The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1896-09-26
Speech at SprinS fi cid.

to live, and will stand by the ticket"
Speech at Springfield.
In the course of his address at Spring.
| field, to-day, Mr.. Bryan said
| Before entering upon a discussion of the
! great paramount issue OF this campaign,
| desire in this city to pay tribute to m
| friends. l have always respected an honest
| and earnest and able. opponent never
| criticised the right OF any one TO speak MS
! sentiments and present his ideas as clear
| ly. forcibly, as eloquently as he can. L
! believe with Jefferson that error is harm
| less where reason is left free to combat it.
! Great appIause.) And If any man has an
/ idea / am willing for him to launch that
| idea and trust to the merits of that Idea
to make its way into the minds and hearts
| of men, and l respect the Springfield Re
Kane mon o which r. diseusses poIitical
questions. I respect it for the tolerance
which Ii shows to political opponents With
out censuring those who substitute abuse
for argument. L can commend those who
use argument instead of abuse. can COM
mend also to every citizen the words of
that distinguished editor who was the
founder of this paper. am told that he
is the author OF the expression that man
who is not willing to die for a cause in
! which he believes is not worthy to live.
Great applause.)
My friends it is willingness of people
to stake their all upon the correctness of
their convictions that has enabled truth
to spread from person to person until at
last it overcomes the opposition. And in
this campaign we have as good an illus
tration as was ever given of the depth of
conviction and the intensity of earnestnesS
in the presentation of the cause. l chal-
!enge you TO find among all the hosts who
have defended cause more earnest men
than are found to-day among the advocates
or the rights OF this government TO legls-
late for Itself without regard to other ma
tons. Great applause)
THE opposition press may well afford to
pause in their ridicule of the advocates Of
free silver coinage in their denunciation
of them as laWlesS characters, to find out
whether there is a well-founded reason for
this advocacy Of bimetallism among the
farmers of the United States of Ireland
of England. of Germany of France and of
every nation which has been cursed by the
gold standard. My friends, l assert here,
ana challenge any gold bug papers to dis
pute it that any policy which is injurious
to the agricultural classes has nothing to
commend it TO the government of any ma
ton on earth Great applause and cheers.)
The gold standard has never commended
itself to the agricultural classes of any
country which has ever had 1t. What will
you say then? VIII you say that these
farmers have no right TO have their inter
ests respected? No: you dare not say that
because, nay friends they must first pro
duce wealth before there Is wealth to be
distTibuteq. What will you say then. that.
respected. they have not the intelligence
TO know what Is best for them? No, you
dare not say that because you know that
IN public and business life the best brains
that you have come from the farms Of this
T Toa Make tA p the9 What answer viii
bread viii you give them a stone? When
they ask for fish will you bestow serpents
upon them? That has been the policy of
the fnancers of this country and dis
sembling their selishness, they have been
attempting to force their ideas upon Others
While others have fallen down beneath
the weight of those ideas the fnanciers
themselves have risen to prosperity on the
PROSTATE forms of the fallen. applause
NO person can accuse me of attempting to
deny the financlers or even to the money
changers ei1I,I the right to their opinion. the
right 10 their votes, the right to every legit-
innate influence. What I deny to them is
this: The right to think for anybody but
themselves; the right to act for ANYBODY
but themselves; the right to put themseIVess
above other people and go through the
H MIfd crying fbn am h9Ier than thou; am
Our opponents talk about honest MONEY
and yet, my friends, they never touched
defining what is an honest dollar. They tell
US that they want good money. My friends.
there are two things that;we need in money
we must not only have money which is
good, but We must have money which we
can get hold Of. (Apnlause) If money is
so good that you can pray for it and long
for 1T, but can never see it, except when
you have the privilege of gazing through
some grated door and looking at somebody
for the masses of the people. (ADDlause.)
Money ought not to be built on the bal
loon plan Balloons are built to go up
and the higher they go the better they are
as balloons. and if dollars are built on that
plan the higher they go the greater is the
misery that they bring to mankind. CAP
pause) Our opponents want a balloon
dollar. Our opponents want a dollar that
gets higher all the time. If we are going to
have gold standard, if we are going to
have gold dollar, whose appetite is never
satisfied. and a gold dollar which insists
upon eating more of the products of toll
every few years, we ought to change the
dies at the mint and so describe that dollar
that people will understand it-let US take
off the emDleTnS that have adorned it from
the beginning and put on one side the pic
tUre of the horse leech and under the pic
ture let it be written, Is in proverbs Give
give erINeI and the other side of no 90
dollar let us put the picture OF an open
grave and above it let us write as in
proverbs. 1t Sayeth not it is enough CAD
plause and laughter) My friends, that is
the sort of dollar that the gold standard
has given US. That is the sort OF dollar
that the gold standard will continue TO give
TO us. If oats get down to 10 cents a busheI
it means that 81 will buy ten bushels OF
oats and if that dollar is not good enough
YOU can send its value up until 81 will buy
twenty bushels of oats, and If the farmer
is troubled with getting too much money
for his oats you can still send it up higher
so that ii will get hundred bushels or
as dear as you want to, and the dearer yea
make it the worse it is to everybody except
the owners of fixed investments and the
men who sell bonds TO the government after
having driven the government into the post
ton where it wants to buy the bonds.''
(ApplauSe.)
YaIe's "EOrse Play"
NEW HAVEN. Conn.,. Sept. 25.-Yale was
the foster mother of Illinois College, where
W. J. Bryan graduated. Illinois College
was founded by a party of graduates from
Yale and mas always looked upon Yale as