Cross of gold speech

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The Cross of Gold speech was a speech famously delivered by William Jennings Bryan at the 1896 Democratic National Convention in Chicago, Illinois. The speech advocated bimetallism. At the time, the Democratic Party wanted to standardize the value of the dollar to silver and opposed pegging the value of the United States dollar to a gold standard. The inflation that would result from the silver standard would make it easier for farmers and other debtors to pay off their debts by increasing their revenue dollars. It would also reverse the deflation which the U.S. experienced from 1873-1896.

Backers of the gold standard felt that the protection against inflation was paramount, and the gold standard would prevent runaway inflation. Such an uncontrollable inflation would put a burden on creditors such as banks whose loans' interest rates would then fall under the inflation rate and garner a loss for the creditor. This speech became famous and gets its name from its triumphant ending:

Having behind us the producing masses of this nation and the world, supported by the commercial interests, the laboring interests and the toilers everywhere, we will answer their demand 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.

Some have speculated that the Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum is an allegory for the populist movement headed by Bryan, and that the yellow brick road is a metaphor for the gold standard.

Cross of gold speech

See also