Carlschurz's Speech

Er-Senator Cari Schurz addressed an immense audience at Central Music hall, Chicago, 111., on the evening of September 5. His speech, which was enthusiastieally received, was a masterly presentation of the most cogent argumeuts in favor of maintaining the present monetary standard of the country. He spoke as follows: Fellow-Citizens: I have come from the East to the West to speak to you for honcst inoney. I do not imagine myself to be in an "enemy's country." There is to ma no enemy's eouutry withiu the boundaries of this republic. Wherever I am among Americana, I am among fellowcitizens and f riends, bound together _ by fonimon interests and a common patriotism. In this spirit I shall discuss the question of the day. I shall not deal in tiuancial philosophy, but in hard and dry facti. There are sporadic discontents m the country, partly genuine, partly produced by artificial agitation. They may be speeitied thus: There are farmers who complain of the low prices of agricultura 1 products; laboring inen coinplaiuing of a lack of remunerative employ ment ; men in all sorts of pursuits coniplaining of a general business stagnation and of a scarcity of mouey. In some parta of the country, especially the South and West, there are many people complaining 'of a want of capital and a too high rate of interest. The cry for more money is the favorite cry. These are the principal and the most definite complaints. Beyoud them, however, an impression has Leen spread by agitators that an organized conspiracy of moneyed men, uiainly great bankers, in America and in Kurope, backed by the monarchs and aristocraeies of the Old World, is seeldng the general establishment of the gold Standard of value to monopolize or "corner" the world's rnoney to the general detriEient. Takes Up Popocratlc Platform. All this has found definite expression ïn the followiug declaration of the Chicago platform: "WTe declare that the act of 1873, demonetizing silver without the knowledge or approval of the American people, has resulted in the appreciation of gold and a corresponding fall in the prices of commodities produced by the people; a heavy iucrease in the burden of taxation and of all debts, public and private; the enrichment of the moneylending class at home and abroad, prostration of industry and impoverishment of the people." Mark well that all these evil consequences are ascribed to the demonetization of silver in the United States alone - not to lts demonetization anywhere else. This is to justify the presentation, as a suflicient remedy, of the free coinage of silver in the United States alone, "without waiting for the aid or consent of 'any other nation." This platform is amplified by free-coinage orators, who teil us that the act of 1873, called "the crime of 1873," has surreptitiously "wiped out" one-half of the people's money, namely, süver; that In consequence the remaining half of our metallic money, namely, gold, as a basis of the whole financia! gtruetnre, has to do the same business that formerly was done by gold and silver together; that thereby gold has risen to about doublé its former purchasing power, the gold dollar belng virtually a 200-cent dollar; that the man who produces things for sale is thus being robbed of half the priee, while debts payable ou the gold basis have become twice as heavy, and that this fa II of prices and iuerease of burdens is enriching the money-changers and oppressing the people. Facts JSobody Disputes. Are these complaints well foundod? Look at i'acts which nobody disputas íhat there has been a considerable fall in the priees of many articles since 1873 is certaiuly true. But was this fall caused by thp so-called demonetization of mlver through the act of 1873? Non-, not to speak of other periods of our history, such as the period from 1846 to 1851, everybody knows that there was a considerable fall of prices, not on)y as to agricultural products - cotton, fe-r instance, dropped from .$1 a pound in 18(!4 to 17 cents in 1871- but in many kinds of industrial products, before 1873. What happened before 1873 cannot have been caused by what happened in 1873 This is clear. The shrinkage after 1873 may, therefore, have been caused by soruething else. Another thing is equally clear. Whenever a change in the prices of commodities is caused by a change in supply or demand, or both, then it may affect different articles differently. Thus wheat may rise iu price, the supply being proportionately short, while at the same time cotton may decline in price, the supply being proportionatoly abnndant. But when a change of prices takes place in consequence of a great change in the yurchasing power of the money of the country, especially when that change is sudden, then the effect ïnust be equal. or at least approximately so, as to all articles that are bought or so-ld with that money. If by the so-called demonetization of silver in 187.3 the gold dollar, or the dollar on the gold basis, became a 200-cent dollar at all, then it became a 200-cent dollar at once nnd for everythine-. It could not possibly be at the same time a 200-cent dollar for wheat and a 120-cent dollar for coal and a 150-cent dollar for cottou, and a 100-cent dollar for corn or for shovels I challenge anyone to gainsay this. (Applause.) ■ Coinagre Act of 1873. Now for the facts. The act of 1S73 in question became a law on February 12 What was the effect? Wheat, rye, oats and corn rose above. the price of 1872 while cotton declined. In 1874 wheat dropped a ljttle; corn made a jump upward; cotton declined; oats and rye rose. In 1875 there was a general decline. In 1876 there was a rise in wheat and a decline in corn, oats, rye and cotton. In 1877 there was anothor rise in wheat carrying the price above that of 1870 and up to that of 1871, years preeeding the act of 1873. Evidently, so far the 200-cent dollar had not made its mark at all. But I will admit the possible plea tbat, as thoy say, the act of 1873 having been passed in secret, people did not know anything about it, and prices remained measurably steady, iu ignorance of what dreadful things had happened. If so, then it would nppear that " ja'inowing ones had only kept still fbout it the gold dollar would have moilestly reinained a 100-cent dollar and nobody wöuld Imve been burt. But Beriousfy si'iiaWiiS. it may be said that iijdict of J873 was passed we were siill using exclusively paper money, that neither gold nor silver was in circulatión, and that therefore the demonetization would not be feit. Very well. But then in 1879 specie payments were resumed. Metallic money ciroulated again. And. more thari that, the cry about "the crime of 1873" resounded in Congresa and in the country. Then at last_ the 200-cent dollar had its opportunity. Prices could no longerplead Ignorance. Wbat happenetl? In is.so wheat rose above the price of 187!), Iikewise corn, cotton and oats. In 1881 wheat rose again, also corn, oats, and cotton. In 1882 wheat and cotton declined, while corn and oats rose. The iBporU here given are these of the New Vork market. They may Tary somewhat from reports of farm prices, but they present the rises and declines of prices with eubstantial correctness. These facts prove conclusivoly to every sano mitad tliat for nino years after the act of 1873 - six years before and tbree years after the resumption of speeie payments - the prices of the agricultural staples mentioned, being in most instanees eonsiderably above 18GÜ, show absolutely no trace of any such effect as would have beon produced upon tbem had a great and sudden change in the purehaaing power of the money of the country taken place; that it would be ehildish to pretend that, but for the act of 1873, those prices would be 100, or 50 or 25, oí' 10 per cent. higher, and that therefore all this talk about the gold dollar having become a 200-cent dollar, or a 150-cent dollar, or 125-ceut dollar is - pardon the expression - arrant nousense. Sijire 1882 the price of wheat has, indeed, very ïnuch decjined, although in 18'Jl it reuuhed once more in New York $1.09, while corn sold in 1891-'92'93-'94 higlier than in 1879. But if the act of 3873, whieh, had it really enhanced the purchasing power of the dollar, would have done So promptly and uniformly, produeed no such effect for nine years after its enactment, it would be absurd to say that it produces it twenty years after its enactment. Ia not this cleár? If, however, there be somebody believing that ín spite of these facts the demonetization of silver by the act of 1873 must in some ruysterious vvay have done something to depress prices, I meet him with the afürmation that the silver dollar was praotically demonetized long before 1873. Actual Date of Demonetizatlon, To judge from the speeches of our freo coinage orators the American people must before 1873 have fairly wallowed in silver dollars. Wnat is the f act? President Jefferson stopped the coinage of silver dollars in 1SO0. From 1783 to 1878, aaide from fractional currency - which since 1853 was only Iimited legal tender- only about 8,000,000 of silver dollars were coined. They were so scarcs that you would hardly ever see one except ia a curiosity shop as a rare coin. Tliere was constant trouble with the legal ratio between gold and silver, which could not be so fixed a3 to keep the two metáis together in circulation. Once one of them would be driven out of the country and then the other. Meanwhilo over 1,000,000,000 dollars of gold coin were coiued, and since 1853 gold was substantially the only full legal tender money in actual circulation. And those were exceptionally prosprous times. Thea the civil war came and swept all our metallic mouey out of sight. Paper money took its place, and in that condition we were in 1873, when the famous act of 1873 was passed. What, then, was in reality that law that has since been so fiercely denounced as "the crime of 1873 V" To judge by the declamations of the free eoiuage orators it must have been a law annihilating at one feil swoop onehalf of the money circulating among the people. Did it do that? Why, it was simply au act revising our coinage laws and providing, among other things, that certain silver coins should be struck to be legal tender in the payment of debts only in a small amount. The Standard silver dollar, then had practically been out of use since President Jefferson in 1800 had stopped its coinage, was simply not mentioned in the euumeratiun. This is all. The act of 1873, therefore, did not créate a new state of things, but simply recognized a state of things which had existed for many and many years. It did thereby not only destroy half the money of the country, but not a single dollar of it. (Applause). Wliy was the Act Fassed Secretly? But I hear myself asked, if this is so, why was the act of 1873 passed secretly surreptitiously, stealthily? For silver orators have been persistently dinning into the popular ear for many years, until millions believed it, the story that the silver dollar was 'assassinated1' through the law of 1873 by some dark, corrupt plot. This fable has been so oftcn and so authoritatively disproved that I am unwilling to take it up again in detail. Senator Sherinan did that recently in a most conelusive manner. I will only add that I was a member of the Seuate at the time and know whereof I affirm; and I emphatically ijronounce all the storios about the act of 1873 being passed surreptitiously; about senators and members being somehow hypnotized, so that they did not kuow what they were doing; about some Englishman being on the ground with much mouey to promote the deinonetization of silver, and so on, as wholly and unqualiiiedly falso. I wish to be scrupulously courteous to rny opponents. But as a conscientious student of contemporaneous history, I am bound to say that in the forty years during which I have been an attentive ob.server of public a ff airs I have never witnessed nor heard of sueh unscrupulous, shameless, persistent, audacious, cumulative, gigantic lying as has been and is now done with regard to the act of 1873, its origin, its nature and its consequences. Sllver Men Then Wanted Gold, How did it happen that the act of 1873 did not attract more popular attention at the time? Simply because the dropping of the obsolete silver dollar from the coinage was regarded by everybody taking an interest in such matters as the mere recording of an accomplished fact, as a matter of course, just as much so as a law would have been providiug that the old flintlock should no longer be used in the ariny. And how did it happen that a few years afterwards such an nproar arose about it? The reason for that, too, was very simple. In 1873 the market value of silver, although already yielding, was still high. The silver in the silver dollar was worth $1.02. The silver mine owner did not care to take $1.02 to the mint and get ouly $1 back for it. He was then enthusiastic for gold. But a few years later silver had declined in market value considerably, and when the silver miner might have taken 90 cents' worth of silver to to the mint and got for it $1 he was enthusiastic for silver, and he grew more and mora enthusiastic the more silver declined ín the markot, and the more profit free coinage would have given him. The silver mine owner is no doubt a great and good man, but he is not the most disiuterested of philanthropists. He knows on which sido his bread is buttered. Finding the act of 1873 in his way, he discovered that act to have been , a heinous crime, not against the minlng millionaires, but agaiust the common people. Another class of persons joined in the cry, namely- those who had worked for au inilation of our irredeemablo paper money, who had opposed the resumption of specie payments and now favored the silver dollar, because the silver in it was worth in the market less than a gold dollar, and its coinage would therefore furnish what they called "cheap money." And then began that campaign of falsehood which in sharnelessness of imposture has, within iny knowledge, never had itg equal. (Applause.) Two I.awa Passed. Now mark what followed. Cowed by the uproarious outcry which was started by the silver miners and taken up by the "cheap money" men, Congress passed two laws, one in 1878. the other in 1890 in pursuance of which over 429,000,000 of silver dollars were added to our currency, more than fifty times as many dollars as had ever been coined beforb, besides a large addition to our subsidiary silver coins. Our paper money was largely increased, so that while ia 1873, the years in which the American people were said to have been robbed of half their money - while in 1S73, I say, we liad $774,000,000 of money in the United States, we had $2,217,000,000 in 1895- nearly three times as much; and while in 1873 the circulation was $18.04 per capita, It was $22.96 per capita in 1895. Filty times as many silver dollars and many times more rnoney of all kinds than this country had ever had in It most prosperous days - and yet the price of silver lu the market kept on falling, and the prices of many commodiües, agrieultural stiiples included; contiuued in their declining tondeucy. Now analyze this case. Upon what ground do the silver advocates assert that the so-cnlled demonetization of silver depressed prices '! According to their own reasoning, because there Ikis not been sufficient money to sustnhi prices. Sustain what prices? Those prevailing before 187;!. But there is now three time u.s unich money as there was in 1873, and a nincli higher per capita circulation. Well, what becomes of tneir argument? Sonic of the silver philosophers have invented a more mysterious phrase - that prices have gone down because by the act of 1873 the "monoy of ultímate redemption" had been curtailed- only gold beinpr available for this purpose. But according to the treasury statistics we had in 1873 ouly twenty-üvo millious of coin, including subsidinry silver, iu the country, and l now we have much over 600.000.000 of gold alone, or more than twenty-four times ns much "money of ultímate redemption" as in 1873. And yet pricps are Iow. The man whom such facts do not convince that the decline of prieea caunot have been eaused by any effect produced upon our curreucy by the act of 1873 must have a skull so thick that a trip-hammer would not drive a sound conclusión through it. [Laughter.] What Caused Decliue in Prieea 7 But what is it, then, that has caused the decline of prices? I appeal to your common sense. Do you think that when one man, aided by machinery, does as much productivo work as formerly ten or more did, and when.ourimodern ineans of transportación oarry the product from the producer to the consumer with five times the speed, at one-fifth the oost, and when in the transmission of intelligence time is quite and cost almost annihilated--do you think that then the product of human labor should not ia due proportion become cheaper? If it did not, then modern civilization would in one of its most important and beneficent functions be a flat failure. For what is the inventive genius of the age that devotes itself to practical objects engaged in - what else than in devising and developing means snd methods by which the things required by mankind for the sustenance and comfort of life be made better and more easily attainable - Ihat is, cheaper. ïhe farmer in the United States welcomed the agricultura] machinery which helps hirn in planting, raising, and liarvesting his erop. He welcomed the railroad, the stearuboat, the low i'reights, the telegraph, which shortened the distauce between his farm and the inarket, and the banking arrangements required for moving and selling his product. But as nearly all our farmers had the same encouragement it followed quite n.aturally that the wheat erop of this country increased ffoin an annual avorage of 312,000,000 bushels between 1870 and 1880 to an annual average of 475,000,000 bushels between 1890 and 1S95. But also foreign countries had the encouraging benefit; new wheat íielda wcre opened in Russia and the Argentine Republic and elsewhere, and, according to Bradstreet's, a very competent authority, the wheat product of the world frew from 1889 to 1894 no less than 29,000,000 bushels, while the world's consumption is estimated to increase enly 12,000,000 to 10,000,000 bushels annually. ÁVhen the increase of the world's supply thus gains npon the increase of the world's demand, is it a wonder that in the world's market, which rules the price for all exporting countries, that price should have declined? Is not this an infinitely more rationa] explanation of the decline in prices than to ascribe that decline to the so-called demonetization law of 1873, which practically deinonetized nothing, but was actually followed by an increase of our eurreney, nearly trebling its volume and making the per capita far, far higher than it ever had been before, and higher than it is iu any other country except one? You might as well ascribe our civil war to the great comet of 1811. (Laughter.) Truo Sourco of Dlicooteat. Permit me here a word on what In my humble opinión is the true source of the discontent so far as it is entertained by lionest men. The new economie copditions, somewhat suddenly created in our time by the vast improvements in the means and methods of production and transportation, have surprised, puzzled and perplexed the minds of many well-meaning people. They became alarmed at the naturally and necessarily following decline of the prices of agricultural as well as industrial producís and at the general tendeney of profita towards a minimum. Some of them found it very hard to adapt their ways of thinking and doing to the new state of things. They disliked to see in all this change a natural evolution of permanent effect. They easily yielded to the impression that there must be something wrong at the bottom of it all, some hocus-pocus with the money of the country, just as once every cattle disease was ascribed to witchcraft, and as even in this century in some places the appearance of the cholera was attributed to a conspiracy of the Jews to poison the wells. Honest people in that state of mind feil an easy prey to the equally honest financial quack as well as to the dishonest demagogue. Thus they were readily persuaded that the so-called demonetization of silver was the true cause of their troubles, aiyl that the free coluaee of silver would be the true remedy, while thorough inquiry and calm reasoning would have eonvinced them that the true cause is the progress of ciyilization in production and transportation, and that the true remedy can be found only in the adaptation of our schemes of husbandry and our business methods to that progress. This is proved by actual experience. There ure a great many prosperous farmers today in spite of low pnces. They are fariuing farmers. There are others who do not prosper. They aro largely tlio political farmers. Tlie reason is this: The successïul farmIng farmers have been studying the most cconoinical methods of production, the most profitable varieties of farm produets, and the changing oipoitunities offerod by the market. while the political farmers have studied "Coin's Financial School" and the question how froe coinage would give them doublé prices for what they would have raised if their Cnancial studies had not absorbed so much of their time and atteution. Proposod Remedy -will Not Cure. Gandid refiection will convince them that the remedy urged by the free coinage men, ba sed upon a false diagnosis, will not only not cure, but immenwely aggravate the trouble complained of. It is a case of jumping f rom the frying Dan into the fire. The Bryan remedy domimds a radical change of the_ basis of our monetary system. What is that system? The curiency of the United States consists of gold coiti, silver coin and five different kinds of paper money, thaee all redeemable in gold or in some roundabout way sustained by gold. Besides, there is the national bank currcncy. redeemable by the banks in greenbacks, the greenbacks then being redeemable in gold. It is true, nominally various descriptions of our paper money, the greenbacks and the treasury notes, are redeemable in "coin," meaning, literally, gold or silver, at the discrétiou of the government, but practically they have always been held to be redeemable in gold if the holder presenting them for redemption so desired. And this constniction has been substantially conürmed by the law of 1890. That law directed the purchase of 4,500,000 ounces of silver a month and the issue of treasury notes therefor, such treasury notes to be redeemable in gold or in sil ver coin; and in eonnection therewith the law deelared it to be "the established policy of the United States to maintain the two metáis at a parity with each other upon the present legal ratio or such ratio as may be provided by law." Fix your niinds upon these words. We wish the United States to be regarded as an honest and honorable nation. If so, then. this declaration made through its governmeut raust be regarded as an honest deeltiration. This declaration could honestly have but one meaning - namely, this: The government said: "Here I issue paper money to be refleomable in gold or silver coin at my disoretion; but, lest anybody be disturbed by doubt as to the mercantile valué of.one of these metáis, I hereby solemnly declare it to be my established poliey to maintain these two metáis at a parity - that is, equal to the most valuable of the two. You can therefore take my paper money, with full confidence in my honor and integrity." I repeat, if ours is an honest and honorable government, the declaration could not possibly have any other meaning. I therefore aflirm and maintain that it cpnstituted a clear and solemn pledge ón the part of the United States to keep the sil.ver dollar in its purchasing power as good as the gold dollar, and to do all things that raight be necessary to that end. Whoever denies this meaning of te declaration pronounces the United States a cheat, a "confidence" concern, issuing promises to pay under false preténses. How is the government of the United States to make good that pledge? It would be an easy task. indeed, if the silver, contaiued in the silver dollar were in the market, as merchandise, worth as much as the gold contained in the gold dollar. But for reasons which I shall mention herenfter, the market value of silver has fallen about 50 per cent., so that the silver contained in the silver dollar can be bought in the market as merchandise for little more than 50 centsin gold. What is the problem confronting the gorernment now? Some financial philosophers of the fiat persuasión say that when the government bas put its stamp upon the siver dollar and made it legal tender, it created in it a valué as good as that of the gold dollar, arid its duty is fulfilled, once and forever. Is this true? Soon after the beginning of our civil war the government issued the greenback. The greenbaek dollar was a bit of paper on which was printed the promise of the government to pay to the holder one dollar - meaning one dollar in gold coin, for nobody thought of anything else. It bore the government stamp and was made a legal tendsr for public and private dues, except dutics on import. At first, when there were but few greenbacks out, and it was hoped that the war would speedily be ended and the government would soon be in conditiou to redeem the greenback, the greenback passed at par with gold in spite of its not being receivable for duties on imports. But as the war continued and tin? quantity of greenbaeks grew larger and larger the public confidence as to the government soon becoming able to redeem them_ was shaken, and the greenback, in spite of the government stamp and its legal tender qualities, feil in purchasing power compared with gold. Gold rose to a premium as against the greonback and went out of circulation. This gold premium rose and rote as the quantitïy of the greenbacke out increased, and at the same time the period wheu the governinent would be able to redeen them seemed farther removed. But the civil war carne to a happy ending, the issuing of greeubaoks was stopped, the redemption act was passed, the government gathered gold, and the greenbaek rose to par with gold again. The stamp of the government and the legal tender quality had neither saved it from depreciation nor secured its return to, par with gold. AVhat caused the depreciation was the prospect of au indefimte increase of the greenback piomises to pay, and the uncertainty as to the ability of the governinent to meet its obligations. What caused the subsequent rise of the grecnbacks to par with gold was the limiting of the greenback issues to a manageable quantity, the preparation made by the government for redemption, and the returned public conüdcnce that the government was able as well as willing to redeem its promises. Status of the Silver Dollar. What is now the status of the silver dollar in this respect? The greenback dollar is an evidence of indebtedness on the part of the govornment to the amount of just $1- the bit of paper out of which the greenback is made being worth nothing. Under the pledge of the government to keep the silver dollar to all intenta and purposes on a parity with the gold dollar the silver dollar is virtually an evidence of indebtedness on the part of the United States to an amoimt equal to the difference between the mercantile value of the metal in the silver dollar and the gold dpllar - that is to say, to the amount of oO cents if the metal in the silver dollar can be bought at 50 cents. Notwithstanding this difference, the silver dollar will, like the greenback, pass in mercantile transactions as the equivalent of the gold dollar as long as there is public coniideuce in the ability and willingness of the government to fulfill its pledge to "maintain the two metáis at parity." To fulfill this pledge it is necessary so to limit the circulation of silver dollars and of paper representing silver, for which the government is responsible, and to keep , large a reserve of gold on hand as ■& leave no reasonable doubt of the ability of the government to meet its obligations. We kuow from experience that when, as in 1893, sueh doubts arose gold was withdrawn from the treasury in large quantitics and the gold dollar was on the point of rising to a premium- that is to say, the parity of the two metáis was being disturbed. It could be, as it was, maintained only by stopping the increase of the circulation and by repleuishing the gold reserve by means of bond sales. Had the government neglected to take these necessary steps, had it permitted the parity of the two metáis to be disturbed, it would have been false to its manifest duty, a duty which President Cleveland faithfully, couiageously fulfilled. There stands, then, the national pledge to keep the purchasing power of the silver dollar within the United States equal to that of the gold dollar. Every governmental policy disregarding that pledge or making its fulfillment impossible is a policy of downright repudiation, dishonoring the republic. (Applause.) Policy of the Bryan Popocracy. What, then, is the policy of the Bryan Democracy? It is expressed in its platform: "We demand the f ree and unlimited coinage of both silver aüd gold at the present legal ratio of 1G to 1, without waiting for the aid or consent of any other nation." And, secondly, "We are opposed to the issuing of iuterest-bearing bonds of the United States in times of peace." What does the free coinage of silver mean? It means that any one, here or abroad, who has any silver of auy kind may take it to the uiints of the United State's to be coined into dollars without charge, and that the silver dollars so coined shall be returned to him and shall be a legal tender for all debts, public and private. And what does the ratio "1G to 1" mean? It means that under the law sixteen ounces of silver shall be held to be worth one ounce of gold. But are sixteen ounces of silver clay wortn one ounce of gold iu the markets of the world? Why, there is not a sane person in the United States or anywhere else who would today give one ounce of gold for sixteen ounces of silver, knowing that he eau get more than thirty-one ounees of silver for one ounce of gold. What, then, would free silver coinage mean if suddenly iutroduced today '! It would mean that any one, American or foreigner, could at pleasure expand our silver currency and thereby increase our public obligation by taking 1o our mints silver bullion worth about 50 cents and get back a silver dollar worth abeut tvvice as mueh in its debtpaying power. This would, no doubt, be a profitable arrangement for those who have silver to take to the mint. Who are they? To judge from the talk of silver orators you might thmk that, if only free coinage were once pstablished, every farmer would have his private silver mine in hia back yard and every laborer a magie source of silver supply in his kitchen. (Laughter and applause.) Good for Silver King. Such delusions would soon vauish It would turn out that the men who would have large quantities of silver bullion to be doubled in value are the rich mine owners, the silver ktngs, who belong to the heaviest onpitalists in the country, and the bullifn dealers, the great bankers, the big Wney-changers, here as well as in England and on the European continent; in short, what Populists usually cali "the money power." How large the rush of silver to our ruints and the subsequent addition to our silver coinage would be I will not here conjecture. It is, indeed, certain that the indueement of any great profit would very soon disappear. But in any event there will be an indeterminable, indefinite prospect of expansión would atterly tlestroy one of the conditions required for maintaining the parity of the tvvo metáis. It is true, some of the free coinage men reason "that free coinage would increase the demand so as to restore the old prices." Let us see. The act of 1873, as has been sliown, did not curtail existiug demand, for there bad been no such demand in this country for mány years. Tha demonetization of silver in the old world did curtail the demand, but it was far from being the only cause of the fall in the price of silver. The price of silver began to decline in the market, at first slightly, two years before the demonetization took place. The cause was, then the increase of supply. Between 18GG' and 1870 the average annual production of silver in the world was 43,051.583 fine ounces. Between 1871 and 1875 it was 63,317,014 fine ounces, and it went on increasing until in 1895 it was 174,790,875 fine ounces, four times as tnuch as in the annual average had been thirty years before. And the rise in production would have been still greater had not the lall in price made the mining of some low-grade ores unprofitable. Ailis a Fointed Question. Now, I ask any sensible person whether against such an increase of production any product in the world could have maintained its price, even if the demand had reinained the sanie. What, then, would be the effect of free coinage in the United States on the price oí silver 'i It would probably produce at first an upward tendency. But us soon as the price goes up, silver production, greatly facilitated by constantly progressive reduction of its cost, will jump up, too, and once more depress the price. We had a striking illustration of this afler the passage of the law of 1890, which provided for the purchase of 54,000,000 ounces annually. At first the priee of silver rose sharply, but soon it began to fall again, and feil lower than ever. Why? Beunuse the production of silver rose from 124,000,000 ounces in 1890 to 137.000,000 in 1891, to 153,000,000 in 1892, and to 105,000,000 in 1893. Can there be any doubt that, if free coinage caused any considerable rise in price, that price would be speedily pressed down affain by an increased output of the mines? Why is it that such an enormous quantity of siWer is produced at the present low priee? Beeause at that low price silver mining ou a large scale is still profitable. If it were not, there would be none of it. It is therefore certaln that free coinage would not raise the price of silver to auything near the oíd figure and that an ounce of gold would continue to buy far more than sixtcen ounees of silver. How, then, eould under such circumstances the p&rity of the two metáis be maintained with in indefinito increase of the silver circula tion 7 It wonld be iinpossible, unless the gold reserve behind all our obligations were also indefinitely augmented. And how could that reserve be augmented, as it may happen only by loans efl'ected through the issue of bonds of the United States? But here the Bryan DPftiocracy steps in with its platform declaring: "We are opposed to the issuing of intprest-bearing bonds of the United States in times of peace." Thus. by making the increase of silver eirculation indeh'nite and at the same time stopping the only source from which the gold reserve can be replenished, the Bryan Deinocracy will render the maintenance of the parity of the two metáis Utterly iinpossible. This ís a clear repudiation of the solemn pledge contained in the low of 1890, with more acts of repudiation to follow. Kosult if Bryan Were Elected. Consider now what the immediate consequences would be if Mr. Bryan were elected President, with a Congress to match. Mr. Bryan would, of course, be anxious to have his free coinage law enacted, but that could not be, even if he called an extra session of Congress, until some time in April or May, five or six months af ter the day of election. But as soon as on the 4th of November the result of the eleetion was announced, everybody would know that the parity of gold and silver would not be maintained. Even Mr. Cleveland would not be able to maintain it till the espiration of his term, for nobody would then buy bonds for gold, expecting them to be paid back in silver. Neither would the banks of the country, as they have recently done, come forward again to supply the treasury with gold, for they would have to expect that the greenbaeks they would got for the gold would be redeemable in silver. Aud here permit me a word, by the way, about those banks. Some of the silver papers said that the banks in coming voluntarily to the rescue of the government, acted not rrom patriotism but from interest. If so, then let na thank God that we have financial institutions that consider it their interest to keep the government solvent. Woe to the country if a majority of the people should find it to their interest to make the govermnent bankrnpt! Well, even after Mr. Bryan's election the banks might be patriotic or prudent enough to com again to the rescue of the government with their gold, did they not know that it would be absolutely useless. And why would it be useless? Because, it having been made certain by Mr. Bryan's election that the parity of gold aud silver would not be maintained, there would be a rush upon the treasury for the gold in it by persons holding greenbaeks entitled to redemption, and the gold reserve would be eihausted in a twinkling. Gold will Disappear. Gold will instantly disappear from eirculation to be hoarded or exported. Why will it disappear? Because every sensible person when making a paynient will prefer to make it in the less valuable dollar and hold the more valuable gold dollar back for more proñtable use. Gold will therefore quiekly rise to a premium, aud we shall be on a silver basis long before a free coinage law can be enaeted. What does it mean to be on a silver basis? The w'ord "coiu," wherever it appears in the law, will no longer mean gold, as it was so far understood, but silver alone. The greenback or treasury note redeemable in "coin" will no longer be redeemable in gold. as heretofore, but only in silver. The United States bond payable in coin- no matter whether gold was paid for it or whether it had been sold for the very purpose of buying gold for the treasury - will be paid principal and interest in silver - repudiation as flagrant as the world ever witnessed. Our transactions in buying and selliug, in paying and receiving wages, will no longer be carried in upon the basis of the gold dollar worth 100 cents, but of the silver dollar worth 50 cents or thereabouts - for the government will no longer hold up the silver dollar to the value of the gold dollar. That is what the silver basis means. You can study in Mexico how it works. Now who will get that treasury gold when, after Bryan's supposed election, the rush for it is made? Not the farmer, not the laboring man, not those whom the Populists usually cali the people. They have no greenbaeks ready to present 'for redemption, and if they had they would hardly be quick enough about it. No, that treasury gold will be promptly gotten hold of by the big bankers, by Wall street men, and by other persons called by the Populists "the nioney power," to be by them used as they think most profitable. The quantity of gold vanishing from eirculation will amount to about $G00,000,000, the disappearance of which will make a tremendous hole in the volume of our currenoy. Nearly one-thjrd of it will be gone, and what remains will be reduced nearly one-half in purehasing power. Silvor will Not Fill the Gap. But, says the silver man, there will be free silver coinage to fill the gap promptly with coined silver or silver certificates. Oh, no, my fellow-sufferers. The disappearance of gold will happen prornptly after the election of Mr. Bryan, and there will not possibly be any free coinage of silver for at least six months, and it will require a great many more months to fill a gap of $000,000,What will happen meanwhile? The St. Louis Globe-Democrat reports Mr. Bryan to have said some time ago: "I think it (meaning the victory of the free coinage movement) will cause a panic. But the country is in a deplorable condition, and it will take extreme measures to restore it to a condition of prosperity." Whereupon the St. Louis paper pointedly remarks: "Evidently Mr. Bryan has heard of the doctor who always threw his patiënt into fits before administering any curativa medicine." Just so. (Laughter.) How, then would Mr. Bryan's "fit" work? The sudden disappearance of our gold from eirculation would produce the most stringent contraction of the currency on record. Business men who owe money and at the same time have money due them will be forced to collect that money by every means at their disposal. Nobody will be inelined to lend out money except upon extraordinary security. The banks will naturally consider it their duty to keep themselves strong, and therefore to cali in loans and to restrict their discounts and advances to business men with thé utmost caution. Business establishments, manufactories, mercantile houses, unable to get the money for meeting their obligations, will by the hundreds succumb to their embarrassments and tumble down like a row of bricks. Others will cautiously restrict their operations to the narrowest possible limit, and wage-earners by the thousands will lose their employment and be turned into the street. Crédito will Preae Debtori. ■ No class of society will be spared the destructivo consequences. Every frightened creditor, pressed by his own creditors, and apprehensive of a growing loss by every day's delay, will eagerly pounce upon his debtors. The prompt settlement of every account will be peremptorily demanded. Our farmers who have mortgages on their property, and who have been told that free coinage will mak things eiceedingly easy for them, will have eoineunexpected experiences. Every mortgage debt that is due will be quiekly called in. The mortgagor who tries to have his bond extended will find an willing ear. He who seeka to borrow1 money in order to replace the old mort' gage witli a new one will be told that this is no time for loans except, perhaps, upon exorbitant conditions. The inortgagor may find, too, that his bond is payable in gold coin, and he will have to buy the gold at the premium then ruling. Foreclosures will be the order oí the day. The mortgagor who ieeka shelter ander the law's delay will at any rate further burden his property iritJi the cost of legal proceedings. Everywhere anxiety, embarrassinent, sacrifice, loss, and distress, even before Mr. Bryan could asoend the presidential chair. Usurera tvíII Thrive. Still there are some who under theso circumstances will do a lively and prosperous business: the sheriff, the usurer, and the moneyed man who has ready means to buy real estáte or other goods for a song at forced sales. That part of the "money power" will lustily thriva on the misfortunes of the people. But more. We are largely in debt to Europe - not as if Europe had forced us to borrow, but because we solicited Europe to lend us. Our merchants and bankers owe unsettled balances or accounts, and large amounts of our securities are held there - national, state and municipal bonds, bonds and stock of railroads, street railways, and industrial corporations, and even mortgages on city property or farms, placed there by loan eoinpanies. The European holders of such securities will be seriously alarined at the prospects here, and our securities will promptly and indiscriininately be thrown upon the market for what they will bring. A violent decline of prices will be the eonsequence, of course, here ás well as abroad. This will, indeed, in the first place affect those who deal in Buch securities. People who have borrowed money on their holdings will have to sacrifice them, because they cannot raise the money to protect them. There will, therefore, be a general ruinous crash in the stock and bond market. pur silver friends may say that this ■will not trouble them, and that . the more the money-changers of Wall street come to grief the better. Indeed, if it were only the money-changers of Wall street that suft'ered, we might easily console ourselves. But the bonda of the United States, and of states and municipalities, and the bonds and stocks of our railroads, of street railways, and of industrial incorporations are also held largely in this country, not merely by big capitalists, but by people of small means, farmers, wage-earners who have invested their sayings in them, and by savings banks, life iusurance companie3 and trust funds in which many millions of poor people are interested. Is their loss also a matter of indiff erence ? Will Piek Up Securities. Again, our silver friends may say that if Europeans do not "trust silver," and in their fright throw away our securities at a heavy sacrifice, we can piek up those securities at a splendid bargain; that some of them will, after all, become good and rise to high figures again, and that thus we shall make a heavy profit on them. This is trae. But who will make that profit? Not the farmer, not the laborer in the workshop, not the toiling masses. No, it will be he whom our silver friends love to denounce as the great goldbug, the Tich operator, the very incarnation of the "money power." That class of men will make those profits, and be more powerful than before. The catastrophe in Wall street caused by the election of Mr. Bryan and the ruining of some Wall street mea would not mean the destruction of what the Populist understands by Wall street; it would only mean some big fish swallowing some little fish, the big fish growing still bigger by the operation. It would not weaken, but more strongly concéntrate the so-called "money power." How can I foretell these things witb. so mueh assurance? Because they have already cast thoir shadows before. Do you remember the crisis of 1893, when the silver basis was in sight? And now again the mere apprehension of a possibility of Mr. Bryairs election and of the consequent slipping of our country upon the silver basis has already caused untold millions of our securities to be thrown upon the market in Europe aj well as here. Business Orders Becalled. Scores of business orders are ah'eady recalled, a large number of manufacturing establishments have already stoppedqr restricted their operations, enterprise ís already discouraged and nearly paralyzed. Many works of public utility by industrial or railroad companies have already been ordered off, thousands of workingmen are already thrown out of employment, gold is already being hoarded, ' ital is already being sent out of the country to be invested in Europe for safety. And why all this? Not, as the silver men foolishly pretend, because the esisting gold Standard has made money scarce, for capital is lying idle in heaps, scores upon scores of millions, fairly yearning for safe employment. No; ask those concerned why all this happens, and witbj one voice they will teil you it is because they appreheud serious danger to every dollar ventured out through the changa of our sftindard of value in prospect, through the debasement of our currencyi threatened by the free-silver-coinage movement. And if these are the effect of a mere apprehension of a possibility, what would be the effect of the event itself? There is scarcely an imaginable limit to the destruction certain to a wrought by the business disturbance that Mr. Bryan's mere election would cause, even before his inauguration. After five or six months of such dealy crisis, Mr. Bryan's extra sessioa of Congress would begin and give ua free coinage. Then, as Mr. Bryan sol-! emnly promised us in his great New York oration, free coinage will give us bimetallism, bimetallism will give us ara abundance of money, and all will ba right. , t j What 1 Bimetallism. Bimetallism? What is bimetallism? It is a monetary system in which the two metáis circuíate together for all the ! poses of money on a parity with each other upon a fixed legal ratio - which ia our case is 16 to 1. Evidently, to have bimetallism, gold must be on hand, aa well as silver. As I have shown, between Mr. Bryan's supposed election andi his extra session of Congress, our goldwill have run away f rom circulation. Part of it has been privately hoarded,; and another, probably by far the larger part, bas gone to Europe, where it finds profitable employment. Thus it turns out that Mr. Bryan's election will have served to possesa the American and still more, the European "money powers" of most of the gold which he needs here for his bimetallism. This is one of the troubles which the really sincere European bimetallists foresaw when they almost pathetieally implored their less sincere American brothers not to think of the free coinage of.silver in the Uuited States alone, because it would drive almost all the gold to Europe, and attract silver to America, which would make bimetallism impossible in Europe as well as here. How will Mr. Bryan get the gold baeK from the "money power?" Evidently] he must offer au inducement. What inducement? To be sure the minta will be open to gold as well as silver. But who will offer gold bullion to have it coined into dollars for circulation whea he can have silver dollars with the same legal tender power at half the price? Only an idiot would do that. Of course, gold will be offered ouly when the silver dollar is up again to the gold standard. There is the rub. Bryan' Theory a Curioíttj1. But here Mr. Bryan steps in with a theory which is a curiosity in statemanship. He said in his New York speech: "Any purchaser who stands ready to take the entire supply of any article at a certain price eau prevent that articla from falling below that price. So the government can fix a price for gold and silver by creating a demand greater than the supply." And again: "When a mint price is thus established it regulates the bullion price, because any person desiring coin may hare the bullion converted into coin at that price, and any person de tfríng bullion eau secure it by mclting thai coin." WbuiV Is this to mean that under free eoinago. the government will p urdíase silyer bullion nucí pay e certain fixod price for it V If so, then Mr. Bryan, the great íree eoinage apostle, does not know what free eoinage ís. Lel us remind him, It means that the owner of silvor bullion may takc it to the mint and have it ooined and returned to him in coined pieees, BO niany silvor dollars for so rnuch weight of puro silver. It does not mean that the government "stands vc.-iily to purchase th entire supply of silvor at a certain price." The goyernment doea not purchaee a single (Hinco of it. It merely receiyes the bullion, stampa it, and rei urns it. And as to fixing a price, as soon as the govefnment stops holding up the silver dollar to the gold standard, as it would with Mr. Bryan's elcclion. the silver dollar, measured by its purchasing power, will be worth not a cent more than thé market valoe of the silver eontained in it. If the market valne of that quantity is 50 èents in gold, and yuii present at the mint 50 cents' worth of bullion, ynu get back, npt 8 gold dollar but a silver dollar worth just 50 cents in gold. Sell Silvcr in tlio Market. You might, instond of taking your bullion to the mint, soll it in the market for just the same amount ol' money. Indeed, bullion-owners. unless they bave some special reason for taking their bullion to the mint. will take it to the market and sell it thero, as they very extcneively do in all countries in which tbere is free silver coinage. Why should they not? Because. if they have their bullion coined, they get legal-tendef dollars for it. Why, if they sell it in the market they get there legal-tender dollars likewiae. It will therefore be a mere question of special convenienco whether they take it to the mint or to the market. And in the market, aceording to all human reason and experience its ' price will. temporary fluctuations notwithstanding, remain on the whole very near to the figure of the cost at which it can ia largo quantities be produced. Mr. Bryan's strange imagininga have therefore proved only that when he speaks of government purchases of silver and fixing prices and creating a demand greater than the supply, he simply does not know what free coinage is. The theory that free silver coinage will mak and keep the silver dollar equal in value to the gold dollar rests upon absolutely nothing but Mr. Bryan's incessantly expressed personal belief. Fixed belief is a happy state of mind. One of the strongest cases of belief I ever met with was a man who inflexibly believed that he was the Pope of Rome and could if he would fetch down the moon. He was nnder treatment by a specialist for mental peculiarities. [Cheers and laughter.] Every sensible person, I trust, will now admit that free silver coinage in the United States alone will make bimetallism, the equal use of both gold and silver as money, utterly impossible, hera as well as abroad. It will confirm Europe in gold monometallism - the exclusive use of silver as money and of paper based upon silver. No doubt this is what the silver men are really aiming at. Effect on the Feople. Let us now consider how it will affect the various interests of the people. The first blessing we are promised tq flow from free coinage is a genera] rise of prices. This means that the silver dollar will buy less than the gold dollar did; and this for the reason that it is no longer worth as much as the gold dollar. Evideutly the promise of bimetallism, of silver rising to its old price on the one hand, and the promise of higher prices owing to a less valuable silver dollar on the other hand, do not go together. The oue or the other is a fraud. Of course the fraud is the promise of bimetallism. The rise of prices owing to the debasement of the dollar will begin at once as soon as gold departs, and we slip on the silver basis. Bread will be dearer; clothes, shoes and hats will be dearer; rents, furniture, coal, kerosene - in short, every article the price of which can be raised by the seller. High prices are a two-edged sword - handy to the seller, but unpleasant to the buyer. They press, of course, hardest upon those who are compelled to buy most in proportion to their income or tlieir earnings. And who are they? The poor people. What a rich family spends upon the actual necessaries of ]ife, the indispensable food, clothing and shelter, is very little compared with its income. Most of its expenditures go for things that are not uecessaries and may be classed as luxuries, the purchasing af whieh may be suspended or postponed without hardship. But the poor family, the wage-earner's family, is obliged to spend a very large part of its income from day to day upon food, clothing, shelter, heat and light, that cannot be temporarily dispensed with without hardship. From a rise in prices of the necessaries of life the poor people, therefore, suffer by far the most. Insidiom Deccptlon. Here I touch one of the most insidious deceptions with whieh our free coinage apostles seek to hoodwink the people. They speak of a class of "consumers" as only a lot of rich people sitting in their fine houses and doing nothing but consume; and of a class of "producers" consisting of all its people engaged in work, especially manual work, doing nothing but produce. And they speak of high prices as if their effect were mainly to make those lazy, rich consumers pay more for the things which the producers make and sell to them. This picture is an insidious lie. The number of people not engaged in any directly or indirectly produotive work is, thank heaven, in this country still very small. And not only they are consumers, but everybody is. Nay, more than that, the poorest laborer is in proportion to his means a mueh heavier consumer than the richest millionaire. And as to the blessing of high prices, they are a grinding hardship, not to the rich, but to the poor consumers, unless their earnings rise in full proportion to the rise in prices. Neither are rising prices a sign of rising business prospenty, except when that rise of prices spriugs from mcreasing consumption. It certainly is not when it is caused by a debasement of the purchasing power of the current money. Make the practical application. Some time ago I read among the published utterances of various persons on the silver question the following from a street car conductor: "I am for Bryan and free silver," said he. "If he is elected, money will be plenty and circuíate more, and then we 11 get some of it." The poor fellow! Let us suppose, then, Mr. Bryan elected. We are happily on the silver basis. The dollar buys its 50 cents' worth of goods, or thereabout. The wages of our street car conductor are say, $2 a day. Forclble Illustration. His wife - poor woman - goes to the grocer nnd finds that everything she sed to buy for 10 cents now costs 20. She plaintively remonstrates. "I cannot help that," says the grocer. "You pay me ]n silver, 50 cents on the dollar. 1 have to use this money in buying my stock, and need twice as may dollar as I did before. So my customers must pay twice as much or I must close my store. There is nothing more to be said. It is the samo thing when she goes to the buteher, the baker, the shoemaker, and no on. Our street car conductor finds thiu white he and his family could with gtrict economy live on .f2 a day, they are fearfully pinched when the $2 buys only as much a one formerly. He consults with his friends, and a committee of thoin apply to the president of the street rauway for higher wages. "Higher wages!" says ho. "I have been thinking that a reduction of wages will be necessary. For all our supplies and material we have now to pay $2 where we formerly paid $1. But we get only our 5 cents fare, which is roally now 21, cents. "And besides, our bonds are payable, prlncipal and interest, in gold. and we have to buy that gold at the tate of $2 in silver for one gold dollar. How are we to make both ends meet? I really do not know wbether. we can continue to pay you even $2 a day!" The committeemen growl and speak of Btriking "Strike?" says the president. "Why, the streets are full of laboring men thrown out of work by the closing of shops since we are on the silver busis. ThBre are thousands of them, men with families, who will jump at the chanco of earulng even less than $2 a day." IThe committee look at one anothcr. JThey know that it is all true. The beauty of higher prices on the silver basis begins lo dawn upon them, and they withdraw, wieer, Imt much Badder tnen; and the conductor's care-burdened Wife isks him whetiier it was really i smart thiii.u to vote tor Bryan aud plenty oí money. (Oheers.) Itailroad Employés. The same will happen to the hundreds of thousanda of employés of the railfroads in the United States. There is hardly one of these railroads that will hot be prevented eïther by law or by other powerful influences from raising iis passenger Cares or freight ratos to me.'! the depreciation of the money they reeeive, and (!0 per cent. of their bonded Indebtedneaa is contracted to be paid principa] and interest in gold. Bankru itey all stare them in the face, and even those of them that uiay manage to esc;)!"' it will hardly bo a ble to make good to their employés the damage they Juffer tb.ro.ugh the silver dollar. How stands the case of the wa geen rners whose product can be raised in price proportionate to the debasement of the dollar'.' As the dollar falls in value ih manufactnrer or il. e merchant marks ui) liis goods. The workingman or the éferk, finding himself hárd-pressed by the rise in price of the necessaries of (líe, applles for a correspondías increase of wages. The hend of the factory or the mercantilo establishment ad mits that some increase is called for. "But," Saya he, "you are not the only prson in trouble. The value of our naouey is fluetuating. We hardly know what it is today. We surely do not know what it will be next week. Profits are excessively close anyhow. We make a sale or a purchase today and think it is at a profit. Tomorrow we may find that it was at a loss. We hardly venture to make a contract to be filled at a future time, because we can make no safe calculations. We can increase your wages a little, but not much. For that you will have to wait until things get more settled. Besides, this silver free coinage has thrown all business into dreadful confusión, and there are plenty of people out of employment who would do your work for less than you get now." And so the wngeearner has to be satisfied with a little increase of pay and wait for more, whlle the adyaneed prices of necessaries prey upon him. Effect of Fluctuating Values. Is this mere conjecture? It is the experience of every country that has been cursed by a rise of prices through money of fluctuating value. I defy any one to show me in the whole history of the world a single exeeption. Have we not during our civil war witnessed it with our own eyes? In 1862, wheu our irredeemable paper currency had begun to deprecíate, the average wages of labor rose only 3 per cent., wbile average prices rose 18 per cent.; in 1863, when wages had risen 10% per cent., average prices were 49 per cent higher; in 1864 wages had risen 25% per cent. and prices 00%; in 1805 wages had advanced 43 per cent. and prices 117 above what wages and prices had been in gold in 1861. In other words, the laboring man's wages had lost in purchasing power more than 30 cents in every dollar Every country laboring ander similar conditions tells the sanie story. What reason in the world is there to assume that this universal rule will not opérate in the case of free coinage? And what have the apostles of free silver coinage to say to this? Hear Mr. Bryan himself in his famous New York ' oration: "While a gold standard raises the purchasing power of the dollar, it also makes it more difficult to obtain possession of the dollar - employment is less permanent, loss of work more probable, and re-employment less eertain." Is that all? Yes, all. Does not Mr. Bryan know that under what was practically the gold standard we had in the '50's one of the most active and prosperous periods this country has ever seen? Does he not know that more recently, at the time of the return to specie payments, we had under the gold Standard years of signal prosperity with all hands at work? And does he wish to learn what has been the trouble since and what is the trouble now? Let him ask the employers of labor, and with almost one voice they will teil him that not the existing gold standard, but the growing danger of its overthrow, that the growing aggressiveness of the free coinage movernent, filling the minds of men with anxious apprehensious as to dark future uncertainties, has served to paralyze that spirit of enterprise which sets the labaring man to work. Let him study the history of the crisis of 1863. Not the gold standard, but distrust of silver, destroyed the eonfidence that employs labor. This is the truth, and Mr. Bryan will in vain try to deny it. Heartless and Damnable Appeal. I must confess, of all the deceptive appeals resorted to by the silver orators, that addressed to the wage-earners seems to me the most heartless and damnable. And of all the instances of reekless credulity we witness, that of wage-earners who actually permit themselves to be persuaded that free silver coinage will be a blessing to them is the most incomprehensible and the saddest. There is something pathetic in their delusion. Of all things human labor is the one that has during the last fifty years in this country largely and almost steadily risen in price. Average wages have nearly doubled since 1840, and have risen more thau 60 per cent. since 1860. The steady rise has been owing partly to organization, in greater part to the largor average productiveness of human labor in connection with machinery - in one word, to the progress of civilization. As civilization has served to multiply and cheapen labor's producís, it has at the same time served to enhance labor's earnings. It bas thus secured to the laboring man, especially in this republic, a doublé advantage; a greater number of dollars by way of wages, and for every dollar more of the things which the laboring man has to buy for the necessities and enjoyments of himself and nis family. (Applause.) This is one of the greatest achievements of our age, at which every true friend of humanity will heartüy rejoice, but which more than all others the workingman himself should appreciate. That the workingmen should be called upon, by the exercise of their rights as voters, to aid in despoiling themselves of this eombined blessing, looks like a satanic mockery. And when we see pretended labor leaders join the silver miue millionaires, the silver politicians, and the nebulous silver philosophers in an effort to seduce the workingmen into au act of self-destruction so supremely foolish, there is good reason for warning them of treason in their camp. If there is anybody in the wide world who should fight to the last gasp for a money of true value that does not He to him and who should curse aud spurn as his worst enemy the demagogue seeking to beguile him with deceitful currency juggïes, it is the man who earns his breac ly the sweat of his brow. This is empnatically the wage-earner's battle Alas for him if he should desert his own ciuse! Solicitud of tlie Debtor Clas. The free coinage men express especia solicitude for those whom they cali "the (1-btor class." Who axe the debtor class Our silver friends speak as if as a rule the rieh people were creditors and the poor were debtors. Is this correct? Ii iny houaehold I am the debtor to the cOölC anü the chambermaid, and tht washerwoman two or three weeks in the month, and they are niy ereditors Nor are they likely to be debtors to any body olsc, while I may be, for they have Little, if any credit, while I, perhaps have some. I am, therefore, the only debtor in my house. The relations be nvcen the large employer of labor am the employés ure subitantiaïly the same ürdinarily the employer, the rich man is apt to be the only debtor amone them The employés are, as a rule, onlj' cred tors, and as they lay up sa,vings they iire apt to becoine ereditors in a larger pense They deposit their money in savings banks or in vest it in building associations, in mutual bcueüt societieSj i' oan companies, or in life insurance poliies, and become capitalista in a small vay. The araount deposited ly people f snuill meunx u the Bavinjjs hanks of ,ho 'United Stiltes is at present soraehing over l.S(to millions, that invested n building assoclatlons about 800 inilions, in mutual benefit societies 365 milions, Mini in life insurance many hunired millions. The number of such creditors belongnp; to what our silver friends often cali 'the toiling masses" is therefore very arge. Togetber with their dependents t may, for aught we know, ainount to 5,000,000 or 20,000,000. Who are the iebtora of these creditors? The savings anks had, according to the reports of 894, loaned out about one-half of the nonpy deposited with them on real estáte nortgages, and invested the other half u United States bonds, state, county and municipal bonds, and railroad and other bonds and stocks. The invostnents of the life insurance companies vere about proportionately the same. The inyestments in real estáte mortgages are always preferably in large amounts, on property belongiug to comparatively wealthy persons or to business corporaious. Thus the debtors to thse eredtors belouging to the tolllng massee are :he United States, states. and municipaliies, railmad and other corporations, and ersons very much richer than the credtors. Here we have, then, rieh debtors owing to many millions of poor ereditors housands of millions of dollars. Pretenso of Silver Orators. The silver orators pretend that they ïave the toiling masses greatly at heart and that free eoiunpre is to be introduced mainly for their benefit. How do they take care of the toiling masses in this case? By brlngjng us down upon the silver basis they simply cut down the thousands of millions of invosted savings of poor people to about 50 cents on he dollar. And for whose benefit is this done? Por the benefit of the debtors of these poor people, who will gain about 50 cents on the dollar. And who are they? Aside f rom the United 5tates, and the states and mumcipalities, those debtors are railroad and other ('orporations and more or less rieh men, whoni our silver frionds profess to abhor very mueh as belonging to the "money power." Thus will the silver standard ileed the poor creditor for the beneit of the rieh debtor. May not the toilïng masses pray heaven to deliver them of the free coinage friends? And what have these friends to say in :heir owu defense? I will again let Mr. Bryan's New York oration speak. He says, fii-st with regard to the insurance companios: "Since the total premiums reeeived exceed the total losses paid, a rising Standard must be of more bene8t to the companies than to the policyaolders." How wise! And that the companies may not have this benefit, he proposes by the silver Standard to strip the polioies of the policy-holders of nearly half their value! But does not Mr. Bryan know that most of these companies are mutual insuranees, and that what benefits or injures the companies therefore benefits or injures the policyholders? As to the savings-bank depositors he says: "Under a gold standard there is increasing danger that the savings bank depositors will lose their deposits because of the inability of the banks to collect their assets." And to avert this danger, Mr. Bryan advises a policy which would, by the introduction of the silver standard, at once cut down the value of those assets to 50 cents on the dollar. He further says: "If the gold Standard is to continue indefinitely the depositors in savings banks may be eompelled to withdraw their deposits in order to pay living expenses. Indeed! It is a remarkable fact that since 1873. the year of the great crime, until 1895, during the period when we had to suffer all the calamities of the gold standard, the deposits in savings banka have, instead of being withdrawn for living expenses, increased - positively increased- mueh over $1,000,000,000. And they would have increased still more had not some depositors withdrawn deposits, not for living expenses, but to send them to Europe for safety, out of the way of Mr. Bryan and other friends of the toiling masses. They will, no doubt, bring that money back as soon as Mr. Bryan is beaten. [Cheers.] Let us go on. Almost every man Ln active business is a debtor and a creditor at the same time - every merchant, every manufacturer, a creditor to bis customers and a debtor to those from whom he buys. Let Mr. Bryan bring on his panic, and hundreds, if not thousands of them, although ever so solvent under ordinary circumstances. will break because they cannot pay what they owe, being unable to collect what is due them. Bryan's Profound Discovery. Every bank, while being a creditor to its borrowers. is a debtor to its depositors. I say this with great deferenee to Mr. Bryan, for he has made a profound discovery in economie science. He says in his New York speech: "It is sometimes asserted by our opponents that a bank belongs to the debtor class, but this is not true of any solvent bank. Every statement published by a solvent bank shows that the assets exceed the linbilities." According to Mr. Bryan, then, one must be a bankrupt in order to be a debtor. We always thought that he is a debtor wbo owes. whether he can pay or not; and that he is a bankrupt who owes more than he has meaos to pay. But the new Bryanese doctrine changes all this. The man who owes but can pay his debts is not a debtor, and therefore owes nobody. This will be welcome news to many of his supporters. luit although Mr. Bryan is anxlous to exclude the banks from his favorite class of debtors, he is not without solicitude for their weliftre. He is evidently haunted by the singular idea that the gold dollar will Indefinitely ko on appreciating, and that prices will indefinitely go on falling, and that we hall nover touch bottom. He reasons that if the gold standard be maintained and prices continue falling "the bank is apt to lose more of its bad debts than it can gain by the increase of the purchasing power of its capital and surplus." And to avert this trouble, which the bankers themselves almost unanimously refuse to see, Mr. Bryan proposes to make short work of them by a policy which will result in the establishment of the silver standard and malte all the debts due to the banks payable in 50-eent dollars. If he had the slightest conception of the nature of the banking business and of its history, and especially of its recent experienee, he would know that the banks are not imperiled by the maintenance of the existing Standard, but have been and will be imperiled by the danger of a debaseinent of that Standard, for the very simple reason that sueh a danger causes a i'eeling of iusecurity among depositors, a great many of whom will be anxious to withdraw their deposits and to get hold of their money before it depreciates, thus bringing on the greatest danger to a bank - a depositors' run. Crisis of 1803. This is substantially what threatened in 1893, when a grave doubt aróse in the public mimi whether the government would be able to maintain a gold Standard. We were then within a hair's breadth of a very widespivad bankruptcy of the banks, and only the wisest management and the utmost efforts of the clearing houses prevented it. Nothing will be more apt to bring on such a catastrophe than Mr. Bryan's election; and he will then have the satisfaction of welcoming a goodly uumbef of insolvent banks in the fold of the bankrupts whom he considers the only debtors worthy of the name. Among the farmers of the West and South there seems to be an impression that the embarrasgment of the banks w 11 be of sinu.il coBCera to them. I would advise them wll to consider how much the sale of their staple produi'ts dependa upon the ability of the banks to advance the money for moving the crops. They would do well to remember 1893, when, owing to the crisis of that year, the banking machinery did not work, when the large grain storage houses were suddenly obliged to seil out, and the grain prices dropped like lead in water. Do the farmers want to have that experienee repeated ín a teh-fold aggravated form? IThen they have only to do that which always disturbs the funetions of the banking system more disastrously than anything else - threaten with ment the existing standard of value. Mr. Bryan's election would do tliat worls so thoroughly that the paralyziiiK effecta would keealy be feit on every farm in the land. But we are told that the Bryan panic eannot last forever; that finally the business of the country will adjust itself to tlie silver basis; that the mirest will cease and that confidence and prosperity will return. No, the unrest will not cease. Por with the establishment of the silver basis will cotne the disappointment of those who brought it on. llow to Uet Silver Dollar. It will be found that whoever wants silver dollars must either se.ll something for them or work for them or borrow them, or get them by beggiug or steal them; that whoever wants to borrow them must give satisfactory security, just as it was with gold dollars before, and that everybody will want more silver dollars than he wantod gold dollars to do the same business, because they will buy less. It will be found that the silver Standard will not lower the rate of interest, but ruise it, for the lender will make provisión for u further depreciation of the silver It will be found that the West and South, in spite of the bombastic speeches uow made, will need Eastorn or European capital for the more rapid dovelopinent of their resources just as muoh as before; that, while capital is lying idle in hcaps, the South and West cannot get it as before, because the free coinage business will have ruined their credit and frightoned capital away by a seníse of insecurity. It will be found that if the South and West in their eager desire to get that capital would gladly make gold contracts for it, they will, according to the Chicago platform, be prevented froni that, too, by a Bryanese law prohibiting gold contraéis, as Mr. Bryan himself pxpresses it, "in the interest of public Bofiey," and that thus the South and West will be stripped o'f the only means to get the capital they so sorely nood. It will, in short, be found that the disastrous eonsequences of the free coinage policy will falí upon no part of the country with such crushing weight as upon the South and West. Upshot of it All. Well, and the upshot of it all? Those who now cry out that there must be more and cheaper money, because there is not gold enough, will then cry out that there must be more and cheaper money becauso there is not silver enough. And then it will be argued that, inasmuch as there must be more money, more money, more money, just as well as we can make 50 cents' worth of silver a dollar we can make a worthless bit of paper a dollar, and that after all the regular, unadulterated fiat dollar, without redemption, is the true money of the people, the only money that costs nothing, the coinage of which will be truly free, independent, and unliniited, the only money that can be made in indefinite quantities until everybody has enough. Madnoss? Yes. But there is logic and method in this madnoss. The difference between making 50 cents' worth of silver a dollar and making a bit of paper a dollar is not a difference in kind, but only in degree. After Bryan, Tillman. (Cheers.) Howevcr, the ultímate result is not at all uncertain. After a poriod of infinite confusión, disaster, humiliation, suffering and inisery the American people will at last regain sanity of mind and arriva again at some very simple conclusions- that, if you cali a peck a bushei you will have more bushels, but not more grain; if you cali a foot a, yard you will have more yards, but not more cloth; if you cali a square rod an acre you will have more acres, but uo more land; and if you cali 50 cents or 1 cent or a bit of paper a dollar you will have more dollars, but not more wealth - indeed, a great deal less chance for wealth, for you will have far less credit, because far less honesty. We shall then have learned again that the wit of man cannot - although insanity tries very hard - invent an economie system under which everything you have to sell will be dear and everything you have to buy will be cheap. Feople will then Rnpent. And having got hold of these very, very simple truths, the American people will then in sackcloth and ashes repent of this insane free coinage debauch. They will then reeognize how wise the great ciyilized natious of Europe were in adopting the only money in our days capable of being the money of the world's commerce as their own money. We shall then be sufficiently cured of prejudice to observe that under that monetary system those nations have on the whoje prospered, notwithstanding serious evils and drawbacks, under which we do not labor, and that the rate of interest is lowest where the gold Standard has existed lougest. We shall then understand that it is a good thing to have the necessaries of Hfe in plenty and cheap; to have wages rising and payable in money that does not deceive; to have capital inspired with confidence in the value of money, and therefore eager to go out in investment or enterprise. We shall then readily ackuowledge how foolish we were from the very beginning of our silver experiments in throwing away our gold for silver, by which we lost confidence, credit and prosperity. Chastened by adversity, we shall then no longer be tempted to repent such nonsense, but with laborious and painful effort we shall work our way back to that money standard which will insure stability and confidence at home and enablo us to trade with the nations of the world on equal terms. Trice of Thi Resnlt. And at what price will this ultímate result be gained m the case of Mr. Bryan's election? At the price of the most violent and destructive crisis on record, such a crisis as can only be brought on by a sudden subversión of the Standard of values and of the whole basis of credit. At the price of indefinite business paralysis and distress. At the price of the ruthless spoliation of the savings accumulated by the toiling masses. At the price of robbing our war veterans of half the value of their pensions. At the price of greatly increasing the nuniber of unemployed by discouraging enterprise, and of curtailing the value of wages of those remaining at work. At the price of the respect of the world for our intelligence and practical sense. And worse, far worse than all this, at the price of something that has never been forfeited since this republic was born- at the price of the greatest good a nation can possess and for the preservation of which it should shed it last drop of blood - at the price of our national honor. For this nation, so rich and powerful, would stand before the world as a wanton, reckless repudiator, as nothing better than a fraudulent bankrupt. This will be the cost of the experiment. Are you willing to pay this price? It is not my habit to boast of a warm heart for the poor and suffering. But my syinpathy is no less sincere because I do not carry my love and solicitude for the common people constantly at my tongue's end. If there be those who are satisfied with everything that exists, I am not one of them. There are few, if any, who abhor that which may properly be called plutocracy or detest the arrogance of wealth more heartily than I do. I know, also, that the industrial developments of our time have brought hardships to some classes of people which only the more sagacious, active and energetic among them have been able to counterblance profitably with its benefits. Lawi He Would Changa. There are laws and practices which, had I the power, T would prouiptly change, in the interest of common justice and equity. But because I am se minded I must oppose to the utmost a policy which, I am conyinced, will immeasurably aggravate existing evils. I also know full well that a large majority of those who support free coinage are honest and well-meaning citizeus, wishing to do right. But because I know this my blood stirs with indignation when I see the unscrupulous efforts made to goad them on to their destruction. I have witnessed in my long life ten presidential campaigns, but never one in which the appeals to prejudice, passion and cupidity were eo reckless and the speeulatiori upon assuiued popular it,rnorance or rascality so audacious and wicked, some of the silver orators actually speak as if they believed the can people to be born fools or knaves, or both. (Applause,) Look ut tliis. To CHghten the innocent with the terror "I the unknown, a dreadful picture is painted of the "money power" of Wall street. and, worse still, the money power of Ëngland, as ab!e, ready and eager to "corner" the gold of the world, and thus to impoverish and enslave the people. Well, if the money power were able and eager to corner the gold of the world would the freé silver coinage in the United States prevent it? I have shown that, by driving our gold straight into the jaws of the money power, free silver coinage would help that money power in cortering gold. Accordiug to the silver authoritics thcre are in the world about .f4,000,000,000 of silver and about $4,000,000,000 of gold in. circulation. But the silver dollars aro only 50-cent dollars. Now, if the money power, with thehelp of free silver coinage, corners all the gold, it will be able to buy up all the silver and have nearly $2,000,000,000 in gold over. Will it not? Sonnds ï-iike a Huge Joke. You may say that the" mouey power cannot get hold of the silver, because the silver, in the Bhape of coin or of paper based upon it, will be in general use as money. Büt is not, under the gold Standard, the gold, in the shape of coin or paper based upon it, in the same general use as money? And if for this reaaon silver cannot be cornered, will it not for the sume reason be impossible to córner gold? This may sound like a huge joke; and so it is. But does it not show that if those terrible things could be done at all they could be done with silver just as well as with gold? And if it were more difh'cult with bimetallism - have 1 not conclusively shown that free silver coinage here would make bimetallism utterly impossible, if it were ever so feasible otherwise? But Mr. Bryan has in this line a bugbear all his own. ín his New York speech, that great deliverance of his statesmanship, he said: "A gold standard encourages the hoarding of monoy, because money is rising; it also discourages enterprise and paralyzes industry." This is unique. According to Mr. Bryan the "goldbug" will, under the gold standard, hoard his money and sit on it, because gold is rising in valuó; and so long as gold does not stop rising the goldbug will not stop sitting on it. Why does Mr. Bryan consider the "goldbug" so stupid? Suppose Mr. Bryan were correct in saying that gold money is rising in value, why should not then the "goldbug," instead of sitting on his gold, lend it out on safe, rock-ribbed security at several per cent. more? He would be sure, under the gold standard, of getting his money back in unimpaired value. Can he not thus safely increase his gain? Does not Mr. Bryan think the goldbug will be smart enough to see that? Does not Mr. Bryan know that good money is hoarded only when, if let out, it is in danger of returning in the shape of less valuable money, and that then money is scarce? Does he not know that good money goes out freely and encouragingly into the business of the country when the owner is assured, as the gold Standard would assure him, that it will come back in a money equally valuable, and that then money is apt to be plenty? If Mr. Bryan does not know that, every intelligent grocery clerk can teil him. (Laughter.) Bryan a Remarkable Man. Mr. Bryan is certainly a remarkable man, being still so young. I wonder how he found time to accumulate so enormous a store of misinformation, and to develop so mature an incapacity for understanding this subject. I say this in all seriousness, compelled by my respect for the exalted office to which Mr. Bryan aspires. Considering that for years the discussion of these questions has been his only business, and that he has remained so entirely unacquainted with the most rudimontnry of economie principies and with the most conspicuous of business experience, we must concede that he not only does not know, but is unable to learn. Imagine such ignorance coupled with such assuranee clothed with great power! Imagine him, as President of the United States, parading sueh childish absurdities in his messages! It would make lis the laughing stock of the world, and every self-respectinff American would hang his head in shame. But more. Resorting to that cheapest of all hackneyed tricks of demagogy, the excitement of American feeling against England in particular and Europe in general, they teil us that, like a conquered race," we are paying "tribute" to the foreigner. What has Europe done to "subjugate" us? Nothing, absohitely nothing, but lend us money. She did not force her money upon us, but lent it when we asked for it and were glad to receive it. She lent us money when we needed it to maintMn the Union and were in diré distress. She lent us money when we wished it to develop the resources of our new country, and now what does Europe ask for? Nothing but what we proniised to pay when we took what she lent. Where is the tribute? It ík said that Europe largely profited on the loans. On the war bonds, yes, and, having been helped in need, we did not grudge it. Bnt as for the rest- is it not true also that untold millions of Europenn money have been sunk in American enterprises that failed? Tribute indeed! This word can be prompted only by that mean spirit which cajoles the lender as a friend when his money is asked for, and treats him as an enemy and outlaw when he asks for his dues. Ia this the spirit of the American people? Seek to Make Ditcord. They seek to excite the people of the West against the East, because, as Mr. Bryan said in the Chicago convention, the East injuriously interferes with the business of the West. Aye, the East has interfered with Western business, but how? In helping to build Western railroads, to die Western canals, to set up Western telegraphs, to establish Western factories, to build up Western towns, to move Western crops, to allay Western distress caused by tire, flood, or drought. Has this served to enrieh the East? Yes and so it has enriched the West. This wealth and greatness hare been mutually built up by the harmonious co-operation of their brawn and brain and money, just as the blood of the East and the West mingled on the common battlefields of the republic. And now comes thia young man, as if we had not suffered enough from sectional etrife, and talks of "enemy's country!" They seek tq excite what they cali "the poor" against what they cali "the rich" - in this land of great opportunities for all, where now as ever, so many of the poor of yesterday are araong the rich of today, and so many of the rich of to day may be among the poor of tomorrow. Their candidate for the presidency presented a characteristic spectacle when some time ago he waS kindly shown over the farm of the governor of New York, who is himself an example of the poor country boy risen by an able and honest effort to affluence and distinetion; and when that candidate then straightway in a public speech drew invidious comparisons bctween the elegant houses on the Hudson and the poor cabins in the West - teaches not the true American lesson of success won by honest industry, thrift and enterprise, but the lesson that those who havo succeeded less should hate and üght those who have succeeded more - a lesson utterly un-American, unpatriotic and abominable! (Applause.) They teil the farmers - most cruel deception! - that he must and will be made independent of the world abroad, while yoar after pear from $500,000,000 to $700,000,000 worth of our agricultural producís must seek the foreign market +o find purchasers, and while nothing will hurt the farmer more than a serious impairment of the great home market by a business crisis. Proelalm Themselves Champlom. They proclaim themselves the special champions of the toiling masses, while their policy would rob the laboring man of half of his savings, and grievously curtnil the value of his wages. Am I asked, if the silver standard will relatively reduce wages, why so many einployers of labor are opposed to it? The reason is obvious; because, aside f rom all considerations of sentiment, the prudent employers of labor know that they would lose vastly more through the disastrous disturbances of business sure to be eaused by a free coinage victory than they could possibly gnin by the cheapeninjr of labor. And WOuld not the toiling masses suffer most from that disturbance of business? He is a traitor to the laboring man who tells liim that he can profit by the ruin of his einployer. (Long continued applausp.) They pretend to be enemies of plutoer.uy, and advocate a policy which, if I were a selfish, unscrupulous money shark, I should welcome as my finest opportunity. Am I asked, if a free coinage victory would play into the hands of the money power, why the bankers and capitalista are generally against it? The answer is simple. No doubt there are those among the rich of the country who will not seruplo at any means to incrpuse their wealth; who will crush their competltors with a rude and lawless hand, and take any advantage of the ' embarrassments of the unfortunate. Thoy are the men wlro will thrive most in general ruin. Bilt the vast majority of our bankers and business potentates are honorable men who are proud of their good name; who treat honestly and fairly those with whom they deal; who do not see their interest in the ruin of their customerg, and who know that their own prosperity is safest in the prosperity of all. Therefore they are against free coinage. It is , not these, but the worst element of the "money power," that free coinnge will serve. The real pitiless bloodsuekers in the West and South are their own village usurera, their own sharpers arouiid the courthousos.not the legitímate banker or Eastern capitalist. Favorito Trick of DespoH. The agitators denounce the gold Standard as the device of monarchs and aristocrats, while the history of the world teachea that from time immemorial it was a favorite trick of unscrupulotis despots to fleece their subjects by debasing the coin of the realm, and that those who out of the momentary confusión evolved fixed standards of values and money that would not cheat, have always been ranked among the most meritorious benefactors of mankind, and especially of the poor and wtak. They seek to infiame the vanity of the American people by telling them that we are great and strong enough to maintain any monetary system we lilte and to keep up the value of our money without regard to all the world abroad - while our own history teaches us that a century ago the American people were strong enough to shake off the yoke of Great Britain but not strong enough to save their continental money from decüning in value to nothing; that in recent times the American people were strong enough to subdue a gigantic rebellion, but not strong enough to keep an infinite issue of greenbacks at par, and that this repnblic may be able to conquer the world, but it will not be able to make twice two five, or to make itself richer by watering its currency. They speak of the sil ver dollar as the money of the Constitution, while they must know that there is not one single word in the Constitution which, honestly interpretad, could justify such a claim. They invoke for their cause the Dames of Jefferson and .Tackson, while every reader of history knows that Jefferson and Jackson would have stood aghast at their wild scheme of creating by law a false value, and would have kicked out of their presence as a public nuisance any one seriously advocating it. (Cheers.) Such things the free eoinage agitators teil the American people, assuming them to be without intelligence. Par worse are the appeals they address to them, assuming them to be without moral sense. They have been teaching the people that because the prices of wheat and other things have fallen about one-half since the so-called demonetization year, 1873 - I have shown why those prices have fallen- it is not equitable that debtors should be held to pay more than half the amount of their debts in gold, that they should be released in correspondence with the decline of priees, and that it would therefore be right to reduce by free silver coinage the value of the debtpaying money by one-half. How Would It Apply to Oar DebtgT If this were right as a general principie, how would it apply to our debts? Of our government bonds there are very few that do not bear date long after 1873. Many of them were sold for the express purpose of bringing gold into the treasury. Our Corporation bonds are, as a rule, also quite young. But all these obligations are a mere trifle compared with the immense sums of debt contracted in the daily transactions of business. The average life of a real estáte mortgage is only üve years. But probably nine-tenths of all our debts are those between firm and firm or between man and man in the form of notes, bilis of exchange, wage bilis, and open accounts, the amount of which is incalculable. How old are these? from one hour to six months. How would the principie apply to them? Would there be any equity in scaling them down 50 per cent, by a sudden drop from the gold to the silver basis? Subject the principie itself to a simple test. When I contract a debt. I owe what it is mutually understood that I am to pay. Our whole business life and social fabric, all human intercourse, rests upon the binding force of such understandings. TJnless it be expressly understood, has the debtor the slightest right or reason to demand that the creditor shall be satisfied with a less amount in payment of wheat or cotton or something else had mfcanwhüe declined in price? If so. would not the creditor also have the right to demand that the debtor should pay more in proportion if wheat or ootton or something else meanwhile had risen in price? If neither of them had thought of proposing or accepting so adventurous a contract, how can such claims be justified if based upon a mere secret mental reservation or an arbitrary afterthought? Is t not monstrous that such an assumption should be taken as a warrant for the reduction at one sweep of all debts br a debasement of the standard of value? End of All Confidenoe. You recognlze such a principie and carry It into general practice, and there will be the end of all confidence between man and man, the cessation of all credit and trust, the utter subversión of the moral rules goverping human intercourse, an nnbridled reign or fraudulent pretence and unscrupulous greed - in one word, the overflow of civilized life. (Applause.) And yet he who has watched the free coinage agitation knows that just this appeal to debtqrs is one of its main allurements. Listen to their speeches, read their literature, and you meet ever reeurring, now in soft-spoken eircumlocution, now in sly suggestion, now in the language of brazen cynicism, the promise that free coinage will enable the debtor to get rid of his obligations by paying only a part of them. It is a scheme of wanton repndiation of private as well as public debts, not as if we could not pay in full, but because we would prefer not to pay in full - the practice resorted to by the fraudulent. bankrapt - and this sanctioned by law, as a part of our national policy. Fellow citizens, think this out. It is a grave matter - a matter of vital Import to the existence of this nation. The father who teaches sueh moral principies to 'his children educates them for fraud, dishonor, and the penitentiary. The public men wbo teach sueh moral principies to the people edúcate the people for the contempt and abhorrenee of mankind. The nation that aceepts such moral principies eannot live. It will rot to denth in the loarhsome stew of its own corruption. If the nation accepting such mural principies be this republic, it will deal a blow to the credit of democratie instttutions from which the cause of free government will not recover for centuries. But, thank God, the American people will never accept such moral principies. The American peopie will, before election day arrivés, have fully discovered what all this means. They will indignantly repel the unspeakable insult offered to them by the politicians who have dared to ask for the votes of honest men upon the offer of such a bait. They will know how to resent the deep disgrace inflicted upon the nation in the eyes of the whole world by those Americana who exhibit their own belief that the American peopla were capable of j taking auch a bait. Mr. Bryan has a taste for scriptural j illustration. He will remember how Christ was taken up on a high mountaia j and promised all the glories of the world j if li o would f all down and worship the i devil. He will also remember what Christ answered. So the tempter now j takes the American people up the moimI tain and says: "I will take from yon half I of your debts if you will worship me." j But then brave Üncle Sam rises up in ] all his dignity, manly pride and honest j wrath, and speaks in thunder tono; j "Get thee behind me, Satan! For it is j written that thou shalt worship only I the God of truth, honor and rigineousj ness, and Him alone shalt thou serve." This will be the voice of the American j people on the 3d of November. And tilo i Stars and Stripes will continuo to wave undefiled, honorable and hönored nmoug I the banners of mankind. (ProloJiged ap. plause.)