Jasper County Democrat, Volume 1, Number 24, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 September 1898 — Page 5

HON.S.M.RALSTON'S SPEECH

Hoosier Democracy's Standard Bearer Reviews the Issues—Party Loyalty Means the Defeat of Landis —Democracy and the War. State and National Questions. [Delivered »t the Sloth Congressional District Convention, July SO, ISOSLj

Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen of the Convention: I am glad to greet the Democrats of the Ninth congressional district in convention assembled. While lam not a delegate to this convention I am In sympathy with the object of your meeting and will rejoice with you should the result of your deliberations prove acceptable to the rank and file of our party. When Democrats meet to take counsel of one another they should never forget that it Is the duty of the minority to submit to the will of the majority. I h*.ve such faith in the unadulterated Democracy of the Democrat* of this district that I feel the fchoioe of this convention will reoeive the vote of every Democrat in ths district. If loyalty prevails in our party Mr. Landis will surrender his seat In congress to your nominee and the citizenship you represent will have a protector and defender against those Influences that make against our national life. The Bine and the Gray United. We meet, my friends, under unusual circumstances. More than 80 years ago the great civil war ended that threatened the life of our nation, but unfortunately the bitter animosities kindled by that conflict have manifested themselves in some manner in every campaign since the close of the straggle. Party leaders have not hesitated to seek party advantages by fanning anew the dying embers of sectional strife. To-day, however, publio opinion demand that Mason and Dixon’s line be obliterated, that it may no longer be a flaming wall—an impassable barrier to a friendly intercourse between the north and south, and that the differ - euoes out of which the wnr came must not be cited as a reason for the ascendenoy of any particular party. The boys who wore the blue have clasped hands across the bloody chasm with the boys who wore the gray, and shoulder to shoulder they are standing this hour under the folds of ono flag in defense of a common country. Fortunately for us we are not now engaged In war among ourselves. Within our own boundaries we are at psaoe. We are united as one man against Spanish tyranny and Spanish oppression. We have heard the voioe of the oppressed in a neighboring island, and, yielding to Ibe dictates of humanity, we have determined, It matters not how great the cost may be In blood and treasure, to deliver the Cubans from bondage. This is the purpose and mission of the Amerioan people , regardless of party affiliations, for in this : war there should be no politics and so long as the object and purpose for which war was declared ate adhered to and good faith prevails In Its prosecution, damned should be the man or party that shall attempt to gain a partisan advantage through it. Democrats Util fw Oibss ladcpsadsaos. It Is to bo regretted that the suggestion Is occasionally made that Indiana should go Republican at the next election because the present administration has the war on Its hands. My friends, it Is true that the president, who is the command-w-ln-chief of our armies and navy. Is a Republican, yet the Democratic pasty stands ready to strengthen the president’s hands In every way possible, and through its representatives in congress It will fladly join in voting every man and every ollar necessary to aid in prosecuting the war to a speedy and successful conclusion. And I now wtraour Republican friend* that if they Insist that the voters of Indiana should support the Republican ticket next fall because of the war, wo shall not hesitate to remind them that Marcus Hanna and his administration were against the war until the excoriation of Kbllc opinion lashed them into it. The mocratlc party was demanding the independence of Cuba when the Republican party was in a state of lethargy on the subject. Wall street had sat down so heavy on Mr. McKinley and his advisers in opposition to the war and In favor of the holders of Cuban bonds, that the presence of lending Republicans of Indiana was rendered necessary in Washington to point out to the executive the disintegrating influences at work In their party ranks and to impress Upon him that all ehanoes of Republican success at the coming election would be lost unless war was declared.

OimMMil Win ths Vtotorlss. We shall not stop here. If U become* mcoHiry we will not allow the voters to forget that the man who on that memorable morning of May plowed hta way at the head of the American fleet through the engines of death and destruction in Manila harbor, and who, after a battle that amased and startled the civilised world, planted the stars and stripes on Philippine soil, was commodore, now Rear Admiral Dewey, who is a Democrat We will not forget to Ml them that Hobson, who destroyed and sunk in the Santiago channel the vessel that bore him above the waves while hell was belching her fury on him from the Spanish forts on all the hills around, and who lingered his time in a Spanish prison, is a Democrat We will tell them, too. with becoming pride that the man jnder whose direction ttud command Cervera's fleet was •wept from tue seas and the arm at Spain paralyzed in war was the daring, dashing Schley, a Democrat. I cannot toll you of the bravery of these men.' My words am too few and too feeble. The poet and the essayist are yet to be born whose pens can adequately portray the unselfish patriotism, the love of man for man, and the dauntless heroism they have displayed in their effort to free their oppressed fellow man. But while we rejoloe in the parts Democrats are taking in this war, we do not wish to dstraet from the honor and glory due the president and every man under him, down to the humblest in the ranks of the army. To them all we oonosds a genuine patriotism and cheerfully acknowledge the debt of gratitude we owe them. Dsasoeraar’s Isnrd la Indiana. There are other things, however, for which the Democratic party is to be commanded aside from Us position Penan* wwiiits u?££d“ Hi peril

In this - state ~or In'tEe nation "he finds oaose for congratulation. With pride he points to the common ichool system of Indiana and her magnificent benevolent Institutions as an evidence of Democratic philanthropby and statesmanship. The law that overthrew the notorious schoolbook trust and reduced fully one-half the cost of a child’s education, was passed by % Democratic legislature. Pinkcrtonism was driven from the state and the power to rob the wage-earner was denied the proprietors of the “pluck-me” stores by the Democratic party. The tax law that incurred the special enmity of Republican leaders, while it was in process of enactment, and that since has been oondemned by the Republican press and Republican speakers, was also passed by a Democratic legislature and upheld by Democratic officials until the courts sustained it. Un der this law the corporate wealth of the state has been forced to bear its fair share of the expenses of our state government and the state debt has been set In process of liquidation. And in this connection it Is especially pleasing to a Democrat, who Is always a stronger patriot than a partisan, to be able to recall that his party gave this state the law having for its object the preservation and perpetuity of our free institutions through the purity of the ballot The suppression of corruption at the polls, however, has never met the approval of the Republican party, and consequently it has never lost an opportunity to decry the election law and to change and weaken its most salutary provisions. Unlimited and Independent Bimetallism. Bat gentlemen, while in the campaign we are preparing to enter, we shall consider state issues, and the records the two great parties have made touching state affairs, we propose tq, go further and resubmit to the voters of Indiana the financial question. lam not indifferent to the charge frequently heard that the silver question Is dead, but I remind those who talk that that uo question ts ever settled In this country until it has been settled right. Gold triumphed in 1886, but a victory achieved through slander, villlficatlon, coercion and wholesale corruption, can never be permanent. The methods of Colonel W. W. Dudley, the notorious refugee from justice, in his blocks-of-flve sooundrellsm in 1888. were the methods of the Sunday school teacher when compared with the means resorted to in 1806 to pinion this nation to the aocursed gold standard. We will enter the contest then in support of the doctrine of free, unlimited and Independent bimetallism. In demanding the unlimited coinage of both gold and Oliver Into standard money at a fixed ratio by law. v e are not departing from the traditions of our party, nor are we seeking to engraft a new or novel scheme of finance upon the country. We are but pleading for the restoration of the monetary system of our fathers, whose virtuous operation can be cited by Its supporters in the absence of famine, starvation and the application of the gambler's art on the board of trade.

Oar portion, we know, is impregnable. We Insist that gold and silver at rates Used by oongreas constitute the only standard of value allowable under oar constitution, and that the people have the right to the use of both metals in the monetary form, in the discharge of all debts, both private and public. We submit that, if the constitution has made the standard of value to consist of the two metals, congress has no authority to increase the value of the measuring standard in the Interest of the money-changer and against the wealth-produoer by demonetising silver, and thereby shifting the monetary demand responded to by the two metals onto gold alone. Stalesmaashlp and the Supreme Coart w the Side of Stiver. We are not without authority, high and respectable, in support of our theory. The ripest scholarship, the ablest statesmanship and the evenly poised judicial mind have indorsed it. It has been taught in the foremost colleges ana universities in the world. It has been expounded in the forum of statesmanship and approved judicially from the bench. Daniel Webster, perhaps the greatest constitutional lawyer the world ever knew, said In a speech In 1880 from his ■eat In the United States senate that “The legal tender, therefore, the constitutional standard of value, is established and can not be overtnrown. lam certainly of the opinion that gold and silver, at rates fixed by oongrees, constitute the legal standard of value hi this oountry, and that neither oongrees nor any state has authority to establish any other standard or to displace this. James G. Blaine, onoe the idol of Republicans, took strong ground against the authority of congress to demonetise either gold or silver. The distinguished jurist, Justice Clifford, in his able dissenting opinion in the oelebrated “legal tender cases.” says: “Argument to show that the national treasury was organized on the basis that the gold and silver oolns of the United States were to bo the standard of valuo, is unnecessary, as it is a historical fact which no man or body of men can ever successfully contradict * * * Very strong doubts are entertained whether ah act ofoongrees Is absolutely necessary to constitute gold and silver coins of the United Statet, fabricated and stamped as such by the proper executive officers of the mint, a legal tender in payment of debts. Constituted as such coins are by the constitution, the standard of value, the better opinion wbuld seem to be that they become legal tender for that purpose If minted of the required weight and lineness, as soon as they are coined and put into circulation by lawful authority. * * * Currency is a word much more comprehensive than the word ‘money,' as it may include bank bills and even bills of exchange, as well ss coins of gold and silver, but the word 'money/ as employed in the grant of power under consideration, means the oolns of gold and silver fabricated and stamped as required by law, which, by virtue of their intrinsic value M universally acknowledged and their official origin, become the medium of exchange and the standard by which all other values are expressed and die-

tervloes on the supreme bench of the Hutted States cover a* period exceeding that of any other man la the history of the ooort, supplements the opinion of Justice Clifford thus: “The inhibition upon the states to coin money and yet to make anything but gold and silver ooiu a tender In payment of debts must be read in connection with the grant of the coinage power to congress. The two provisions taken together indicate beyond question that the oolns which the national government was to fabricate, and the foreign oolns, the valuation of which it was to regulate, were to oonsist principally, if not entirely ” not of the One only, but both, ‘of gold and silver.’ "Money being a standard, its coin or pieces are necessarily a legal tender. The provisions in the different coinage acts that the coins to be struck shall be such legal tender are merely declaratory of their effect, when offered in payment, and are not essential to give them their character.” Thus it is seen that the views of the bimetallist todpy are in harmony with the opinion of these eminent statesmen and jurists, and when he insists upontheright of the people to the use of both gold and silver, not as currency, but as money, he demands for them only their constitutional right. So my friends, if the opinion a' man entertains on the financial question may render him a dangerous member of society, as we were told in 1896, it would not be difficult, taking as a criterion the utterances of the gentlemen I have quoted, to point out and designate the real anarchists of this country. It is not enough fox the single standard advocate to say he is opposed to bimetallism because of the ratio proposed. If Webster and Blaine, Clifford and Fields have correctly Interpreted the constitution, and the present ratio is an erroneous one, which we deny, bimetallism should be supported at a correct ratio, and he who is not willing to do this, but on the contrary favors the destruction of one of the metals as money, brands himself as an Infractor of the 0.-ganic law of the nation. We bear it frequently observed that the Democratic party is an unsafe guide on the money question, and yet I am praotioally within the truth when I remind you that the monetary system prevailing In this country from Its organization until 1873, and under which this nation fought its wars, contributed its share to the swelling tide of civilization aud made its most giant-like stride in material progress was the out-growth of Democratic statesmanship. Republican Party Rot Entitled to Leadership On Financial Questions. When was it the Republican party became the embodiment of the financial wisdom of this oountry? It was not born until 1866 and Its platform of that year contained no reference to m6hey. In 1860 It conducted a national campaign without saying In its platform what it thought about the financial question. In 1864 it favored “promoting the use of national currency,” but by the time 1868 came! around it had forgotten what it had thought on the subject four years prior thereto, and so it omitted to incorporate a money plank in its platform. Its memory was still no better In 1878, nor had Its stock of information been added to, and the result was it adopted another platform without a money plank. In 1876, however, 80 years after it was born, it gave its first but very slight premonition of having a financial idea, as was evidenced by its platform declaration In favor of "a steady progress to specie payment.”

It would not bs expeoted, of course, as a party to make very rapid progress in the development of a subject about which it reqtyred 80 yearn to get an idea, and so no particular surprise was manifested when this selfconstituted guardian of national honor went before the oountry in 1860 on a platform containiag no money plant In 1864 it was in favor of an international agreement for the rse ofbeth gold and silver as standard money. In 1880 it loved si ver and denounced the Democratic party for Its unpatriotto attempt to demonetise it In 1892 it still loved tilver and here in Indiana it was very vociferous in its congratulations of the oountry that a long stride had been taken toward the free ooinage of the white metaL But, my friends, in 1896, to believe Its story now, it began to see the error of its way in forming an attachment for silver, and consequently in Its 84. Louis platform it made, over the the protest of Hon. Richard W. Thompson, Henry M. Teller and 100 other leading Republicans, a half-way confession of Its sins. And now, In this good year of 1898. this party of progressive ideas, of superior wisdom, of immaculate purity, is confessing by its course that in reality it never knew anything about the money question until recently, and since it has been placed under the command of its new leader, that distinguished statesman of finance, Hon. H. H. Hanna, doubtless a direct descendant of Marcus Aurelius L I wish I had time to take up and discuss the financial measure recently introduced in congress, back of which this gentleman and Wall street’s monetary commission are standing. But I can give you briefly an idea of this bill, as I get it from Mr. Hanna himself. A friend to whom he addressed a letter in support of his measure was kind enough to hand the same to me. He says: "The bill is politically tbe best measure that has been prepared.” The word politically he has underscored, and I suppose he thereby to suggest that it will call forth the sinews of corruption when the fight is on. Then he continues; "It meets ths expectations of those who believe there can be no permanent business prosperity until the greenbacks are retired, and it does not oppose the prejudices of those who favor the greenbacks.” Now, if you can conceive a measure embodying two theories of finance diametrically opposed and yet every part working harmoniously with the whole you will at least have a faint conception of what Mr. imagines he has in his bill. He is beyond question the right man to be at the head of the visionary commission which is pretending to believe It should supercede congress ia determining the monetary policy of this government. A candid investigation will fall to establish the right of the Republican party to leadership on financial questions. It has rendered complex and thrown Into oonfusion our monetary system. Its statesmen have labored to unravel the web of idiocy running through its financial legislation, but to no purpose. In making this charge Ido not overlook its financial policy during the rebellion, but the j-ollcy it then adopted for the salvation of the nation it now condemns. It asseverates with great pretensions to wisdom in favor of the tingle gold standard, and yet you may taka any two Republicans of your own selection and have them each evolve a theory of finance bottomed on the single standard idea and you will find their conclusions to be as wide apart as ths poles. Aa Appeal Far a Uatea mt Deems.

for which tbstr party is standing, to give It their oouasel and support. 1 beg them to remember that the party with which they have affiliated in the past t fc .e party of their oholoe and the party of their love. Is greater by far than any one idea. I point them to its glorious past, and to them I predict for It a still more brilliant future. It has been fighting for a ceutury the tyrannical and centralizing influences In our national life. Wherever the brazened features of monopoly have shown themselves the Democratic party has Challenged their right to extort and fatten off the product of honest labor. And, to its credit, the party of the sage of Montloello and of the hero of New Orleans has never in its great career joined hands with organized greed to assault the best interests of our country to pauperize the bone and sinew of our land and fasten about the throats of Americans the vicelike grip of plutocracy. On the other hand, however, it has always stood for that form of government and for those measures and laws that take into account the citizenship of the man at the forge, In the factory and In the shop; of the boy In the ditch and In the mine; of the woman at the spindle, by the loom and over the tub, and guarantees to each and all of them their fair share in life’s achievements. A party with such a past can be trusted In the future. And for the future of our oountry we have much concern. The four quarters of the earth are at this time anxiously watching American statesmanship, and on every hand the concession is made that the destiny of this republic is largely dependent upon the question of annexation. It is well for us, therefore, to reflect la this hour of feverish excitement that territorial aggrandizement may lead to a national weakness and degradation. It is at least suggestive that the late secretary of state, Senator John Sherman, who was a fair representative of the ripest statesmanship of the Republican party, reserved the last paragraph of his "Forty Years In the House, Senate and Cabinet” in which to sound a note of warning to his countrymen on this question. In conclusion I quote his words; "The events ot the future are beyond the vision of mankind, but I hope that our people will be content with internal growth and avoid the complications of foreign acquisition. Our family of states is already large enough to create embarrassment in the senate, and a ropublio should not hold dependent provinces or possessions. Every new acquisition will create embarrassment Canada and Mexico, as independent republics, will be more valuable to the United States than if carved into additional states. The union already embraces discordant elements enough without adding others. If my life is prolonged I will do all I can to add to the strength and prosperity of the United States, but nothing to extend its limits or to add new dangers by acquisitions of foreign territory.”

Many newspapers, chiefly of the Republican persuasion, are criticising the administration of Secretary of War Alger for numerous blunders and some other things worse than blunders. This ia done to shield the president, who is responsible for the acts of his war secretary. It is now suggested that some narrowminded people will begrudge Major McKinley a vacation. This is improbable. The general feeling toward the major is otto of kindness and the wish is that he vacation several months •go, and taken Alger with him. -■■■- 1 ■" - ■ The request has been made in Tipton ooonty for "all who voted tor McKinley and are sorry for it” to hold up their bands. It is a train robber’s reqaest, and means danger to pocket books. Do not doit.

It is claimed that the Dingley law is putting money in the pookets of the woolgrowers, but on the other hand the people who buy woolen goods, millions in number, are compelled to pay higher prioes for them or suffer. The campaign In the Philippines has been conducted in a way pre-eminently creditable to the American nation, because Dewey had the good sense to “cut the cable,” so that Washington yawp oould not reach him. It is understood that the Dingley law has already reimbursed the patriots who subscribed to Mark Hanna’s corruption fond to elect McKinley, and that from this time forward the plunder of the people will be clear profit. Secretary of War Alger, Republicans affirm, ought to be removed for inoompotency. If McKinley should respond and dismiss Alger, he might find him a lineal descendant of Balaam's donkey, able to talk and take care of himself. If we are to believe certain Republican organs all the battles fought during the war were fought in Washington—and that McKinley and his cabinet commanded the armies and the ships. • No one ean read the horrors of Spanish role in the Philippine islands and blame the natives for wanting to get even with the Spaniards. All samee in Cuba and Porto Rioo. It ia now definitely known that the blunders of the administration, first and last caused more deaths at Santiago than Spanish ballets. A* a result, Alger squeals. Colonel William J. Bryan, Democrat, patriot, orator and soldier, at a bound rose several points higher in military office than fell to the lot of Major MoKinley. The Republican party is a gold stand* ard party, but in the St. Louis convention it gave a pledge to favor bimetallism if it oould gain the oonsent of leading European nations. Ohio, Major McKinley’s state, sots upon the hypothesis that lynohing is oats of its reserved rights—never surrendered jo the federal government. ▲ Republican sheet calls attention to the toot that the government has peepared a "hog cholera remedy.” Ayeh

FINANCIAL SYSTEM.

Power of the United Statee to Make Its Own. On May 86. 1898, Hon. John F. Shafroth of Colorado delivered a speech in the house of representatives in Washington which will more than pay the friends of free ooiftage to read. Mr. Shafroth gives a freshness to a subject which has been discussed from the beginning of the government, bat with supreme energy since 1873, when by fraudulent legislation it waß discontinued. Since that date arguments, logic, statistics, statesmanship of the highest order have been ooutinnously arrayed against the legislative fraad in the hope of reinstating silver in its constitutional rights at the mints, and the battle is still on and the friends of silver are as defiant and as aggressive as ever. The free coinage issue, at the ratio of 16 to 1. is perennial, undying and unceasing, and will oontinne to challenge the best thought of the nation. While, through the perpetration of a fraud, error is on the throne and trath on the scaffold, it will require time, patience, loyalty to the right and the indomitable oonrage of conviction to make truth and error change places; bat as certain as the eternal years of Qod are pledged to the trinmph of truth, so certainly will victory at last bud and bloom on the "thorny stem of time.” The speech of Mr. Shafroth is well calculated to inspire the friends of free coinage with courage. The facts ha groups and presents may not be new, and the arguments by which he enforces them may be along old lines of thought, but, nevertheless, their presentation is vigorous and the reasoning cogent, and, as a campaign document, the speech is worthy of recognition in campaign literature. A Flood of Silver. The gold standard advocates have sought to frighten the American people with all sorts of bogies, scarecrows, goblins, eta. to convince them that free coinage would prompt all the nations of the earth to unload their silver bullion, coin, silver spoons, ladles, teapots, buttons and trinkets of every description upon the United States to have it coined into dollars. The speaker quotes Mr. Secretary Gage as saying there is now in the country gold coin to the amonnt of $696,000,000, and that free coinage of silver would banish it from circulation. This is one of the gold standard goblins, but supposing it to be trae, rather than a baseless fabrication, it would as Mr. Shafroth points out create a demand for $696,000,000 of silver ooiu, or $9.94 per capita. Now, suppose that each inhabitant of the United States had $9.94 in his or her possession constitutional money of the government, would it be a source of danger? Would it be in tbe nature of a home wrecking factor—would it shut up mines, dose down factory and forge and prove an industrial calamity? Grouping tbe population into families of five, each family would have $49.70. Would that make the home gloomy? Would that amount of ■Over coin create despondency and despair? Mr. Shafroth effectually disposes of the silver flood bogy. He shows that there la not mare than $86,000,000 silver bullion in tbe world outside of the United States, and that, since 1878, no doe has sought to hoard silver bullion, because prices of the article have steadily declined tinoe that data. He then proceeds to show that the country cannot be flooded with silver from ths arts, that is, from manufactured silver, and in support of the proposition points out that the oost of workmanship, in molding, polishing, gilding aud carving and other ornamentations makes such silver now more valuable than ooin or bullion, and that a man would be an idiot who would ooin into dollars something that was worth more in the shape of a work of art. The speaker is equally strong in showing that Europe would not dump its silver coin upon the United States. "There is,” he says, "a great quantity of silver in the form of coins existing in Europe. It is said that they are of the value in our money of $1,600,000,000, but the man who says that these coins will oome to this oountry in the event that we open our mints to the free coinage of silver is either ignorant of or ignores one important fact—that is, that the oolns of Europe are in circulation upon a gold valuation, just like our silver dollars in this oountry are now in circulation upon a gold valuation. What would you think of the man who would take a United State* silver dollar to our mint as soon as it was open to free coinage and have it coined into another dollar?” Again, says Mr. Shafroth, in his argument relating to the flood of silver which causes the bowlings of the gold standard advocates. The ratio at which coins are in circulation in Europe is 15)4 *° 1. which makes the coinage value of silver in Europe SI.BB an onnoe, whereas in this country the ratio is 16 to 1, which makes the coinage value of silver $1.89 an ounoe. The man holding European coins would lose not only the freight and insurance in bringing those oolns to this oountry, but also would lose 4 sents on each ounoe of stivercoins that he brings. Those Europeans may not be so intelligent and bright as are the Americans, bat they know enough not to lose 4 cents on each ounoe of coins they import to us. Thus it is dear that silver coins in circulation in Europe would not be brought to our mints. But the gold standard advocates see another goblin, or a dozen of them representing free silver countries, such aa China, Slam, straits settlements, Central and South American states, Persia, Tripoli and Japan. Omitting Persia, Siam, the straits settlements, an Asiati* oountry, and Tripoli, wa have Mexioo with tilver amounting to $66,000,000 or $4.64 per capita; Oentnl Amerioan atataa with $19,000 000 of tilver, or $8.14 par oapHa; BoathAmmiean states with $80,000,000 of tilver. er Mm Ohtau with $750,-

000,000 of silver, or SB.OB per capita, and Japan with $84,000,000 of silver, or SB£R || per capita of population. In the countries named it is estimated / there is $931,000,000 of silver in circulation, ou an average of $2.59 per capita, one of the politioal divisions named having but 83 cents per capita. This boing the condition, does anyone not engaged in the scarecrow business apprehend a flood of silver from any one of the countries named. Au Abundance of Silver. .3 The gold standard advocates, (and ia using the term "gold standard advocates” reference is made to the leaders and managers of the Republican party), such, for instance, as Senator Fair- . banks and the lesser lights of the party in Indiana, who would have the people believe that in an abundance of silver dollars the country would suffer ths direst calamities. But common sens* comes to the rescue of all reflecting men and the goldbugs are asked to name a nation that became bankrupt with an abundance of silver, bullion or coin. They are asked to name an individual, or firm, or corporation whose affair ever went into the hands of a receiver because of an abnndanoe of silver assets. When did a farmer forfeit his farm owing to the fact that he had a surplus of silver coin? “No nation,” says Mr. Shafroth, "waa ever injured by its people having aa aboudauce of the precious metals, and instead of being a detriment, it would produce the greatest era of prosperity in the history of this country.” Nevertheless, the enemies of free coinage hav* for years sought to frighten the peopl# with the bugbear that no greater disaster could befall the country and tha people than to have an abnndanoe of silver dollars. Bat the people have discovered that the flood of silver predicted by goldbugs has not arrived—and they are anxions to welcome it to their business houses, factories and shops and to their homes. They demand the free and unlimited coinage of silver at the ratio of 16 to 1, and are not to be stampeded by any of the bugaboos upon which the goldbugs have relied to obscure their schemes. How Millions of Silver Dollars Coaid Bs Used. Mr. Shafroth points out how million# more of silver dollars could be used by the people in promoting their interests. He says: "There are in existence $346,000,000 of credit money, called United States notes, the existence of every dollar of which is dne to the fact that we hav* not enough circulating medium without tnose notes. Every dollar of those notes could be retired by the substitution of the silver dollar or the silver certificate, and thus there would be a demand which the government could * create for $346,000,000 more of stiver. "But these are not all the powers of oar government. There are in existence $231,441,686 of national bank notes. The only excuse for their existence is the fact that they are absolutely needed as a circulating medium. Every dollar of that credit money could be retired and tilver or silver certificates substituted in plaos.” Here we nave it olearly demonstrated that should the government coin 777.441,686 additional dollars, and izsn* ail. ver certificates to that amount, we should timplv retire the greenback and national bank notes, and substitute silver certificates, based upon that number of coined dollars held for their redemption. But where such eminently wise and statesmanlike propositions are the goldbugs display another hobgoblin and repeat their platitudes about a flow of silver, etc., ana with special —"p h nrtt assert that the United States does not possess the power and resources required to establish bimetallism. Referring to the Powsr and Wealth of tha Ualtad Statsw Mr. Shafroth epitomises the facts Ity saying oar population of 76,000,000 is. equal to 700,000,000 of the average at the balance of the world—that atu wealth in 1890 was $62,000,000,000. against $291,680,000,000, or 37 per cent of the wealth of all the nations of tha earth. The United States operates about onw half of the railroad mileage of the world and the freight transported by them was in 1892 846,000,000 tons, against L--348,000,000 tons carried by all the railroads of the world, or more that 69 per cent. The steam power of the United States is 14,400,000 horse power, or more than one-third of the world's steam power. The carrying power of vessels need in lake and river traffic in tha United States is 9,800.000 tons, or onefifth of the carrying power of the world on the high seae. Of the world’s total production of cotton, 18,880,000 bales of 400 pounds each, in 1896, the United States produced 10,286,000 bales, or tea thirteenths, and in 1897, three-fourths of the world’* crop. The United Stales produoee more than one-third of all tha grain products of the world, the product far 1896 being 8,688,180,000 bushels, against 9,900,000,000 bushels of other countries. We produce more than onefourth of the pigiron of the world, onethird of the steel, more than one-half of the oopper of the world, while in ooal we produced in 1892 198,000,000 tons, against 600,000,000 tons of all other countries. Mr. Shafroth continues tha comparison in which the United States steadily rises in overmastering wealth, power and resources, and stands confessedly in the van of the nations of the earth. Why Farad* Such Facta T But why make these astonnding disclosures of wealth resources and power of the United States if they do not deepen and rivit the convictions, that we are capable of determining for ourselves, all measures whatsoever relating* to the welfare of the nation, and the free coinage or tilver is a measure of such vital importance that it is soaroely less than treason to consult any other nation upon the face of the earth aa to the policy we should persue in In all other matters the United Statsa is proud of its prestige, defiant and independent, but when it oome* to shaping our financial poliev the goldbug managers of the Republican party are ready and williimto surrender their oountry and all or wa vast interests to the dictation of foreign powers and arqniasne in such h □ mutations as they ! choose to impose. But tha purpose of! reduoe stiver to redam-!