The Birmingham age-herald., 1904-07-07

the gold basis.
 Apother Change of Front.
 Moreover. they would now eat their words. and their votes of 1898. and tell Us that the panic was not brought about as they then said, by lack of confidence in our money and too much silver but forsooth, by tariff act which was not passed until more than a year after, to wit in 1904 when the panic, that is the acute and fright-stage of depression, was virtually over. Do not misunderstood me. A panic. of course. is not succeeded all at once by the golden hues of pros perity. Industrial depression must fol- low it for awhile. as depression must pre- cede it. So depression continues until, as I have said, when the boil bursts and the poison Is eliminated from the body commercial, the flesh begins to heal It cannot begin to heal one minute earlier
 "The process of recovery was aided by many, for us. fortuitious circumstances. The first of these was famine in India no India wheat to compete in the Euro pean markets with ours. Simultaneously with an immense American crop of wheat and small crops elsewhere. wheat rose from about 4S cents to about 70 cents in a few weeks during the Bryan-Mc Kinley campaign. while Cleveland was still pres ident. There is not man within the sound of my voice that does not remem- Der that. With 70 cent wheat farmers could pay the retailers the debts due them and the retailers could buy more goods. the retailers with empty shelves or shelves becoming empty by sales, could order from the jobbers; the job bers, who had been overstoeked were enabled to order from the factories. When the factories got orders then they had reason for making goods, and they proceeded to make them, and then the wheels of industry went round. The farmer in the wheat country with 70 cent wheat could pay the baker, the butcher and the candlestick-malSer' and then they could pay others and they in turn could buy more goods.
 "This endless chain of human relation ship in the world of commerce is no mysterious thing to anybody except platform making political gain. When wheat went up 1t had another effect. When wheat went up during the cam paign while silver bullion went down, there was thereby furnished a seeming object lesson of the inaccuracy of the contention of MT. Bryan and hls ftl- lowers, of whom I was one that there was necessarily a connection in price between the two. Western and border state farmers In the wheat belt who had originally been republicans anyhow, and who had gone off from the republican party because of their belief in this very theory, began to leave the Bryan column and join the Mckinley column, first by the dozen. then by the score, and then by hundreds and then in shoals. Thus it came about that sMr Mckinley was elected because wheat went up and be- a f1 m of f.rho lao consequent increased demand for other things leading to higher prices and Q better volume of trade. promised to their minds prosperity, without free silver.
 Greater Falsehood Never Uttered.
 "A greater falsehood was never ut tered than that wheat or anything else went Up because Mir. Mckinley was elected. Things had struck rock bottom and had begun to revive before Mir Me Kinley was elected and the first index of that fact was the rise in lis price of wheat, followed by the rise In rhe prica of other agricultural products sympathet- ically with 1t. Then came the immense increase of gold output that kept prices up here and elsewhere. Not only IS the boast that MT. McKinley's election was responsible for high prices not true, but it is a very dangerous falsehood.s The populists first taught the people in cer- tain sections of this country that pros perity was chiefly dependent on govern ment Some men preach the doctrine that the hope that during periods of pros perity the average man will let even an extravagant, dishonest and unjust gov ernment in which he is interested con- tinue uninterrupted. This is the chief, if not. the sole hope, of the republican party today Let the republican party beware, and let all men who love their country beware of carrying this doctrine of gov ernment-created prosperity any further. l If the idea is once firmly imbedded in 1 the human mind, there will be no saving l it's teachers from the wrath to come l state socialism.
 T quote again from the republican l platform: We refused to palter longer with the mseries of Cuba and declared war against Spain. Bad history again. Democrats Demanded Recognition. Democrats demanded the recognition | of belligerent rights and independence for ] Cuba, day in and day out The republi- l can speaker constantly refused them 1 even as much as parliamentary recogni- tion. The republican president was thoroughly out Of sympathy with their wishes. Finally treachery and cruelty unprecedented led to the blowing up of the Maine and her crew. Public opinion would no longer be restrained. Remem- | Der the Maine became battle cry 1t was not the miseries of Cuba at all that l led the republican party to fall into line i with the public line and fight Spain l Hearing the echo of that cry of 'Remem- l Der the Maine and amidst the universal l excitement and anger. the republican | speaker and the president both stood out
 of the way, as well they might, and | the former advised armed intervention 1 1t is unpatriotic to pretend that even this l long delayed 1t was, was in any proper
 sense a republican measure Democrats l voted for it as fully as republicans Dem oerats enthusiastically and unanimously | gave to the president of the United l States s50000,o00 to spend in his discre-
 tion. srhey did this and voted for the
 act of intervention. not because it was
 republican president and republican 1 measure, but because the American gov | ernment was at last pursuing an Ameri-
 can policy. a policy which has always | been democratic.
 Americans Fought the Battle.
 "Then the platform adds these words: l We fought victorious war with Spain Bad history again. Americans fought it.
 IL would be nvidious to state the politics l of heroes. but 1t seems to me that 1 have l heard that Dewey was a democrat; that I Schley was a democrat, that Miles was
 q democrat, and 1t seems to me. too, that 1 l have heard that republican admins l tration snubbed the first, tried to dis l grace the second and insulted the third. I It seems. too, that I have heard from
 men on the fighting line that Joe Wheeler | was as much in evidence at Santiago as