Democratic Sentinel, Volume 17, Number 7, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 March 1893 — FREE SILVER THE CRY. [ARTICLE]

FREE SILVER THE CRY.

The American Bimetallic Loiguo Convention at Washington. The first annual convention of the American Bimetallic League was called to order in Washington by its President, Gen. A. J. Warner. Fifty delegates from the Western States were present, among them Gen. Weaver, the candidate for President of the People's party, accompanied by Mrs. Mary Lease. Gen. Warner stated the aim of the league to be the securing of legislation for the free and unlimited coinage of siver. This question, he said, was the most important one now before the American people or before the civilized world. It overshadowed the tariff question, which, in his opinion, was but a result of the restricted coinage of silveivand it was really at the bottom of the Finish question. It was also at the bottom of the labor question and was responsible for the condition of the laboring man. Three-fourths of the value *of gold came from its monetary use. He urged the league to fight not only against the repeal of the Sherman act, but to labor until silver was put on a parity with gold. Gen. J. B. Weaver male a speech, in which he referred to Chairman Warner, and said skid that twelve years had elapsed since they had joined in making the best fight possible in the House of Representatives for the free coinage of silver, and he called upon his friends to bear witness that the cause had made considerable progress. Mrs. Lease, of Kansas, who then addressed the convention, was frequently applauded. She said that the people of the West had felt the crushing effects of legislation enacted by the two great political parties for the last thirty years. The people of the West, she said, demanded free trade, free silver and free citizens, and if there is anything else good in sight they are in favor of that also. They realized that God was the first to bestow free trade and they held that Congress had no right to restrict it. They demanded competition in the open markets of the world, the expense of the Government to be maintained by an income tax.