There are two ideas of government. There are those who believe that if you legislate to make the wealthy prosperous, that their prosperity will be bestowed benevolently by them upon those who make their prosperity possible. The Democratic idea has been that if you legislate to make the working-class prosperous, their prosperity will find its way up and through every class that rests upon it. For the producing masses, are the consuming masses, and their prosperity is the direct instigator of the prosperity of the owners.
You come to us and tell us that the great barons of industry and finance are in favor of the gold standard. I tell you that the great barons rest upon these broad and fertile prairies, upon the toil and labor of the industrial and agrarian working-class. Disappear your great barons and leave our farms and ingenuity, and your industry and prosperity will spring up again as if by magic. But destroy our farms and ingenuity, and the grass will grow in the streets of every city in the country.
If they dare to come out in the open field and defend the gold standard, their fictional economy, as a good thing, we shall fight them to the uttermost, having behind us the working-classes of the nation and the world. Having behind us the ingenuity and productivity all the toiling masses, we shall answer their demands for a gold standard by saying to them, you shall not press down upon the brow of labor this crown of thorns. You shall not crucify mankind upon a cross of gold.
((I hope no one minds my borrowing WJB's historic phrase.))