The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1896-08-16
To the People Of Utah:

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To the People OF Utah:
The pledges made by the Democratic
party to the people have been kept.
It's assurance in the last campaign that
it would make the silver question
national issue, has been verified. It's
national convention grandly met the
exigencies of the occasion and de-
manded the restoration of silver as a
money metal, at ratio of 16 to /, as
it existed prior to 1873 independent of
any other nation. 1t def1ed the con-
central ted wealth Of the world and it
has given the people an opportunity
to free themselves from financial slav-
cry and to make prosperous this land,
which is now in the very depths Of
industrial depression. Turning from
party leaders who have been tried IN
the past, refusing to listen to the
powerful influences which uphold the
gold standard; forcing to the front the
great cause Of the people, the Demo-
cratic party has demonstrated the right
to live, the right to control and TO
dominate the government, and its
worthiness to receive the support and
the votes of all patriotic and country
loving citizens. 1t has shaken off the
shacklese FFifich bound it and made
some people afraid to trust it. 1t has
burst from the control of the syndi
Gates and the enervating power Of
sordid wealth, and stands forth as the
party of the people and for the people.
THE TWO PARTIES CONTRASTED.
Contrast it today with the Republi-
can party. The latter, responding to
a popular partisan demand, nominated
for the presidency popular citizen
and then bound him with bands of
steel to the interests of monopolias
and declared that silver must be still
further debased and the single gold
standard made the sole measure Of
values. The spirit that dominated its
national convention did not emanate
from the people. The wires which con-
trolled its action we're held in Wall
street and in Lombard street, and
they are now gathered into strong
hand that has always oppressed labor,
never been controlled by the masses,
and which is directed by a mind which
/ is the embodiment of the cold and
cruel selfishness that marks the plu-
tocrat With O,5GOOO pledged al
ready by Wall street, it snaps its fin
gers in the faces of the suffering
masses and declares that Mckinley
wall be elected; if he cannot be in one
way, then he will De in another
THUS THE ISSUE IS JOINED.
The Republican party of the past has
! disappeared. In its place wearing its
livery and bearing its name, gold and
greed declares its purpose to grind
down, to oppreSs, to enslave, to make
more wretched, the masses of the peo-
pie, that concentrated wealth shall
! wear the purple, and coin from sweat
of labor the gold dollar of the Million
aire. On the other side IS the Demo-
cratic party, once more young, once
more vigorous, once more freed from
/ the domination of capital, and declar-
ing through its standard-bearer, the
/ young and manly Bryan, that this
/ government of the people shall not
pass from off the face Of the earth.
THE ONE GREAT ISSUE.
Such an issue will not down. When
the question to be determined is, shall
the people rule? Shall America in adj
her concerns be Independents of all
other nations? There is no time for
economic debates concerning tariff
schedules. We have reached the part
ing of the ways. We have arrived at
that period of OUR national existence
when the capacity of the people for
self government is to be put to the
supreme test. The cannon of foreign
nations have Numbered against our
! shores and the hosts which sought to
invade our land were driven back in
defeat Internal troubles divided our
people, brothers fought brothers in in
! ternecine war, but tine invisible ties of
national unity were not snapped asun-
der. We face now the invader, who
having failed to destroy with shot and
shell. strives to conquer with his sub
tie power of gold. Taking him by the
hand are those of our own flesh and
Blood kissing the hand that sniHes and
helping to strike the blow to crush.
It is America against the world. It is
a death struggle between the people
and the plutocrats. If the people lose
the fight, their portion viii be lower
prices. greater misery, fewer oppoTfuni-
ties and hand to hand struggle with
poverty until the tiger in humanity
having been fully aroused to tine injus-
tice of capital, shall be turned loose
by some bold leader to revolutionize
society.
/ THIS IS NO TIME FOR TRIFLERS.
! The gravity of the great issue OF
1896 is such that the more place seek
ers who, for party success. jeopardize
the peoples cause, can hope for no
nobler place in the history of these
times than that occupied by the venal
contractors, camp followers and spies
who have been plentiful in every
struggle of the past. Whatever may
have been the faults of the Democratic
party, IL today bears aloft the white
banner of silver and the hope OF llu-
mainly is bound up in its success.
There is but one issue in this campaign
and that goes TO the very root of our
national life. How small seems the
man, who, when the question is as to
whether humanity shall be crucifed
upon a cross of gold declares his will
lingness TO place his neck in the cruel
yoke in return for the promise of a few
cents tariff on wool. How small seems
the man, who. when Mark Hanna
strives to press the cross of thorns
upon the brow Of labor, prattles about
the unattainable and argues for free
trade. In the face of a great peril that
man only is great who forgets all that
is trivial and stakes his life, if need
be. upon the one great issue.
The Democratic national convention
voiced the cry of outra ged humanity
1t cast presidents to the winds and
struck a blow for liberty. The plat
form which it adopted is the crystaliza-