Birmingham state herald., 1896-09-12

| for the purpose of electing him, and ! thereby more firmly riveting the shack les of a plutoerat!c oligarchy upon them. The above are only a few of the req sons why MT. Mckinley will be over whelmingly defeated on November 3, | 1S96
 THEIR INTERESTS ARE THE SAME. The argument that advocates of the | gold standard are making to railroad employees and other wage earners 1t ap- | pears is sufficient in itself to convince the | wage earners that 1t is infinitely to their own interest and to the best interest of all the people that Bryan be elected. These men are being urged to organize "sound money" clubs, which is only an- other name for gold standard clubs, on | the grounds that if Bryan is elected the | food and clothing the wage earner has to buy for himself and family will ad- vance in price They are being told in | this mannsr that McKinley's election means death and destruction to the l farmer. and for that reason are being urged to aid in the defeat of Bryan and | the election of Mckinley.
 Is it possible that there are any in- | telligent wage earners in the land who | want to see the agricultural interests of | the country destroyed? Are thers any men old enough to vote who do not know | that upon the prosperity of the farmers of the country depends the prosperity of the wage earners? Is it possible that | there are men in Alabama or elsewhere who can be made to believe other than that the farmers are the real backbone | of the country? Do the wage earners not know that starvation prices for the pro- | duets of the farm means starvation wages for the wage earners?
 Is it not clear to the man who works for wages and who is told that so far as he is concerned it would be far better if beefsteak was selling at cents per pound instead of 10, bulk pork at 3 cents instead of cents, flour at $2 per barrel instead of $4 cotton goods, shoes, etc., at half their present prices; that these are starvation prices for the agricultural interests of the country and that shortly his own wages must come down on level with the prices suggested? We can- not possibly expect prosperity to be the portion of the wage earners of America while the products of the agricultural class are forced on the market at ruinous prices. It is simply preposterous to ask intelligent men to believe such state ments.
 When a goldbug appeals to a wage earner to vote for the gold standard on the ground that the money he is now re- ceiving in wages will buy more of the products of the farmer than it would | buy under a financial system as ad- | vocated by Bryan and the democratic | party of the country he confesses that | the best interest of the agricultural peo- pie demands that Bryan be elected and must depend on the ignorance of the man l to whom he so appeals for the success | of his appeal.
 | Whatever is to the interest of the peo-
 pie who toll in the field to produce the
 bread and meat to feed the people of this
 country and the raw material out of
 which must come the cloth to clothe the
 people of this country is to the best inter-
 est of everybody except the few who prey
 upon and grow rich because of the mis-
 fortunes of others.
 As was well said by MT. Bryan in his 1 great speech before the Chicago conven-
 ton, "If you burn down your cities and
 leave your farms your cities will spring.
 up again as if by magic; if you destroy
 your farms the grass will grow up in the
 streets of your cities" Just so it is with
 the wage earners If they help to fasten
 upon this country financial system that
 will destroy the farmers of the country,
 just so sure are they engaged in pulling
 the temple down upon themselves. Where
 the farmers best interests lie there also
 will and must necessarily be found the
 interests of the wage earners.
 A congested and contracted currency
 means cheap agricultural products
 cheap agricultural products mean fewer
 wage earners and lower wages. There are
 today in this country fewer wage earners
 than there were few years ago who are
 earning wages. There are no wage earn
 CTS who are receiving as high wages as
 they received when the farmer was get
 ting 10 cents per pound for his cotton
 and $1 per bushe for his wheat As farm
 products fall in price wages fall, and not
 only do wages fall, but opportunities to
 earn wages at any price grow scarcer.
 Such being true-and every wage earn
 CT must be aware of the correctness of
 the propositon-why are wage earners
 asked to believe that a system that will
 advance the price of farm products will
 not operate to advance the wages of wage
 earners, as we'll as multiply the opportu-
 mites for earning wages? Is it true that
 the gold standard advocates discount the
 intelligence of the wage earners? In ap-
 pealing to them to vote for the gold
 standard because they can buy more of
 the products of agriculture with'a dollar
 the gold standard man should not forget
 neither should the wage earners lose
 sight of the fact, that dollar that will
 buy more corn, meat and wheat will also
 buy more toll, sweat and sacrifice on the
 part of the wage earner
 | =
 THE BALLOT OWNER.
 The eastern tory press has raised A l laiid l...aIe