Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1896-09-30

lure the farmers Oh tHS
Mr.. Lodge also brought out, what Mr..
Bryan was careful not to do, that
while one interest cannot receive IN
Jury without injury to all. yet one in
terest may suffer more severely than
another and that history and common
sense both prove that the degree OF
injury caused by deprecated dollar
is always greater in the case of the
man who depends upon his daily toll
and is not situated so that he can take
advantage of circumstances.
Bryan's statement at Lynn. however,
shows that when he was rant
ing about the "enemys country" he did
not know or did not care what he was
talking about. Also in this statement
to the shoemakers of Lynn. he demon
strated that he did not know what he
to put a wrong construction to it. He
left those of his hearers who may be
ignorant of existing conditions, to in
fer that the farmers of the West and
South are going barefooted because
prices are so low that they cannot
buy the shoes made in Lynn. Well. in
the first place the farmers of the West
and South are not going barefooted
Some of the farmers years ago in the
palmy times OF free silver dwelt upon
effusively by the Bryanites. did go
barefooted. They had few of the
luXuries now found in and about the
farmers homes, and some of those who
We're glad to get work at so cents a day
We're glad to go without shoes in the
warm weather provided they could get
enough to eat. They We're not great
consumers in those days and if the
population of today We're as small con-
sumers in proportion as We're those of
of the country and the shoemakers of
the country would be suffering from a
far worse condition than they are now
under the low prices Mr.. Bryan worked
so hard to bring about through the
medium of the Wilson bill and the de-
struction of confidence.
Now while Mr.. Bryan was endeavor-
ing to make the shoemakers of Lynn
believe that they must be paid in
cheaper dollars in order to find mar
ket for their product, Mr.. Lodge was
reminding the big wheat growers of the
West that if they raised the price of
their wheat by artificial means. they
| would also raise the price of everything
which they buy, and at the same time
, would reduce the purchasing power
and consequently the consuming ca
pacity of those who buy their wheat in
this country Artificial advances in
the price of your wheat will be a curse
instead of Il blessing, if by so doing you
ruin the market we create for you
1t should also be borne in mind that
Mr.. Bryan is not consistent. In the
same breath that he declares the bull
lion value of the silver dollar will rise
. to the bullion value of the gold dollar
I he talks about high prices The two
things are contradictory. The depre-
: ciated dollar is absolutely necessary
to bring up prices to the point the
Bryanites say they are going, and the
cheap dollar is what the repudiationists
want Along with the prices of today
which Bryan says are so low, we have
a greater volume of money in the
| country than ever before. 1t is not
active because those who have it have
not the confidence to risk it in the
midst of uncertainty 1t is awaiting
the death of Organism and the restora
ton of an American tariff, an6
| stable conditions and it would be just
as inactive, just as apprehensive OF
threatened changes and upheavals il
it We're twice its present volume and il
every dollar would buy twice or only
half as much as it Will now.