People's voice. [volume] (Wellington, Sumner County, Kansas) 1890-1917, 1896-10-01
WELLINGTON SUMNER COUNTY, KANSAS THURSDAY OCTOBER 1896

worth $40 in commodities? But he
neglected to say that the Mexican dol.
lars would buy just as much Of Mexi.
can products now as tney would when
they were at par with our dollars. He
said nothing Of the enormous protec-
tiOn the Mexican has in raising his
cattle liz competition with our farm
ers, and getting $40 head for them
where our farmers get only $40.
He read from a French monetary
report to show that during the "a
years which France had bimetallism,
one or the other metals was not in
actual circulation. He did not like
the idea OF voting for Bryan as prom
ised, so he shifted his proposition to a
parity of circulation rather than q
parity of the metals. No one has ev-
er claimed that unlimited coinage
will always bring a parity of circula.
tion, and in putting up this plea, Mr..
Long played the demagogue. The
theory Of bimetallism is that when
the debtor has the right to pay in
either metal they are at his command;
and that selashness will prompt him
to use the cheaper metal, the de-
mand for which will thereby increase
until the parity is reached and per-
hapS passed, when the same perform
ance would be gone through with the
other metal. With only one metal at
his command, the stress is so great as
to cause it to appreciate, which is
shown by the fall of prices Of all other
products. silver included. Bimetal-
lism would make a larger volume of
redemption money to draw upon,
maintain steady prices as well as to
prevent the people Of the silver stan
dard countries from having an unfair
advantage in the markets Of the
world.
Mr. Long wound up by declaring
that what was needed was not a
change of standard but a change to
protection.
SIMPSON REPLIES.
Jerry came back at Long like a
thousand Of brick and set the audi
ence wild with enthusiasm.
He showed that prosperity under
protection was myth; that it was
the hard times that turned the Re
publican party out and he did not
know that we were any better off by
the change. The hopeful feature
now is that we have the Clevelands,
and the Shermans and the Longs all
in one party and that we will clean
out the whole outfit in November.
He made sport Of the flee trade cry.
We had not had a taste Of free trade
yet. The present Wilson bill was a
higher tariff than any we have ever
had excepting the Mckinley bill. He
was a free trader from principle but
since the supreme court had declared
direct tax unconstitutional we must
raise our revenue to run the govern
ment by tariff and it is probable that
we will need even more revenue than
we are getting now. So no one need
be alarmed about free trade.
he chided Chester about voting to
raise his salary 800 a month by pro-
viding for clerk in vacation as well
as during the session. He (SimpsOnl
had voted against a measure provid-
ing for clerk during the session only.
He got even with Chester's "vote
for Jerry Simpson and get a dollar a
bushel for your wheat" circular Of
1894, by saying that wheat actually
advanced to so cents bushel while
he was in congress, while under Ches-
ter it had gone down TO 35 cents.
He also charged that Long was for
free silver in 1894 and got many votes