Show BRYANS PLEAFOR SILVER n Eloquent Address by the j Nebraska Congressman HE ATTACKS THE MESSAGE H TH Members Are in Duty Bound to Protect Pro-tect Their Constituents His Speech Equals the One on the Tariff Which aiaclo Him ramoiis He Doff Do-ff nonnccs the Gold Dollar a tho Dghouesc One WASHINGTON Aug 16The financial discussion in the House took on deeper interest today than on any occasion since the opening day of the silver debate William J Bryan the eloquent young congressman from Nebraska added greater laurels t his reputation as an orator and made a free coinage speech which in the opinion of many surpassed his great tariff speech which gave his name to fame two years ago For nearly three hours Bryan held and interested attention of the House and galleries and every interruption to which he was subjected sub-jected only gave opportunities for those brilliant bits of repartee for which he is BO famous The silver discussion today was opened by Mr McCall Massachusetts who made an elaborate argument for the repeal of tho purchasing clause of the Sherman r act ana denied that such action could be justly construed as an attack on bimetallism lismMr Mr Combs epeaking for arepeal highly commended the presidents message mes-sage which in his opinion had never been surpassed by any state paper In opening his argument against the unconditional repeal of the Sherman law Hilr Bryan said Upon the action ol this Congress might depend not only the welfare of the south and west not only the welfare of the United States but the welfare of humanity itself for ages to come Some outside this hal had time to assure him that tho recommendation ot the president imposed some obligations upon Democratic members to do as he desired and some had even been hardy enough to suggest a failure to fall in with the recommendations there made would > subject the dissenter t administrative displeasure But those persons did the president great injustice The president would not for a moment forget the independence inde-pendence of the two branches Congress Let the presidents own language rebuke those who would by false fealty change thei convictions upon the subject in order or-der to conform to his suggestion The effects ef-fects of our action may be a far reaching I the United States the greatest silver producing country abandons silver i will in all probability lead to the annihilation annihi-lation of silver as standard money throughout tho world The only lawmaking law-making any provision for the increased use of silver money is the Sherman law The president recommended its unconditional uncondi-tional repeal Democratic members are J under no obligation to adopt his recommendation recom-mendation and they are responsible to their constituents only and are in duty bound to protect their rights and regard their interests intrest We are being dragged toward a universal uni-versal gold standard to realm over whose door is written Abandon hope all ye who enter here There is no such thing as an honest dollar because an honest dollar would always have the same purchasing pur-chasing power and the government never attempted to secure absolute stability in a dollar The most dishonest dollar would always have the same purchasing power The most dishonest dollar ever proposed is that child of avarice and ignorance called a fold dollar for it would constantly con-stantly rise in Talue and cheat the debtor While we cannot secure an absolutely honest dollar we should approach it as nearly as possible and a bimetallic standard stan-dard ought to be adopted because with bimetallism the > money unit fluctuates less than under a single standard International bimetallism is desirable but not necessary and is not probable Other European nations wait upon England Eng-land Englands interests lie in the direction of a gold standard To make our action dependent upon hers allows her to legislate for our people and i in abdication of the right of half the government govern-ment Wo believe the restoration ol the right of free coinage as i existed previous to 1S73 would raise the price of sijf er bullion to 1 cents per ounce throughout the world and render unnecessary any change in the present The Sherman law did not cause our financial stringency Moneyed men east without any intention of course started a panic by exaggerating the dangers of gold exportation When the panic came they were injured a much as anybody else The trouble now is that depositors have withdrawn their money from fear of the banks and a repeal of the Sherman law will not increase in-crease the solvency of the banks Then Bryan spoke in favor of the retention reten-tion of the ratio of 16 to 1 arguing that ail increase of that ratio would bo detrimental detri-mental to the international agreemoas as to the coinage of the metals and continuing continu-ing said the president has been deceived de-ceived He had said in his message that the people demanded a repeal of the Sherman nct He had heard from boards of trade and from chambers of commerce He had not heard from the farmers or men in workshops and lie could no more judge of the opinion of the people than he could measure the oceans depth by foam on the ocean wave The president was elected upon platform thrice pledged t the gold and silver coinage coin-age of the constitution Ninetenths of the people of the United States stood ready to sustain him in the fight but I the face of an enemy bold and insolent he I was ordered to retreat Let him not be dismayed There was time y t to win 1 the battle i he will but order the charge Will the party stand by the principles of Jefferson and Jackson or will it abandon its right to its name Will it choose life or death which Tremendous applause ap-plause At the conclusion of the speech there were loud cries of Vote vote and the Nebraska orator was surrounded by his colleaeues congratulating him upon his great effort Mr Henderson of Iowa said the most gratifying thing that could reach the 1 people of the United States were these cdes of Vote Cvote The people expected early action and he would be 15 glad t come to a vole at once Mr Moses of Georgia spoke against 8 repeal bill and opposed the proposition to raise the standard from 16 to 1 to 2 to 1 L The House thea adjourned |