The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1896-09-17
RAIN THROWS \ DAMPER ON
THINGS, BUT HE STILL TALKS
ALONG.
THE GUEST OF SENATOR BLACKBURN
To His Curtaicd Audiences He Got OF
His Regular Line of phtitudes. but
Allowed the People to Graciously
Think for Themselves.

i'll the south was ut Lexington, where he
addressed from $4,000 to 10000 people
Mt the fair grounds. 4 procession unique
in character and impressive to large
degree, passed before him as he was in
the speakers stand. Farmers from sur
rounding counties came in early this
morning, and came in typical southern
way, riding the entire way on horses
While Mr.. Bryan was addressing the
audience the horsemcn were seen enter
ing the gates of the fair grounds riding
in double file and carrying appropriate
campaign banners,
Mr. Bryan spoke to the farmers and
told the farmers that those who applied
the name anarchist to the bone and
muscle of this country were doing more
to overthrow our government than any
anarchist who ever carried Il red flag.
1t was nearly ) o'clock when Mr..
Bryan arrived ut the Driving Park. His
appearance was the signal for the great
est applause. He was introduced to the
audience by Hon. j. G. Bronston, state
senator and candidate for congress, and
spoke as follows:
ladies and Gcntlcmen-I think that
in Il moment | can make myself heard,
as soon as my throat, pcrchance, clears.
1t gives me great pleasure to meet the
people of this far-famcd section, the peO-
pie of this far-lamed state, and | desire
to express my appreciation of the kind
ness of this club, the first, or, at least,
one of the first Bryan clubs organized in
the United States, for this beautiful
badge which they have presented me,
They shall he carried to my home and
preserved. (Applausc) Whether elect
ed or defeated they shall serve as con
tinucl remindCs of the hospitality which
you have extended to me since | entered
this state. | am glad, even for Il short
time, to present i'll your presence one of
the issues of this campaign. While there
are at all times questions, while there
are ut all times numerous issues before
the people, yet there is always some
overshadowing issue which determines
those who support them, and in this cam
paign we have to meet an issue OF the
first Importance. No question which con-
Germs politics, except government itself,
can surpass the money question at this
time. Ordinarily the attention of the
people is directed to a question like taxa
ton or economy in appropriate 1t is
permanent financial polty, but, my
friends, for more than twenty years the
American people have been seeking to
restore policy which existed since the
foundation of the government and had
the support of all parties until 1873. 1t
was changed without the American peo-
pies consent. (Applause.) Ever since
that unfortunate hour the people have
been seeking to rcinstate the law which
was at that time removed from the
statute books. Sometimes they have
passed through the lower house bill to
open our mints. sometimes they have
passed that bill through the senate, but
heretofore they have not succeeded in
passing that bill through both house and
senate i'll the same congress. We have
been compelled to compromise, and,
finding that our enemies have forced up
on us compromise. have commenced ac-
ton to undermine that which they have
forced us to adopt. When the people
succeeded in passing through one house
a bill for coinage of silver, the other
the Bland act of 1878. 1t gave some re-
lief to the people; it gave short respite
from the increased depression that had
been forced upon them by various legis-
lation, but no sooner was that law passed
than the enemies of free coinage, who
had compelled its adoption, began to
work secretely for its repeal. Then,
when the silver sentiment had grown,
until in February, 1890, there were pros
poets for the passage of free coinage
law, our friends again forced q compro-
mise and substituted the Sherman law
for the free coinage of silver, and no
sooner was the Sherman law passed
than our opponents began to try to Sc
cure its repeal.
Senator Sherman, in his book recently
published, known as John Sherman's
RecoAections, expressly states that he
secured and favored that bill in order to
prevent the passage of a free coinage law,
and that he wns ready to vote for its re-
peal the next day, if that repeal could
be secured without substituting free coin
age (Applause) call you attention to
these facts to show You that during all
these years, instead of meeting open and
frank and candid enemies, we have had
to fight those who. under the guse of
being friends of free coinage, the friends
of bimetallsm, have by stealth sought
to fasten the gold standard upon the
American people. (Appause.) We have
in this campaign. for the first time. been
able to secure Il direct issue. Heretofore
the same influences have controlled both
the democratic and republican parties.
and then the advocates Of the gold stand
ard have been able to sit back and say
they are both good men. applause and
laughter)
during all these years the advocates
of the gold standard have been able to
keep the fight between the two great par
ties upon some other issue, while they,
in both parties. have sought to advance,
after election, the gold standard a little
further. They tried it this year. They
went to st. Louis and wrote the platform
of the republican party. Did they say
in that platform that the gold standard
was a good thing? Oh, no, my friends.
Applause.) TO have made an open de-
claration of what they wanted would have
been contrary to all their history and
they were willing to change their plans.
applause and laughter.) They adopted
a platform which pledged the republican
party to substitute bmetalism for the
gold standard when leading nations help
rs to do it. Having done that, the same
influences that dominated the st
Louis platform went to Chicago and at
tempted to do the same. They attempted
10 write n money plank for the democratic
platform that could not have been dis
tinguished from the republican platform
without the aid of a miscroscope. Cap
plause and laughter) The minority re-
port in the Chicago platform did not say
that the gold sntadard was good thing.
While there were some who came to
that convention for the purpose Of in
structing the democrats in favor of the
free coinage of silver there were some