In New York on Wednesday, at Madison Square Garden, Mr.
Bryan made his formal appearance as the Democratic candidate. He denied that his platform was a menace to private security or that its supporters were the foes of social order or the national honour. The public did not wish that trusts should destroy competition and tax the community at will. Mr. Bryan ended by an appeal in favour of bimetallism. The free and unlimited coinage of silver by the United States alone "would raise the bullion value of silver to its coinage value, and thus make silver bullion worth $1.29 per ounce in gold throughout the world." He " built this argument upon the law of supply and demand, gold and silver being different from other commodities, as they were limited in quantity." There was only one way to stop the increasing flow of gold abroad, and that was to stop falling prices by bimetallism, which would restore prices by reducing the world's demand for gold. The system of bimetallism could, he further declared, be inaugurated in a few months. It is stated that the effect of the speech on the great audience assembled to hear Mr. Bryan was most depressing. They expected brilliant rhetoric, telling phrases, and passionate appeals to the emotions. Instead, they had to listen to the reading of a dreary homily from a scroll of manuscript. Allowance must of course be made for the animus of the reporters, but it looks as if the speech had been something perilously near a fiasco.
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