The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1899-02-15

ara.
My friends. the American people have
! not voted on that proposition yet. 1t
was just the Republican leaders that
said that. The American people have
not yet gone into a campaign where
| the Issue was "bimetallism" on one
hand and the gold standard" on the
other. You may criticise me If you
want to: my friends, for standing by
blmetallism under these conditions.
But I want to tell you that there is
not a nation on earth where the gold
| standard could be sustained upon its
merits without the backing Of the
financial element and the intimidation
and terror that they bring into COM
munity. Applause) Not one. Why,
| when our commission went to France.
France Joined with us and asked for
the restoration of bimetallism, and yet
France had had the gold standard for
over twenty years. And when our
commission went to England they found
| that in England there was a sentiment
| farmers OF England were asking for
bimetallism. They found that ell the
| labor organizations had asked for BIZ
metallism. They found their petition
after petition asking for bimetallism.
But on the 22nd day of September,
1897. the bankers Of London met at
the clearing house. behind closed DOORS
and decided that the gold standard was
all right. And then what? Why. the
bankers control the policy Of the gov
| eminent. and the policy Of England
controls the policy Of Europe. and the
| policy of Europe controls us. Who says
| that we must have the gold standard :?
| IT. Who said it. to the people of
Europe? They never said it. Who said
1t to the people Of England? They
never said 1t. Who said we must have
the gold standard? A handful of Eng
l1sh bankers behind closed doors and
| sworn to secrecy.
You may call me an anarchist If you
want to- but so help me God no hand
| full Of English bankers will ever DOM
| mate the United States If 1 can help
it. Great applause) That, my friends
is why we have the gold standard in
| this country today. 1t Is not because
| our people want It, They don't want
| 1t. It Is not because the toiling masses
anywhere want it. 1t is because the
| financiers of London. who profit by
| rising dollars. prefer to make dollars
rise. and because our people have not
| had the courage to declare their f1nan-
| cial Independence.
STICKS TO SIXTEEN TO ONE,
But sometimes they say: well, let
US have bimetallism, but let US change
the ratio" No, my friends, We will
not change the ratio. (Applause.) Six
teen to one means something. (Ap-
| plause) Don't understand me to say
that there is anything sacred about a
ratio-eXcept there is something sacred
| If it is the only thing that will save
| us. There Is nothing sacred about a
| board, but If 1t Is the only board you
| can walk on to escape from death, you
will revere the board. Nothing sacred
about ratio. But, my friends, six
| teen to one Is the ratio selected by
those who believe in bimetallism. It is
a ratio submitted to the primaries
| throughout the United States and in
dorsed by them. 1t is ratio for
which the people voted in 1896, and it
body proposes some other ratio.
The men who say they don't want
| sixteen to one. haven't anything else
that they want. Do you know Of any
of them? Do you know Of anybody
/ of opponents of sixteen to ore, that
is trying to secure bimetalism at any
ratio? My friends, if they tell us they
doubt whether we can maintain the
parity, we tell them that the doubters
shall rot make policy for those who
believe. We tell them that those who
have no ratio are not the ones to frame
a party policy. Why, what campaign
we would have, going out without a
ldllO, say ING. SOIIl0 OH boys, lei s
| find out what we want after awhile
and then do it!' Now wouldn't that be
a War-cry? We have something posi-
tive, and the people who adopted it
believe in it.
And, my friends, the more you study
it the more you will understand that
sixteen to one is the real ratio at which
| blmetalism can be restored. It Is the
RATIO THAT EXISTS NOW
between the coins we have. We don't
want to change either the silver dol
lar or the gold dollar; we simply want
to restore the law that was. We want
to commence where they left off. They
| tell us that we cannot restore the value
of silver by law. We tell them that
they destroyed it by law. They tell US
that commerce regulates money. We
ask them why they didn't let commerce
demonetize silver-why it was that
they had to do it by law. (Applause.)
The Bible tells US that those who draw
| the sword shall perish by the sword !;
! and l paraphrase it and say that those
who invoke the law to strike silver
| down are not the ores to complain if
we invoke the law to raise 1t up. We
! want to put it back where 1t was. And,
my friends. if you think that there Is
| any weakening Of the sentiment on
| this subject, you go out among the
| people who are not expecting anything
| but good government, who are not
looking for some office and think they
can get back few influential friends
and a large campaign fund by desert
ing a principle: go down among the
| voters who wrote that platform. and
| you will find that they are as true to
1t today as they were in 1896, and will
| be- as true to it in 1900 as they are
today. (Applause)
My friends, other questions will come
and other questions will be met. The
| question Of trusts to which / have re-
ferred is an important question:; it is
a question that has grown in impor-
lance since the last campaign, because
more trusts have been organized and
more people have felt the pernicious
influence OF trusts.
A man came to our town just after
| the election and he said that he was
glad to see that confidence had been
restored, and he said when he heard
that conf1dnce was restored he looked
| in the dictionary to find out what con-
! fidence meant and he found that Web
| ster defined confidence" to mean
"trust"and then he knew that conf
| dence had been restored. Oaughter.)
NEW TRUST EVERY DAY.
| My friends, scarcely morning paper
that does not tell you Of some trust
that is going to be organized, that is
being organized, until all the great in
| dustries are being gathered into trusts;
and finally there will be just two
classes of people who cannot get into
| the trusts: one is the farmer and the
other is the laboring man. And when
they have all other industries gathered
together in trusts, where, by their own
hnr co1xr n