Daily capital journal. (Salem, Or.) 1896-1899, 1898-03-08


cumstances will produce like results
And in Olden times. when the lende
who were opposed 10 tue interest o
the producers, when the lenders whC
were opposed TO the general good, got
possession of the law-making power
and erected system of money whicl
the producer was struggling under
harder for him to pay, which made
him give up increased equivalents o.
everything he made and grew in order
10 discharge given unit of the debt
the result was TO take ali the property
OF the producer and to ransfer IL alb
sOlutely TO the owner of The d-bts.
WE ALSO ARE THREATENED.
1t is no mere imaginary picture
that we point to as an equivalent, In
many respects as suggestion, of the
possibility OF the occurrences of the
same fate In this country as that
which has met other civil zatiuns in
the past Why, If you will take the
cold figures of the census of 1890, you
will ascertain that already in the
! United States the effect of a faulty
distribution of the products of labor
have been obtaining an increasing,
and constantly obtaining an increas-
| ing increment of that which the pro-
ducer produces.
You will find by the figures Of that
census that per cent. of the people
OF the United States owed more than
80 per cent; that 5000 men own al
ready one-half and more of all the real
and personal property il this nation,
| and that 4047 families own seven
tenths as much as II 1,593,S S87 families.
And, we all know, as primary sugges-
tions of common sense, that If that
sort of thing is to be kept up, it is
only question of little time when
the producers of America, who haye
supplied the greatest examples of free
citizenship, of free institutions, of un-
conquerable soldiery, of the safest de =
positories of the principles Of self
government that the world eyer saw,
will have absolutely disappeared, and
when that time comes, not only the
mission of America but, for some cen
turles at least, the mission of the
human race will seem to have miscar-
ried.
My friends, this is a fundamental
question. 1t takes hold upon every
activity Of society. 1t limits in some
way every function of every producer
in this land. 1t is of vital concern to
every citizen. You cannot postpone
it. 1t will not settle itself. You cam
not evade your responsibility. These
men say, "Let it alone; it will settle
ITSELF" and while we are letting it
alone they are settling it in their own
interest and for their own advantage.
Nc, my friends, we do not propose to
let it alone. We propose to settle it.,
and we propose to settle it right, not
wrongfully. (Applause and cheers.)
WE CAN MAINTAIN 1T.
We Today are absolutely in a posi-.
tion where we hold the whip hand on
the question of the relation Of the met
ais. We can supply greater ingre.
dient of the two metals for the use of
the world than any other nation, and
we can supply greater use for two
metals in business than any other two
nations in the world. (Applause)
My friends it is conceded that
France maintained the parity of gold
and silver at 15t to fruu 1903 TO 1873.
General FrancisA. Walker, the greatest
economic authority this country ever
produced, declares in his last book,
published before he died, that France
alone and unaided-that is his express
sion, alone and unaided-maintaine
the bimetallic system through the
greatest stress of all the centuries.
PEOPLE WANT SILVER.
My friends, every national conven-
tion until that of 1896 was national
convention representing the sentiment
of this people of this cOuntry-I care
not what party it met for-upon the
money question. The Republican con-
vention Of June 1896, was the first in
the history of this country to have a
kind word to say for the gold standard.
They were never quite ready to pro-
nounce themselves for it absolutely,
because as they themselves had said iD
the campaign text book that they used
in 1892, nine-tenths of the American
people were bimetallists. They must
therefore try to get the votes of the
bimetallists while pledging themselves
to the gold standard. How should
they do it? BY putting in that weak
and inconsequental promise to seek an
international agreement for the free
coinage Of silver. My friends that
promise was meyer intended to be per
formed. 1t was put in by men who
never meant it, nor with the consent
of the mass of the party. No, the Re-
publican party, in the large generality
of its membership is not particeps
Crimiminis in this high crime;it is only
those who fashioned the planks in the
offices OF the associated banks of New
York city, who sent it in the inside
pocket of Thomas @. Platt, Of New
| York city to the St. Louis convention.
/ 1t is only they who designedly deceiv-
ed and betrayed the Republican Party
and the American people. (Applause).
And my friends, the people of the
United States, seeing the failure of
the Wolcott commission, seeing that
Mr.. Wolcotu himself has declared that
| Lyman j. Gage, the financial right
arm as the government, met his negO-
tiatiOns everywhere in Europe with
statements against any kind of bmet-
allism; seeing that the president OF
the United states himself proposes to
make the greenback only a mere gold
representative; that his own chosen
representative in dealing with the f.
nances of The c0untry-SecTetary Gage
proposes plan to congress which he
advocates u congress with the state
ment that the first object of it is to
lcOmmit the country mOle thoroughly
to the gold standaed, are coming To
the conviction which some Of us saw