Weekly independent. [volume] (Elko, Nev.) 1887-1914, 1897-07-11
WILLIAM ]. BRYAN IN ELKO.
4 FULL REPORT OF HIS SPEECH.
A Masterful Presentation Of the Principles of Inde-
pendent Bimetal1ism.

shut up. You could depend upon it
thIs man had no COW. When the
votes were cast 1t VIA easy to deter
miue who owned COWS and who did
not. II the nost OF keeping II COW de-
tcrmines a mans vote, larger inter
este will affect his vote accordingly.
You take il on this money question
society is divided. There are people
who profit by the gold standard and
there are others who suffer 10y it.
Those who profit will naturally favor
the gold standard and those who SUI
fer will be against it. But I have no
doubt about the ultimate triumph Of
himetalism, because I believe il will
be best for everyone; hest for us all.
and l am confident that the day is
not far distant when the majority Of
he people will e it in this light. l
believe the gold standard makes the
rich richer and the poor poorer, and
IL We have not n majority now it is
,nly n question OF time when We will
I the gold standard continues. Now,
say, society is divided, and | want
give you Il little illustration which
my mind shows the different inter.
ests. When l was n boy / used to
ride on the teeter board. l 10 not
mea TO say | was a ]preeocious child
but l think ] can say without egotism
hat | always had sense enough to
know that when one end OF the teeter
went down the other end went up.
The teeter board illustrates the mon
ey question. When you tell me you
wan: a dollar Of the largest purchas-
ing power, l tell you you want
property at the highest
price. Money OF the largest pur-
chasing power means low prices. Now
the test Of the dollar is fonnd in its
stability; the stability OF its purchas.
ing power. The test OF a balloon is
tnurd in its rising properties; the
higher it rises the better the balloon
But it is not so Of the dollar. We
have been having balloon dollars.
They have been rising all the time,
and they have been good for the peo-
pie i'll she basket. but not for those
the ground. We do not want dol.
lars to o above the people. We
want dollars to pass among the people.
How can you maintain the dollars
present purchasing power? Simply
by having enough money to keep
with the demand. II money in
creases more rapidly than thedemand
then the dollar will fall. II the de.
mand increases more rapidly
than the supply then the dollar will
Dollars are creatures OK law.
There are some people who Imagine
money Is independent Of legislation.
There is no such thing "a n dollar ex-
cept the law creates it. 1. Won want
anything else YOU can create
1t, but you cannot create
money. Even il you think there
ought to be more money you
cannot bring it into existence. Well.
some people have tried it. but have
always wound up in the renltentiary.
Ii you have a goll dollar It is be-
cause the law makes it u gold dollar.
Ii you have a silver dollar it is be-
cause the law makes il a silver dol
Lar; and go with the paper money.
and the people make tie laws. II the
people want dear money they can
make money dear. They can make
money dear by making it scarce. II
they want money more plentiful they
nave got to mako it more plentiful by
law. There WAS a time when all the
gold OF the world, and all the silver OF
the world couli find a chance TO he
coined into money. But in IL this
nation closed Its mint. Since then
we have coined silver to some extent.
but it has always been in limited
qu utilities. and there has never been
Il i'm when n man could have bis
SILVER coined just because he wanted
II converted into money. We want
10 restore b%imetallism. We want 10
restore the conditions in existence
prior to ~. We want the coinage OF
gold and silver ut the ratio OF 16 to |.
want the silver dollar the
size IL is today. and
want more gold and
silver dollars, at d we believe
we can get more money into this
country 10y uscing both than il we
used only one tell you TINT when
raise the value Of the dollar as wa
have done by legislation We de2rcss
value 81 property. We owe
abroad, and il we leyislatc
the value of orr property !,
requires more g"lI to make up the
diiicrCace. We have Increased the
hmount ~ gold We have 10 send
abroad aud know Of no way II turn.
ing Tho tile and bringing the gold back
to this com ~ but to put our agri
cultural products in export and keep
II gold Mt home. My friends. this
"as the result when We increased the
coinage in 'Is. and when I speak Of
the law Of 10 want you to remcm.
that the advocates Of the gold stand.
ard have never made a prophecy in
this country on the money question
that ever came true. They tod us in