The Fairmont West Virginian. (Fairmont, W. Va.) 1904-1914, 1904-10-14
DENOCRA'1
ELECTIONS ]
III SINGLE PRoPHEsY OR
4 SRREDlcTioNs OF OUR oPPo-
NENTS HAS COME


NENTs HAS COME
EExtracts from remarks Of Hon. Elmer
A u Burkett, Of. Nebraska, in Daily
Congressional Record, January so,
3s83|sss1 so4.l
Every four years and sometimes Of
tener In the past, our Democratic
friends have had to change their par
5 amount issue and have new excuse
for existing longer as a party.
We Republicans are never in that
Unfortunate condition. Our positions
and our policies are enduring.
ISremember the first time I ran for
I Congress, in 1898, the paramount IS
sue of your party out in my district
was the McCleary bill. 1 do not know
u whether any of you had to run up
against it or not Probably it was
SS553{a good bill, for it bore the name Of
my distinguished colleague and CO
S6worker3fn the committee from Mime
sofa. lI never happened to hear par
III ticu1arly about that bill until some
SE SEgentleman$ came up from the East
8Sand declared it was the paramount
Issue For sixty days we had to g.
S over the district talking about the NJ
GIeary bill. and nobody has ever
heard of it since. In 1896 the para
III M cunt issue of the Democratic par
sSty was the free and submitted coinage
OF silver at the ratio of 1G to 1. with
q, out the aid or consent of any other
Nation on earth" There is not one
OF you who can say that as smoothly
as II did
or,
sssin 1896 every Democrat of you was
authority on 16 to /. You went out
COT that convention in Chicago, every
Tiers son OF you, and you got a
nj piece of white metal sixteen times as
@ big as a piece of brass, and you hung
lit on your coat lapel and strutted up
and down the streets and the lanes
81 Of this country swearing you stood for
16 to Il or bust.
Now, let us go back further, as the
gentleman from Missouri (Mr. Cocl-
ran) said, to 1892. Your paramount
issue then was free trade. When Gar
field was the candidate, it was the
a force bill. When Hayes was the can
didate You said if he was elected he
was going to. turn the temples of lib.
erty# over into the hands of the money
changers, or something of that kind.
When Grant was a candidate it was
milftarism, and when Lincoln was Il
5S$candidate it was imperialism. Every
-four years you have had a new para
I'm cunt issue.
When that convention met in Chi.
5%cago in 1896 there was not Demo
crat here that had any idea that thcr
M a a oaDIidata for
identswith any hope of electing him,
We had had four years of Democracy
this country, four years of frea
$5trade. We had had four years of the
n hardest times that the American peo-
N pie had ever gone through, and pray
God that we will never be called upon
to so through four more such years
~ as we went through from 1892 to 1895
When your convention met in 1896 not
&Sone of you thought it was worth while
TO nominate a candidate for Presi-
dent From that convention came
forth the proposition of the free ana
" unlimited coinage, of silver at the ra
Al ito of 16g to L, etc. You went before
5s the people, and must say you made
y considerable stir. Uaughter) Do you
wonder that so many people voted
for Mr.. Bryan in 1896, when you re
call the predictions and prophesics
which We're then made?
IF you elect gold standard can,!:
date it will make the rich richer and
4 the poor poorer, decrease happiness, !
increase distress, destroy opportunity
to work.
There is where they almost caugh:
me-. always like to work; and when
IA read that declaration that if the
gold standard candidate was elected |
lit would destroy opportunity to
work must say it almost caught
me.
Now, I read from page $40:
s If you elect the gold standard candi-
date it will encourage boarding O:
money
Szss 1S#s In other speeches such statements
A as these We're made: The election Of
the gold standard candidates will
Ruin the farmer.-Injure the wage
earner--Reduce employment.-Dis-
courage erprise.-Paralyze indus
try--Bust the Savings Banks-Rui:
j