The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1900-09-17
lore to Lose.
dFrom Recent Speech by Hon. Charles Emory
smith,


smith,
" RYAN and Organism were
overwhelmingly beaten in
- 1896 because the people
knew their success would
mean general disaster II would have
blighted tho sacrednoss OF our courts,
would have undermined the founda-
tions of our free institutions which
rest on the majesty of law and it's
just judicial Interpretation, and would
have carried us to the silver basis with
all its unmeasured ruin. The contem-
plation of such a possible catastrophe
was sufficient to arouse and alarm the
country and unite all thinking people
to avert it.
DO the people realize that, great as
would have been the shock caused by
Bryan's election four years ago, his
success now would produce q far
greater convusiou? Do they under
stand that If there was reason for APP
prehension then, there is double reason
for alarm now? Why? Because we
have so much more to lose. Because
we have so much farther to fail. Be-
cause we should be plunged to the
same depths from a far higher level.
You fall from the second story and
you are in danger Of a broken neck
You fall from the top of a sky-scraper,
and you are certain of It,
1t is time that business men and
worltlngmen everywhere fully realized
this truth. In 1896 we We're already on
a low level. Four years of hard times
and low prices and widespread bank
ruptcy had prostrated business and
paralyzed industry. Recall a few evil
dences. The exchanges of the clearing
houses of the country measure the
volume of trade. Instead of growing
as they ought to do year by year, they
had declined from 1892 during the sue
ceeding years of depression more than
one quarter. More than two million
workingmen were idle. Most of those
who had work had It only on short
time and low wages. Mills were
stopped and souphouses opened. The
deposits in savings banks were re-
duced, showing that depositors were
drawing on their savings to make UP
the loss of earnings. The annual con-
sumption of wheat in this country fell
off over two bushels per head, showing
that empty pocketbooks were followed
by empty stomachs. The loss in rail-
road values alone was more than two
thousand million dollars. The total
loss of that period of panic and de-
preston was as great as that involved
| In the Civil war.
That is where we were in 1896. We
elected William Mckinley to get IT'S
| out of the Slough OF Despond. The
election of Bryan would indeed have
plunged us in deeper, but we were al
ready in. Organism and free silver
| would have completed wreck already
| we'll started. But how is 1t now? If
we had fallen then, we should have
| fallen from the level of depression
and low prices. If we fall now, we
shall fall from the height of prosper
| ity, and the calamity will be so much
| the greater. We have paid off debts
and mortgages. The savings banks
| hundred million dollars. All values
| have advanced. Labor was never so
we'll employed or so we'll paid. Our
manufactures have grown until they
are now equal to those of Great Brit
ain, Germany and France put together,
and we are manufacturing more than
one third of all that is made in the
world. If, therefore. the election OF
! Bryan in 1896 would have meant disas-
ter it would in 1900 mean incalculable
calamity. We have immeasurably
more to lose and farther to fall.
If we had run our boat on the rocks
in 1896, we should only have increased
the holes and the dangers of craft
already waterlogged and half-wrecked
If. with greater light and experience
we deliberately change our helmsnar
and our direction and run our boat
on the rocks in 1900, we shall be guilty
of the stupendous madness of wifully
wrecking stately and splendid ship
with full sails and friendly seas and
favoring winds, with clear chart and
straight course, freighted with the rich
cargo Of prosperity and bound for the
sure port of national happiness and
greatness.
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