Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1894-07-26
SOME TARIFF TRUTHS.
Republican Farmers Duped by Mckinley
Bunco-Steerers.

Republican Farmers Duped by Mckinley
Bunco-Steerers.
The republican farmer has not suffi-
cient intelligence to protect himself
from the green-goods swindler and
bunco-steerer. No matter how care
fully the game is explained to him, no
matter how plain the swindle may be
made, as soon as the steerer offers him
a share in the plumber he believes
everyth ing the thief says and nothing
an honest man may say to dissuade
him from buying. Unable to judge of
motives, he believes only those who
flatter him. The man who tells him
bluntly that he is a fool to part with
his money, the man who by no pos
sibility can benefit by the advice he
gives. is regarded as an enemy, as a
swindler, as man employed by some
body to keep the farmer from enjoying
the benefits of the green-goods game.
The only way the republican farmer
can be protected from loss is the illegal
one of Furnishing the bunco men. The
latter are working in the interests of
morality and good government, as we'll
as their own. To benefit themselves
they are engaged in finding out what
men have saved up money, with the OBJ
lCCL O1 SnSlE nelghOOrS OF
purchasing counterfeit bills. They steal
from him this money to be used in
crime, sending him package of saw
dust or green wallpaper in place of
the expected counterfeit money. The
republican farmer would use this
money paid to the bunco man in buy
ing tools for burglar in backing any
other safe-criminal operation as quick
l. l.
feits, and to deprive him of this money
for criminal purposes is meritorious
act, a public service on the part of the
green-goods men. So far from closing
the mails to the green-goods men, the
government would be on the side of
morality if it encouraged them in
every possible way, and it would not
go far afield if it should even pay
them for their work. 1t aids in every
other branch of the government to de-
tect and punish criminals except in
this matter of finding out the men
who wish to purchase counterfeit
money. But there are so many of
these republican farmers that it as
sumes all are willing to cheat their
neighbors, and it prefers to save them
from loss by arresting those who
their money. The federal courts pro-
tect them from being swindled out of
the money they have saved for crime
by prosecuting those who would de-
prive them of it.
The only way to protect" the re-
publican farmers from the protection
buncO steerers is to prosecute the lat
ter. 1t cannot be done by any appeal
to their own intelligence or common
sense. If they had the faintest spark
of intelligence to appeal to they would
know that they were lied to when they
were offered protection on wool, corn
or potatoes in exchange for protection
on iron, steel and cloth. But even
when they find out that they have been
lied to, it makes not the slightest diff
ference to them, provided the lie is
something they want to bSlieve. As
one republican farmer said not long
ago in the World: Il prefer to be lied
to by a republican than to listen to the
truth from a democrat" That is the
kind of a man republican is, and the
democrats should not expect results
from CONVEX sion. 1t is not enough to
show him the truth. He does not care
for that. If he did, he would not
swallow the contradictions of the re-
publican newspapers, IN which there
is neither honor nor decency. The only
way he can be projected from the pro-
lection bunco-stecCers is by Furnishing
them for false pretenses--Tariff Mule,
in \. Y. World.