ONE THOUSAND SECRETS REVEALED

180 SPEECHES
Indianapolis platform. When we consider 7,000,000 voted for interna
tional free silver, and 6,500,000 voted for independent free silver, we see
the United States has 13,500,000 bimetallists; only 134,000, or less than
one per cent, voted the Gold-standard Democratic ticket Yet, my friends,
we today find Mr. Gage trying to overrule the desire of more than
ninety-nine per cent and put into law the will of less than one per cent
of our voting population. And what amount of money do the gold stand
ard people want ? They say they want it safe, uniform and elastic, meas
ured in volume by the need of business. Will you tell me by whose
business they wish to measure the volume of money? It cannot be the
farmers' business and the merchants' business they would have to meas
ure the volume by, for that would make a double standard of measure
ment, and they tell us we cannot have but one standard of measure
ment.
Then I ask, whose business will measure the amount under such a
law? To me the answer comes back in reverberating tones repeated
with emphasis, measured in volume according to the bankers' business, of
course. Our philosophers tell us there are two kinds of elasticity—
elasticity by compression and elasticity by expansion. Thus an elastic
substance after being either compressed or expanded when released, re
turns to its original shape and size, so when the bankers want money
expanded in volume according to the need of their business, they would
expand it, and whenever their business ends are best accomplished by
contraction; then, of course, contraction is the program with them. While
the government is completely separated from the banking business so
they can furnish no relief, we might compare that system with an alligator
on the banks of a Louisiana river lying out to sun himself; he gets the
bankers' elastic idea in his head, and his upper jaw flies over his back,
and his mouth is twice as large as when it is closed, elasticity by ex
pansion. (Laughter.) A sweet substance gathers on his open mouth,
and the flies light there to eat it (just as the people will gather around the
bankers for money when there is no other place to procure it). The
flies gather thicker and thicker, and the mouth gets bigger and bigger,
more and more elasticity by expansion; finally the alligator, like the
banker, happens to think that there is another kind of elasticity, when
down comes the upper jaw on the lower jaw and the flies are caught in
the trap, and the Government shall go out of the banking business to
furnish no relief or escape (cried of good, and cheers). My friends, if I
mistake not, every cry of the Republican party from the time of John C.
Fremont until the campaign of 1896 has been against banks issuing paper
money except that the Government was strictly in the banking business.
Have not they always told us, that when state or other banks issue paper
OP C. A. BOGAEDUB. 181
money without the Government in the banking business to back up the
issue, such money in case of a failure of the issuing bank became wild
cat money, and did they not say to us wild-cat money made paupers?
Now they go squarely back on all they have taught us on the money
question, and advocate the wild-cat money system themselves according
to their own statements. One thing I will concede is, that the Republi
cans and gold standard Democrats are certainly on their past statements
entitled to the $1,000,000 offered by the United States patent office for
the invention of a perpetual motion, would not they have a complete
and perpetual motion in their bank issuing money with the Government
completely separate from the banking business, for we see the bank issue
would be made of paper, so we have the perpetual motion in this simple
problem. Rags make paper, paper makes money, money makes banks,
banks make paupers, and paupers make rags. Rags make paper, paper
makes money (great cheer and laughter).
Now, my friends, let me read you a plank in a platform that con
tains the spirit upon which our forefathers freed the thirteen American
colonies from England, the spirit on which their descendants maintained
American liberty and builded from 3,000,000 population along the At
lantic shores in 1781,.a nation of 70,000,000 grand Anglo-Americans,
with their half a hundred states and territories extending from the rock
bound coast of the pine tree state to the golden gates of California,
stretching over a vast area of more than 3,000,000 square miles, with"
great cities, towns, villages and hamlets, with our colleges and universi
ties that are equaled by none in Europe. I will now read you the money
plank of the Chicago platform, which contains the spirit represented by
the statute at New York, of liberty enlightening the world. It is as fol
lows: "We demand a free and unlimited coinage of both gold and sil
ver at the present legal ration of 16 to 1, without waiting for the aid or
consent of any other nation. We demand that the standard silver dollar
shall be a full legal tender equally with gold, for the payment of all debts
public and private, and we favor such legislation as will in the future
prevent the demonetization of any kind of legal tender money by private
contract." While bimetallism is the theme this evening, you will excuse
me for intruding on your time long enough to briefly comment on the
spirit of that plank that shines prominently above all other issues in tfie
Chicago platform—it is these simple words, "Without waiting for the aid
or consent of any other nation." I want to ask you, what would have
been the result if our forefathers in 1776 had adopted any other spirit
than this? Does not the answer immediately echo that we would be
today English?
History tells us that while the British red coats with their muskets