Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1896-09-09
WHY THE FARMERS ARE FOR
BRYAN.

TO the Editor of the Alexandria Gazette:
When corn is sold within forty miles
of the capital Of the nation for less than
half of the cost of production, namely,
for fifteen cents bushel, then the ag
ricultural portion of the country is very
near bankruptcy. That this is owing
to the fact of there being an unusually
large crop deny, for having travelled
several hundred miles in different di-
rections and observed the crop closely
| am convinced that it was much in
iured by the hot wave that swept over
the country and that when gathered
aud housed it Will this State be found
to be hardly up TO the average, while in
several other States it is a complete
failure The true reason why one hun
dred barrels OF corn has been sold for
seventy-hve dollars, as was the case
recently near here, is the extreme
scarcity of money and the disincina.
ton of the few holders of it to invest in
grain when they hope for chance to
Invest in other property at much
g.eater sacrifice. came across a re-
turn of sale OF four thousand and five
bushels of corn, sold on May II, 1855, in
your city for NE, by Jas. II. Simpson,
3,505 bushels at one dollar and six
cents a bushel and the other five
hundred bushels at one dollar
and five cents, and in the currency of
our fathers. What contrast in price
What are farmers to do now if it costs
more to raise crop than it sells for?
And consequently what is to become OF
The laborers? If corn is only 5 cents
hushel and man can't get the five
cents he must starve. In the language
of the ancient mariner Water, water
everywhere, and not drop TO drink
There are hundreds Of thousands of la
borers now out of employment, and if
the gold bugs defeat the will of the
people by preventing the election of
Bryan by the use OF their stagnated
money, then the end in my opinion is
in sight. The principle on which the
doctrine of democracy was founded, to
wit, the rule of the majority, has been
recognized in all of the conventions, in
Guiding the one recently held in Chi,
cago, in which Bryan was nominated
and the bimetallic platform platform
adopted by a majority of more than
two-thirds. In spite of this strong
party manifestation, few sore heads.
disgruntled at not having their own
peculiar views adopted, have endeavor
ed to override the will of the majority
by holding bobtail convention and
nominating a ticket which they know
cannot carry single State. I have
heard of the tail aspiring to wag
the dog, but never bobtail, $50
help me Bob" How much more man
ly it would have been to have gone
over to the republicans and voted for
Mckinley. There is such thing as
saving at the spigot and wasting at the
bung, and l believe that most righteous
and Just act of Congress, the income
tax, would have proved blessing in
disguise to the pluIocrats, and they
will yet curse the night in which the
Judge, who cast the deciding vote,
changed his mind. l think it within
the range of possibilities, if not of prob
abilities, that within the next few years
this country may see a revolution
compared with which the French revo-
luton will seem but tempest in
tea pot" am afraid that the speca.
Gle recently presented in some of our
cities of the crowds bending the knee
to the gold Chinee, may make some OF
our plutocrats dissatisfied with only
| possessing hundred millions and urge
them to more strenuous exertions in
robbiDg and enslavimg the laboring
man. The present condition of things
in our old State demands the immedi-
ate attention of Gov. O'Ferrall, who
should at once convene the legislature
for the passage of some act to prevent
the people from being despoiled of the
remnant OF their deprecated property.
E. B.
Wakefield, Prince William county, Va,
Sept Sth.