The Forrest City times., 1894-07-06
REEDS ROTTEN RANT.
s>. E,.Crars's Giratory Ideas the sn-
 yer Question.


 When a man gets the presidential .ee in his bonnet its buzzing interferes -;th and prevents that clear concep- .;on of cause and effect and of condi- .;ons which should distinguish an as- ,,;rant for so exalted a station; and it aIso affects in singular manner the on,ic nerves, causing them to present .n the active brain a distorted picture .t things and their relations It is only on this theory that one may ac- count for this aberrancy so conspicu- ous in so many of these ambitious pa .-;ots. We might cite distinguished instances of this from our history, but the present is rich enough, and we need not point to any other than Mir. Nc K;nlev, who insists that the foreigner nsvs the tax; to Mr. Bland, who insists that as Adam dragged humanity down with him into sin, so silver has pulled the values of everything down with it in it's characterization.
 But equally prominent with any in the present or the past who have had the wheels in their heads set in mo- tion by the busy presidential bee, none 
 is more, few so conspicuous as Hon. Thomas Brackett Reed. of Maine. Mir. Reed is a stanch protectionist, one of those who laughed scornfully at the reciprocity dodge of Mir. Elaine as delivery to the enemy of the keys to the gates of the fortress of protection. But Mr. Reed sees that MT. Mckinley has dead cinch on the single question of projections; that there is decidedly silver lining to the clouds lowering over his party: and he fancies if he can couple silver and protection and reel procity he will have three trunps in his hand to McKinley's one. So we have him in his noted interview boldly announcing a new policy. in which he proposes to drive protection, silver and free trade tandem. They are kittle cattle, and we shall watch with inter- est Mir Reeds handling of the ribbons over his wild team.
 But there are some fallacies in Mir. Reeds statements that are too plain to be hidden under any gauge of rhetoric he may have at command. One of these is the effect of the demonetiza- ton of silver on the exports of the sil- yer using nations. They have been vastly stimulated by crafty merchant men, who bought silver bullion at it's market valve. took it to those coun tries, converted it into coin and bought produce with the coin at its face value, making profit which they either pocketed or shared with the consumer in reduced price. This was not an original discovery of Mir. Reeds; we remember that Senator Davis III ade something of the same statement in his opening speech at Crookston in the again repeat, because his fellow cam paigner, Gov. Merriam, told him, after the speech, that it was dashed non- sense.
 If this is true fact, as the boys say, with nice discrimination, we might confidently look to he trade returns of these countries to find confirmation of it in the increased imports of silver, the decreased imports of gold and great increase of imports of merchan- disc and exports of produce. As India Is the great silver consumer of the sill yer nations, we might expect to see it's effects there most marked. For the eleven months ending with February, 1893. the latest return at hand, her im- ports of merchandise. stated in tens of rupees, of the nominal value of S3.66. amounted to 56,953, ,o92, and for the same period in '94 they were 67, 403. .097, gain of less than 100000. The total value of her exports of merchan- disc during the same periods were 9O.- 46s,044 and 91,522 ,0O6 respectively, showing gain of little over 1, 1000, 900 in '94
 The imports of gold into India were months ending with February, 1893, agains. 2.90s,95o for the same period in 1894. showing gain of 100 per cent. in the latter term. The inflow of silver, which should show large increase if MT. Reeds conjecture is accurate, shows hardly perceptible increase in the periods compared, the imports be- ing l4,0903S4 tens of rupees in the first and 14,219, ,024 in the second term, gain or less than 10 per cent, while, as noted, gold imports increased 100 per cent.
 Thus, accepting Mir. Reeds own test, We find his statement contradicted by the facts. We have not the figures at hand for the silver countries south of us' but have no doubt they show the same proportions. Whatever of ln- crease there is in exports, especially of gram, is due, not to Mir. Reeds absurd cause, but to the development of the agricultural resources of those coun- tries, Stimulated by our own policy of