Rensselaer Republican, Volume 27, Number 49, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 August 1896 — Page 12

your bow fancied greenback will be a dishonest note from its birth; at-will 6ay, 'This Is Five Dollars;' or, If It contains T promise it will be one impossible to keep and not Intended to be kept. It will be dishonest money from the start." •- I say the same thing of this silver dollar. It is an honest coin. It says to you, «I am a dollar, not because the silver In me is worth a dollar, but because I bring with tne the guarantee of the United States that I shall be kept as good as gold." Tlie free coinage silver dollar will say, with the effrontery of Satan, “Nobody vouches for hie; I am what I am, and lam a dollar. - ’ And that will be a lie, for it will be only fifty cents. Will that be honest money? • *- ” -R w NOT NEW. Things like this have been done before. In bygone ages it was a common resource of kings who had wrung all the money they could but of the people by taxation todebnse the currency, to issue- coing of light, wejght or' loaded with cheap alloys, and compel the public to take them at face value. But these things are recorded in the annals of the past among the crimes of .tyrants—crimes perpetrated against weak, ignorant and helpless people. It will astonish the muse of historyto writedown that at this age of the world a free and Intelligent people deliberately, resurrected this old Instrument of plunder in order to defraud themselves.

AND FOR WIfAT? Why should we take such a step? Some one says "to make money plen-. tier." But how will free silver give us more money? -Its first effect will lie, as , I have pointed out, to take away nearly one-third of what we have by-driving the gold but of circulation. How shall we supply the place of it? The United ■ States mints as they now stand are not capable of coining more than 40,000,000 silver dollars per annum, if they were to do nothing else. At that rate it would take more than twelve years to coin silver enough to take the place Cf the gold which we would drive out in thirty days,—Of course we could build more mints, but what would we do in the meantime—in the two, or three, or more years which must elapse bet w n the election of Mr. Bryan and the time when we would have supplied the place of the gold with coined silver? We would have to issue some kind of paper, • or else suffer from a prolonged contraction of the currency. And if it is to be paper money, why go to silver for it? We can provide it now in any one of several ways, and have it as, good as gold instead of as good as silver. - PRICES. It is said that free silver will raise prices. How can it in any useful, beneficial sense? ,Will it make people eat more food, buy more clothes, furniture, books, or railroad tickets? Will it make work so plentiful that labor will be scarce and in demand? These arc the things that raise prices normally and healthfully. By cutting a dollar in two halves, and calling each half a dollar you can raise prices in the sense that you will state values in larger nuiubers. In the same sense you can double the productiveness of your farms .by passing a law that thirty pounds of wheat shall be a bushel. An increase of prices caused by diminishing the value of the money is fictitious, not real; it is a mere increase iu figures, not in facts. Think what it would cost to effect such a change. It would hav<j to reach everything alike. All price lists would have to be revised—wages, farm products, manufactures, freights, railroad fares, everything. What a fight that would make. It would be a period of universal disorganization, a general scramble, every one for himself and the devil for the last one. What quarrels it would breed between employers and employes, what strikes, lockouts, boycotts, and turmoils. And when we were through with it, what would we have gained? More dollars and smaller ones. A day’s work would buy no more than it docs now; a bushel of wheat would exchange for no more than it does now. >

DEBTS. It is said, however, that it would he easier to pay old debts; that the free silver dollar, although worth only half as much as the present dollar, and" capable of buying only half as much, would be a dollar by law ,und would pay d dollar on a mortgage as well as the present dollar. This is the mam argument of the free sHvcrists and it is addressed with special assiduity to a class of men who axe tp a distressed situation and to whom it comes with much seductive force. The farmer who la in debt is just now traveling a hard rood. Tlie prices of all the things which he produces for sale have gone all to pieces. This does hot httrt him so seriously if ffie owes no debts. His acred ""trill produce his food as they always , did. And while his surplus produces less cash than formerly that cash buys proportionally more things. Ilis burdens have been increased somewhat, like those of all the rest of us, by the altered manners and customs of tl).; times. We and our families all, want more things than we dreamed of a generation ago. But the farmer who is npt in debt, and Is content to live with something like old-time economy can enjoy all his old-time comfort and Independence. A great many farmers, however, are in debt, and their case is one which deserves* all tk-i consideration we can give it. WOULD IT BE RIGHT? The first question to speak of In respect to the easy way of paying dents which the free silverlsts profess to offer the former is, Would it be right? Nothing can be made right by law which is not right in fact. An honest man can not afford to vote t>o change the law so as to enable him to do A thing under color of law which he could not conscientiously do aside from the law. Let me put an illustration. The Mexican dollar has, I will

say, the same amount of silver In it as our silver dollar. You can buy them, I will say, for fifty cents apiece. Now suppose you owed a debt to a neighbor who was a simple-minded, credulous person, nd you had it in your power to" buy a bag of Mexican dollars and pay hfm with them, dollar for dollar. Couldyou do it a# an honest man? Much less could-you take hipr by the throat and force him to take his debt in Mexican dollars. How then can you vote for a law to compel him to take bis pay in Mexicanized United States dollars ? THE CREDITORS—WHO ARE THEY? Of course there can be no debtor without a creditor, and whatever the debtor may make by paying his debt in debased money the creditor must lose. And it is worth while to ask. Who are tlie creditors that are to staiulj-hls.lows.V Those mostly talked about in this.discussion are holders of mortgages on Western farms, and they, it is assumed, are monied corporations and capitalists of the East. We forget the millions of unreported, unrecorded debts between neighbor and neighbor, debts to mer chants for goods sold, to manufacturers for machinery- purchas'd, to administrators and guardians, to women for their little investments of savings or estate money, the sum total of which, if we could find it out, would far exceed the mortgages that fill so much larger a place in onr thoughts. But they woujd all be subject to the same sweeping horizontal cut, all payable in the same debased dollars. And if we think a minute we shall see that the larger part of the mortgage debts to Eastern lenders are in reality debts to individuals, many of whom are ourselves and our neighbors. Nine-tenths of the leans are from trust funds. Nearly all life insurance, for example, is now done on the mutual plan. .The company collects the premiums, invests-the money, and returns it to tlie beneficiaries under the policies, less the expenses of tlie business. So that the real creditor ill a mortgage to a life insurance company is not the great company about which we think and talk,Tint the women and children who are to receive the money. And these are a great multitude. I have taken the pains to obtuin from some of the ablest life insurance statisticians in the country the facts in reference to the magnitude of tlie business. Speaking in round numbers, there are 8,000,000 life insurance policies in force in the United States at this time,-covering £5,000,000,000 of-in-surance. The total, invested assets are reported at $1,142,000,000, of which 35 per cent., or $400,000,000, are in bonds and mortgages, and 40 per cent., or $45ff,000,000 i.s In State, municipal and railroad bonds. This includes only the regular or “level” premium insurance companies, not tlie co-operative or fraternal societies conducted on the assessment -plan, which really are to be included in this statement. For while they do not accumulate and invest funds, like tlie regular companies, the assessments which their nleinbers have been paying in years past take tlie place of premiums and- entitle their, families to the death benefits just as though the certificate of membership were a*regular policy. The only dif-ference-is that, instead of collecting and investing their insurance fund these societies let it remain in the hands of the members until it is needed. Tlie number of policies held in these societies is estimated at' 1,550,000. and the aggregate amount covered by thorn at $5,500,000,000. So that we have a grand total of ten million policies In force covering ten billion dollars of Insurance.

It is impossible to tell bow many perare interested in this insurance. It Is not uncommon for one naan to hold several policies. If we suppose the average to be two it will give us 5.000.000 as the number of lives insured. If we suppose the number of persons in the families of these policy-holders to average three, we shall have a total of fifteen million women and children for whom their husbands and fathers are* and have been making provision in the form of life insurance by payment of good money from month to month. And these women and children are the creditors the $400,000,000 of mortgages that are to be paid off in fifty-eent dollars under the free silver program. ' SAVINGS BANK DEPOSITS. The savings banks of the United Stabs* holds $1,800,000,000 belonging to 4.800,000 depositors—an average of 371 dollars for each depositor. The bulk of this money has been saved out of'earnings In small sums—from ten cents up." and put in the bank for a rainy day—" all in good money. Here are nearly five million more creditors to l>e wronged by forcing them to take damaged money for good. BUILDING AND LOAN ASSOCIATIONS. There are reported 0,000 building find loan associations in the United States, into which their members have paid $500,000,000 in dues, all in good money, but to be paid back in inferior money If the free silver scheme goes through. There are nearly two million more creditors to be wronged by forcing them to take damaged money for good. TIU PROPERTT LOSS. Every debt now owing Is property. If we change the law; so as to compel the creditor to receive money of less value than that in which it is now pay able we destroy that much of its-value. To take away half the value of our money, by putting it on a silver basie will Itself be a great destruction of property, but It will be a small matter compared with the loss of property which will be caused by making all debts payable In depreciated money. Let me illustrate: Here is * man who has insured his life for $2,000 for the benefit of his family. The free silver policy goes into effect and the man dies. The widow receives the $2,000. We are promised that with free silver prices will go up. That is the lnduce-

ment held out to farmers, and the higher the better, so they are told. Suppose they have doubled. The widow’s $2,000 will only go as far in keeping the wolf from the door as SI,OOO goes now. Has not half of the value of that policy been destroyed? And tlie same would happen to all kinds of investrhents upon which people-are relying for support in the hour of need. Those I have mentioned are but samples. These are all property, and the most sacred kind of property—the product of thrift, frugality ami affoctk.n: tlie reliance Of age, infirmity and helpless childhood. Don’t accuse me of trying to make an oratorical display over these things. I am talking hard facts. I am utterly unable to state them With adequate emphasis. No figure of speech, no simile of fire, flood, pestilence, earthquake, or Avar will help us to any sufficient conception of the destruction of property which will follow the sudden and violent change in the value of money which the free silverists propose. . Do you not see now a deeper meaning than I - could express to you by mere statement in that solemn promise of tlie Government that the equal value of all money which it lias given to the people shall be maintained? It was like tlie promise of God when He set Ills bow in the sky that seed time and harvest shall not fail. And if govetninents are ordained of Him to carry out Ilis purposes among men, it was the promise of tlie highest authority which He has placed on earth to make and keep promises. How any God-fearing man can cast his vote to break that promise is a question for every voter to take home to ills conscience for serious consideration. I am considering now the argument that free silver will belli’ tlie fanner pay his debts. I have been trying to show what that proposal means. It means that the public faith is to Tje violated; tliat wrong is to be done to millions of innocent people; that billions qf dollars worth of property is to be destroyed, and the means of the people to buy and consume diminished for years to come, and that when at last the. farmer comes to pay his debts in dollars of diminished value lie will do an act under color and compulsion of law, which, if done outside tlie law he would himself pronounce to be dishonest.

WILL IT WOHK? Whatever a farmer may think of the right and wrong of the business it is -hardly imaginable—that he will vote, for free silver in order to pay his debts in little dollars unless he has good rea*m tcr-bcHeve that the plan will work. It will take time to do it. We must elect a President and Congress, change the law, make the new money, get it into circulation, force up prices, raise the stuff and sell It. In the meantime what about the debts? What good will it do a man to be entitled by Law to pay a dollar with fifty cents' worth of silver if he hasn't got the silver? 1 have given you the reasons why we cannot expect to go from the gold basis to a silver basis by any smooth and easy transition. It must be by a slump, a Jump, a crash.' In the midst of that crush, with factories closed, business suspended. everything in chaos, and no settled value for anything, where would the farmer find a high-priced market for hie products? He would lie'like a man who has tom down his old house before lie has the material to build a new one. He would be camping In the woods, shelterless from the storm. TIIK DEPRESSION OF AGRICULTURE. There is nothing the matter with agriculture except that prices of farm products are low and have brought down with them the price of land. The reason why is no mystery. Machinery and comjietition have done it, ns they have in the case of all other prices. With steamships carrying wheat a thousand miles for scarcely more than tiie farmer pan haul it to market, all parts of the world are alike to the European consumer. He can get his supplies from one quarter of the globe as well as another. With increasing area s under cultivation in all countries, every element of cost reduced by machinery, and aIJ the world competing, how could the price of wheat keep up? More than this, the electric car and bicycle are taking the place of horses at such a rate that they are scarcely worth as much as cows, and the prices of oats and corn suffer in consequence. That hurts tlie price of wheat. Again and further, the growing variety of onr modern food supply affects the price'of the great staple. With oatmeal, cheap meat, cheap sugar, and cheap fruits, man no longer lives by bread alone'. All these things count.

TUB APPRECIATION OP GOLD, Our free silver friends claim that the fall in prices is all due to the appreciation of gold. “Nothing has fallen,” they say, "gold has risen.” Let us consider that question. It is undoubtedly true •that no form of property in the world is absolutely uncluingeable in value. And this fact makes some kinds of change very difficult to detect. It has recently been discovered that a change of relative leveljjetween the Gulf of Mexico and the land at the mouth of the Mississippi River, amounting to about a foot, has taken place within a few years. Either the gulf lias risen, or the land has gone down; but which? And so of gold. Has it gone up, or have other things come down? What we need is some third standard of reference — something which we can safely say has not changed, or which has changed least of all things, with which we can compare gold on one side and other things on the other. There is such a third ctandard to which I shall refer in a moment. In discussing values we nsually look first at the conditions oC supply and demand. Bo far as these can be relied on 'they do not Indicate an appreciation in the value of gold. I have prepared a table showing the world's production of that octal for the present century, ar-

ranged in decades, and with the totals for the first half and the last half of the century added up separately. The production for the present decade Is eati-' mated from tli'e known production since 1800, which lias averaged $163,000,000 per annum. 1801-1810 $118,152;000 1811-1820 ...... J 78,003,000 1821-1830 04/479,000 1831-1840 134,841,000 1841-1850 . 303,028,000 Total for the half century. $787,463,000 1851-1800 $1,332,981,000 1801-1870 ... 1,208,015,000 1871-1880 1,150,814,000 ISBI-1800 , ,r. . 1,000,052,000 1801-2000, partly estimated 1,030,000,000 Total for the half century $0,436,805,000 As will be seen, the production for the fifty years just closing, is over eight times that of the preceding fifty. It would seem as though, no far as production has anything to do with it, that, gold ought to be getting cheaper instead of dearer. On the other side it Is to be said, however, and quite truly, that within the last fifty years there has beep a vast expansion of business throughout the world and so an increased,, use for gold as money. It is hard to measure this increase, but if the business were transacted at the present time by the same methods which were iu use during the first half of the century, perhaps we would need eight times as much money to do it wit«h. But that is not the case. More than ninety per cent, of the business of this country is transacted by checks, notes, drafts, credits and clearing house settlements without the use or handliiig of any money of any kind, either coin or paper. And it is measurably so throughout the world wherever the largest volumes of business are dona Hence the argument based on the increased amount of business to be provided fqr is fairly met by the filet of tlie increased facilities for doing it. It Is to be borne in mind, also, tliat this six billions of gold produced within fifty years has not been used up, ns the wheat and cotton produced within the same tlm£ have been, but is on hand today less tlie small natural diminution ‘by loss and-we-arv k There is one cause in operation tending distinctly to enhance the value of gbld as compared with silver; and that is tlie recent drift toward the gold standard throughout the world. And possibly that tendency may be effectual iu slight degree to enhance the value of gold as compared with other things. But upon the whole, all the facts relating to production, use and demand taken together, fair to afford any groundfor belief that the general fall in prices is due in any substantial degree to an appreciation in the value of gold.

THE WA«HS STANDARD. „ I said a moment ago that there wat? a third standard by means of which we could get some light on the question whether gold has risen or other things fallen. If it takes a man a day to make a chair, he ought to receive as wages the money necessary to buy a chair—neglecting for this illustration the profits of the middle man. If, by the introduction of machinery, his labor is made so much more efficient that lie can make two chairs fie ought to receive as wages the money necessary to buy two chairs. Now this does not mean that he ought to reeoivo twice us much money as before, but that he ought to receive the chairs at half the price he paid before. The only alisolutely just measure of a man’s wages is his proportionate share of the product of the labor of all. If a million men co-operating in all the pursuits of life, produce" a certain aggregate amount of food, clothing, furniture, books and houses, each man is entitled, upon an average, to one millionth part of the whole. Of course, I do not mean that the product of labor ought to be divided equally per capita. Each man’s share ought to be proportional to his effective contribution to the general aggregate of work done. But thatr.gives the average man an equal share it the result. If then by organisation and machinery this million men mal e their labor so much more effective that the aggregate product of It is twice as much food, clothing, fur niture, books and houses as were produced before, each man ought still to have, on an average, one millionth part of the whole. And that Would give lnm twice as many things. And to give him this it is not necessary to increase his wages in money. It accomplishes the same end to decrease the money price of the things. That is exactly what has bien going on before our eyes for twenty-five y**ars and more, aud is going on still. The decreasing price of com inddi ties represents the increasing efflciency of laUqr, the money standard remaining unchanged. We assume in all our transactions that money is an unchangeable thing. I borrow a thousand dollars for ten years upon the assumption that at the end of that time a thousand dollars will represent the same value that I' borrowed.. And it will represent the same value if it represents the same amount of human lnbor; otherwise not. All property except land and its natural appurtenances are the product of Labor. The real unit of value Is a day’s work. As long ns the money value of a day's work remains unchanged, the money itself le unchanged. A rise in the world round value of gold would mean a fall in the world round rate of wages. That this has not taken place, is- the highest possible evidence that gold has not risen in value. Other things have fallen and are continually falling because they represent less and less human labor. This must be so and must Continue, or society can not exist. As the countless army of machine* Invade one occupation after another what ate the displaced workmen to do? As the efficiency of labor increases wh«re

•b«n It film! its market? It must find one somewhere or else more and more persons most go unemployed. And when we come to the point that only half of the people can find employment, what will the other half do? There is but one answer to these questions. 4a the efficiency of labor increases the market must grow by increased consumption of the products of labor. We must all use more things, and more, and more and more. Ants how can we do that unless they grow cheaper, and cheaper, and cheaper? This the answer'that God Almighty' is giving us as he unrolls the scroll of time in our sight. The efficiency of labor is Increasing day by day; prices are falling day by day; we are using more tliiugs day by day. And we must go on in that way or society will go to pieces. We cannot stop the march of events; We cannot suppress Invention; we can not keep the machines out of the world. And we ought not to want to. That is the way onward and upApar. Tbntda-fhe-wayto distribute thelargest number of blessings among the largest number 1 of people. As ‘“things fall, moil rise.” You will understand, of course, that In those remarks I am faking a very broad view of the subject. When we come to consider the price of a particular thing at a particular time and place these general influences are subject to be modified by many particular circumstances. Thus, while machinery has made chairs generally very cheap, it has not made walnut clialrs very cheap, because walnut timber is scarce. While clothes generally are cheap, sealskin coats are not cheap because the Canucks have killed off the seals. The American farmer is at this time the sufferer from a combination of special circumstances of tlie kind referred to. The era of railroad extension has possod its climax In this country, but has not reached it in tlie tardily moving quart ere of the earth. The use of machinery and Improved methods of cultivation are showing their effect everywhere. 01. l Egypt, a country which we have been accustomed to think of only as a page of history—a mummy land, comas to tlie front this year, it Is said, with 1,500*000 balCs of cotton—-ono-elghth of a sufficiency to supply the whole world. That hurts not only the cotton fanneri of the South, but the whoat farmer of the North as welL For In the face of such prices ns confront him, the cotton farmer must change his methods; ho must take to raising his own food. lie is doing so now to n greater extent than ever before. Another unfavorable circumstance affecting the former Is tliat tne tmiigs which he has to sell are peculiarly sensitive to adverse conditions. They are perishable, costly to transport, and the market for them Is inelastic. When the world has food enough it has no use for any more. A surplus damages the price of the whole more injuriously than any other kind of surplus. Moreover, the farmer is unable to do anything for his own protection. In other crafts men unite for self defense. Workingmen organize to maintain their wages; manufacturers combine to hold up their prices; but the farmer Ims to take things us they come. And so at this particular juncture, with everything in the world seeming to be conspiring against him, the Suez Canal, the North Sea Ganal, the new ocean freighters, the expanding railroad systems of foreign lands, tlie universal introduction of machinery, tlie electric car, the bicycle, and tlie swarming into his business of millions of competitors all round the world, ail of which lie has to meet with a millstone of debt banging about his neck, it is no wonder tliat the American fanner is In a staW of mind bordering on desperation.

It was not always so. Twent) -five years og'o ho was the happiest of men—if he had known It. He was the first in the field under the new dispensation. He was the first to use the seed drill and the harvester. IJe was the first to have a railroad from his barn door to the sea. He was farming lands of virgin fertility which cost him little—in the far West nothing, and which grew in value while he slept. He did not stop to think—why should he—that these conditions could not last forever. He accustomed himself and his family to modes of life etfsy enough to maintain at the time aud contraeteff debts oasy enough to pay as things were. But things have changed. His turn will come again. The world depends on him for subsistence ns it always lias. He onu never be counted out And while in the round of economic changes continually going; on he may be pinched for a time, it cannot be for always, nor lntour own country for long. The population of the United States increases yearly; its acres of laud do not. They are practically all occupied. Their productiveness has passed Its maximum. The time iB coming—lt is bound to come—when it will be all he can do to feed his neighbors. and there will be no surplus to export I thought eight years ago that we would reach that point before this. I missed it in that expectation, but, ns I still believe, only as to the time; not as to the fact. The time may be long yet to an embarrassed debtor, but it will he short in the history of the nge. I know it is not mu eh comfort to say all this. Men In distress want relief now. And the free silver orator who offers if In his hand, who tells the larmers that nothing is necessary but ten lines of legislation to give them plenty of money to pay their debts is the man who* has the easy part in this campaign. Miae is a more thankless task. To prick so shining a bubble, to dash such alluring hopes, to expose the utter Impossibility of so inviting a scheme Is a duty to be performed; not a pleasure to be enjoyed. It Is I, npt these Don Quixotes who have enlisted to fight England, whose appeal Is truly to your courage, your patriotism, your Integrity. The noblest courage Is the

courage to do right. The truest patriotism Is that which holds alike In estimation the Just rights of all, the abiding welfare of all, and the sacred honor of thg government. THE RETCKN OF CONFIDENCE. While I have no such glittering promises to offer as those which aro sown broadcast by our free silver friends, I have that which seems to me to be better. It is the assurance of the return of, natural and wholesome business activity ns soon as we know for sure that thefalth of the government- Ip to be kept and the value of our money preserved. Eor years the frco silver movement has been an Impending threat to all business. The relations of parties to it have been such that no decisive settlement of it was possible mijil now. But now It is with our reach. A defeat of the Chicago ticket that will speak a judgment of condemnation against the free sliver scheme so clear and emphatic that It cannot be misunderstood will be a signal of emancipation. I do not say that the conditions will be perfect for the highest development of our resources. But the first condition—the condition without which all else Is vain—the possession of sound money, will be achieved. Confidence will ba restored. Millions of dollars no\y lying idle will seek employment in useful channels. With seventy millions of people within opr own borders to be fed, clothed and housed, with the most perfect, industrial arid social organization in the world, with railroads threading every part of tiro land, with shops built and machinery in place, there is nothing wanting to our reasonable happiness and prosperity but that we shall go to work cheerfully and hopefully and use the fruits of #ur labor wisely and economically. All of that we can do and will do as soon as we get our feet on the solid foundation of restored crodit and general confidence. In the blessings of this awakened activity every home and every farm will participate. By the natural and healthful expansion of trade It will Increase consumption, enlarge the market and stimulate prices wherever they are abnornrally' low. That it will at once solve all the difficulties that face us it would be foolish to pretend. But it will be a step toward that end by the only road that leads to It. I feel to the full the force of that pitiful, blind, despairing argument that comes at the end of the silver discussion arid nearly all other political discussions from thousands of men who know not what else to say that “there’s something wrong.” Yes, there Is something wrong, and a great deal that is wkmg, We founded this government on the declaration that all men are born equal and equally entitled to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. But we have not lived up to it. We liuve let that equality bo turned into inequality. We have not seen to it that the law shall secure to every man his oqual and Just opportunity. We have let the shrewd over-reAch the simple and the strong bear down the weak. The land is full to-day of organized Jbands of men who differ from the brigand? bands of old only In tfielrmethods of plunder. Millions are accumulated in hands that never earned them. The genius of the inventor and the skill of the artisan, which have made labor so efficient that its burdens ought to' bo abridged and its rewards multiplied, have tlioir first fruits confiscated by the sharp and the smart. We passed a law six years ago intended to thwart tho rapacity of trusts and combines. It has been effectual only to repress strikes.

Those who suffer most from these wrongs do not know how to remedy them. They listen to pleasing tales from demagogues who are as unworthy ns tlie plutocrats. They strike blindly at corporations, and employers, and the rich with blows that react on themselves. The great parties that hold in their hands tlio power aud their ranks tlie men who could deal with these questions do nothing. We are nil guilty aud our puntshmeut will come as surely as Justice lives. This very free silver movement is one of our warnings. It lias behind it many forces. Some of them rest on mere selfish greed which time will expose and which we can afford to despise. Some of them rest on innocent delusions which wo can regard with compassion and without grave apprehension. But upder and behind all is the ominous growl of discontent. The socialist supports it. The pnarchist supports it. It seems to all tlie unreasoning, sullen, dissatisfied elements of society to furnish an opportunity to strike a blow at the rich and the prospermia And we shall bo altogether wanting in the discharge of our duties If we are content merely to put down what some are pleased to call the ‘‘free silver graze.” The coufitry must be rescued from its Imminent danger. The honor of its government must be vindicated. and the purity of its life bloodtile money of its business, must be preserved. That is our first duty. But next will come the duty to give our thoughts and our energies as we have never given them before, to the greater work of bringing our laws and our institutions up to the level of our professions, and under and by means of them securing to the simple aud tlie weak and the poor that protection against the oppressions of th* crafty and the strong wbicli will alone give every man equal opportunity, according to the gifts with which his Maker has endowed him, to enjoy his equal right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. I hope and I believe that this deep lesson of tlie campaign of 1890 will not be lost on us. If it shall he so then we shall have another illustration following many In the world of the wonderful way* In which the wrath of man is mode to praise Qod. Bryan, and Altgeld, and Tillmaif will have served their day and generation well, though not os they intended.