Omaha daily bee., 1896-10-17
tRkn SILKhR ANn rRrE rRApE.


1t Is perfectly apparent that the hope
of the free silver party now Is In secur-
Ing the support of the nborng classes.
Mr.. Bryan and the other leaders Of that
party are directing all their efforts 10
that end and are stopping ut nothing
which they think will serve to set work
ingmcn in opposition 30 employers and
to incite in the ranks Of labor hostility
| toward capital. The men who few
years ago Mr.. Bryan characterized as
"public beggars," because they asked for
protection to labor. he Is now appealing
to To vote for the Chicago ticket. lie
does not explain to them how they would
b. benefited by the success of that
ticket. He does not show them how
! they would get more work or more
wages under u silver standard than
under Il gold standard. Whenever he
has been asked to tell labor wherein 1t
would derive any advantage from the
unlimited coinage of silver he has
| cvaded the question. This because
neither he nor any other advocate of
free silver can give Il single sound rea-
son why the wage Garner would be
helped by that policy. If the free coin
age OF silver would debase the currency,
as the supporters of sound money con
tend the wage Garner would inevitably
suffer to the extent of such debascmcnt.
on the other hand, if free coinage
should make silver worth S1.29 an
ounce. as some of the silver advocates
assert would he the case. the wage
Garner would gain nothing. since he
would receive for his labor dollars hav
ing the same purchasing power as at
present. Free silver promises no adj
vantage TO labor either in better en-
ployment or better wages, but 1t does
| threaten great injury to labor in pro-
| ducing industrial paralysis and in di-
minishing the purchasing power of
wages. This should be sufficient to in
ducc every workingman who has regard
for his own and his familys interests
to refuse to support the cause of free
silver.
/ But there is another respect in which
labor is almost equally concerned in the
| defeat of the Chicago ticket. 1t stands
| for free trade as well as free silver. Mr..
Bryan has ignored the tariff question in
the campaign because he did not dare
attempt to defend the tariff law which
he helped to frame. The loss to both
labor and capital under the operation
of that law, its destructive effect upon
our industries with corresponding
benefit to foreign Industries, to-
gethcr with its failure as a
revenue measure, are facts which
Mr.. Bryan, with all his arts of
| sophistry, could not explain away and
| therefore he has had nothing to say
about the tariff. But none the less he
| is rs implacably opposed TO protection
now as he was when i'm tire house of
| representatives four years ago he de-
| clared 1t to be "the most vicious politl-
| cal principle that had ever cursed this
| country" Nothing is more certain than
| that the election Of Mr.. Bryan and n
congress in harmony with him would
| give the country an economic policy
| from which every vestige of protection
| to American industries would be elimi-
| nuteu ana our lllTkclS thrown open 10
the nearly unrestricted competition of
| the products of the cheaper labor of
Europe What this would mean every
| intelligent workingman can understand.
| American industries would have to go
| TO the wall or the wages of American
| labor would fall TO the European stand
ard. One of these things would be inevi-
| table and the most probable thing to
| happen would be decrease in the pay of
| labor. Are American workingmen pre-
pared to take chances on this for the
sake of trying n free silver experiment?
1t would be to think poorly of their com
mon sense, of their ability to judge what
Is best for themselves, to assume that
they are. They may not fully under
stand the silver question, but they know
what protection means for the great ma
jority of them have had experience with
it and realized its benefits. And having
this knowledge we confidently believe
that the more intelligent and unpreju
diced among them will vote for the
policy which assures II market for labor
Mt American wages.
----
LEGAL OPINIONS WHILE YOU WAIT
1t is poor lawyer who can't take up