The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1897-09-23
RENOWNED HISTORIAN
ADDRESSES THE FREE SILVER
MEETING AT SPRINGFIELD.
John Clark Ridpath Talks of the Kind
of Prosperity the Gold Standard
Brings and Asks whetherIt
Is Wanted Iuds finitely.

here John Clark Ridpath, tbe
renowned historian AMI editor Of the
Arena, delivered q remarkable address.
Mr.. Ridpsth told his bearers he had
come !, 900 miles to shake hands with
men who did not believe in governm ent
by injunction for the slaughtering of in.
nocent n iners, but who do believe In the
restorati of an honest dollar. Mr.. Rid
path then spoke in part ss follows;
"For four long years great organ
lied force in America has been engaged
in an effort to make PR sperity. This
organized force cares nothing whatever
for prosperity as a fact, but it knows that
the pre- sperity Of the nation is one Of the
conditions upon With its own success
and secarity depend. For this reason
it has cried Pr, sperity, Prosperity,
through ell the figures and forms OF
speech since the month Of August 1898.
1t has turned the combined energies OF
the greatest power in the world TO the
one work of creating or forcing into
be made to exist, but whit must exist If
the spoilation of the American people
is to continue as heret ( re. The mo-
ney power in this undertaking against
all natural ard tealthful conditions to
force prosI Gritty where none is, has teen
wise and cautious. 1t has had pruder ce
and foret ght aud cunning, for expert
ence has shown that only the prosperous
nation is content to he robbed. He who
is already plethoric with plenty will, like
"a full beef in reverie, suffer his flesh
to be picked and flayed without rising
from the blne grass to pursue the tor
'menting thief and toss him horn-wise
over the ferce. But be WHO is hungry,
he who is on his way to the bread shop
with his last hard earned quarter will, il
the quarter be tasen from him, fight the
rCbber are st him If he can, or Kill him
if he must. This is the prime reason
why prosperity is necessary in a
country where the robbery Of the people
has been fine art.
1--WE may be sure that if prosperity
could have been N ade it would have
been made ere now. When the money
power undertakes anything and does not
succeed, we may know that the imped-
iment is great. If that power be battied
in any scheme, We may assume that
nothing short Of the immutable laws OF
nature have stood in the way of its full
hllment. If it be only the trihing laws
Of God and humanity that stards in the
way, ttey eau be altered, amended or
annulled in the interest of national honor.
We know therefore that the money pow
er, baffled fer years in its effort to make
prosperity where 70 prosperity Is, has
been encountered by some law or laws
principle or free in the nature Of things
which not even Wall street, reinforced
by tie Eaak of England, has been pow
erful enough to overcome. Let US for
moment study the course Of that power
in its frantic efforts, sil ce the panic fell
in the summer of the Columbian year,
to restore prosperity by Elimination.
First note the fact that the money
power itself is the very malevolent agency
that struck the economic and Industrial
life Of tie United States with fatal para
lysis four years ago. The mareuvers
of that power in tanp ring with the cur
renoy, in altering the law of debt pay
ments, in changing every contract, from
the purchase Of an intercOntiuental rail
wey down to the purchase of pin, so
that the debt maker should be forced into
bondage under the combustion of pay
ing with long dollar, worth two for
one have been the whole aud sole cause
of the catastrophe. The money power
spread out its balefol branches and pros
perity was mildewed In the shadow. Tie
poisonous de8s of that deadly tree dis
titled upon American enterprise, and 1t
withered and died.
Know all men that pre- sperity did not
fail through any fault Of the ptople. The
people were not less industrious than
before, they were not less frugal, they
were not less houest, they were not less
friendly TO those forms Of capital from
which, according to the present conditions
of civilization, they are dependent for
profitable exertion. The farmers, the
mechanics, the miners, the laboring
class 10 general, the merchants and all
the rank and file of industry, were per-
fectly blamsless as respects the destruc-
tion of Prosperity. The money power
succeeded in the scheme. 1t contrac ated
the currency. 1t abolished silver. 1t
got possession Of the gold and then de-
clared that gold was the only honest
money, gold and our bank Dotes, redeem
able in greenbacks. Prices ran down to
nothing, industry ceased, debt paying
became impossible, for the dollar was
cornered. The mortgage of Shylock on
about 100000 voters was foreolosed,
the blinds were smut and the mournsrs
went about the streets.
"The money oligarohy has shown
itself, during the greater part of 1889,
in the double aot of bull and bear. The
beast has become a monster which we
will name, not the Minataur of the fable
but the Ursataur, or ear-bull. Seeing
that something must be done to save
itself from overthrow by the Just wrath
of the American people, kindled at last to
the flaming point By the long series Of