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6
TOM WATSON’S SPEECH AT LINCOLN, NEB?
From The Nebraska Independent.)
Mr. Chairman and Fellow Citizens: I
have been very much cheered by the
hearty welcome which I have received
in the great state of Nebraska. It is
*ot every where that a “ranktankerous
cuss” as the Republican newspapers
call me, can get such a welcome, and
before I proceed further with what 1
have to say, it might not be improper
for me to correct some errors which my
Republican friends, the newspapers,
have made in the ardor of their affec
tions for me, fearing that I might be
badly treated in Nebraska. (Applause).
* take the Lincoln Evening Call of Sep
iber 14, 1896, not because it is the
■ Republican newspaper which has
ined erroneous statements about
tter, but because I think there
-ger number, and bigger mis
wded in a small space in the
1 than in any other paper
’er seen. (Applause., and
•.) You just wait a min
. loud enough for you. I
.quainted-with my voice
e. It is headed “Wasson
.a.—The Populist Vice-Presi
.ndidate Talks to the Call Re
>ewall Must Withdraw, or
Name Will Be Removed From
»cket.” Those are the headlines
the article. Then it goes on to
,te that I arrived in Lincoln last Sun
-7 evening, went to the lunch coun
and took away several ham sand
hes, three cups of black coffee, ask
.o be carried to the Populists head
.rters and was refused that privilege.
statement is true, with these ex
•tions: I did not ask to be carried to
Populist headquarters. That favor,
refore, was not denied me by the
julist leaders. I did not go to the
nch counter, or any other counter; I
did not eat three ham sandwiches, or
any other kind of a sandwich, or any
other kind of food; I did not drink three
cups of coffee, or ary other quantity
of coffee, or any other quantity of
liquid; I did not talk to the Call repor
ter, any other reporter upon any
subject whatever. (Applause.) The
reporter, having evidently been re
quired by his paper to put in some
thing, took a portion of an article
which I had written for one of the
Ne>w York papers sometime ago, for
tI.A foundation of fact, and drew on
imagination for the balance, and
in the interview and statement of
fwi: :h you see in the Evening
; Call.
I am very grateful to my Republican
friends for their solicitude in my be
ll half. I alize it comes from their
L di ‘d affections for myself.
| (Applause I wish to say that ever
since I ari ed in Nebraska; I have been
treat* v. i the utmost courtesy by
i. n ies in my party, from the
ti» the ccmntj z’Wrman, «nd
nowhere in the south could a warmer
welcome have been given to a souther
ner than has been given to me in this
| beautiful west.
What the Populist Party Expect*.
' In this campaign 1 understand that
my party expects me to discharge a
certain duty; they put me on sentinel
duty, to hold the pa- ty in the Natoinal
campaign, and hold a place on the na
tional ticket. They selected that post
of duty for me without any solicitation
on my part or effort on my part. They
Eelected me to fill that post of duty,and
no matter what any Republican news
paper,or anydemocratic newspaper may
say upon that subject, I shall hold that
post of duty until the last gun of the
campaign is fired. (Loud cheering, and
ries: Let her go, Watson.)
n not here to make a little two by
silver speech. (Loud applause,
leering) I am a Populist from my
>my heels. (Applause). I am
hamed of my cause any where nor
d to unfold my banner anywhere
light under it. And 1 believe lam
ressing brave men and true hearted
nen, who wi 1 not respect a gentle
,n less the fact that gentleman stands
Jlinchingly by what he th. ks is
.ght. (Applause).
itliat II formers Have Done.
In every age we have, had reformers,
ind reform parties; great works have
been done. The true reformer reaps '
his rewa'd from the consciousness that '
the generations to come will bless Lis I
me ami enjoy his work.
>ti have no imprisonment for debt i
, uny where among the civilized i
*. Why? The reformer found ;
•isoner in debt, starving, and his i
of co.? plaint unheard. The r ..
r said “th at is wrong/’ and he lift
battle axe and struck the door of |
rison, and he kept striking, year
■ar. until the prison walls fell.and
o longer a crime to be unable to
debt. And that is a good thing
y ,ie. It is a good thing for you, be*
e most of you would be in jail, per
s. (Applause). There was a time
ju the King claimed there was but
le way to serve God. The Reformers
id; “that is not right. Every individ
ual should have the right to choose his
way,” consequntly many a head £rll on
the block. But no truth was ever
spoken to the intelligent people that
did not finally wend its way to success.
Today we can worship God accord ng
to the dictation of our own conscience.
Once upon a time the King made all
the laws; sometimes the aristocrats
helped him out. Then the idea came
that each man ought to have a voice in
making the laws. They said, “each
one of us have a right to have a
voice in our government.” Brave men
-were shot down, brave men were be
headed, brave men were hung, brave
men were put in prison. But the re
formers were on the side of right; and
today all over the civilized world men
have a voice in government. That is
what your reformer does.
Our System of Taxation Wrong.
We say the taxing system is wrong.
The taxes ought to be levied with jus
tice. Our taxes ought to be pro rated.
There should be no extravagance, no
waste of money that is taken out of the
pockets of the people. That is a trust
fund, and ought to be administered as
guardian and trustee. We say first;
that our taxes are unreasonable. Why?
They are too high. It used to be sev
enty-five cents a head during the time
of Jefferson, it crawled up to a dollar
during the time of Jackson. During
the time of Grover Cleveland, it reach
ed seven or eight dollars. We say that
is unreasonable. It is too big. One
reason why taxes are so high, and we
say it is wrong, we waste millions of
the people's money in building custom
houses when there is no custom; in
building government buildings when
the little buildings that the government
could rent would be cheaper. We say
the River and Harbor bill is wrong. It
jumped from ten millions to fifty mil
lions, no one knows how far it will
jump next time. We say it is wrong
to squander the money of the people in
such things as congressional funerals,
where you take twenty thousand dol
lars of the country’s money for flowers
and such things. It is wrong to pay
ten dollars for the preachers that come
to read the burial services. You tell me
that is a small thing, too small to no
tice. I ask you, are there any small
things in this universe? I tell you that
the details make up the aggregate. It
ought to be remedied and every cent
spent according to law. No Republi
can or Democrat or Populist ought to
object to that principle. (Applause.)
We say that they are not only too high,
but unjust.
Per Capita Taxation Wrong.
How are taxes to be laid? They
ought to be laid equally on everybody.
Each man ought to carry that portion
of the burden which his strength ena
bles him to carry. Ought not the man
who is rich, the man of property, pay
more than the fellow who has no goods?
Our taxes are so laid that every indi
vidual pays taxes as an individual al
most equal to every other individual.
The laborer should not pay as much as
Rockefeller, as much as Carnegie, as
much as Mark Hanna. We say it is be
cause the taxes are so laid that the in
dividual pays them on consumption.
They are not laid on wealth at all; they
ought to be laid on wealth, not on con
sumption. lam talking about federal
taxes now. How do you raise your na
tional taxes? I shall not dwell on that
long. You know how the tobacco
taxes are laid. A man who deals in
tobacco pays the taxes to the internal
revenue department and adds that to
iuc puLc vi* tuOaCco C<i-v <■ Acu juu ci’ierr
or smoke the tobacco, therefore o,ne
man who smokes a five cent cigar pays
the same as any other man. If Mr.
Carnegie smokes a five-cent cigar he
pays the same as the laboring man has
to pay, and the laboring man pays just
as much as Mr. Carnegie, and more. It
is the same way with whiskey; you pay
the tax when you bliy the whiskey.
'J'he man who buys the same grade
pays just as much as any other man
who buys the same grade and the same
quantity of whiskey. The balance of the
nation s taxes are raised on the three
thousand articles that enter into the
ordinary man’s household. We charge
a person a certain fine, a certain duty,
a certain license fee for the privilege
of bringing his goods in here, He pays
that duty at the custom bouse and
adds the duty to them, and we pay the
taxes when we buy the articles. The
home manufacturer brings up the price
of his own goods until he gets the
same amount of profit. The difference
being that what the person pays goes
into the pockets of the government,but
what the manufacturer gets goes into
h:s own little pockets. (Applause.)
I nder this system the manufacturer
gets five dollars where the government
gets one. Now you see you can escape
the tobacco tax and the whiskey tax
by not the tobacco or whiskey,
but you cannot escape the tariff tax
unless you go back to a state of nature
and cloche yourself in the skin of beasts
and live in a eave and diet upon locusts
and wild honey. If you dress in the
simplest dresses, eat the simplest food,
live in tin* simplest houses, there is no
manner known to man by which you
can escape the tariff tax. The man
who buy s a ten-dollar suit of clothes
p ays just as much as the richest man
in America who buys a ten-dollar suit
of clothes. Therefore we see that
wealtii escapes taxation. I think it is
important to you. If the tax amounts
to about seven dollars per head, which
it does, there would be a tax of 815 for
every family of five, and that is the
average family.
w r.ilth Escapes TaxatioA.
You ought to begin to reflect about
how much grain it takes to pay federal
taxes, how much wheat; how much
dry goods, how much catton and how
much land it will take. Now, you see
wealth escapes taxation. Let me de
monstrate it. According to the official
figures, there are forty seven billions
of wealth in the United States —we are
in the habit of raying seventy billions,
-the actual figures are forty-seven
billions, and my judgment is that from
the declining of prices, that if you
would put up the property tomorrow,
it would not bring the money. The
raiboa is own twelve billions of it. Do
they pay any federal tuxes? Notone
cent. The manufacturers own six bil
lions of it. Do t hey pay any any federal
taxes? Not one cent. The insurance,
the express companies, the telephone,
the standard oil, the whiskey trust.the
steel trust and a dozen others of these
PEOPLE’S PARTY PAPER, ATLANTA, GA.. OCTOBER 9, 1896.
great corporations own at least one
"fourth of the balance. They pay not
one cent of the federal taxes. As far
as you have seen one half of the wealth
of the United States is exempt from
taxation, therefore, the men not ex
empted must pay the taxes. (Applause)
What else? You take the great land
owners, the aristocrats, the great Eng
lish estates the great land lords, they
own ten billions worth. There you
have nearly an entire one fourth. You
can see there are three fourths of the
wealth of the nation exempted from
taxation. We fight that system because
it is wrong. The burden ought to be
laid upon every man according to his
strength to bear it. This is a sound
principle, and the People’s party says
we are going to have that principle.
(Applause.)
The Transportation System Wrong.
Want else do we say is wrong? We
say the transportation system is wrong.
In the state of Georgia we had what
we called “The Georgia Central Rail
way.” It was one that was prized by
the people of the state and because of
that we exempted it from taxation, we
gave it special privileges, gave it right
of way,and advantages in nearly every
county; it was capitalized at 63,500,000
and increased to $7,500,000. It became
one of the standard securities of Geor
gia, rated along side of Georgia state
bonds. It became so good and the peo
ple had so much confidence in it that
many a business man,retired from busi
ness was glad to invest his life long
savings in the railroad. Many’ a guar
dian invested the funds of orphan chil
dren of that state; many a widow put
into the Georgia railroad her last cent;
everybody considered it perfectly safe.
One day a railway syndicate took hold
of it: they sent Calvin Brice down south
and he bought up a control of stock in
the Central Railway. They worked
one of those re-organization schemes;
they put on a mortgage and in a little
while the mortgage was foreclosed on
the property and the property was sold,
and in the flash of an eye every orphan
child who had a dollar in it lost it;
every widow in Georgia who had a dol
lar in that road lost it; every retired
merchant and farmer and every kind of
business nun that put his fortune in
that road lost it, and bankruptcy reign
ed throughout Georgia; the only differ
ence being that a man who steals a hog
would have gone to the. penitentiary;
these fellows stole a railroad and came
in a palace car and went
out the same way. (Ap
plause.) Now after they worked
that scheme with that mortgage on
this southern railway system, Morgan
of Wall street got hold of the railroad
and re-organized it again and this time
it was reorganized to the tune of fifty
odd million dollars. Now then every
laborer on that road is made to do duty
at half pay, and every man that travels
or ships freight over the Central has to
do what? He has to pay a freight and
passenger rate to enable them to de
ui’niu rA? zra .u.’.’ll'.on
dollars when the original investment
was only seven and a half million dol
lars. Therefore we see the railroad
system of today enables the shrewd,
unscrupulous manipulator to swindle
in that way, and the present system
allows the railroad to build up one city
at the expense of another, and build
up one industry at the expense of an
other, and build up one section at the
expense of another: kill off competition
and express labor all along the line
and dictate how they shall vote in a
presidential campaign. (Great ap
plause )
Railroad Tower to Tax.
We say further that the present sys
tem is wrong because it exercises a
power of government,and that is bound
to be dangerous. It is wrong again
because it exercises the power of taxa
tion without allowing the privilege of
representation, and that is dangerous
to Republican institutions. They can
levy a tax on every bale of cotton,
every bushel of wheat, every mule,and
every hoi sa; every bale of goods. They
can tax it from ocean to ocean; they
can do what congress cannot do, and
the people who are taxed are denied
representation, and if they protest,
their proles are unheard. Our
fore-fathers fought the re
volutionary war because they
refused to pay a tax which compared
to this was insignfieant. They de
manded to be represented before they
should be taxed, and the railroads levy
this tax upon you and your property
and your voice is not heard at the coun
cil board, where the taxes are levid.
Railroads in the Senate.
We say further that the railroad sys
tem is wrong because it corrupts poll"
tics; they subsidize your public men;
they have got their hands in your po
litics; they have their attorneys run
ning for the legislature, they want
their attorneys to run for the state
senate they try to send their represen
tatives to congress, and in the senate
of the United States Calvin Brice, a
Democratic senator represents the
railroads, and John M. Thurston, a
Republican senator from your own
state represents the railroads, (Loud
cheers.) It does not stop there. In
Cleveland’s cabinet, the railroads are
represented by Dan Lamont and Rich
ard Olney. (Applause.) I told you I
was a pop, (cheering) I have got to
hew to the line, let the chips hit who
they will, (Cries, “hit them again”)
Now the objections to this system can
be remedied by the way pointed»out by
the Populists, the government owner
ship and control of the railroads.
What objections arc urged against this
policy? The government is running a
large per cent of them all the time;
they are run by federal courts and de
puty marshals. A year or two azo, the
government had to step in when nearly
every line running out of Chicago was
tied up, and had to call out the United
States army and by putting a mail sack
on a bayonet bring their employees to
subjection. (Applause.)
Uncle Bam Running Railroads
If the government is called upon to
run the roads and as we see now when
the corporations have them, they have
to let the government run them part of
the time, and if they will let the gov
ernment take the railroads and run
them all the time it will keep them out
of trouble. (Great applause.) They
say that we cannot pay for the rail
roads. Don’t you know that the cor
porations make you pay for the rail- ;
roads as the statistics show every
twenty years and what would they
want of them if they could not make
you pay for them. If they were not
profitable property would they want
them? Don’t you know that the returns
show that in freight rates and passen
ger rates you pay for them every twen
ty years? You pay for them every
twenty years of your life. In twenty
years you have paid every dollar they
are worth, you have done that in pay
ing freight and passenger rates, aud
now you don’t own a single handcar.
(Applause.) The People’s party stands
up for this proposition, that the next
time you pay for them that the prop
erty is yours when you have honestly
paid the last dollar on the price. (Ap
plause.) What has been done in Europe
can be done here and nearly every
civilized country in Europe and the
East own their own public highways,
while in this country a one. our com
merce is carried and controlled by pri
vate owners of public highways. I do
not mean to rob any man or corpora
tions of its property, but 1 mean if
they will not sell, to take this property ■
as they take yours under the law of
eminent domain. Offer othem a fair
price first and pay them honestly the
price agreed upon or settled in a proper
way, and then the government will
own its railways. (Applause.)
Private Ownership of Rivers.
Tdere is not a single man here that
would be in favor of allowing any pri
vate corporation to own the Mississippi
or the Ohio river or the Missouri river.
And why not? Every reason that ap
plies to that if an objection to the pri
vate ownership of the rivers of our
land will apply with equal force toprL
vate ownership of the railways. You 1
would all tell me that you don’t waut
the rivers to be in the hands of private
persons or corporatians but you want
them open and free as channels of com
merce. And why not have our railroads
owned by the government and con
trolled for the interest of all people.
You would tell me that if private cor
porations owned the rivers in time of
peace they might oppress the people
who wanted to use them and in time of
war they might obstruct the govern
ment in its use of them. The same
argument applies to the railroads. They
as a matter of fact, oppress the people
in time of peace and might be opposed
to the government in time of war. And
therefore we are in favor of giving the
the government absolute control of all
the public lityiiV tya 6wiZ».2?€7’.X.
Put them on the same system as the
post office system under the strict civil
service law. Who ever heard of a strike
among postal clerks? Who ever heard
of a riot among postal clerks? Who
ever heard of the United states army
being called out to suppress the postal
clerks? Whoever heard of the postal
clearks running a system in favor of
one town or against the interests of
another town?
A Railroad Monopoly.
Don’t you know that it is profitable
for this government to run its railways
and render good service under a system.
They talk about competition. Every
road may compete at some great City
but how is it ai every small city and
town along the line. At every village
■’ along the line, every farm along the
line, —do you know that there the rail
road has an absolute monopoly, the
people cannot escape, from its exactions;
they inns', submit to its term . Aud
while there’js competion atcompetiting
points still there is no competition for
the great mass of people who live along
the line. This transportation system
cannot be restored to exact justice to
all men until the government will step
in with its strong arm and take these
roads and pay for them honestly and
administer them as part of the public
I service. (Applause).
Out- Financial System.
I come now to the financial system,
operated like our postal system.
(Great applause) I am glad that the
financial system has been so ably dis
cussed that now even the editors
of our daily papers show signs of know
ing some thing about it. (A
voice “not the Call.”) What
is that system? We have at this
time practically a system which keeps
the larger part of our people in debt
and until the amount of money is in- '
i creased they can never pay out of debt. j
, You have the largest national debt you :
' ever Estimated not in dollars |
but in the stuff it takes to get the dol- !
iars. You must estimate it in. labor
and in labor's products and you will
find that you have the heaviest debt
now that you have ever had. Let me
illustrate some of the workings of our
| financial system.
England's Egyptian Slaves.
j In the valley of thb Nile in the land
i of Egypt there is a fertile soil that pro
! duces crops abundantly. It never de*
1 pends upon the accidents of the season
nor upon the rainfall nor upon the sun
i shining. All that is necessary to do is
. —you plant the seed an 1 you get the
crop,and you are absolutely certain to
have a fair return for your labor in that
great and rich valley of the Nile. The
people there own not one dollar of the
wealth which they produce. The native
Egyptian cultivates a soil that don't be
long to him. He produces crops and
everything in plenty and he gets ba-ely
enough to eat and barely enough to
wear and lives in a hut which no well
regulated cow should bajput in to. He
is working for whom? He is working
for those who hold the debt which
Egypt owes. Working for those who
hold the bonds issued by a corrupt
ruler, the Khedive. Working for those
who hold their bonds, the English
Rothschilds, the Paris bankers and the
great European money holders, and
the army of Great Britain stands guard
to compel them to do it They stand
and see that the Egyptians go to their
daily work and see that he produces
enough to pay the interest due to Roths
childs on this unlawful debt. These ;
people have no hope, no prospect, no
chance to pay their debts. And they
may work until the most distant day
and they can never escape this bondage
held over them by the European. They
w’ork in order that the English capital
ist may rob them of the harvest for the
interest upon their bonds. And if you
people will continue in the same policy
with Grover Cleveland, and allow them
to issue bonds, how long will it be until
we have the same things here? (Great
applause and cheering.) .
England’s Fijian Slaves.
Let me give you another illustration.
(“How about McKinley?”) I won’t for
get the major; I promise you that. But
let me give you another illustration.
And it is not taken from a dime novel
and it is hot taken from my imagination
but it is taken from the pages of history.
Down in the seas close to Australia
there is a group of fertile islands called
the Fiji islands, inhabited by a simple,
harmless race, and so they lived until
the year 1858. They had no money;
they wanted none. What commodities
they had they swapped with one an
other. Barter was their rule of trade.
They had a king and he was easily
satisfied. He wanted enough to eat
and enough to wear and he wanted a
house to live in and he wanted some
body to hold an umbrella over him
when he walked out and he wanted
someone else to do his work and someone
to fan the flies off of him when he slept.
Those people were glad to give it to
him. That is all the taxes they paid.
Then came upon the scene a certain
amount of Christian missionaries who
had a great anxiety for the souls of
these heathen. That was a very worthy
; object. But in the wake of the Chris
tian miss onaries always comes the
Christian traders. And after the Chris
tian missionaries came to bhe island
there also came the Christian traders,
and they bought up certain lands in the
Fiji islands and not wanting to work
them themselves, they got the Fiji is
landers to work them for them. The
Fijians didn’t like the way they were
being paid and thought they were un
justly treated and broke into a riot and
did some damage. The traders saw
their opportunity and complained to
the United States government and said
they had been damaged to the extent
of $45,090. The American government
at once ordered the war vessels down
to the Fiji islands and said to the Fiji
islanders that they must pop up this
34.5.0*J0. They hud never seen a cent of
money in their lives and they did not
know what it was. They knew nothing
about money and nothing about the
mystery of European finances. The
American ships waited around awhile
and took possession of the bestlands of
these islanders and insisted upon the
payment of the demand. On account
of the delay in payment they raised
the sura demanded to $90,00J.
The king was more helpless and hope
less than ever. He did not know what
to do and so he made an appeal to the
the British merchants at Melbourne. It
was an unlucky appeal. For if there is
any one set of people more able to
rob a heathen than an American,
it is an Englishman. This unlucky
king jumped from the frying pan
into the fire. The English mer
chants came and they agreed to take up
and pay off the American debt aud
they did pay it. They said to the king
“Give us 100,COO acres of your best and
choicest land for the debt.” The king
agreed. He could not do anything else.
The English merchant seeing how easy
it was to get 100,000 acres they asked
for 200,003. They asked for it and they
got it, making 2?0.000 acres of the best
land in the Fiji islands.
This is not all this syndicate did.
After they got possession of the 200,000
acres of land they said to the king
“You must exempt our property from
taxation. You must exempt our land
—the property that you have given us
—from taxation forever.” They further
said to the king, “You must not allow
the people to pay you in commodities;
you must require your taxes to be paid
in money. Your people will need
money. You must let us have the sole
privilege of establishing a bank and
supplying your people with money and
you must not tax our bank nor you
must not tax our money.”
And the king agreed to it.
They said to the king that he must
i not be satisfied with the taxes Fijians
! paid him in food and clothing; that he
1 ought to have them paid in money. So
■ they imposed a tax —a poll tax in its
nature —of $5 a head on every man in
the Fiji islands and $1 from every
woman. The people did not kno w what
to do. They had no money. And so
they had to go to the English banner to
get the money to pay the taxes. And
when they went to the English bankers
to get the money, they had to pay a
high price for it. It took a large
amount of the native laud to pay the
taxes and a large amount of the native
product In short, one-third of all the
land and products produced by those
colonies had to go to meet the demands
of taxation to this British syndicate.
Not satisfied with this they said to
the king, when these people could not
pay the taxes and had given away all
the land, to make them pay a fine and
if they could not pay a fine, to make
them work it out and “we will hire
them from you.” Ths first time if they
could not pay it. they got six months
in the chaingang and then they raised
that to twelve months and then to
eighteen months and then to thirty-six
months. The result being, there was
hardly any of the tax paid only in work
of this kind and they had over half the
persons—the natives of the Fiji Islands
in absolute slavery to that British syn
dicate. Finally the people could toler
ate it no longer and a great cry went
up from that oppressed people. They
thought of the land that was once their
own when by tbeir work they produced
everything necessary to tlieir comfort
and happiness. They thought of their
once happy homes and the memory was
sweet —that they had once been a pros
perous and happy people. So they sent
a petition to the great Christian Queen
—Queen Victoria. They said, “Come
down and relieve us; take off these
taxes; bring relief to us and we will
give you, not a hundred thousand acres,
not two hundred thousand acres, no, —
we will give you the whole of the island
if you will just relieve us from this
British syndicate and their system of
taxation.
The great queen heard the prayer of
the petition, granted the request and
took charge herself. Today if you will
visit that country, you will find that it
belongs to the British government and
that it is administered entirely for
those who own the debts owed by these
unfortunate people. They abolished
the poll tax and substituted a tax pay
able in products, and the $90,000 debt
ran up until they owed 51,300,000, and
these people on their original debt of
645,000 are compelled to make an an
nual payment of $350,(00 in products
for interest on bonds, taxes and other
fixed charges. These people under the
British system, belong to Great Britain
and from the time reveille sounds in the
morning until taps sound at night,
these people hear the clanking of their
chains and will escape from that slavery
no more forever. (Applause.)
American Slaves.
What do I say about our system. I
say you have been mortgaged to the
British bondholder. (Applause) You
have been put in debt and you have
seen your products going down from
time to time until now, under this sys
tem, you can never pay off what you
owe your creditoi s. What you are able
to produce and the increase on your
wealth will not pay the interest on your
debt. (Applause.) You owe $49,000,-
000,000, and the interest on that, with
the fixed charges of the government,
amounts to $3,500,000,000 annually. The
annual increase of your wealth amounts
to less than that. If that system pre
vails the people will see no relief in the
future. The Peoples party says that
‘we defy England or any English sys
tem and stand for American principles
and American rights.” (Applause and
cheering.)
The Fifty Three-Cunt Dollar.
But they say that we don’t want any
cheap money; we don’t want any dis
honest money. They say that we don’t
want any fifty-three cent dollars. Well,
we don't, and there isn'Lany danger/ ( Tl
usgettingany, either. (Applause.) You
tell me that the amount of silver in a
silver dollar is only worth fifty-three
cents, and I will tell you that I don’t
care whether it is worth that or not. It
makes no difference to me what the
silver in it is worth, so the silver dollar
will do for me what any other man’s
dollar will do for him. (Applause.) If
the silver dollar will • buy as much to
eat, will buy as much to drink, will buy
as much to wear, will pay as much in
taxes and in debts as a gold dollar, 1
would not turn on my heel to have a
gold dollar in preference to a silver
dollar. You say that the silver miner
will make the difference between fifty
three cents and one dollar. Does it
worry you that the gold miner now
makes the difference between twenty
three cents and a dollar? (Applause.)
I dont care what he makes so that the
people make more than he makes.
What he makesis a mere incident to
the system. I guess you could not
make money out of paper without do
ing some good to the people who make
paper. The Bank of England can make
money out of linen, and when they do
that, they are doing some good to the
people who make linen. You say that
the gold dollar is good. That the gold
in a gold dollar is worth a dollar, while
silver is not. Why is it that the go d
in a gold dollar is worth a dollar? Be
cause the law says so. (Applause) You
say that because a nation like England
will take the position that the law will
make it worth a dollar that the United
States must follow it. With a great
nation behind that law which is re
morseless and powerful, a nation upon
whose dominions the sun never sets,
which girdles the world with its bayo
i nets, a nation which walks over every
body, let that nation say let gold be
worth a certain price and it will be
worth it. And Jet that nation say that
silver will be worth a certain price, it
will bring it.
Uliat Major McKinley Sahl.
Major McKinley says (Great cheering)
These Republicans want 1o hear what
Major McKinley thought and I hope
they won’t be so impolite as to cutoff a
quotation that I will make from the
Major. Now Major McKinley 1 think is a
statesman of high quality and a gentle
man of perfect purity of character.
Major McKinley says that if you have
cheap money the labor always gets the
; cheaper dollar. He wants a dollar of
| the same value as any other dollar,
j Everybody wants that. Who has ever
| heard of a tax collector refusing to re
■ ceive a silver dollar? Has any merchant
! ever refused to receive a silver dollar?
I The troub'e with the laborer today is
j that he is not paid in any dollar at all.
, I The laborer is not complaining of the
dollar that he gets, but he is complain
ing of the dollar that he does not get.
(Applause.) And we Bay that the only
way for nim to get more money is o
make more for him to get (A voice.
> Somebody else pays Major McKinley’s
I debts, he don’t pay them.) I have noth-
ing to do with that. I don’t indulge in
any personalities at all. I am discuss
ing the great principles of the cam
paign. I am the fairest fighter that
you ever saw in your life. I wont dm
any man below the belt. (Great ap
plause and cheering.)
The Tariff Dilemma,
Now I see that Mr. Bourke Cochran
in his argument says, that a dollar wilj
buy more now than it ever bought and
he says that that ought to make the la
borers pleased with the present situa
tion. Everything you buy is a product
of labor and if you can buy a larger
amount of the commodities now that
are produced by labor with a dollar, are
you not buying a larger share of what
the laborer produces with the dollar
than you ever did before? Can it be a
pleasant situation for the laborer that
his commodity is going at a smaller
value than ever before? If his labor—his
commod ty —goes down, wont he go
down, too? Mr. Cochran says, “How
will rising prices help labor?” Mr. Mc-
Kinley says, that what the laborer
wants is to have a high tariff. I have
found other Republican that believed in
high tariff and you believe in it with
McKinley because it gives higher prices.
Don't you now? (A voice, no.) Why?
Because it gives lower prices? Just take
which horn of the dilemma you want
to. You take the one you want, you
take either one you like aud you get
impaled all the same. If a high tariff
has some effect on prices it must make
prices high or Mark Hanna would not
be working for it. Iteither sends prices
up or it sends them down. Now which?
Pay your money and take your choice.
(Applause.) If you mean that it makes
lower prices, tell me why Mr. Mark
Hanna wants lower prices for his goods.
(Applause.) Why if it makes higher
prices tell me why Major McKinley and
Bourke Cochran do not agree that you
have got to pay higher prices. Boys»
you ought to agree. If tariff makes
higher prices it will do what the silver
craze will do. You say that higher
prices is what you want and that is
what the silver men say. (Applause.)
The Popalist Idea.
We Populists stand for this idea. We
say that the free coinage of silver will
only nelp the people to the exetent that
it increases the amount of money. We
say that you can’t start with falling
prices at 1873. You must go back fur
ther than that You must go back to
1866 and 1867 when they began to burn
up your paper money. (Applause.)
You cannot confine contraction and
this fall of prices to that time without
explaining to the people the work that
contraction consisted of. There has
been no contraction of gold and no
contraction of silver. Where has been
the contraction? It has been when
they commenced burning up the paper
monej’ and there has been falling prices
since 1873 and for three years or more
before that. It commenced to work the
injury when they commenced burning
up the paper money. We Populists say
that money, like any other commodity?*'
operates under the law of supply and de
mand. If there is a large amount of
money it is cheaper. Make more money
and such a demand grows for every
thing that prices will be good. If the
demand grows greater, and the amount
of money grows scarcer, it will become
dearer like any other commodity. You
burned millions of the people’s money.
The increase of the gold is hardly ap
preciable compared with the increase of
business and pop lation. We say that
the single gold standard is absolutely
disastrous. What does it mean ? At
present you can pay your debts and
taxes with greenbacks, with silver and
gold. But if you rely upon and adopt
into a law the single gold standard, you
cannot pay your debt or your taxes
with anything but gold. You say no.
You say in your platform that the pres
ent gold standard must be maintained.
Tell me what it is. lam willing to be
informed and if I am wrong I will take
it back and will apologise. (Applause )
You say in your campaign platform
that the present gold standard must be
maintained. What do you mean by the
present gold standard ? At the treas
ury of the. United States, Air. Cleveland
has established a rule that the money
of final payment is gold, and gold only.
(Long and continued cheering.) Do
you mean to carry that into law? and
make the people pay in gold alone?
Answer nn that question yes or answer
me no and I will meet you on either
side. (Applause ) You either mean it
or you don't mean it. Say which. (A
voice Can’t do it.) Jf you want tododge,
I will tell you these American people
are in no mood for dodgingor dodgers.
(Great applause.)
Wall Street’s Money Corner.
I say that the present money supply
has been cornered in Wall street and
they want to increase the power of that
money corner, of that combine, of that
trust, by saying “by law” that gold
and gold only, shall be the money of
final payment. (Great applause.) If
you don’t mean that tell me what you
mean by a single gold standard. (A
voice ask Tammany.) God forbid thnt
I should say anything for Tammauv. X
understand that they have endonsM
Mr. Bryan, but they stand vposi tMkS
same money platform as McKinley and
not that of Bryan. If that is Tammany
that is McKinley. I say this, your
supply of money is gettingsmaller and
the demand for monej’ is getting
greater. The smaller you make the
supply the greater you make the de
mand and the greater will be the price
of the money in existence. Is that
plain? What do you mean when you
say that it will bring bigger prices?
I mean to soy that you have got to
go out into the market to get money to
pay your debts and to pay your taxes
and the less money there is in the mar
ie. t to be bought, the higher price you
will have to pay. It will take more
‘ labor, it will take more wheat, it will
I take more corn, it will take more cot-
