The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1896-09-15
DEsPER ALTON OF THE ANTI-sIL-
YER MEN.

It is really amusing to note the fran
| tic efforts Of the anti-siiver men to
trace the present depression in business
| to Mr. Bryan's nomination. They all
declare that he has no chance of being
elected, yet they are almost all saying
that his candidacy is affecting business
very adversely. They are mixing them
selves up very badly as to the causes
I of the present depression. The New
York Herald recently had a two col
umn article telling of the bad effects
of Mr.. Bryan's candidacy and giving
a list of mills that had been closed in
consequence. It says that any one who
has given a passing thought to the
question of this agitation for free silver
cannot fail to realize that the country
is paying dear for it. Business, it
says, is stagnant, mills are shutting
down. failures are increasing, imports
are at a low ebb, the banks are hus-
banding their resources, new projects
are abandoned and the work on many
under way has been suspended, values
have been wiped out in securities and
]
the contraction and the blow at capital,
which is inseparable from labor. And
all this because of the just demand for
the free coinage of silver. But this is
not all
What the expense Of the theory of IS
to is, says the Herald, can be shown
in part by the business failures, the
falling off in imports, the reduction in
the volume of bank exchanges, the
shut downs Of mills, factories and
mines, the shrinkage in stock values,
decreased railroad earnings and de-
cline in the price of farm products and
manufacturers output, the postpone
ment of undertakings projected and
the suspension Of those under way.
Isn't the Herald "piling on the ago
ny?" 1t goes on to say that we heard
little OF 10 to l as a party slogan in
1892. and thence it was a prosperous
year" Major Mckinley, John Sherman
and others who are ardent advocates
of the gold standard are telling the
people that the year 1892 was a pros
porous year because the Republican
party was in power and the Mckinley
bill was in force.
The Herald figures out that the loss
consequent upon the agitation for free
silver in forty-seven leading stocks
alone is S412, 459, 900. And figures can
not lie. Why it stopped at such an
insignificant figure as that we cannot
understand. 1t gives a long list of
concerns that have closed down in
consequence of the silver propaganda.
as it alleges. The financial doctors
of the McKinleyites attribute these
closing-downs to hostile tariff legisla-
ton. The Herald and many of the to-
day staunchest gold standard papers
attributed the tremendous break in
stocks last December to Mr. Cleve-
lands Venezuelan message. The large
Withdrawals Of gold from the treasury
which precipitated a panic and neces-
STATED the bond issues, were attributed
by Mr. Cleveland to a vicious currency
system, the endless chain system,
whereby every facility was afforded
for the enptying of the treasury of its
gold. The Herald complains that the
falling off in imports is due to the sill
yer agitation also. According to the
theory of the gold standard champion,
Mr.. Mckinley, this is most desirable
thing
The truth is that the opponents of
free silver are trying to lay all the ills
to which flesh is heir to the silver pro-
paganda- This makes many of their
charges ridiculously amusing. But if
drowning men catch at straws, who
can blame them?