This is an iHeart podcast. Guaranteed human. Liberty has never been just a word to we Americans. It has guided every one of our endeavors for the past 250 years, and now it takes form in a new way. The 2026 Semi-Quincentennial Coin and Metal Program from the United States Mint.
It celebrates the founding ideals that have long shaped our coinage. Available one year only, this historic collection features new coin designs, limited edition releases, and reissues. Shop new official coins at usmint.gov forward slash semi-q. That's usmint.gov/slash S-E-M-I-Q. I turned off news altogether.
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Let's meet at the facts. Let's move forward from there. and BC News reporting for America. Uh This July 4th, come celebrate at America's Block Party, hosted by America 250. America's Block Party is a can't-miss 4th of July concert happening at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.
Experience music performances from major artists, patriotic tributes, and the kickoff to Giving Forth, helping to make July 4th the largest day of giving in American history. It's more than just fireworks. Learn more about this landmark celebration at America250.org. What's up y'all? Summer's got a different tempo.
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Try the new Tropical Butterfly Refresher from Starbucks. This is Lee Habib and this is Our American Stories. Up next, another installment of our Story of Us, Story of America series with Hillsdale College professor and author of the terrific book, Land of Hope, Dr. Bill McClay. After America defeated Spain in the rather lopsided Spanish-American War, questions began to be asked about our place abroad.
But questions swirled domestically as well. After all, the Industrial Revolution had brought about tremendous changes, some good and some not so good. but tremendous nonetheless. Let's get into the story. Take it away, Bill.
The two decades after the Spanish-American War are best known for the reform movements that occurred in reaction to the Industrial Revolution. The urbanization that occurred, centralization, immigration. And that great concentration of wealth and power resulting in all of these changes. But the reformers were not solely concentrated. On the many problems that plagued America's cities, the impetus for reform also sprang from the nation's small towns.
From our national farmlands and our farmers, a group of Americans known best for their self-reliance, though they were under intense pressure, not just from declining and depressed crop prices, but railroads, bankers, creditors, grain elevator operators, and a multitude of middlemen. who made it ever more complicated for them to get their crops to market. In short, farm life itself was not as simple as it used to be. and it would never be again. From a growing coalition of farmers, unorganized at first, was birthed a protest movement of sorts, the People's Party.
or as they were also known, The populists. Mm-hmm. They threw their support behind a former two-term congressman from Nebraska named William Jennings Bryan. William Jennings Bryan was a mere 36 years old, but a talented public speaker with a special talent for moving audience and doing so with the same gifts that great evangelists throughout history have possessed. Deploying rhetoric with deep Christian and biblical overtones and themes, often rousing audiences to tears.
And great cheers. And always the moral center of his speeches was about the poor, the downtrodden, farmers facing hard times. But he also focused on the working classes, the merchants, small town main street business owners, struggling to make ends meet. And then there was the issue of silver. Gold was the standard of value for all of our currents.
With the value of a dollar directly correlated to a specific weight of gold. Any attempts to do the same thing with silver were not just controversial, but met with fierce resistance by most bankers and most business owners, too. The fear, of course, was simple. that the currency would be thereby devalued. Brian saw an opportunity.
Attacking that resistance to alternatives to gold as greed and stinginess. His speech at the 1896 Democratic Convention in Chicago was a sharp critique. one delivered with a pastor's fire and sense of moral urgency. Yeah. I come to speak to you in defense of a cause as holy.
the cause of humanity. When this debate is continued, a motion will be made to lay upon the table the resolution offered in commendation of the administration and also the resolution in condemnation of the administration. I shall object. To bringing this question down to a level of persons, the individual is but an atom. He's born, he acts, he dies.
But principles are eternal, and this has been a contest of principle. Never before in the history of this country. Has there been witness such a contest? as that through which we had just passed. Never before in the history of American politics, has a great issue.
Been fought out as this issue has been by the voters of a great party. Brian then goes on expanding on the very definition of businessman and business interests. When you Come before us and tell us that we're about to disturb your business interests. We reply that you have disturbed our business interests Try your court. We say to you that you have made the definition of a business man.
too limited in its application. The man who is employed for wages He's as much a businessman as his employer. The attorney in the country town, He's as much a business man. as the corporation's council in the great metropolis. The Merchant at the Crossroad Store.
He's as much a businessman as the merchant of New York. The farmer who grows forth in the morning and toils all day? who begins in the spring and toils all summer. and who by the application of brain and muscles and natural resources Have the Christmas. Create wealth.
He's as much a businessman. As the man who grows upon the board of trade and debts upon the price of grain. The miner who goes down a thousand feet into the earth. or climb two thousand feet upon the cliff. and bring forth that from their hiding places of precious metals to be poured into the channels of trade are as much businessmen has the few financial magnets who in the back room corner the money of the world.
We come to speak for this broader class. A businessman. Brian wasn't finished. There are two ideas of government. There are those who believe that if you just legislate, To make the well-to-do prosperous, that their prosperity will leak through on those below.
The democratic idea has been that if you legislate to make the masses prosperous, their prosperity will find its way up and through every class that rests upon it. You come to us and tell us that the great cities are in favor of the gold standard. I tell you that the great cities rest upon these broad and fertile prairies. Yeah. Burn down your cities.
And the debar form and your cities will spring up again as if by magic. but destroy our farm. And the grass will blow in the streets. of every city of the country. And here is how Brian closed this powerful speech.
If they dare to come out in the open field and defend the gold standard is a good thing, we shall fight them. Having behind us the producing masses of this nation and the world. supported by the commercial interest. No labor yet. and the toilers everywhere.
We will answer their demand for a gold standard. Christ saying to them, You shall not press down upon the brow of labor this crown of thorns. You shall not crucify mankind. On a cross of gold. But as Brian spoke these words, he also raised his arms to his side.
projecting an image of himself. As the crucified Christ. And the crowd ate it up, going absolutely wild. His speech and showmanship may have played the convention crowd, but Bryan's Republican opponent, William McKinley was able to portray him as a political activist of the wildest sort. one with the spirit of a communist.
The tactic would win McKinley the election over the Nebraska populists, but by a slim margin, 51 to 48 percent. Most historians regard the 1896 election As a win for the urban and industrial forces of the nation. over agricultural and rural values. But there was something greater going on. A movement had been born, birthed by radical protests, with ordinary working people, farmers and merchants and workers of all kind.
How far that movement had come, capturing a major party and coming close to beating the Republican candidate. was almost as significant. as how fast it all had happened. It turns out that Bryan won more votes, 6.5 million, than any candidate in American history, except for McKinley's performance that year, 7.1 million. The fact was, there was little reason to believe this Reform Party was some kind of blib.
But to gain enough traction to win the presidency, The reform torch would have to be taken up by the progressive movement, which included a more middle-class and professional dimension. The Story of America series with Dr. Bill McClay, here on Our American Stories. Liberty has never been just a word to we Americans. It has guided every one of our endeavors for the past 250 years.
And now it takes form in a new way. The 2026 Semi-Quincentennial Coin and Metal Program from the United States Mint. It celebrates the founding ideals that have long shaped our coinage. Available one year only, this historic collection features new coin designs, limited edition releases, and reissues. Shop new official coins at usmint.gov forward slash semi-q.
That's usmint.gov/slash S-E-M-I-Q. This July 4th, come celebrate at America's Block Party, hosted by America 250. America's Block Party is a can't-miss 4th of July concert happening at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. Experience music performances from major artists, patriotic tributes, and the kickoff to Giving Forth, helping to make July 4th the largest day of giving in American history. It's more than just fireworks.
Learn more about this landmark celebration at America250.org. Flowers fade. Cards get tossed. But a personalized song? That lasts forever.
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