The age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1897-1902, 1899-04-16
BRYAN RECEIVED WITH
GREAT ENTHUSIASM
on Page TrF


on Page fTrF
| We saw in 1896, but many people were so
blind that they could not see the danger,
but the hour of peril came The war came
on. We needed money. We could not tax
incomes because the decision rose up to
paralyze the income of the government
We had to resort to stamp tax. We had
to hunt up any old thing to put a stamp
on One of the things stamped is tele-
gram Whenever You want to send a. tele-
grim you go to the telegraph office and
you find the republican party has so made
the law that the telegraph company can
| transfer the burden from its shoulders to
| yours.
1.-The republican party in all of its politics
| is putting the dollar above the man and in
| this is departing from the doctrine of Lin
| coin, the founder, for in 1859 he said the
republican party believes in both the man
and the dollar. The republican party is
putting the dollar above the man in all its
legislation, and nowhere is it more appar-
cnt than in atters of taxation The war
has shown that when this government deals
with property its power is limited 1t can
draft the citizen, but it cannot touchFthe
dollar. In the hour of peril the nation can
take the son from his mother and the hus-
band from his wife and stand them up in
front of an enemy's gun, but it dare not
lay it's finger upon the wealth of the rich
and make them contribute their share.
| Tremendous cheering)
Income Tax Stronger Than Ever
1.-THE income tax is stronger than 1t was
and it is placed upon the shoulders of the
poor, who have to carry the burden but in
the democratic party you can say there is
one man who is willing to pay his share
cloud applause)
fr;o Oh,
willing to bear their share of the burdens
of the government? In time of war If your
country needs you. you are willing to give
your life's blood; why deny the nation its
just due in time of peace?
1T has been the history of the world that
ti.tso WHO can make much have been unwil-
| ling to bear their share Of. the burdens of
government for private gain tc take from
| those who make less than they can.
There is another plank in this platform
| which desire to make mention of. The re-
publican party and the gold democrats have
| been burying the money question so often
! that almost feel that ought to apologize.
| for speaking of the dead before so large an
audience. The democratic platform de-
nounced the gold standard, calling it UNI
American and anti-American, and pledged
the party to destroy 1t at once and substi-
tute in it's place Independent bi-metallism
at the ratio of Is to l. If the gold standard
was un-American in 1896, it is un-American
now. If it was anti-American two years
ago, 1t is anti-American now, and If the
| gold standard was bad in 1896, you were
convinced that it was bad in 1897, because
| Mr.. Mckinley sent three distinguished COM
| missioners to Europe to get rid of the gold
standard.
The wolcott Junket
"And why did they not succeed? 1t was
| because they asked of the financiers of the
! Old World a favor they ought to have
| known the financiers would not grant. Why
| did we oppose the gold standard? Because
| it has raised the purchasing power of the
! dollar and lowered the price of the prod
| ucts of labor. When our commissioners
went abroad they went to supplicate from
| persons who had profted, and how absurd
| to expect them to join in doing away with
/ a thing out of which they had made mon
| cyl Then, my friends, want to suggest to
| you that the republican promise of inter-
| national b:metallism, coupled with the
| pledge that the gold standard would be
| maintained until other nations came to our
| relief, was the most absurd plank that any
| party put into a platform. Think of 1t!
| LET me make speech such as a man
| would have to make to carry out that pro-
| gram. If the republican party had dele
| gated its representatives to represent this,
| the spokesman of the commission would
| have 10 make a speech about like this:
| Gentlemen, we have had the gold standard
| LOT lWenty-l0Tee years. anu 40 not ike II,
| the American people have tried and suf-
| fered from it, and have sent us over here
| to ask you to help us to get rid of 1t; they
| recognize that you may have made money
| while they havo-lost; and therefore we ask
| you to join in restoring the state by
| which We won't lose so much and by which
| you won't make so much
Stand by and BE PIundered
"But then candor would have compelled
IN haN added
| tencc. He would have said: But while we
| suffered a good deal, we can suffer more II
! necessary. While We have had hard time,
VIC have not reached the limit of endur-
snce; and if you people would rather go on
| plundering us indefinitely We will stand by
| you while tho world lasts.
THAT is the republican platform. That.
| is what it says-that while still trying 10
get along on national bimetalism, yet if
we get the leading commercial nations of
Europe to join with us wo will maintain
this thing which they want.
My friends, our plan was different We
would not have sent man over to beg.
| because we read in history when we were
children that more 100 years ago our peo-
pie by their blood bought the right to leg
islate for themselves. According to our
plan, when we send man over there it
will net be to ask man to help us. but
| to announce to them what we are going
| to do. 1t will be to say that 900 of
people have as much right to protect their
| property from depreciation as handful of
| foreign financiers have to legslate values
into their hands. And our ambassador
would have said to them: The people OF
| the. United States have decided to restore
| independent bimetallism at the ratio of 16
to l. We believe we can maintain the
parity, but you have good many invest-
ments over there and if you have any
| doubt about our doing it you had better
| i,,ia us. because if anybody suffers it will
! be you, not us Q-ong, continued ap-
/ plause).
L Would Have Some Eject
I Snow, my friends, an argument like that
u-culd have some effect: yes, and as an
L - l,a,. eff 10