Omaha daily bee., 1896-05-17
ONLY A METAL PURCHASING POWER:

And tho man who owns the dollar will
prosper while the people suner.
ONLY \ METAL PURCHASING POWER.
The Result of Free and Jnlimitcd
Coinage.
Mr.. Bryan aeks whether or not the ma
chinery in The Omaha Bee has also caused
a reduction in the price of The Omaha Bee?
My friend is not we'll posted about the
newspaper business. The price OF The
Omaha Weekly Bee when 1t was eight pages,
three or four years ago, was 81 per annum.
1t is now 65 cents a year for twelve pages.
The Omaha Daily Bee contains three times
the reading matter now that It did when the
price of composition was 40 cents per 1000
ems. The cost of the Geographic dispatches
at the present time is at least four times as
high as 1t was before the ptice Of paper
declined; so that so far as the cheapening
Of commodities is concerned the publishers
of the press have followed suit by cheaper
ing their papers and improving their quality.
You can today buy the most beautiful maya
zine at from 5 to 10 cents. Doesn't taat olow
the result of machinery, or does 1t SHOW the
agitation of free and unlimited coinage?
Applause.) DO you think you could get any
more scent magazines to read Tor the COM
mon people, which reach hundreds OF thou-
sands of families now, where formerly the
higher priced magazines were Olly WITHIN NhS
reach of the rich. The cheapening of prices
has not been an unmiXed evil. while II mas
caused much hardship, it has also been OF
great benefit to the people OF the United
States.
our friend has talked a great deal about
this enc. question:: why 10 the creditors Of
the country appear so much interested in the
gold stan1ard?'
VOLUME OF THE CURRENCY.
Why, because the creditors Of the country
are loaning that kind of money and are
asked to loan that kind of money. Uncle
Sam would not accept anything else. NOW
then. we are told that there has been a
great shrinkage in the volume of currency
in the last year. Well, that Is wonderful.
In the last year there has been a great
ehrlnkage and silver went up, HOW aces
that come? An ounce OF silver now is worth
Ga cents. and it was only worth GO cents two
wears agu. But let me tell him whether IL is
| not true that the volume OF primary money is
at least ten ines greater now than IL was
in 1875. two years after the great crime;
and that the volume of all money is nearly
| double what 1t was in 1878. How is 1t then
| that in spite of the doubling OF the volume
of currency you have not been abie TO stop
| the downward trend of prices? (Applausel
You know the reason why. American
| mechanical ingenuity. the cheapening OF
| transportation, the introduction OF the tele-
graph and of the telephone and electric
lights. electric motors and all the devices OF
modern civilization brought WITHIN the
means o. man have cheapehcI e"hinnou''i.s,
| You know that is the fact. But there are
those who make capital out of discomfort
| and they are like the old negro VINO, Mheh
asked how he was getting aiohg' salu' = an
| getting along very poorly, thank God: Ihey
are all the time thanking Coo .nat .hes III
| getting along very poorly. Laughter.
The fact is, it would be Impossible LOT any
man to make a safe prediction, admitting
! that there might be an advance III Tue piies
| of silver. The moment that silver was co.heu
in infinite quantities and that the silver
! dollar brought to the mint was not worm
more than, say rs cents, the goiu ooi,
lar would be at a premium OF 20 Genus anu
| would be entirely out or clrcuia'ion, W
man who had a gold dollar, or paper doiiar
that was exchangeable Tor gold SEu,u '1 Tha
of exchanging 1t for a silver doiiar. Inc
silver dollar would then be in the shape OF
| the same money that they have in MEXICO.
It would have a purchasing power exactly
| the same as the metal that is in II.
Is that the condition that the lnteligeh'
people of the United states "ant W p''he'
their country into?
Is there any benefit to the poor man. the
wage-worker, salaried man, OF any nan Mno
works for a living, in raising prices anu
making the few dollars that ne earns pu'I
| chase so much less than they do now! !
fail TO pee where the debtor farmer can De
benefited. If every creditor in the lahd anu
cut of the land who had a dollar oi ihohey
loa ned out in this country Wcuiu liiheuia'ets
enforce his demands for the return OF MS
money at once there would be a crash follow
| ing that enactment of free silver such as you
never witnessed before.
Now then, Mr.. Bryan, explain to us what
made the panic of 1873. No conspiracy pe-
fore that, no crime perpetrated before tha''
| although crimes innumerable were perpe-
trated by silver decentralization and deprecla,
| ton. but yet, in spite Of that, the people OF
| the United States in 1887, when we mad Tree
and unlimited coinage, witnessed one OF .he
most disastrous depreciations and crises tha'
| has ever overtaken the nation; ana again
in 1857. and again in 1873.
Now. will these great wiseacres explain
how II came that the people were WORKING
at merely nominal sum in 81 and ABOUT
that time wheat in the state OF ono was
| selling from 8 to 10 cents a bushel ana they
had no means of conveying 1t to market pc
cause the transportation cost was so much
greater than the amount they could rear
lie. I can remember personally when WORK,
ingmen were glad to saw a cord OF "hru
wood. of hickory. in the city OF cleveland,
in 1860. for rs cents, and 1t took ten hours
wors to do It. In those days OF free anu
Infinite coinage they were not ape 10
| purchase as much OF the commodities oi
| life. necessities of lie. as they DO touay
for their money. And yet these people are
told that this will be a betterment OF the'r