F. The Free-Silver Mirage 161 F. The Free-Silver Mirage 1. Coin’s Financial School (1894) By the 1880s and 1890s indebted Americans, especially farmers, were caught in a defl a- tionary pinch. A cry arose for infl ating the currency by abandoning the single gold standard and restoring the bimetallic gold-silver standard, dropped by Congress in 1873 (“the Crime of ’73”). The silverites specifi cally demanded the free and unlimited coin- age of silver in the ratio of sixteen ounces of silver to one ounce of gold, despite Britain’s adherence to the gold standard. William Hope Harvey, a frustrated silver-mine opera- tor from Colorado, came to Chicago and in 1894 published his best-selling tract, Coin’s Financial School. His fi ctional account tells how Coin, the boy wizard of Chicago, con- ducted a six-day fi nancial school attended by many leading fi gures, whom he converted to the gospel of free silver. The 174-page booklet, cleverly but deceptively illustrated, sold upwards of a million copies and was a major propaganda weapon in the free-silver crusade. Why was Harvey bitter against England? Why did the proposed international agreement on bimetallism have little prospect of realization? His [Coin’s] appearance upon the platform was the signal for an ovation. He had grown immensely popular in those last fi ve days. He laid his silk hat on the table, and at once stepped to the middle of the plat- form. He raised his eyes to the audience, slowly turned his head to the right and left, and looked into the sea of faces that confronted him. “In the midst of plenty, we are in want,” he began. “Helpless children and the best womanhood and manhood of America appeal to us for release from a bondage that is destructive of life and liberty. All the nations of the Western Hemisphere turn to their great sister republic for assistance in the emancipation of the people of at least one-half the world. “The Orient, with its teeming millions of people, and France, the cradle of sci- ence and liberty in Europe, look to the United States to lead in the struggle to roll back the accumulated disasters of the last twenty-one years [since “the Crime of ’73”]. What shall our answer be? [Applause.] “If it is claimed we must adopt for our money the metal England selects [gold], and can have no independent choice in the matter, let us make the test and fi nd out if it is true. It is not American to give up without trying. If it is true, let us attach England to the United States and blot her name out from among the nations of the earth. [Applause.] “A war with England would be the most popular ever waged on the face of the earth. [Applause.] If it is true that she can dictate the money of the world, and thereby create world-wide misery, it would be the most just war ever waged by man. [Applause.] “But fortunately this is not necessary. Those who would have you think that we must wait for England, either have not studied this subject, or have the same interest in continuing the present conditions as England. It is a vain hope to expect her vol- untarily to consent. England is the creditor nation of the globe, and collects hundreds 1W. H. Harvey, Coin’s Financial School (New York: American News Company 1894), pp. 130–133, passim. 162 Chapter 26 The Great West and the Agricultural Revolution, 1865–1896 of millions of dollars in interest annually in gold from the rest of the world. We are paying her two hundred millions yearly in interest. She demands it in gold; the con- tracts call for it in gold. Do you expect her to voluntarily release any part of it? It has a purchasing power twice what a bimetallic currency would have. She knows it. “Whenever property interest and humanity have come in confl ict, England has ever been the enemy of human liberty. All reforms with those so unfortunate as to be in her power have been won with the sword. She yields only to force. [Applause.] “The moneylenders in the United States, who own substantially all of our money, have a selfi sh interest in maintaining the gold standard. They, too, will not yield. They believe that if the gold standard can survive for a few years longer, the people will get used to it—get used to their poverty—and quietly submit. “To that end they organize international bimetallic committees and say, ‘Wait on England, she will be forced to give us bimetallism.’ Vain hope! Deception on this subject has been practiced long enough upon a patient and outraged people.” 2. William Jennings Bryan’s Cross of Gold (1896) At the Democratic party’s presidential nominating convention in Chicago in 1896, William Jennings Bryan of Nebraska made an eloquent and impassioned speech denouncing the gold standard and advocating infl ation. Although a well-known excongressman and free-silver orator, Bryan was not then regarded as one of the front-runners for the presidential nomination. Tall, lean, smooth-shaven, hawk- nosed, and wide-mouthed, “the Boy Orator of the Platte” hushed the vast assemblage of some fi fteen thousand with his masterful presence. The “cross of gold” analogy to the Crucifi xion of Christ was one he had already used a number of times, but never before so effectively. Projecting his organlike voice to the outer reaches of the vast hall, he had the frenzied crowd cheering his every sentence as he neared the end. The climax swept the delegates off their feet and won Bryan the presidential nomination the next day. How do you account for the success of his memorable speech? To what different kinds of prejudice does Bryan appeal? I would be presumptuous, indeed, to present myself against the distinguished gentlemen to whom you have listened if this were a mere measuring of abilities. But this is not a contest between persons. The humblest citizen in all the land, when clad in the armor of a righteous cause, is stronger than all the hosts of error. I come to speak to you in defense of a cause as holy as the cause of liberty—the cause of humanity. We [silverites] do not come as aggressors. Our war is not a war of conquest. We are fi ghting in the defense of our homes, our families, and posterity. We have petitioned, and our petitions have been scorned. We have entreated, and our entreaties have been disregarded. We have begged, and they have mocked when our calamity came. We beg no longer; we entreat no more; we petition no more. We defy them! . The gentleman from New York [Senator David Hill] . says he wants this coun- try to try to secure an international agreement. Why does he not tell us what he is 2C. M. Depew, ed., The Library of Oratory (New York: The Globe Publishing Company, 1902), vol. 14, pp. 415, 418, 420–425, passim. F. The Free-Silver Mirage 163 going to do if he fails to secure an international agreement? . Our opponents have tried for twenty years to secure an international agreement, and those are waiting for it most patiently who do not want it at all. We go forth confi dent that we shall win. Why? Because upon the paramount issue of this campaign there is not a spot of ground upon which the enemy will dare to challenge battle. If they [the Republicans] tell us that the gold standard is a good thing, we shall point to their platform and tell them that their platform pledges the party to get rid of the gold standard and substitute bimetallism. If the gold stan- dard is a good thing, why try to get rid of it? . Mr. Carlisle* said in 1878 that this was a struggle between “the idle holders of idle capital” and “the struggling masses, who produce the wealth and pay the taxes of the country”; and, my friends, the question we are to decide is: upon which side will the Democratic Party fi ght—upon the side of “the idle holders of idle capital” or upon the side of “the struggling masses”? That is the question which the party must answer fi rst, and then it must be answered by each individual hereafter. The sympathies of the Democratic Party, as shown by the platform, are on the side of the struggling masses who have ever been the foundation of the Democratic Party. There are two ideas of government. There are those who believe that, if you will only legislate to make the well-to-do prosperous, their prosperity will leak through on those below. The Democratic idea, however, has been that if you legislate to make the masses prosperous, their prosperity will fi nd its way up through every class which rests upon them. You come to us and tell us that the great cities are in favor of the gold standard. We reply that the great cities rest upon our broad and fertile prairies. Burn down your cities and leave our farms, and your cities will spring up again as if by magic. But destroy our farms, and the grass will grow in the streets of every city in the country. My friends, we declare that this nation is able to legislate for its own people on every question, without waiting for the aid or consent of any other nation on earth; and upon that issue we expect to carry every state in the Union.