Talk:Cross of Gold speech

Note this

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wonderful_Wizard_of_Oz#The_Gold_Standard_representation_of_the_story

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_interpretations_of_The_Wonderful_Wizard_of_Oz DAB295 —Preceding unsigned comment added by 72.243.80.253 (talk) 15:15, 13 March 2009 (UTC)

I'm familiar with those, and have read a couple of journal articles on it. Yes, I know Bryan was the Cowardly Lion, and the reason the Good Witch came from the South was that it was pro-silver and Hanna was Oz, but I still haven't found a good way of putting it in the '96 election articles. Possibly I'll find a way.--Wehwalt (talk) 22:12, 7 January 2012 (UTC)

Puzzling sentence

I'm no economist, but I must admit that I find this sentence baffling:

The deflation that would result from the gold standard backed by the Republicans would benefit banks by making it harder for their debtors to pay back their loans.

Under what circumstances would it benefit creditors to make it more difficult for debtors to pay off their loans? --Jfruh 18:31, 28 October 2005 (UTC)

The banks didn't benefit from it being harder for debtors to pay off loans, but it did benefit in that the same money would have a higher value. --Rmdsc 03:17, 21 November 2005 (UTC)

That should instead say that it would be a loss to the banks because loan interest rates would be below inflation, causing a negative return from the loan CompIsMyRx 23:25, 14 February 2006 (UTC)

Here it is in simple terms: A farmer made a loan for $100,000. After (a huge) deflation that $100,000 would be worth $75,000. So now it would be harder for the farmer to make money and therefore pay off his debt, and the bank will profit because the $100,000 he will have to pay back is technically worth more than the $100,000 they originally lent. Hopefully that made it understandable. Also, farmers usually wanted the dollar to be backed by silver instead of gold because this would cause inflation and create the opposite affect. --Daniel 1/11/12 — Preceding unsigned comment added by 99.106.167.196 (talk) 03:45, 12 January 2012 (UTC)

Also, I found this sentence puzzling: "is considered one of the great political addresses in American history." It seems like it should either be "is considered one of the greatest political addresses in American history." or "is considered one of the great political addresses of American history." Maybe I am wrong though. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 99.106.167.196 (talk) 03:48, 12 January 2012 (UTC)

Election of 1896

In my textbook (The American Pageant, 12th Edition), it says that the Cross of Gold Speech allowed Bryan to recieve the Democratic Nomination. Should I add it? Nonamer98 (talk) 23:16, 11 February 2009 (UTC)

Article improvement

As part of my McKinley project, of which this is the third in possibly five or six, ending with himself, I'll be improving this article over the next few weeks, with an eye to FA one of these days. All help welcome.--Wehwalt (talk) 21:52, 3 December 2011 (UTC)

5000+ hits (above my 3000 threshold). :) TCO (talk) 02:58, 5 December 2011 (UTC)

William D. Russell

There seems to be a bit of a problem in the 1896 convention "Silver advocates take control" section with the identity of the speaker proceding Bryan. The article calls him William D. Russell, notes his death in the following weeks and says he was governor of Mass. The link formerly pointed to a modern film director. In attempting to disambiguate the link I've pointed it at William E Russell. A former governor of Mass. (seemingly the only Russel to hold that post) and who died in 1896. I'm loath, however, to alter the article text as it's very far from my areas of expertise. Can someone more familiar with the topic please set this right.--IanOfNorwich (talk) 10:52, 9 July 2012 (UTC)