davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
Kansas City daily journal., 1896-10-08
Daily Adjustment of wages.

From the New York Advertiser.
Do our silver plated philosophers reflect
what they are doing when they propose to
take the limit from silver coinage? AS
matters stand now, the government con-
trolls the coinage of silver and prevents the
steady depreciation of the dollar conse
quent upon increased production at the
mines by keeping the number of silver dol
lars within the reasonable limit of final re-
demption in gold, if such a step should
ever become necessary to make good the
pledge of parity with the other money that
the government places behind its silver
coin.
But under the free silver scheme our
present limited coinage would be super
seded by unlimited coinage, and the coin
is to have no sponsor for its value. The
government would merely certify at its
mint that the coin contained so many
grains of silver of a certain degree of fine
ness, but would not promise that it would
be of any value in the market at all. Its
certificate would not bind it for a cents
worth, even If the purchasing power of the
silver dollar should sink to the level of
412h grains of lead. On the other hand.
with the governments sponsorship with
drawn, the whole world would be invited to
engage in competition in the great indus
try of manufacturing coin for the Ameri
can market with premium of from 200 to
300 per cent on the investment Offered as
an inducing starter American silver dol
lars would be quoted on all the exchanges
of the earth at prices that would be con-
trolled entirely by the same law of supply
and demand that governs other commodi-
ties; and the American wage-earner could
only try to save himself from daily loss,
as the enormous original profit on the busi-
ness should be scaled down by world
wide competition, by going to his employer
every morning and asking an increase in
wages equal 10 the depreciation of the dol
lar ba DrnyiOuS day-an that
would be surprising on the part of the
wage-earner. but not nearly SO surprising
as the act of the employer in yielding daily
to such a request.
Kansas City daily journal., 1896-10-08
THE DRUM MAJOR-

The glories of carnival week will doubt
less be appropriately embalmed in immor-
tai verse by some one Of Kansas City's
numerous poets and poetesses as soon as
the festivities are brought to a close. The
divine afflatus will stir within their bos-
oms ere long, before the genial currents
of their souls are frozen by the sharp
blasts of winter or their noble rage re-
pressed by the high prices of fuel. 1t will
be hitting theme for any laureate, and
worthy the best efforts of the attic muse.
In the meantime something ought to be
said about the drum major. He is in Kan
sas City this week, the observed of all OBJ
servers, the cynosve of countless eyes,
the admiration of the multitude, the cock
OF the walk. The lines of drum major
must surely be cast in pleasant places.
Solomon in all his glory was never arrayed
like him. His broad and protuberant
bosom heralds the approach of harmony.
ard the very trombones seem to quaver
with awe at his imposing presence; even
the lusty bass drummer thumps with
meilower thump when observing his terri
Bile frown. With what majestic tread does
he step the Streets. claiming the right-of-
way from curb to curb. Bright eyes of
lovely women beam on him from every
side. and many gentle heart flutters be-
meath its trim bodice at sight of his gor-
geous figure, but the drum major is I'M
moved. Grand, gloomy and peculiar, he
heeds neither the smiles of beauty nor the
undisguised alteration of the small boy.
He saith among the trumpets, "Ha, ha,"
and keeps right in the middle of the road
Why this solemn gravity of the drum
| major as he prances, now forward. now
backward, and whirls has baton with dread
full speed? That sphinx-like face, as it
peers from beneath his bearskin shake,
might be cut out of granite SO far as CIV
ing any expression of relationship to COM
mon mortaIs.
Here Is the root of the whole matter:
The drum major is burdened with a
weighty secret. A deep mystery contin-
ually gnaws at his vitals. He knows when
the band is going to play! Hundreds of
thousands may be impatiently waiting for
the blare of the instruments, but it cuts
no ice with the drum major He holds
them off as long as his sovereign pleasure
deems fitting, and when he does conde-
scend to give the signal it is usually in the
next block, or perhaps couple of blocks
away. This is why the drum major walks
the earth with lordly air; the fact that
he knows something the public doesn't
puffs him up with pride and fills him with
lofty disdain. Therefore his stately pride;
therefore his swift manipulation of the
baton and his solemn dignity. The drum
major is one of the great institutions of
this favored land. The world could no
more get along without him than without
the milky way or the aurora borealis. For
| tunately, he has come to stay.
Kansas City daily journal., 1896-10-08
Gold in the United States.

From the Chicago Post.
One of the main props Of the silver argu-
ment is the alleged scarcity of gold in the
United States. Nothing makes the silver
tics frantic as the assertion that there
IS over $500. 100000 gold available for circu-
laticn and redemption in the United States.
They scornfully reject the figures of the
mint officials and assert that altogether we
have but little over 500, 600 600 of gold N
the country. 1t will be remembered that
Governor Altgeld dwelt on this vital point
IL his reply to Carl SchurZ, and gave al
legged statistics from report of Comp
troller Eckels in support of his contention
that the mint figures are untrustworthy.
Now the comptroller issues a statement
which plays havoc with the logic and
arithmetic of the silver agitators. 1t ap-
pears that last June letters were sent to all
OF the private banks in the country. and
that each was asked to submit an accu-
rate report of its holdings. Replies have
heen received from Sut 5.723 Institutions
onr of total of 12.9S2 addressed, but the
Information received though incomplete, is
OF such a character as to permit an ap-
proSimation to correct result, and dis
Iroves the arbitrary inf. rences of the sill
verites
The comptroller finds that the total gold
and gold certificate holdings of the banks
of the country July was $500. 1sS, SS'-, Add
:ng the free gold in the treasury at that
time. he finds that the available gold was
reserve is much higher. and hence the
available gold amounts at least to $780,
0aI CO.,
To these reported holdings We have to
add the gold in private hands. in the vaults
of banks and safety deposit companies and
in actual circulation. That the prevailing
distrrst has caused thousands to hoard
gold is undsputed. and hence the amount
of gold unreported must be exceptionally
large. 1t is no eNtravagant estimate to say
thGt there must be over 5000. eco of gold
in the United States available for monetary
use. When. therefore, the silver orators
assert that We have so little gold that even
its total disappearance would scarcely
cause the slightest tremor TO industry and
business. they make reckless statements
wh;c: have no foundation in the facts of
the actual situation. Since they have
chosen to rely on the eomptrollers report
of 1885, which was far less accurate than
that just published. they cannot complain
IL they are confutei by the figures from
ba
Kansas City daily journal., 1896-10-08

decide our future line of action. Bryan will
20 down in disastrous defeat and two-thlrds
of his followers will be shouting for gold
standard in two years from now. The in
famous treatment of Tom Watson will
make him the president of the United
States in four years from now. God reigns
and justice yet lives in the hearts of men.
This damnable conspiracy TO destroy this
great reform movement will surely fail.
Reforms do not move backward. Betrayed
and disgraced by its own leaders, it will
rise all the stronger for the ordeal through
which 1t is passing. noble opportunity
was Bryan's two months ago. He was not
equal to the occasion and the chariot
wheels of peoples vengeance will crush
him into oblivion. Let no true Populist
despair. Men may prove false, but prin-
ciples are eternal The Peoples party will
LIVE :,
Kansas City daily journal., 1896-10-08
DON'T LOOK LIKE SERFs.

Apparently the gold standard has not
ground the people of Kansas, Missouri and
neighboring states into absolute slavery
yet. The hundred thousand or more at
tending Kansas City's carnival festivities
this week give no evidences of degradation
and serfdom. The gold chains and bright
ribbons about their necks do not look like
marks left by the iron heel of plutocracy.
They are well dressed, seem to have been
well fed, and present, a prosperous appear
ance generally. After gazing at their hap
py countenances. II is difficult 10 believe
they are crushed hy the oppression uf u
grinding money pcw7r ~ are vir'i~'s - -
diabeIisaI conspiracy asalasl The au.Iaa
Kansas City daily journal., 1896-10-08
AN ALLY FOR WATSON.

In pursuance of his avowed determine
ton to secure recognition as the Populist
nominee for vice president or ''pry up hell"
Mr.. Thomas E. Watson. of Georgia. has Sc
cured a recruit in the person of L. c. Bate
man, late Populist candidate for governor
In Maine. Mr.. Bateman has addressed a
letter 10 the Populists OF Indiana in which,
after recounting the sellout of Allen.
Weaver. Taubeneck and other Populist
leaders TO the Democratic party, he says:
These traitors have played well their
part but they will fall short of accomp-
fishing thc- purpose. Allen was TO be re-
turned 10 the senate by the Democrats,
Weaver was 10 he the secretary of the in
terror. and the little lickspittle and stool
pigeon. Edgerton, to receive some small
Office that would fit his diminutive abilities.
The traitors and all others of the office
seeking brand will soon learn that IL is
one thing 10 sell out and betray noble
cause, but quite another thing to deliver
the goods.
Tom Watson has been ignored and in
suited in order 10 break down the influence
that he possesses with his party ard his
friends. The conspiracy is now laid bare
in all its hideous features. Mr. Bryan has
jus; gone thousand miles out of his way
10 hobnob and praise the plutocrat. Ar
thur Sewall. German, HILL Jones & Co.
are in fun control of his campaign. The
men who have labored for fifteen years TO
build m this movement and make its sue
cess possible are trampled upon by the
Office seeking gang who run the Demo-
cratic party. For proof Of this witness the
treatment they are giving that noble pa
triot. Paul Nandervoort. Here in Maine
they started in on the same lines of abuse
toward the writer of this letter, but soon
found they had caught a Tartar. The
fruit of their labor can be seen in the re-
turns of the late election here in Maine
They were buried under a majority so big
that they can never recover from the
shock"
After declaring, in the course OF a bite,
paragraph. that the Populists OF the United
States can have no hope of accomplishing
the reforms 10 which they are pledged BY
the election of Mr.. Bryan, and recountins
the fact that the Populists OF Maine hav,
scornfully rejected fusion. on the electora
ticket. Mr.. Bateman continues as follows
Use your great influence to bring abou
the same condition in the West. The in
famous sell-out in Kansas should be re
bukrd by the overwhelming defeat OF ever,
man, from Jerry Simpson down. who ha,
O hand in that outrage. Thank God th'
campo gn viii soon be over. Let MS thei
have a coafsEeace et uue PS9ulists aus
Kansas City daily journal., 1896-10-08
Mckinley. InImitnb,e Doorstep Talk.

From the Chicago POST
The speeches of William Mckinley, deliv
cred from his own doorstep, will be treas
ured as among the best specimens of pure
Saxon and classic oratory. They are mod
els of clearness. simplicity and strength.
Their diction Is of that quality which gath
ers worth by being read. Away from any
magnetism which the speaker may pos
sess. his addresses are read with pleasure
and proit by thousands who never saw
nor heard him. They appeal TO the head
as well as to the heart and TO the passions
not at all. In them is more than a sugges-
ton OF those old masters of oratory who
swayed the Rome Forum or made the
groves OF Greece eloquent fer nj, tine.
His address of Friday before the Virgin
ians recalls Paul before the -Athenians.
There is the same simplicity OF speech.
the same directness OF purpose. ''Ye men
of Athens" was no more dignified on Mars
hill than was that pertinent appeal at
Canton: What will 1t be. men of Ohio
and West Virginia. and the. former
prefacsd ~ atdIsss ne mVSe gcInarkae!e.
Kansas City daily journal., 1896-10-08
Nature Against Them.

From the New York Recorder.
The very stars in their courses are fight
ing against Bryan and free silver. Mother
Nature herself has just Joined the gold
standard conspiracy and become an acces-
scry after the fact to ''the crime of 1873"
Just when the Bryan orators are declaim-
ing their 1oudest on their favorite topic
the fall of wheat as an alleged conse-
quence of the fall in silver-along comes a
shortage in the wheat crops Of Russia, In
dia and Argentine. and up goes the price
Of American wheat. It has already ad-
vanced 13 cents a bushel within thirty days
and is likely to go higher vet,
Kansas City daily journal., 1896-10-08
ALL OVER MISSOURI.

Wild ducks are reported unusually plen-
tiful along the streams in Bates county.
Clinton sent a delegation of more than
500 Of it's citizens to participate in Kansas
City's fall festivities.
Carthage people bought 27s round trip
Kansas City tickets Monday, and Joplin
invested $3.50 in similar way.
John Malang, the miner orator, Is doing
effective campaign work for the sound
money cause down in the Southwest Mis-
souri, mineral district.
their appearance among the children in
Joplin, but not to such an extent as to
cause any alarm as yet.
Apaoret people put in their leisure time
digging holes In the ground in different
parts of the town where tradition locates
various pots Of gold coin buried during the
war.
People in East Joplin are complaining
that. the cars on the electric line run so
fast that their chickens and dogs are all
being killed OF, and the children are in
imminent peril.
OF course 1t followed as a matter of
course that the Jasper county free silver
ties would make a hopeless failure Of their
absurd effort to capture converts for the
cause Of calamity in Prosperity.
Times are so hard in Stanberry. accord
ing to one of the local papers. that a num-
ber Of the prominent young men of the
city have banded together and taken a
solemn oath to wear their summer UNDER
wear all winter.
Putting the hot wollops" to the opposi-
ton is a form of expression used in Tren-
ton to describe the treatment accorded By
the victorious Republican orators over
there to the vanquished Popocrat spouters
with whom the former have engaged in
joint debate.
A Blendyille woman who was so careful
and thrifty that she cut the buttons from
an old coat belonging to her husband that
she gave to a begger the other day. for
got until it was too late to take out a wad
of $i5 that she had sewed up in the lining
for safe keeping some time previous.
Stanberry Herald: They say that Rev.
Brown mistook a large swarm OF Grand
river gnats for bees few days ago and
made big effort 10 hive them. He piled
Dirt threw water. beat tin pans and went
through all the regulation naneuvers of
an old bee man before anyone arrived 10
inform him of his mistake.
Those who fancy that sort OF thing en-
ioyei the privilege in Chiilicothe the first
of the week in the trial OF the Mum YER
sus Mum suit. OF listening TO what IS as
sertey by connoisSeurs to have been the
most saiaciousiy filthy testimony ever
given in a divorce case in North Missouri,
A jefferson City paper tells of an ed
ucated hen in that city. one OF the peculiar
tiles of which is that it will not take water
except when compelled TO. and then oaly
through a hose. and the coincidence nat
ur-lly suggests Itself that some OF Jefr
Ciry's educated men are noted for the
same pecuiiarlty.
The Joplin News says the coiorei man
who has been hired by the Populstz there
10 make speeches against the Republican
ticket il u rank fraud. who has been max
ing a living or the public tor years by
working first oue fake and then another.
He tiissraced both himself ard those whose
tool he is the other night. when sent across
the lire into Kansas 10 make speech. by
.eIgias heipl=ss.y GEl.k-
Kansas City daily journal., 1896-10-08

race. These people have been living under
the gold standard for some time, and yet
they wear no appearance of having suf-
fered worse horrors than all the wars,
famines and pestilences since the world
began. They came with money in their
pockets. and are spending it freely in the
laudable endeavor to have good time.
1t is exhibitions of this sort that render
Bryan's harangues about the desperate con-
dition of the people so harmless. They
know that such talk is mere demagogic
claptrap. They know that their money is
all right and buys more than 1t ever bought
before. and the boy orator cannot con-
vince them otherwise if he should work his
mouth necessarily till another century
dawns
Kansas City daily journal., 1896-10-08
Might Try Trimetallism.

San Francisco News Letter.
The News Letter recommends Mr. Bryan
to raise his voice in favor of trimetallism.
Eimetallism may be well enough in its way.
but why not have three money metals in
stead of two? If the debtor could choose
between gold, silver and copper, instead of
gold and silver only, the chances Of getting
ahead of his creditor would be so much the
better. True, copper is a little bulky. but
that difficulty could be easily obviated, as
in the case of silver. by issuing copper GER
tifcates. Surely this country is "rich
enough and great enough" to set up a
financial system Of its own, and not be
forever following either the gold mono
metallism of England or the bimetallism
of the Latin nations of Continental Eu-
rope.
Kansas City daily journal., 1896-10-08
Bryan and bonds.


From the New York Press.
In his speech at Wheeling. W. Va, on
Thursday, Mr.. Bryan said:
They give us a bond issue. and then
they let the people recover a little from
that. until they are able to stand another
bond issue, and SO they keep 1t up and
tell us they are administering the most
tients - -
Who does. Mr. Bryan? What Republican
administration in your time has "given us
bond issue? Who tells you that they
are administering the most important
financial treatment to the patient?
After the resumption of specie payments,
following the war currency, Mr.. Bryan,
no Republican administration ever issued
dollar of bonds, and you know it. From
March, 1881. to March, 1893. Republican adj
ministrations and Republican revenue laws
reduced the interest-bearing debt from
81 l,66O,935, COO to $3.50, ,0Si, go. Not penny of
new debt was incurred, and the people of
this country We're relieved OF the burden
of paying interest on over billion dollars.
Until the Democratic free trade admins
tration with its Wilson tariff law brought
a financial plague to this country, there
were no bond issues-not a penny, not a
mill. There was nothing but a paying off
OF debt, wiping out of bonds.
You voted for the Wilson bill, Mr.. Bryan.
1ou were a member OF the ways and
means committee that framed it. You de-
manded heavier reductions of duties than
were made. You declared that protection
was curse. You asserted that you would
die for free trade.
You still stand for that free trade. Mr..
Bryan. Your Chicago platform indorses
1t, and you accept every word of its free
trade declarations. If you were elected
president your Wilson law would continue
to produce deficit which is now piiing up
at the rate of 100000 900 year.
You are responsible for the bond issues
you and Cleveland and the other free trad.
ers who destroyed the Mckinley tariff law
And II you We're elected president, those
bond issues would multiply over and over
again, for the Wilson law would make nc
more revenues for you than 1t has for
Grover Cleveland. 1t would make less
with the country in a panic and all values
wrecked.
When YOU talk about bond issues. Mr.
Bryan, you are as dishonest as when you
tell the wage-ear1ler in one breath that
his silver standard dollar will buy as much
as our present gold standard dollar, and
in the same breath YOU tell the farmer tina,
1t will buy only half as much. You can.
not tell the truth. because you do not know
what truth is.
Kansas City daily journal., 1896-10-08
Harrison ON Free Coinage.

From the Chicago Times-Herald.
Although nearly every sentence in Cen
eral Harrison's contribution to the October
Forum is a fusillade of keen-cut logic cal
culated to deHol:sh the works of the re-
pudiationists. his heaviest fire is directed
against the Compulsory dishonesty" in
volved in the free coinage scheme and the
fallaciouS contention that the gold dollar
has appreciated
1t seems to the ex-president that every
speech Mr.. Bryan has made affirms the
legal and moral right of the United States
to degrade its money standard, to pay its
obligations in debased coin, and TO give
its citizens the right to discharge their
debts in the same way. The doctrine that
the dollar of payment should be as good as
the dollar borrowed is repudiated by Mr..
Bryan with the counter-claim in behalf OF
the debtors of 1873, who, he intimates, were
injured by the dropping of the silver dol
lar from our coinage in that year.
The preposterous proposition that the
debtors of 1873 should be recouped from
the creditors of 1896 Is demolished by Cen
eral Harrison in the effective, sledgeham-
| mer style that is characteristic of the ex-
president. Mr.. Harrison shows that the
| debtor and creditor classes are not fixed
classes in this country. The debtor of 1873
may be the creditor of 1896. The counter
| claim pleaded in behalf of the debtors of
| 1873 would be levied on their own goods in
| considerable part and he paid to the men
| who are supposed to have despoiled them
| in 1873 The only bonds that run twenty
| five years are railroad and other corporate
| bonds. Among the creditors of these big
corporations. which are still in the debtor
class. are the thrifty poor, the widow, the
orphan and the disabled veteran. The
proposition is now that these great cor
porate debtors shall be compelled to dis
| charge their obligations in dollars worth
| one-haf of the dollars now in use.
| The other fallacy which General Harri-
| son explodes is the contention that the
| gold dollar is 200-cent dollar. that it has
| appreciated. The argument is that it takes
more wheat to get a gold dollar than form
erly. and therefore the gold dollar has
| gone up. taking no account of the effect of
| the increasing output in Russia. India and
Argentina upon the price of wheat. The
worlds production of gold shows an in
crease every year since 1873. hence If a
| large crop Of anything means a lower price
| then gold must have become cheaper. The
| silverites assume that the silver dollar has
been a true and stable measure of value,
that it has neither gone Up nor down since
| 1873. in spite of the fact that the produc-
| ton of silver has increased from 6s, ,267 ,1S7
| ounces in 1878 to 174.796. $40 ounces in 1895.
| How is this to be proved? Mr.. Harrison
very sensibiy concludes that the silverttes
| do not care to prove anything in this cam
| paign. The arraignment of the free cpin-
| age platform by the ex-presidert is clear.
| cut, incisive. logical and unanswerable.