The herald., 1898-02-13

every congressional and legislative dis
| trict in the United States where there are
votes enough of men who are opposed to
the gold standard to outvote the gold
standard, 1t would be reproach beyond
adequate description in words upon the
patriotism Of the opponents of the gold
monopoly party. If by division among our
selves we should permit that party to elect
! representative in congress or the senate.
| (Applause)
1t is the boast Of our opponents that they
are united. 1t is their hope of success that
they may divide us, in order that may
conquer Let us take wisdom from our
enemies. If in order to conquer us they
would divide us, let us remember that in
| order to conquer them we must be united
and harmonious. (Applause)
A HAPPY COMPLIMENT
In California I have been happy to dis
cover by correspondence and by personal
| observation the existence of a wide spirit
OF patriotism among all these cooperative
reform forces, which argues well for the
success of the policy of cooperation. 1 had
not intended to speak of it, but feel war
ranted in saying that hope nothing in this
| world will prevent the people of the state
of California upon our side of this great
controversy from electing a majority in
the legislature in the election of 1898 Zap
plause), and after they have elected such
a majority, then insisting that that great
man who now represents you in the United
States senate (great applause), and whose
home is in your own beautiful city, shall
again consent to assume the duties and
the responsibilities of that high place; and
that you, with generous compulsion, will
| cause him SO to do .(Applause) l want to
say, and take great pleasure in saying it,
that the Hon. Stephen NJ White (applause)
is one of the acknowledged leaders of the
United States senate. (Applause.) He is a
man of very great ability as lawyer as a
parliamentarian and as a debater in the
councils of the senate; a man who stands
absolutely true, absolutely incorruptible,
| absolutely fearless in this great cause now
waging before the people Of the country.
and who enjoys the confidence of all the
men following that common banner
whether they belong to the Democratic
party, the Populist party or the Silver Re
publican ranks. (Applause.)
| THE STANDARDS COMPARED
AS l conclude, 1 desire to say that the
great reform for which we stand is no new
and untried thing. 1t is the shrewd policy
of our opponents to represent us as revolu-
| tionists. as disturbers, as men who would
| destroy credit as men who would overturn
the security Of property as men who are
| against social peace itself. We, upon the
contrary, fling back that accusation upon
the advocates of the gold standard and
declare it is we who call upon and ask
and dare to be vindcated by the tried
principles and experience of about two
| thousand years of civilization. We say
that there is not one single doctrine in
political economy that substantiates our
contention for the free coinage of silver
that has not received the endorsement of
| every great political economist that ever
wrote in any language at any period of
the worlds history. Applause.)
| We say that the gold standard, upon the
contrary, is a policy of recent experiment
that it has been attended with disaster in
every nation where it has been tried, and
We arraign it in the forum of the expert
ence, as well as of the judgment of man.
kind. The world for two thousand years
used both gold and silver for full powered
money. 1t was necessary in the expand
ing population and business of mankind
to use all the gold and all the silver tha
came from the mines. You never heard o
any nations going out with dynamite t
blow up the mines, but it was just as fool
ish and just as indefensible a thing wher
the armies of civilization assaulted it with
| statutes and shut up the mints of the
world on one of the metals on which man.
| kind has relied to do its business since the
life of civilization began. (Applause)
| We say you can never cure the evil until
you reverse the policy that has produced it.
We say If you close the mint on silver and
throw too much burden upon gold you must
open the mints again and restore silver to
be competitor with gold. (Applause)
They say to us that the United States is
not able to do this alone. They say to us
that we must maintain the gold standard
because it Is demonstrated that the rest
of the world will not help us, and we can
| not do it alone.
| AMERICA FOR AMERICANS
To that 1 reply, first, care not what re-
| ply you make to this argument, either. ]
say it is good in the desperate situation ir
which we find ourselves, even if could
not show to the satisfaction of any hon.
| est, inquiring mind that the certainties OF
| the problem are with us, when we declare
that the United States is big enough and
| rich enough and powerful enough to main
| tain by our gigantic, Interchangeable uses
silver and gold at parity. Nevertheless
the endurance of the world has been sc
| sorely tried with the iniquities and wrongs
and sufferings of the gold standard that
even If 1t was an untried experiment il
would be our duty, nevertheless, to un-
dertake the experiment. (Applause.)
! But we are not left to so dubious a
choice. We know, now that we have in.
vestigated it, that there is no mystery
about this thing called gold. We know
that it is as frail and weak and infirm as
| any other thing that mankind knows OF
uses. We know that this superstition and
| aweSome reverence with which the wor-
| shippers of gold have surrounded it is mere
lily a figment of the imagination, and we
propose, not with an irreverent but with
| a patriotic hand, to tear it off and exhibit
| this thing to the test of reason and COM
| mon sense.
| THE BASIS OF VALUE
| When they say gold has intrinsic value
| we retort that intrinsic value is intrinsic
nonsense. We say that value is simply
| the ratio between the demand for thins
and the supply of it; and that the demand
| for it resides in the need that mankind has
| for it; and that the demand for gold as
money metal resides not in any mysterious
property of the gold itself, but in the ne
| cessty that mankind has to use some
thing for money: and that it is the none.
| use that gives to gold it's value. (AI
| plause.)
We say, for example, in illustration O
| intrinsic value, that you may take a pec,
| of gold the size of your hand; you will fine
that it is yellow; that it cannot help beins
yellow as long as it is gold; that it is als
heavy, and cannot help being heav,
as long as it is gold. We say tina
| you may take 1t to q desert island an,
that it is as frail and weak and inflrm o.
from it and tell no man, though the gol,
| in the bottom of the hole in the sand will
be as yellow as it ever was, will be a
heavy as it ever was, vet it will not b.
worth a cent until somebody finds it; ant
then it will not be worth q cent until tn
man that finds it has it where there i