Democratic Sentinel, Volume 20, Number 38, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 September 1896 — THE VICIOUS CLERGY [ARTICLE]

THE VICIOUS CLERGY

MR. BRYAN HAULS A CLASS OF PREACHERS OVER THE COALS. He Declare* They Are Maligning the Poor and Degrading tho Pulpit When They Denounce the Common People iu Annrohlet*—The Church aud the Gold Standard. Raleigh, N. C„ Hept. 18.—Candidate Bryan completed a great day's labor in Nash's park here last night by making a speech in condemnation of those preachers who are degrading the pulpit by espousing the cause of the dishonest money sharks against silver. He said: "I could stand any appeal made by the advocates of the gold standard to almost any class better than an appeal made to the preachers and teachers of religion. If there Is one thing that the church people of this country could afford to array themselves against it Is the gold standard as it is being advocated by the American people at thia time. [Applause.] And yet the Republican party Is appealing to church people to take their place on the side of the gold standard. “How things have changed in the last 1,800 years! Look at the people who head the gold standard propaganda In the United States. Look at the bondholding class and the money changers classes, the brokerage classes of New York, who are trying to fasten a gold standard upon the people of this country—not openly, but secretly and In disguise, and then turn back 1,800 years, when the meek and lowly Savior threw the same kind of people out of his temple because they had made his home a den of thieves (great applause), and then think that these people come and appeal to the ministers of the gospel and the church papers to save them from the wrath to come. [Laughter and applause.] "My friends,when certain ministers of the gospel denounce the great mass of people who stand behind free coinage: when these ministers have denounced these advocates of free coinage and have taken their places upon the side of these great aggregates of wealth, I remind them that when the Savior was here it was the common people who heard him gladly—these very people whom these ministers today call anarchists and socialists. [Great applause.] "My friends, when I find—there are not many of them, but they are quite ■ conspicuous—when I find these men casting their lot upon that side and exhausting abusive language in their description of the great masses of the people of this country, I feel like saying to them that if they will take their chances with Dives, I will risk my chances with Lazarus. [Great applause.] This money question is a question which concerns every one of you and you have a right to consider what has been done and what will bo done and then decide whether you want to support the present financial policy or not. When prices are falling and money rising a man can better afford to lock his money up in a vault and gain the rise rather than invest his money in property and risk a loss In the value of the property. "You are making the property not worth having, and everybody is trying to turn property into money. And while the gold standard lasts that condition must remain and times must be hard, and hard times mean more idle men, and more idle men means more destitute men, and more destitute men means at last more criminal men: and yet the gold standard men appeal to the ministry to Increase crime." [Great applause and cheering.]