NEWS OF THE WEEK.
THE most important events of the week, it may be the most important events of the year, have been the proceedings in the Democratic Convention which began to sit at Chicago on Monday. The West and South, distressed by the fall of prices, angry under the pressure of their mortgages, and con- vinced that the gold standard is the cause of their troubles, have sent up some five hundred and sixty delegates of the fanatic type. These men have voted down the gold men, who slumber only three hundred and sixty-eight, on every occasion, have excluded enough of their opponents to give them a two- thirds majority, and have adopted resolutions which mean that silver shall be legal tender to any amount at the ratio of one to sixteen, that is, in fact, at its o/c1 five shillings an ounce price. Private contracts specifying payment in gold are to be made illegal. There is to be no waiting for other countries, especially not for Great Britain, which by its gold standard, the Convention alleges, reduces all other nations to "servitude." 'They demand that Congress shall impose an Income-tax at once, whether it is constitutional or not, and they denounce trusts and other forms of associated capital. Their leaders' speeches are far more violent than the resolutions, the Eastern States are attacked as being in slavery to London, and the whole tone of the Convention is bitterly anti-capitalist, its chief man, Governor Altgeld, openly advocating the payment of all national gold bonds, especially if held by Englishmen, in silver. They have not elected a candidate for the Presidency yet, but a new man, a Mr. William Jennings Bryan, aged thirty-six, from Nebraska, is believed to have the best chance, because he delivered a brilliant speech, ending with the sen- tence, "The gold men shall not crucify mankind on a cross of gold."
