was full of peril and
hat if continued long enough il would
bring us upon silver basis,
nd it did bring us 10 the very edge Of
he precipice. before it was repealed,
nd eur great financial system is not
through trembling at the danger yet.
When that act was passed. by law of
human nature as certain 10 its work
ngs as that of gravitation, the gold of
he country went int, hiding and /
oarding for the chance OF that spec
lation of getting two dollars for one I
rom third TO half of the money of
ne country disappeared as in flash
lmost From third to a halt of the
Hood was taken from the veins and
rteries Of business Stimulants only
reverted collapse and stmulan,s
lade the collapse all the worse when
came. Borrowing and re- borrowing ,
nd multiplication of borrowing and
retching of credit in all ways became G
lcreasingly necessary to supply the
The Mckinley bill with i
lie expectation of great profits it held s
ut to the tariff interests only made il
orse, for it tempted them to enlarge
ents and expansions that required t
i'll more borrowing, until all piled up G
disaster in the panic OF 1888, which O
as credit panic purely. There e
are no other panic conditions
esent, though there were some other "
uses. Values were not inflated We o
al just gone through an experience "
hich never failed before to bring
cd times, with phenomenally large N
Dps. here to meet short crops abroad. y
'nerally speaking, we had the h
'nditions of an era of great prosper n,
=, all of which was spoiled by the b.
, publican les islation of colossal folly g,
Il dishonesty, 10 a measure which no c
e then or now has the hardihood fl,
defend its merits. NJ
In "a word, the Republican Sherman II
(which had not a solitary Dem m
ratio yote-has given US practically VI
the evils of free silver, by driving m
t gold, without any of its benefits, sh
filling its place with silver. th