Twice-a-week plain dealer. (Cresco, Howard County, Iowa) 1895-1913, 1896-08-04
Barley versus Oats.

in the matter.--Penny Press
Barley versus Oats.
On the 10th of July, 1896, delega-
ton of old soldiers called on candi-
date Mckinley. The candidate APP
pealed to the veterans of the late war
whose courage and patriotism had
contributed to the preservation of
the Union and the liberation of four
millions of chattel slaves, to maintain
the gold STANDARD as the only means
whereby the credit of the government
can be preserved. Mr.. Mckinley APP
peared to be wholly ignorant of the
fact that the sacrifices made for the
preservation of the Union and the
liberation of chattel slayes were not
intended to result IN the enslavement
of the masses of the civilized world.
He did not allude to the fact that q
conspiracy was formed Immediately
after the war to enslave, through
financial manipulation, all the eople
of the United States. He did not in
innate to the soldiers that one-half of
the metallic money of the world had
been destroyed by the combination
of which he was part. He did not
tell them that the credit of the gov
eminent had been destroyed by the
destruction of the prosperity of the
people; he did not inform them that
falling prices and hard times, which
afiict the whole country, were the re-
suit of the gold standard which he
calls upon them to maintain; he did
not tell them that there was no pos
sible way to maintain the gold stan
dard but by the perpetual increase of
of the national debt, the perpetual
fall of prices, stagnation and ultimate
ruin; he appealed to them to abandon
the government for which they
fought, and.to carry the colors of an
alien gold trust; he did not tell them
that he was under bonds to sink the
government credit lower and lower.
All this he concealed from them. If
some old soldier in the audience had
been able to inquire of him as follows,
it would have been intere sting to
know what answer he would have
given:
Suppose, Major Mckinley, you had
owned an unincumbered farm in Ohio
and had contracted with a merchant
to deliver to him the following year a
thousand bushels of oats or a thous-
and bushels of barley, at your option;
and suppose further, that you had
employed an agent and given him a
power of attorney to buy and sell real
estate and personal property and
manage all your business as fully and
as completely as you yourself could
have done, and after having given
him such power of attorney you had
gone on long journey to Europe
and suppose further, that the follow
ing year the barley crop of the coun.
try was a failure, and the oat crol
was abundant, and that in conse
quence of it barley had become very
dear and oats remained about the
usual price; and suppose further; the
merchant had called on your agent
and demanded payment in barley
and told your agent that your credit
would be ruined unless you gave hin
: the option to demand barley, ant
. that your agent, to sustain your cred
it, had complied with the demand O
the merchant and mortgaged you
}. farm and bought the barley and de
livered it to the merchant, and thel
suppose you had returned home an,
: found your granary full of oats an,
your farm mortgaged to buy parle,
a to comply with the contract whicl
y gave you the right to pay in oats
, would you have approved of this cor
r duct OF. your agent? If not, why d
n you tell us that the agents of til
:. government and people of the Unitet
a States are right in plunging thi
q country in debt to buy gold to pa
y obligations which by contract wer
payable in silver as we'll as gold?"
The man who can stand before q
y audience of old soldiers and appeal t
4 them to sustain the damnable polio
:. of Sherman and Cleveland in wreck
o ing the finances of this governmer
e in the name of honest money is to
n ignorant or too Enthusiastically to b
>: President of the United States, -Si
l. yer Knight.
II -