Mexico weekly ledger., 1896-08-13
REV. BASFORD'S e E
Mr.. Cross Intimates That the Rev.
Gentleman Was Talking Through
His Hat" on Political Issues.


the Court House Saturday night to
hear the Rev. Mr.. Basford make a
Republican speech. / was interested
very much to know what comfort a
working man could gain from a Nc
Kinley advocate, and above all to
know how the Republicans r going
to proceed to carry out their plat
form, which says: "The gold stand
ard must be preserved" But he did
not use the word "gold" in his whole
speech. But, of course, as everybody
knows, it will be done by continuing
to issue bonds, burdening the people
with enormous debt. 1t can't be done
otherwise. Notariff legislation can pos
sibly be enacted for the next four years
and even if the Mckinley bill could
be restored it would only add five per
cent. more to the revenues collected
by the Wilson bill and wouldn't meet
our government expenses by about 40
or so million dollars annually. And
this on top of the fact that the Treas
ury is open with a standing invitation
at all times to raids from the money
thieves of Lombard and Wall streets.
Rev. Basford is a good talker and
what he lacks in argument he makes
up in earnestness.
He was not a pessimist. No nation
of the past had withstood the attack
of the centuries. All had fallen, but
ours was surrounded by different con-
ditions. He ignored the fact that his
tory tells Us that the premonitory
symptoms of weakness and decay and
final collapse was IN all instances the
concentration of the wealth of the
nation into the hands of the few, a
condition now being accomplished in
the United States. He criticised Rev.
Murphy's speech of the afternoon,
but he did not mention Murphy's pre-
amble, quoted from that grand states
man, Abraham Lincoln, as follows:
WORDS THAT BURN.
81 see a time coming fraught with
more danger than any war we have
yet passed through; a time when the
money power will dominate over pa
triotism, and gradually contracting
our currency, force US into a fratrici-
| dial war more horrible than any yet
past. The future dangers of the Re-
public lie in the increased greed ofthe
money power. Let our future law
makers beware of the foot hold that
power shall endeavor to gain upon our
statute books.
81 see in the near future a crisis
arising that unnerves me and causes
me to trernble for the safety of my
country. AS a result of the war, cor
| porations have been enthroned and an
era of corruption in high places will
follow; while the money power of the
country will endeavor to prolong it's
reign by working upon the prejudices
of the people until all wealth has ag-
gregated in a few hands and the Re-
public is destroyed"
He read US an extract from a speech
of Mr.. Bryan to prove that Nh. Bryan
vas not always a free silverite, but he
failed to tell us what Mckinley meant
when, in advocacy of the Sherman
bill, he said:
"We get by this bill the use of our
entire silver product, and we make
that product into money that is safe
for use in the hands of the people,a and
will be good for all time wherever and
by whomsoever held. Mr.. Speaker,
no man should hesitate between the
%, 900 900 a month that we now have
and the 4,60O, 900 ounces that we shall
have under the proposed law. We get
an increased volume of money with
safety to the Government and citizen.
Pass this bill and what do we have? An
increase of $50, 200, 900 annually of cir
culation to be put out among the peo-
pie and into the avenues of business.
For one, Mr.. Speaker, 1 will not vote
against this bill and thus deprive my
people and my country and the labor
ers and tho producers and the indus
tries of my country of $50, 0OO, 900 an
nually of additional circulating me-
dunn"
Or, to quote this from Mr.. Bryan:
"You may think that you have bur- |
led the u of bimetallism; you may
congratulate yourselves that you have
laid the free coinage of silver away in
a sepulchre, newly made since the
election, and before the door rolled
the veto stone. But, sirs, if our cause
is just, as I believe it is, your labor
has been in vain; no tomb was ever
made 30 strong that it could imprison
a righteous cause. Silver will yet lay |
aside its grave clothes and it's shroud.
1t will yet rise, and in it's rising and its
reign will bless mankind"
He spoke of the effect of making
contracts and then having them great
ly impaired by restoring silver, but
failed to note the 20 billion dollars of
debt, public and private, now borne
by the people of the United States,
the great bulk of which has been
doubled by the demonstration of ell
YER, and that, too, by an unsuspecting
people, while contracts it made now
will be in full view of the fact that sill
yer is sure to be remonetized.
He ridiculed the act Of giving silver
free coinage, but the people, "you and
(making a motion of passing the
hat around) chipping in and paying
for the mintage," not taking into ac-
and perhaps ignorant of the
fact, that tho silver displaced by the
necessary alloy Hardening materially
more than pays the mintage, and that
this profit to the government called
seignIorage) is not even coined, but
away In the vaults.
Sand then how are the people to
get this free silver after it is coined?
Why, borrow it, of course, giving your
notes with mortgages and other Sc
,urity." (Great applause.) He for
got to state that gold has these same
privileges and gets into circulation in
he same way, and that Democrats
,nly ask that silver be restored to the !
,ame footing. And this great argu-
nent was vo~ciferously applauded by
he audience except by Democrats