The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1896-08-20
Knocked out at Northport,
The Boy orators Encounter the Logic and Facts
OF an Advocate Of Honest Money.


of an Advocate Of Honest Money,
10 THE EDITOR OF The JOURNAL; Last
Friday evening the boy orators of the Passa-
waukeag addressed small meeting at
Northport and made the following state
ments; 1st. That all the farmers in the
county were losing money I'd, that the only
prosperous times this county had ever known
were previous to 1873 and that since then
bad times had almost continuously prevail
ed. Sd. That the cause of those prosperous
times was abundance of money, and the
present hard times were caused by scarcity
OF money. 4th. That the abundance of
money before 1873 was caused by the free
coinage of silver and that the present search
ty was caused by demonstration. 9th. That
the present low prices of farm products were
due to the above cause, and that all that
was necessary to make things hum was the
free and unlimited coinage of silver in the
United States at the ratio of Is to l. It
seemed perfectly clear to the speakers that
it was a very simple matter for the Govern
ment to double the value of some four thous-
and millions dollars worth of silver extant
in the world and that in some miraculous
way the price of everything else would leap
skyward in exuberent sympathy.
The audience, however, remained in
state of unreasonable depression until
upon to supplement the addresses of the even
ing. He said it was not a fact that the far
mers were all poverty stricken; that it was
not fact that times had been terribly bad
since 1873, but that never had the nation
achieved such prosperity as in the period
from 1873 to 1898, and that the last two years
of the last administration had been conspic-
uously prosperous; that the alleged hard
times could not be due to the demonetiza-
ton of silver in 1873, because we had coined
since then more than fifty times as many
silver dollars as had been coined in the
whole history of the country up to that time;
that the alleged hard times were not due to
the shrinkage of the currency, because the
money issue had nearly doubled since 1873;
that the low price of wheat was due to large
ly increased supply from India, Argentina,
and other free silver countries where labor
was from to Is cents per day. In short
the quiet gentleman utterly demolished
every statement of the previous speakers to
which he at all alluded.
Continuing, he said the cause of the pres
ent depression may be first seen when, in
1892, party pledged to free trade carried the
country. The manufacturers seeing that raw
material would be cheaper curtailed produc-
of do o,I -hoJ,
cheaper goods were coming on the market,
withheld orders from the mills. In conse-
quence men We're thrown out of employ
ment. They, in turn, ceased to buy and the
effects We're everywhere felt, in every line
of business from the city to the farm. About
S9o.O00,000 worth of goods We're now each
year bought abroad which our people for
merly made at home, ard of course we miss
this money in our business and good many
people have no work to do. Up to this point
nobody eentured to dispute q single assertion
made.
Pending discussion on the maintenance
of the parity of gold and silver good many
questions We're asked and answered and the
boys gave it up as bad job. The quiet gen.
tlemen then turned and said, "Now, may
ask one question: In what way and to what
extent will free silver benefit the farmers ?'
1t was the first information he had asked for
and hush fell on the meeting lasting until
one of the speakers leaped to his feet and
poured forth a fervent philippe against the
bankers, the coal barons and the railroads
Whe,l he at last paused for breath the quiet
gentleman said with smile, "My friend,
you Wander-from the subject'-and the
meeting adjourned.
After the meeting one of the speakers told
the writer that he would have talked differ
emily had he supposed he was speaking to
an intelligent audience-a great compliment
to his audience
One WHO WAS PRESENT,