Birmingham state herald., 1896-11-01
Debs' Great Speech
 Aaa.---At CinCinhat Thursday

i, hair all off Gaughter.) Under MT. Me
 Kinley's idea, if the American people
 don't die, they are bound to have prosper ity. No, my friends; prosperity will nev- CT come in that way. What we want is to reverse the machine (Applause) We want to relieve the burdens of the people, and not increase them. Under this con- dition, what has the democratic party to give the country? An immediate change of programme. Loud applause) We know the remedy, and will apply it. We say that we have 70,000,000 people, and can legislate for ourselves. The repubh- can party says we are a British colony, and the democrats declare that we are forty-flye sovereign states. Loud cheers ) John Bull dcesn't like Uncle Sam, and wouldn't be on speaking terms with him if he didn't have both hands in his pockets clear up to the elbow. daughter and applause). We say the gold standard is vicious system under which multi millionaires and mendicants are made. We stand just where Jefferson stood The gold standard Is increasing both the mill lionaires and mendicants. We believe that the gold standard is vicious, and we will change it ourselves without waiting for the consent of any other na tion on earth. Prolonged applause).
 "The plank on the money question in the republican platform is a fraud: Everybody knows that if we wait until we get the consent of European countries we will never get it in the world. They are subjects there, and we are citizens The nations of Europe demonetized silver for the interest of the aristocracy and money lending and money holding class The republicans say that to restore silver will bring disaster upon the country Who brought 1t where it Is now? They con- slider it temerity to demand for once in the history of this country legislation in
 the interests of the people, instead of the plutocracy.
 "On American soil there has been rear
 ed an aristocracy as offensive as any in
 the old world. They believe in the pa-
 trician and plebeian; that one portion of
 the community should rule and the others
 obey They are enraged that the people
 think they have some rights that they
 are bound to respect. And they say we
 will disturb the present conditions. They
 ought to be disturbed. The men who toll
 most have least to show for it, while
 those who do least have nearly every
 thing. The men who control this country
 have money, and they are opposed to
 agitation
 WHERE THE GOLD IS.
 "There are four billions of gold in the
 world. The Rothschilds have two billions
 of this, and at the present rate in ten
 years will have the remaining two. What
 do we ask? That silver be restored to
 where it properly belongs, where it was
 placed by the fathers of the republic;
 that it shall be resurrected in the interest
 of the people. (Great cheering). They
 make the charge that the silver mine
 owner is to reap all the benefit. Let us accept for a moment their theory Then
 I want MT. Ingalls, to tell his employees if silver goes. to a.2s an ounce what be- comes of the 53-cent dollar. Great ap- plause). If the silver is debased to 53- cent dollar how will the mine owner be benefited? Uaughter).
 'It is not the mine owner that concerns
 us We are advocating free silver coin age because. we need more money in cir cu1ation.s They charge that the existing troubles are due to two causes-the free
 silver agitation and lack of confidence. If the gold standard were right it would not tremble under agitation, but under
 the breath of agitation it cannot bear in- vestigation. (Applause). It is not right, and they know it. (Renewed cheers) Give us free coinage-at least let us try 1t, and if 1t causes all the trouble they predict will be willing to join with you in demonetizlng it again. Major McKin- ley says that all we need Is confidence. never saw man with money that lacked confidence What Is there to give man confidence who hasn't dollar and not a prospect of getting it. We could get along with more money and less confidence. NOT A HAND WENT UP.
 T want every man in this audience who has a five-dollar gold piece to raise his hand" Not hand in that vast crowd went up, It's out of circulation, so far as you are concerned now. Laughter and great applause) Free silver isn't out of circulation. and won't be. The gentlemen who favor the perpetuation of the gold standard have got all the gold, and they intend to keep it. The less money there is the easier it is to nonopolize it. The scarcer the money the more 1t will buy, labor included. A few people are pros porous. There. is no excuse for the panic ! upon us. In this land of plenty we should not be suffering, It was deliberately planned. There is no lack of anything, and yet we in a state bordering on i starvation. Prices have so fallen under {; the gold standard that it does not pay i the farmer to produce, and yet they say 1, overpreductien, and yet the people are /, starving because there is too much wheat 1 and corn, going naked because there are 1 too many clothes made, shivering with | cold because there is too much coal dug 1 out of the mines. (Applause.)
 1 .sThe only remedy of MT. Mckinley is to | produce still more and then we will be | prosperous. Gaughter.) A little while ago they had their windows filled with
 object lessons by displaying Mexican dol