The Yale expositor., 1900-07-13

EIRST NATIONAL BANK,
YALE, MICH
SECURITY FOR DEPosIToRs. $40
Democracy and Money.

1t is now history that the campaign
of 1896 fixed the position of both the
republican and democratic party n the
tariff and money questions.
1t will be remembered that the dem
ocratic leaders, in the press, in congress
and during the campaign, in very posi-
tive terms assured the nation that re-
publican doctrines on tariff and money
must work the ruin of the nation, bring
about distress and all sorts of national
| ills.
On the money question Bryans fam
boyant and catchy utterance "We say
to the republican party you shall not
cruelty humanity OH cross of gold,
was the keynote.
Then follows the declaration of the
party for immediate, free and unlimit-
ed coinage of silver" at ratio with
gold of IL to 1.
That educational campaign made it
clear to electors that in all of the CON-
mercial nations of earth an ounce of
gold was worth 81 ounces of silver.
This made it clear that the silver mine
owners were the men to make millions
of dollars of profit if democratic doc
tIine should prevail; for instead of pro-
uuClllR D. OulCco VI OnfcI W UDJdlu
dollars worth of property, Bryan
would call 10 ounces q dollars worth,
and compel the enforcement of the
ratio by an act of congress. 1t is plain
to the dulleSt observer that the plan
proposed by democracy would just
double the value of the immense prop
critics held by the silver mine owners,
and this accounts for the fact that these
are the men who furnished the greater
portion of the million dollars of cash
that was spent on Bryan's campaign.
But Bryan and free trade and free
silver were repudiated, and it might
seem strange that free silver should
again be made an issue by the declara-
ton of Bryan and against the protests
of majority of the convention. The
| platform committee that drafted the
free silver plank consisted of 80 mem
bers present and voting. Twenty-siX
of these voted for the plank, and "a
against it. The 26 members came from
states that had III delegates in the
convention, while the "a members came
| from states that had 759 delegates in
the convention, yet Bryan announced
that the free silver plank must go into
the platform or he would not accept
the nomination.
The free silver plank says, ave reaf-
| firm and endorse the principles of the
national democratic platform adopted
at Chicago in 1896, and reiterate the
demand of that platform for an Ameri-
can financial system, made by the
American people for themselves, which
shall restore and maintain bi-metalic
level, and as part of such system the
immediate restoration of the free and
unlimited coinage of silver and gold at
the present legal ratio of 16 to l, with
out waiting for the aid or consent of
any other nation"
Bryan and democracy thus proposes
to have congress Immediately wipe out
the financial system lately adopted by
republican congress as the result of
years of investigation and experience.
And he and his party stand for the inn
mediate and unlimited right of silver
mine owners to unload their bulk of
silver on the nation at just twice its
actual value.
And this can be accounted for in but
one way. The millions of the silver
Kings are again back Of Bryan and his
political sponsors. He went into the
campaign of '96 an attorney with a
limited practice even in his own county.
Soon after the campaign he was rated
at over 100000. From the standpoint
of personal finances Bryan needed a
Free Silver plank and got it.