The daily morning journal and courier., 1897-04-13
APOSTLE OF FREE SILVER
EX-CONGRESSM.aNC c. 4. TONNE RE-
 HEARSES LATE ISSUE,

Words-Evils of Gold, Blessings of Silver
 -Congressman Prophesies That Victory
 Will Follow Their Defeat--A Largo Audi-
 ence Greets the Speaker.
 Ex-Congressman Charles A. Towne of Minnesota delivered a post-election free silver speech of the 16 to variety at the Hyperion last evening. The lec- ture, which was nominally on The Theory and Practice of Bimetallism's was of the stump speech order, tha silvery strains being prolonged untiF nearly Il o'clock.
 The audience, which occupied about half of the seats. was composed of the remaining faithful" and those curious ones who wanted to hear free silver speech.
 Congressman Towne has a clean shaven face and in manners and ad- dress reminds one strongly of pro- lessor, an effect somewhat heightened by the wearing of spectacles.
 Judge Sheldon presided and intro- duced the speaker, who propounded the usual free silver questions so common last November and then gave the prop- CT silver answer to the great edification of considerable portion of his au- dience, which applauded rapturously at all critical points. He said, in part:
 we have met to consider great economical and social question and there is no need of an apology for dis- cussing this or any other political ques- tin.
 Ours is government of opinion, and we believe it to be the best government that has ever existed. If we were to have the choice of government without opinion or opinion without government we would choose the latter, for we could evolve government out of opinion, but never opinion out of government. There are some who talk of taking | the tariff and money and all other econ- omic question out of politics, as if poll itics polluted everything it touched and the people had no rights to consider l such questions.
 l These people forget that the things which they propose to take out of pol itics it took our race 2,0O0 years to put into politics and into the hands of the | people. Moreover, they propose to put l the question to g. packed jury, whose | minds are already made up for gold. Most of us have been brought up under gold standard and therefore the duty of proving the superiority of bimetal- | lism rests upon the bimetallist. l We have all sorts of reflections cast l upon us as to our ability and our in- | tegrity. It is always easier to call a. man fool than to answer his argu- ments
 | But we stand for the principle, and not for the cause alone, and in spite of this torrent of abuse we propose to keep on agitating this question until it has. been decided right in the forum of the American people. Bimetallism is not an experiment as it's opposers assert, butt the gold standard is, and disastrous one it has proved for the country, too. Those opposed to bimetallism asserta | that the gold standard is the result of | evolution, and that it would be as fool- l | ish to ask us to leave it as it would be i | to go back from Pullman cars to oc carts. But I say that when you cans you can trace evolution to legislativeI enactments. We should look at these and look for the motives of those who framed those enactments and see whether they were good or bad.''
 The speaker then scored the gold men l fo. ot% ipc to iy,to oil | agreement for bimetallism, if the gold ] standard was all right, and attempted to show the unsoundness of the econ- omics taught in the universities and making confession to having himself been a gold standard man until the great light of bimetallism dawned upon4 him few years ago.
 The present depressed condition of business he attributed to the fact that the farmers have s15oOOOOo less toj spend for goods, and not to the fact that the country bought $15,OO0 900 more of foreign products.
 "I bring no accusation against the east. I, myself, am of eastern descent, but am here to warn you that you of the east have paid too much attention | lo IHe DduheIS dHQ DrOkerS.
 He then asserted that every man ought to be a bimetallism, and stated that when the banks filled up with money it was very unhealthy sign of 1 the times.
 we have heard too much of cheap money. say, if we cannot have fair money it is better to have cheap money, as 1t benefits the needy classes.
 We do not want to rob anybody, but We do say to the creditors, you shall no longer continue to rob people by law, however you may still continue to do it indirectly"
 The speaker discussed at great length | the history of bimetallism and the use of gold and silver as money, pointed out the evils past, present and future of the single gold standard, and point | ed out the only salvation from utter tyranny and degradation furnished by the bimetallic scheme. He closed by saying: "We will bear your abuse, but we will overcome your victory with overwhelming defeat''