The Winslow mail., 1900-04-05
The Currency Question.
BRYAN AND SILVER.
The Great Leader Tells Why He
Does Not Drop the Money
Question

PEOPLE ask me, said Mr.. William j.
Bryan N a recent speech why l don't
drop the money question, as though
if l were to drop it it might break.
1t would have no effect on the money
question if l did drop it; it is in the
keeping of no man, and it would not
make any difference whether I adhere
to 1t or disregard it. But if you ask
why L do not drop it, I will tell you
that L am not willing that handful
of English bankers shall control TO-
100000 of American people. But you
will hear people say that new condi-
tions have arisen that now make the
gold standard palatable. Isn't it
strange that men who have labored to
fasten the gold standard on this coun-
try for 80 years should now be de-
Tending their position by arguments
that have arisen since the election?
You don't hear the argument you
heard in 1896. They said then that
we had gold enough, that we didn't
need any more; and now every repub-
lcan who makes a speech in favor of
the gold standard tells of the wonder
full increase i'll the discovery of gold
since 1896, and says that we now have
enough money. And yet, my friends,
with all this newly discovered evil
dence, with all of this output from the
mines, unprontsed and unexpected in
1896, the secretary of the treasury tells
you he has to give money to favorite
banks in order to keep enough money
in circulation.
Statistics, they will tell you, show
we have 100000, 900 more gold in this
country now thln in 1896, and that
for that reason we don't need bimet-
alliSm any more; and yet with that
increase of $2OO,OOO.O 900 in gold supply
of this nation there was panic in
Wall street the other day because
there was panic IN London. Because
of some reverses in South Africa the
markets of London were disturbed,
and because the markets over there
were shaky they were shaky here, and
money to lend to bring the rate down
from 1S6 per cent. and the treasury
had to go in to help them out.
All, my friends, if few reverses in
war with a handful of Beers will
shake our financial system, where will
the gold standard be if England ever
attacks a nation of her size and gets
into a real war?
When we join ourselves to the gold
standard; when we make gold alone
the legal tender for the payment of
debts, we connect ourselves with every
disturbance in Europe, and make our
selves dependent upon their conditions
for our prosperity.
You tell me it is sound system?
1t is false; that system is not sound.
Tell me it is an American system? :?
1t is lie, there is no such American
system; there is no American system
that makes us tremble every time
there is trouble among the gold stand
ard countries of the old world. What
do you find now? Why, you find
among the financiers the fear that
there will be panic if the Beers con-
tinue to fight successfully for their
homes. The financiers are afraid that
if England does not win soon there
will be trouble, and because these
fnanclers fear the effect of the success
of the Beers, men who in their hearts
love liberty are afraid to say a word
in defense of the Beers, and have
financial interest in praying that the
dominion of the queen may be ex-
tended while a republic falls.
That is what it means to lose your
independence. The influence that con-
trolls our financial policy can control
our policy on every question, and I for
cne shall continue to fight until this
nation asserts and secures the right
to attend to it's own business on every
question without asking the aid or
consent Of any nation on earth