America's Money Machine

I N
10.
The Bill Considered
COMMENTING UPON THE DIRECTION of currency reform under
the new Democratic Administration, the New York Times pointed out
that WilliamJennings Bryan, whom Wilson had named Secretary ofState,
would exercise an important influence upon the shape ofcoming legislation,
and analyzed for its readers the essentials of Bryan's monetary
philosophy:
Under Mr. Bryan's leadership the doctrines of the Democratic Party in
respect to banking and currency have been perfectly well understood. The
Party has insisted upon cheap and unsound money, the cheapest and unsoundest
it could get the country to accept. In 1896, the year ofMr. Bryan's
first candidacy, the Party demanded the free, unlimited and independent
coinage of silver, denounced gold monometallism, condemned the issue of
circulating notes by banks, insisted that all currencies should be issued by the
government, and it further demanded that United States bonds be paid in
silver or gold at the option of the Treasury. The country's opinion of these
Democratic banking and currency doctrines was expressed in the electoral
vote, McKinley 271, Bryan 176.
In 1900 Mr. Bryan was again the candidate, and his platform denounced
the Act ofMarch, 1900, establishing the gold standard, condemned the issue
ofnotes by national banks, demanded their retirement as fast as the government
could redeem them in gold or silver certificates, and again declared that
the government should issue all currency. Once more the country expressed
its opinion ofthe Bryan money doctrines in the electoral vote, McKinley 292,
Bryan 155.
In 19°8, Mr. Bryan once more presented himself as the candidate. His
platform belabored Wall Street, the stock gamblers, and the banks, and