The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1896-08-01
SENATOR THURsTON OPENS THE
CAMPAIGN AGAINST BRYAN's
CROSS OF GOLD.
GREAT CROWD AT MADISON.
THE ELOQUENT NEBRASKAN CHAL.
LENGEs BRYAN TO DENY HIS
SILVER MASTERS.
DENoUNcEs ALTGELD AND T1LLMAN
And Beseeches His Hearers to Turn
Away From Such Leaders and
Their Hollow Promises.

MADISON, Wis, July 31.-The polit-
ical campaign of 1896 was auspiciously
opened in the West today In the pres
ence of 5000 people, Senator John M
Thurston, of Nebraska, and Clarence
5. Darrow, of Chicago, for two and a
half hours presented the respective
sides of the currency question. Each
talked for an hour and quarter Sen
ator Thurston said in part:
MY Countrymen: There is a dis
turbance in the political world over the
question Of money. There have been
disturbances in the political world in
years gone by over other questions,
but we are meeting a new issue today,
SO far as a presidential canvass is con-
cerned
i was brought up to believe that the
promise Of the man who had always
kept his word was better than that of
the man who had always broken it..
(Applause.) I was brought up to be-
lieve that the promises of those men
whom knew had, in every great emer-
gency Of the nation, stood for it's honor
and its glory and its dignity, were bet
ter for me-one individual-to follow
than the judgment Of those men who
had never represented any Of the meas
ures, or any of the things, that had
resulted for the honor and the glory
and the welfare of the American peo-
pie. (Applause)
II say to you, today, in all sincerity
and candor, believing 1t to be legiti-
mate argument, and knowing that it Is
entirely appropriate to say that if
had no Of I1e1. cy11i6o 10 lioI,t mo opxxro n
in the right path of my political duty,
1t seems to me that justice and honor
to my country would be safer to turn
away from the leadership of Tillman
and Altgeld and Waite to follow the
liberty Of Allison and Reed, and the
greatest among them all, William Nc
Kinley. cloud applause.) 1 happened to
hear w. j. Bryan, four years ago, in
the congressional campaign in my
state. | pledge you, my countrymen,
and 1t is a solemn fact, that from the
beginning Of that campaign to the end
that William j. Bryan advocated no
other Issue, made no other argument
than that upon the tariff. Four years
ago I heard VIM. J. Bryan say to a
great audience in my state, "Give US
free trade and the American working
mans wages will go up" But they
zssart ID eE7a:: sllae said give us free trade
| w
Cloud applause.)
PROMISES OF TODAY.
The same man today comes before
you with new promise. They have
discarded the issue of four years ago
and they say now give us free silver,
and the wages of men will increase
give us free silver and the prices Of
product will rise, give us free silver
and new avenues Of employment will
be opened up, give us free silver and
the business of the country will boom
My countrymen, as a business proposi-
ton on which depends your welfare
and mine, in view of their predictions
OF four years ago, don't you think it
would be advisable to ask for a little
collateral security in aid of that
promise. loud applause and cheers
Did you ever stop to think that if
the free coinage of silver will bring
silver bullion back to It's old time price.
there will be none of this increase in
the price Of products, none of this in
crease in the price of labor that they
promise on the other side? If we open
the mints of the United States for tbe
free and unlimited coinage of silver.
our silver dollar on the American side
OF the Mexican line will be worth just
the same as the Mexican dollar on the
other side Either we double the value
of all the money of China and japan
and South America, where the silver
standard is, or else we drop our stand
ard Of measure down to the level Of
theirs.
To-day who has carried on this great
silver campaign? On the 18th day Of
July, 1896, a Democratic paper. the Chi
cagO Chronicle, published this in double
loaded type on It's editorial page The
prGprietors of the big bonanzas have
found 1t profitable to keep large num-
ber of lecturers and other spokesmen
on the road preaching to the people.
Among the many who have thus been
employed, and carried on the pay-rolls
of the big bonanzas for a number of
years, is William J. Bryan, of Nebras-
ka, a paid agent and spokesman for the
free silver combine. In the city Of
Omaha, where William j. Bryan does
editorial work an the Omaha World
Herald, the Omaha Bee, has made the
specific charge, editorially, time and
time again. 1t has never been met. L
say as an American citizen, having at
heart the welfare of the people-that a
man posing as the advocate of the
down -trodden masses of his country
men, holding a "crown of thorns'' in
one hand and the bugaboo, "cross of
gold" in the other-cwes 1t as a duty
to every man, woman and child in this
country to say whether that charge is
false or whether 1t is true. I do say,
my countrymen, and l know whereof
I speak, that for three years and half,
without regard to Bryan, that there has
been a selected corps Of orators and
writer's, paid employees of the silver
producers, spreading their literature
over this country from one end to the
other, telling the farmer that he will
have more for his wheat, telling the
laboring man that he will have more
Co.,