The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1896-10-01

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ricuture was depressed, and that with ,
out prosperity among the farmers,
there could be no prosperity among !
other classes of the people. (Applause). /
That depression Of six years ago has |
continued in spite of high tariff or low
tariff, and must continue in spite of
any kind of tariff legislation, zap
plause) as long as the dollar goes
mp and the farmsrs produce goes
down. (Applause).
"Our opponents are inclined to dis
pute the ability of the people general
ly to understand the money question,
the money question is not a compli-
Gated question. The money question
can be solved by the application to it
of the principles which are familiar to
every man, who does business. The
money question is simple question.
When we were young we used to play
upon the teeter board and even in our
childhood days we knew enough to
know that when one end of the teeter
board went up the other end went
down. (Applause.) And yet our fnan-
ciers are now not as wise in their dis
cussion of the money question as they
were when they were children and
played upon the teeter board. { APP
plause,) Because they seem to think
that you can make money dear and still
have good times. You cannot do it, my
friends. The dearer you make money,
the lower you make prices and falling
prices mean hard times. No party ever
declared in its platform in favor of
hard times, although the Republican
party has declared in it's platform for
the maintenance of a policy that makes
hard times. Great applause.)
Now, when the teeter board was
changing and when one end was up
you can understand how it is that those
who won money rejoice when it goes
up. But, my friends, if those who own
money and profit by it's rise like to
see money rise why don't they tell us
that they want the gold standard be-
cause it is good for them and not play
the hypocrite and pretend they want
it because it is good for the rest of
the people. (Applause.) If you find
man who believes that certain policy
is good for him and also believes that
that policy is good for his neighbor
that man will tell you that he is bene-
fitted by the policy, but if you find
man who believes thing is good for
him and knows 1T is bad for mis- neigh
bors you can never get him to admit
that it is even good for him, and in my
Judgment the reason why the bond
syndicates are always pretending that
they are. sacrificing themselves for the
public good is because they are not
, willing to admit that the policy which
they advocate is good for them and in
furious to other people. (Applause.)
''My friends, our opponents assume
that money is a thing created by COM
merce and than law has nothing to do
with it. / want to say to YOU that
money is a creature of law. You can
have as much money and as little as
the law permits. If the laws are made
by those who want money to be high
priced, they make money scarce in or
der that money may be high priced.
Ii you want money sufficiently plenti-
full to keep pace with population and
industry, the laws have got to be
made by those who believe in having
enough money to keep pace with the
population. (Applause.) If you want
dollars dearer than they are now, you
can have them by making dollars scar
Ger than they are now, if dollars can
be made much scarcer than they are
now. (Applauss.)
If there is any Republican farmer
here who feels that whenI he sells his
oats for ten cents a bnshel that he is
getting too much for them, all he has
got to do, is to vote the Republican
| ticket and keep gold going up, and af-
ter While, he will not be troubled
with spending more than FIVE cents
| (Applause). If ten cents day buys a
bushel of oats, five cents win buy a
bushel when you make money twice as
| dear as it is now, and if the time comes
when a man does not want to be wor-
ried with spending as much as five
cents as the proceeds of the sale of a
| hushel of oats, he can keep on voting
the Republican ticket until the amount
is so little that it viii not trouble him
at all. OApplause). Our opponents
say that if all you sell goes down, the
price of what you buy also goes down,
and that, therefore, it does not make
j any difference to you But those who
argue that way forget that there are
something's which do not gO down.
Have your taxes fallen in
the last twenty years? (Cries
of mo, no.") And yet it re-
quires as much, or substantially
so, of the products of the farm to pay
the same amount Of taxes as it did
twenty years ago. (Applause). Your
debts have not gone down, your inter
est does not gO down, and even your
railroad rates do not go down in pro-
portion as your ability to pay railroad
rates has gone down. You ask rail-
roads to reduce their rates and they
tell you that they have certain fixed
charges, that they owe certain debts,
and therefore cannot reduce rates,
although it may be twice as hard to get
those dollars as it used TO be- ZAP
plause)
"If there are any Republicans in this
audience | want them to consider Just
one proposition, if our Big Democrats
who have pecuniary interest i'm
the maintenance of a gold stand
ard are willing to leave the party in
order to advance their pecuniary inter
ests, why will not a Republican farmer,
or Republican leader, or Republican