The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1896-09-18

The speech delivered by Mr.. Bourke
Cochran in Minneapolis on Wednesday
evening was worthy Of the occasion
and the man. 1t is great because
there are two particulars in which it
Is common. That is, it is full of COM
mon sense and common honesty. These
two qualities are lamentably lacking
In so large a portion of the political
discussions of the day that when they
are made d conspicuous feature they
are appreciated as something strangely
precious. Common honesty is to be,
after all, the touch word Of this cam
paign. When all the ground has been
gone over and the political arguments
displayed and the economic arguments
weighed, it seems to us that each man
must answer for himself in the tri-
bunal of his own conscience what ac
count he shall give of himself in No
Vember. Whatever else may be in
VOlved, there is at issue the question
shall we, nationally and individually.
pay honestly our honest debts? Every
y
dollar that is now owed by any indi-
Vldual or corporation is dollar for
which the borrower received full value
In the currency Of today; that is, &C
cording to the gold standard. Shall he
fulhll his promise and pay 1t back
again, or shall he, under pretense of
some specious argument, participate in
the enactment of legislation that will
enable him to discharge his debt with
something that is not worth a dollar?
1hls is the paramount question, be-
cause in it is bound up the devotion to
honor and honorable dealing without
which no nation can endure. We NAV
repudiate our debts If we please we
may do this shameful act; but char
acter and self-respect, and, following
them' prosperity and national exist
ence itself, will speed swiftly but sure
ly down the incline toward the abvss
that has received and buried so many
nations that lived before ours.
common sense, too, finds no better
advocate than Mr. Cochran. Every
speech of his is a series of telling blows
addressed to the average individual in
language that he can understand. and
upheld and enforced by arguments
familiar to mis- everyday experience
We have seen no happier parody of the
appeal of Mr.. Bryan and his s,,nnoy+
ers TO American prejudice against
England and their arguments for "the
money of the constitution" and 1.-The
dollar of the daddies" than Mr.. COCK
rams. Starting from the simple propo-
sltion that money is a tool evolved for
commercial uses, just as the steam en-
CINE and the dynamo have been for
industrial uses, he asks why not. on
the same basis, refuse to use these
modern appliances and go back to the
handcart and the treadIe, because
these were the implements of the
fathers. If we had to fight again for
the integrity OF our SOIL" said Mr.
cochran, L wonder if Mr.. Bryan and
Mr.. Bland and the other Populistic pa
triots would make it a question of ma
tr1otism that we should send our SOL
Oilers to- the front with the old flint
lock rifles, which were very efficient at
Bunker Hill and triumphant at York
town, or whether he would allow rs
the modern breech-loaders. with which
battles are fought and victories won
at the close of the nineteenth century ,,
The parallel is a perfect one. The peo-
pie or this country need in their strlg-
gle for commercial supremacy to use
only the best weapons. just as they
would in struggle between military
Sorces use only the most effective wea-
pons The case Is exactly the same.
The dollar of the fathers is on par
with the musket OF the fathers. If
either is sent to the lumber room. 1T
Is not because we would show disre-
spect to the fathers, but because we
have improved upon their methods and
their machinery.
No one cause has contributed so
much to the commercial achievements