Kansas City daily journal. [volume] (Kansas City, Mo.) 1892-1897, 1896-10-09
CHARLES F. FOSTER.


Continued from First Page.
cago platform is not the free silver plank
but that plank which denies to the govern
ment the right to suppress mobs. (Cheers)
In carrying out all the other measures for
which the platform declares the party
must have congressional action, but the
mere inactivity of the president will be
sufficient to place lives and property at
the mercy of armed mobs.
ION the question of sound money and
protective tariff the Republican party
stands now where it has always stood. 1t
is in favor of keeping all its dollars equal
to each other and that is the soundest
money we can have. (Applause) There are
about S2,69.0o0,0C0 of silver money in the
silver standard countries: about the same
amount in the gold standard countries
about $5o00.000000 of silver in the arts and
in commerce. in silver plate. etc. and about
$50, ,0OO,G00 worth of bullion. Mr. Bryan
comes before US with the astounding prop
osition that this country can. by itself,
double the value of this $4,000 100000 of sill
yer. Such a proposition needs but TO be
stated to be refuted. Under free coinage
the government merely stamps the price
of the dollar; under government coinage it
stands behind every dollar II coins. 1t does
not guarantee anything under free coin
age; 1t pledges itself to maintain every
dollar at parity with every other dollar
difference and that is why our silver dol
lars are worth as much as our gold dol
lars to-day. (ApplauSe)
'They say that commodities have declined
because silver has declined, yet within the
past thirty or sixty days wheat has gone
up 13 cents a bushel and silver has gone
down cents an ounce. Appiause) We
have more money now than ever before.
We have not struck down any of orr
money. The decline in prices began eight
years before that terrible crime of %.
There are other causes to account for the
fall in the price of wheat and other COM
moditieS. 1t may be said in passing that
that greatest of all commodities, labor.
steadily rose until 1892. / do not include
the past three years IN my calculations.
(CheerS.)
Mr.. Foster then entered into lucid re-
view of the financial history of the nation.
Coming down to the year 1878, he said that
he was member of congress when "the
crime of 1879 was committed" and that
he voted for the bill He demonstrated
from his own experience that, instead of
it being passed surreptitiously, every Sec
ton of the measure was taken up and de-
bated. He then spoke of the coinage of
trade dollars. which he explained was
asked for by the silver men on the Pacific
coast. DO you suppose those men didn't
know that the silver dollar had been
drcnDed?" he asked, amid great applause
silver using and gold using countries.
There is no country on earth that is not
OH the gold basis. Go with me to Mexico
or China. and every transaction that is
made in them or in any other country Is
measured by the bullion value of gold.
What is it we want more than the
free coinage of silver? I'll tell you. We
want confidence. (Applause.) But, Lord.
how these people do talk about our having
a financial system of our own. How inde-
pendent they get and talk about the Brit
ish lion and all that. Why. bless you.
Brother Bryan, the people, of the United
States have the best financial system in
the world. The Democratic party, with all
its brains. never invented q better system.
How much less when all the brains are
out of it. applause and laughter) They
say that the Harrison administration was
bankrupt when 1t went out of power, and
that the secretary of the treasury was so
hard up that he had plates prepared for
an issue of bonds. He is reported by Sena-
tor Vest-and think that I'm treating Mr..
Vest mildly when I say that his veracity
is impaired-to have been dissuaded by the
president, and told that he might as we'll
let the bonds go. the Democrats
would issue them anyhow. We are told
the panic of 'S3 would have come precisely
the same whether the Republican party
had been in power or not. Now. my
friends, I have here a statement of the
receipts and expenditures of the govern
ment from 1866 to 1892. prepared by John
G. Carlisle. and 1t shows that in 1892 our
receipts were greater than our expend-
itures. 1t shows that in that year the
Harrison administration reduced the public
debt s292. 900, OGO; that it had $67.0GO.0Oo more
for pensions than had been spent the pre-
vious year; that it had 900 for new
navy and river and harbor Improvements
and that when Grover Cleveland came in
we turned over to him a balance of S125,-
100000. Does that look like bankrupt
treasury? (Applause)
81 believed then as do now that the
gold reserve should be kept above the $780,,
100000 mark and 1 became alarmed lest it
should fall below what, with my stiff
views. 1 thought it ought to be. l found
on a little investigation that no bonds
were available, so on the 25th of February,
two weeks before We retired the senate
passed bill for an issue Of per cent
short time bonds. 1t passed upon the ap-
proval of John G. Carlisle. who it was
known was to be the next secretary Of the
treasury. Nearly every senator voted for
it. but Senator Vest. who never did vote
for good bill in his life, voted against it.
1t went to the house and under the cir
cumstances, believing as 1 did. l had the
plates ordered for that issue Of bonds.
wrote a letter about it and Vest has
CODY of it which he keeps parading and
that is all he has to base his claim upon.
But the house failed to pass the bill. and
on March issued an order recalling the
order for the plates. Now, the $lOo,O0OOOO
mark was not reached in my time, there
was no occasion for me to order any bonds.
1 recalled the order for their printing and
there was no occasion for the president to
intervene and tell me not to prepare for
their ISSUE So that's all there Is of that.
(Applause0
The latter part of Mr.. Fosters speech
was devoted to discussion OF the tarin
He was followed by w. G. Robertson. of
Springfield. No., who made a short but
telling speech.
WHO DAUBED Mr.. FOSTER?