The Leon reporter. (Leon, Iowa) 1887-1930, 1900-04-26
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WI NEW
GEORGE FRED WILLIAMS

No Word of Qualification of Any
of the Issues of 1896.
An Address Delivered at the Rhode Island
Democratic Convention.
This is, believe, the first meeting of
the first campaign Of the presidential
year east of the Mississippi. Our ma
tional policy is practically settled in adj.
vance of the convention. and our candi-
date is already reelected. Massachusetts
and Rhode Island are merely the her
aids of the national convention. What,
then, are we working for? 1t it merel.
the spoils of Office? Have we no other
impulse than that of opposition? If
those were all, l certainly should not be
here tonight. believe that we are en-
tering upon the second battle for mans
right and human freedom everywhere;
that our republic as it guards liberty in
its own territory makes it stronger and
firmer elsewhere; that we have allowed
the tyranny of property to dominate
mar in his God given right to life, lib
erty and the pursuit of happiness; that
our republic has become victim of the
spirit Of commercialism. which has de-
graded our morals, and now even utters
u
defiance to the declaration of indepen :.
ence and the constitution of the United
States. believe that great social di.
vision has been established in our land
by bad laws and by human greed;
that we~have allowed systems tobe piled
upon systems by which the mighty for.
tunes of few individuals are piled
higher and higher, while the opportun-
lty of the masses is becoming daily
smaller to enjoy the bounty of God.
feel that the only task we have before US
is to gain possession of the government,
and bring back to a discouraged and al
most hopeless people the realization
that this government was made for
their happiness and not for their spoil
alton. | confess that our prime purpose
should be to win the fight, and would
even diliberately postpone some neces-
.safy refcsnds h ofder to 0Utslh f6S90l
sity ofthe votes. say this because i
believe it to be the first essential to our
ultimate success that we should demon
strate to the people that the democratic
party can be loyal to the popular in.
terests, and proposes to take up the
fghtin earnest. The consumatlon of
the present schemes of the republican
party, four years more of domination
by monopoly, may so fasten the
shackles upon our people that even an
enraged people cannot shake them off.
Therefore wemust win, and win this
year.
"But | submit that not by the sacri-
fee Of any single principle or policy es.
poused in '96, or adopted by general
consent since that year, shall we com
mend ourselves to the people OF. the
United States. One question our enc
mics, at least, have decided must be put
into the background or we shall surely
lose, and in the east We have been told
with nauseating frequency by the golt
press, that the silver question is dead
and must not be resurrected.
| pIIp pIMprAr mr. ArCap,e
"Men of Rhode Island, the democrac,
of the U United States did not adopt th'
platform of bimetallism in 1896 from
any motives Of expendiency. but the.
adoped it from thoroughgoing convic
ton that the gold standard will be ruin
GUS to the industrial classes of tn
country; that it was responsible for the
terrible panic OF 1893 and its succeeding
depression, ana up)n that issue we raj
lied six and a half million voters, VIII
felt tor the first time that the democratic
party had taken up The peoples caus'
regardless Of political consequences. l
the conviction Of the democratic masse
was right then it is right now. For
quarter OF century there has not beer
a congress to which the democratic con
stituency has not returned large ma
jority favorable to the monarchy policy
announced in 1896. We deem it now
as we deemed it then, impossible TO
this country's prosperity to be; perma
nently based upon q monetary founda
ton which is controlled abroad and
subject to the easy manipulation Of tn,
monetary magnates of the world. Thi
policy you have indorsed in your recenl
convention. as we indorsed it in Mass
achusetts last fall. 1t has the ardent ap
proval of nine-tenths of the true dem
ocrats of the country, and if we qualif,
or abandon it We merely demonstrate
THAT our party was in '96 a party Of ex
pendiency and subserviency, shifting
with every wind, having no convictions
4 which could not be abandoned for tenn
porary success, and espousing a caus,
only to abandon it upon the first re
verse. have been appealed to repeat
edly to use my influence to set aside tn,
lsilyer question for the sake of obtaining
accession from the republican party an.
4 tfrnrn the democrats who abandoned III