The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-08-10
Ir IS AGAINsr rHr RECORD.

The President boasted in his accept ance speech that the Republican Party had placed the finances of the nation upon a solid gold basis; that Repub- licans know what they mean when they speak of an honest and stable currency for the reason that they mean the same thing from year to year." This evidently sound ed we'll when our President gave ut torrance to 1t, but Speaker Cannon. who sat by and heard 1t, must have winked slyly to those Republicans who sur rounded him.
 Speaker Cannon was a member of the House of Congress June '. 1890. when the Conger bill passed that body. and voted for its passage.
 MT. Cannon not only voted for the bill, but he spoke in advocacy of it. He stood manfully for silver then. not gold alone. but both silver and gold He said:
 I believe in both metals for money. If we are to have but one metal. l
 
 silver alone. or vice versa. But l want both. Sound economy and wise legislation will give us both: and in my opinion this will be done under the lead of the Republican Party
 He said further:
 Silver has been money through the ages, and will be. but no act of mine shall ever place the mark of dishonor upon its forehead. Its self-constituted friends in this House complain by the hour because 1t is not cheapened and dishonored. Keep silver, but keep 1t side by side with gold. honest, able to stand erect and look gold ,, in ths<fase the ace honor silver: you may, if you choose.
 MT. Payson. of Illinois. a very able man. made a speech for silver on the same day. He told the House that the Forty-seventh Congress which con- sidered a bill providing for the suspen- sion of silver coinage and that he had the honor to make the report, for the committee against the suspension of silver coinage, that the views he then entertained he still entertained which were in harmony with the principles announced by the Republican conven- ton, held in the city of Chicago in 1888. He said:
 I remember as an auditor in that convention hearing the distinguished gentleman from ohi1 sMT omistss Mektnsey2 on Ways and Means, read the platform in the great Auditorium building. in which that convention was held. l
 -t -ri~ words came from his lips to an audi ence then conscious as matter of recollection of the position of the Cleveland administration in regard to silver, the response of that audience
 we. the Republican Party. believe in the use of gold and silver as money, and we denounce the present Demo- cratic administration for its hostility
 The words that thus fell from his lips as he read that platform to that assembled multitude met an enthusi- astic response that shall never forget so long as I live. The words uttered expressed the sentiments of that mag nifieent. representative Republican audience.
 The Conger bill was a queer patch work coinage bill. It provided for free coinage when the market value of silver was s1 for 371.25 grains of pure silver. It was to be otherwise when the market value rose or fell below that price. The sherman silver bill was substituted in the Senate for the Conger bill, and that bill became the law of July 14. 1890. .
 There were other able and leading Republican members who spoke in the House for the Conger bill and practi- cally all of them voted for it, but the extracts we have taken from the speeches of .Messrs Conger and Pay son show in beautiful relief the base lessness of the Presidents claim that his party know what they mean when they speak of an honest and stable currency because they mean the same thing from year to year. We now see Speaker Cannon--"Uncle Joe"- handing the nomination to the Presi- dent, with a platform claiming credit for the establishment of the gold stan dard, yet surely handed to him upon a silver platter. because Uncle Joe" said in 1890 that no act of his should ever place the mark of hishonor upon silver's forehead. We see Mir. Mckin- ley, who if the Presidents acceptance speech were to be believed had been from year to year the advocates of the gold standard. standing before a mag nifcent representative Republican audi ence in 1888 reading the ringing words" of the Republican platform of that year denouncing a Democratic administration for its hostility to sil- yer, which met with an enthusiastic response that MT. Payson said he should never forget as long as he lived.
 The President should review his his- tory. or be less reckless of speech.
 One of the St. Louis news agencies sends out a jackassety story about the