LAD #20

The Cross of Gold speech, at the Democratic National Convention of 1896, was delivered by William Jennings Bryan. It was mainly dealing with the Democrat's desire to make silver the standard instead of gold. Bringing up some forgotten views, Bryan's speech mainly concerned bimetalism, or the integration of both metals. Bryan brings up the fact that the Western people have lest money then those in the east, and therefore cannot afford gold. People in the East have tarrifs and a strong industrial source of income, so they can afford it. Bimetalism would alleviate these problems because a certain value of silver would be in fixed proportion to a certain value of gold. The problem was that these values fluctuated. However, Bryan delivered the speech in defense of the West and in defense of bimetalism in regards to what the dollar is really worth.