Birmingham state herald., 1896-02-26
CLARKE'S MAD CANVASS Things He Said and Didn't Say
 at PrattviIle. q .s. .se , HE IGNORED STATE. ISSUES
  ToDiscuss Coinage Laws Without Explaining How They Had Been Violated by Gold
 bug Federal Officers. ss
HE IGNORED STATE. ISSUES

Clarke addressed the people of PrattviHe
 Saturday night in the court house. He
 had large and appreciatlve audience,
 many of whom were ladies and visitors
 from Montgomery and Wetumpka. Hay
 ing been introduced by Colonel Doster,
 he began speaking in a clear and dis
 tinct voice and commanded strict atten-
 tion from start to finish. The words ''sil- yer coinage" were printed in large letters
 on canvas back of the speakers stand,
 and this motto, which might have more appropriately been united we stand, di-
 yided we fall," probably influenced MT
 Clarke to overlook state issues in his
 eagerness to enter the labyrinth of the
 financial question, on which the greatest
 minds of the age are divided.
 Having trained his guns to storm the
 castle of the silver king" naturally
 enough the self-styled, so-called sound
 moneycratS were delighted; but the con-
 servative advocates of once more uniting
 the white voters of the state under the
 democratic flag could not see the wisdom
 of sound money man forcing free sil-
 yer fight in a state campaign. They
 thought one might with equal propriety
 attempt to inject a. low tariff issue in a
 democratic fight for a justice of the
 peace.
 MT. Clarke discussed the coinage laws at great length, and from the trend of his argument one would have been led to. believe that it is absolutely necessary to nominate a gold standard candidate for governor of this state on a goldbug plat form to unite the white voters of Ala bama and lead them out of this free silver wilderness into the promised land. .~We | op1ne. however, that our distinguished | physician has been misled in diagnosing | his case. That the democratic majority A Iu1 hoe sltY I l from 75,O00 to 10000 since 1890 means | that the great democratic party, or pa | tent, is weakening and needs a restora- | tive. Dr. Johnston advocates a dose of | harmony as the medicine most likely | to build up and restore the strength of
 the party. From MT. Clarke's speech l Dr. Clarke's remedy is "buy-chloride" of | gold. But when Dr. Clarke attempts to | roll up our state democracys sleeve and | insert Sherman hyperdermic syringe | beneath his simon pure democratic skin | and inject syndicate-corne bichloride | of gold into his veins we imagine that | lusty fellow will kick like a bay steer" | Also, during theacourse of his remarks, | MT. Clarke said the silver dollar was a | quarantine dollar, and many here, are l glad that it is, and would be glad to see quarantine established around the
 gold dollar in the United States treasury to protect it from bond gamblers and gold eXhorterS. He asked if the silver dollar was in active circulation before 1873, but failed to ask if the gold dollar is
 in active circulation now. He. spoke of l silver bafons and silver syndicates9 sbut l did not mention goldbugs and bond sym dicates. He said the dollar of the dad dies was myth, but failed to show that the gold dollar circulates in fact. He said silver coinage would drive gold out of circulation, but did not tell that near ly all of our gold has been driven out of circulation in the last four years, though
 the coinage of silver had previously been stopped. He referred to the 12 cent
 wages in silver-using China, India and
 Japan. but was as silent as tomb to the 10 cent wages in gOld-Standard Turkey, Egypt and Siberia.
 He asked if Goodwin and Johnston were nominated by their respective par ties and met in joint debate what prefer ence could Johnston claim to democratic support, both abusing the administration and believing in the free coinage of sill yer? Many answered this question to their own satisfaction by thinking the
 same contingency would arrive in case Bob Moseley and Clarke were nominated by their respective parties and met in joint debeate, since both abuse John T. Morgan, praise sherman and believe in
 the single standard. Moseey might ap- propriately ask our recent convert to Sherman faith, could not the "star-eyed" goddess of financial reform be happy
 
 away?"
 Before concluding his speech MT. Clarke was asked by laboring CD man, a brilliant young attorney from neigh boring town, to explain to the laboring men of Prattvile why he voted against the eight-hour law. MT. Clarke said, in substance, that he vooed against it be- cause he wanted a laboring man to be allowed to work more than eight hours per day if he chose to do so and draw ten or twelve hours pay if he worked ten or twelve hours. But he failed to tell the workingmen that the government con- tractors had been working their men the extra hours without extra pay, and it was the abuse of this system by con tractors that forced congress to pass the eight-hour law, which Mir. Clarke voted against
 In conclusion MT. Clarke thanked the audience for it's kind attention, and left
 the impression on all that he made an
 able gold standard speech: but his John
 ston friends were somewhat disappointed
 that he overlooked state issues and local affairs.