Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1896-07-24


 own affairs He said the single gold standard would ruin the masses of the people. In November they would rele- gate tho parties of the monoples to ob- livion and put in power men who had the interests of the people at heart.
 The speaker referred to the bolt of Senator Teller from the Republican con- vention and spoke of the heroism and patriotism of the Colorado senator, to the delight of the delegates He also referred to the nomination of Mir. Bry- an, whom, he said, was born the year of the election of Lincoln. He then eulo- gized the Democratic candidate in glow ing terms. This evoked the biggest demonstration which has thus far char acterized the convention
 The speaker explained the free silver question and attempted to show how the hard times would vanish when free silver appeared When the Silver party got control of the government robbery of thrift for the benefit of idleness would cease. Three months ago man who dared to predict free silver would win ill the coming election would have been set down as an imbecile. Now the movement had grown to such propor- tions that victory was not only possible but certain, if the silver forces united. Sacrifices must be made on all sides, factions must all unite and patriotic people would be relieved of their bur dens
 There was loud. uproarious cheering by the delegates when MT. Towne fin ished.
 Ex-Governor John P. St. John was oalled upon to speak. He was greeted with cheers. He told how corn was worth 10 cents bushel and oats cents ill Kansas, and potatoes cents per bushel in Minnesota. This was one of the reasons so many farmers believe in free silver A few months ago nearly every one believed nothing on earth could defeat William Mckinley for
 
 can interests to Great Britain at the Republican convention had fallen upon Mckinley like bolt of lightning. It changed the sentiment of the whole country Free silver, at Is to l. would sweep the nation. The people had arisen and would defeat .'the corrupt gold power.
 The cry was that if free silver was adopted 1t would make this country the dumping ground for the silver of the world The speaker hoped it would. If in this country and coined it would only make S60 per capita and that was not too much Should this be done it would make this the most prosperous country of the world Never in American history had it been so hard to keep gold in the United States as under the present system. Under it 1 S262 ,000, 900 worth of bonds had been is- sued and working people were plum dered by Wall street" syndicates and English bond sharks.
 Mrs. Helen M Cougar of Indiana spoke and she was followed by two or shree others, after which the convention took a recess.
 The following is the platform as agreed upon by the committee:
 First, the paramount issue st this time in the United States is indisput- ably the money question. It is now the gold standard, gold honda and bank our rency on the one hand and the bimetal- lie standard, no bonds and government currency on the other. On this issue we declare ourselves to be in favor of distinctively financial system. We are unalterably opposed to the single gold standard and demand the immediate re- turn to the constitutional standard of gold and silver by the restoration by this government, independently of any foreign power, of the unrestricted coin- age of both gold and silver into stand ard money at the ratio of 16 to 1 and upon the terms of exact equality, as they existed prior to 1873, the silver coin to be full legal tender, fully as gold, for all debts and dues, public and private, and we favor such legislation as will prevent for the future the de- monetization of any kind of legal tender money by private contract.
 ''We hold that the power to control and regulate paper currency is insepa- rable from the power to coin money and hence that all currency intended to cir culate as money shall be issued and it's volume controlled by the general gov ernment and shall be legal tender.