davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1896-10-19
CAUSE OF THE RISE IN WHEAT.

On Saturday December wheat closed at
will be further advances. This condition is
not due to manipulation by Mark Hanna
and other Republicans, as the Popocrats
have affirmed: nor is it because Mr.. Bryan
has made a price, as he proposed to do for
eggs, at which wheat may sell. If Mr..
Bryan could have. made a price for wheat
during the campaign he would nave given
it a very low figure.
The cause for the advance in wheat is
found in the unwritten but unrepealable
law of supply and demand. The world
finds itself with a short wheat crop. The
United States consul-general at ST. Peters
burg estimates the worlds harvest this
year as 1S5, AS, 542 bushels less than last
year. This is not a very large part of a
total crop, but it is enough to make the diff
ference in the markets to which the worlds
surplus tends between a full and a short
supply. 1t is probable. however, that the
shortage is much greater THAI the figures
Of the consul-general at st. Petersburg in
dictate. Australia, which exports wheat
usually, is using that raised in this country.
- III LII
dia, which will make that country an i'm
porter rather than an exporter of bread
stuff. The Gripping of a few countries
which produce even small SURPRISES will
very materially affect the prices.
1t has been the London market, which is
the market to which all wheat SURPRISES
tend, that has led in the advance Of prices
In the American markets., which sustains
the claim that the price of wheat is made
and has been made for years in London.
All the attempts which have been made to
force up the prices of wheat in Chicago by
cornering lave failed. Sooner or later the
surplus win make the price.
In this connection it is fair to call atten-
ton to the fact that while wheat and near
= every other farm product has been ris-
ing silver bullion has declined, thus illus
trating the utter absurdity of the vehe-
mently asserted claim that a necessary of
life and a. metal which is not are insepara-
bly, connected in price-rising and falling
together. Silver has been falling the past
two months because the supply is some
what in excess of the demand. Wheat has
risen sixteen cents during the same period
because it has been discovered that the
supply is short. Thus the action of the
markets under natural causes has knocked
the foundation from under the imposing
fabric which the champions of the scheme
of the silver mine owners have built for
the farmer. What sound-money advocates
may not have been able to do. the working
of natures law has done. That is. it has
ruined the silverites' argument for the
farmer.
The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1896-10-19
A FAMILIAR TOPIC IN A NEW LIGHT

A recent work entitled 1.-The War Of the
Standards by Albion w. Tourgee, treats
some phases of the money question in an
interesting way. Mr.. Tourgee has been a
somewhat prolific writer in other fields,
and this essay in that of finance shows
the hand of a. clear thinker and practiced
writer. Much of the ground traversed has
become familiar with those who have fol-
lowed public discussion during the last few
months, but no matter how we'll worn a
topic is, it may always be presented from
a new point of view. Mr.. Tourgee regards
the monetary legislation of the United
States from 1873 to 1898 as a continuous
coinage experiment. 1t consisted mainly
of four acts, viz, that of 1873, which adopt
ed the gold standard and stopped the coin
age of silver dollars without demonetizing
those already coined; the act of 1878, known
as the Bland act; the modification of that
act by the Sherman act in 1850, and the re-
peal of the purchase clause of this act
in 1898. To these may be added, as minor
features of the programme, the various
measures adopted during the same period
intended to stimulate the use and circula-
ton of silver coins and their equivalents,
silver certificates. This legislation" says
Mr.. Tourgee, extending over a period of
twenty years. supplemented, as it has been,
by almost incredible exertions of success
sive Secretaries of the Treasury to give it
effect, is well entitled to rank as the most
stupendous experiment ever made in the
lcng-continued battle of the standards hay
ing for its object the maintenance of par
ity between two coin metals 1t was in
deed a stupendous experiment, being moth
ing less than an attempt by the greatesA
country on earth, single-handed and alone,
TO resist the inevitable operation of the
natural aw of evolution in the monetary
world and to accomplish by itself some
thing which all other commercial countries
had united in declaring impossible of ac-
complishment even by joint action. viz. to
The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1896-10-19

been extensive enough to cause a great
tacle of a candidate for the presidency
flying about the country and trying to
make a thousand speeches in q thousand
hours, speaking in his night-gown and
advertising meetings for women only is
disgusting enough, but the assessment
business is scandalous. That Bryan is not
insensible to the criticisms which the pro-
ceeding has called out is shown by his
declaration that he is not responsible for
it and that he is entirely in the hands of
the party managers. 1t has not been long
since he was rather anxious to have it
understood that he was entirely out of
the and of the party managers and was
running the campaign to suit himself. but
when it becomes desirable to shift the
odium Of a very offensive proceeding he
lays 1t all on the party managers. He is
his own campaign manager when there
is any glory in it, but in the hands of the
be shouldered. Mr.. Bryan is "a slick
citizen" No doubt the truth of the mat
ter is that he is a party to the assessment
business and gets his share of the pro-
ceeds. After lecturing for the receipts of
the house and talking for free silver for
four years he is not going to talk for
nothing. OF course he will be defeated,
but financially he will come out ''ahead of
the game"
The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1896-10-19
err, the following are taken:

These are xamole sufficient to enable
the wage Garner to come to the conclusion
how much better off he is with his present
wages and the present prices in the gold
country, where the PoDocrats declare that
| everything is going to ruin anu desolation,
than are those in the same employment in
Mexico, which Silas NJ. Shepard, in his
pamphlet derived from official reports
and other reliable sources says is Sin a
very prosperous condition" ]. is prosper
Gus for capitalists. the owners of large es-
tates, and particularly for the silver mine
barons like Senator Stewart, who own
mines in that country.
Not long since a Mexican official in this
country, while speaking in glowing terms
of the progress of Mexico, admitted that
there had been no material advance in
wages. That is, wages are nominally about
the same now as ten years ago-but how
about their purchase power? Measured by
our money, the Mexican silver dollar was
worth about II cents in 1886. During the
past two years a United States silver dol
lar could be exchanged for two Mexican
dollars. Thus it appears that in the lead
ing articles of merchandise the purchase
power of the Mexican silver dollar has
Shrunk q cents. To have kept pace with
the shrinkage of the purchase power of the
silver money with which labor is paid,
wag should have advanced 30 per cent.
Instead of advancing, wages have re-
manned stationary on their face, while the
value of the dollar has fallen So per cent.
The dollar is the same in size and name,
but it has lost q cents of its power to pur-
chase in ten years. General Harrison stig-
matized such money as dirty dollars whose
first dirty errand is to cheat the wage
earners. That is what they are doing in
Mexico, and that is what they would do
The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1896-10-19

Major Mckinley continues his free coin
age of economic aphorisms. In one of his
speeches on Saturday he said: Business
makes money, money does not make bust
ness and putting it in another form he
said: when confidence comes money gvill
come" There is more truth in these pithy
sentences than in all the speeches Bryan
has made. With q return of confidence
there VIII be a restoration of business, and
the greater the legitimate demand for
money the more our own stock will seek
investment and the greater will be the in
fUx from abroad,
The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1896-10-19
WHEAT AND SILVER.

Wheat has advanced recently about is
cents a bushel. while silver has declined.
This is a crushing blow to che free silver
ites.-Cannelton Recorder.
The rise of Is cents in the price of wheat
has knocked the gold appreciation myth
into smithereens in the estimation of farm
ers in the wheat-growing -Statcs.-Orleans
Progress.
The market price of the silver in a dollar
on Monday was 1875 cents. This is a fall OF
8 cents recently. In the meantime wheat
went up 10 cents. and is holding ON to II
pretty closely.-Lagrange Standard.
TIL price of wheat has gone up and the
price of silver has gone down since Bryan's
nomination. This will cause honest Popu-
lists and Popocrats 10 leave out "a part of
their prepared speeches.-Seymour Repub-
Hcan.
While wheat has gone UP 1875 cents per
bushel silver has gone down 5 23 cents per
ounce. And still Bryan is going about the
country proclaiming that everything must
go up and down with silver.-Richmond
Palladium.
Wheat for the past thirty days has been
playing havoc with the oft-repeated and
well-worn theory that the price of wheat
and silver always go up and down together,
for while wheat has been advancing silver
has been declining News.
The silver and wheat story does not hold
together this year. The fact is, no more
relation exists between the price of wheat
and silversthan between any other two
commodities. Wheat has steadily advanced
since September, while silver has declined.
Anderson Herald.
Wheat rules about Is cents higher than
it did a couple of weeks ago, but silver has
gone down about s cents an ounce, and the
market is dull and ifeless, with a down
ward tendency. Silver prices and wheat
prices do not rise and fall together. as the
silverites claim.-Crawfordsviiie Journal.
The price of wheat continues to so up.
the price of silver down. Little Willie OF
the Platte, riding his stick horse and armed
with a tin sword and a paper cap. is in a
wonderland. where all the wheat shocks
are dancing a jig and ali the silver rodents
are disappearing eadhrst I'm their holes.
-Muncie News.
Wheat advanced IS cents in September
and Is still advancing. Silver sold for 81
cents an ounce on Sept. I, for 651. cents on
Sept. 90 and 6iA cents on Oct. 2. But
Bryan. with an utter disregard OF facts.
continues TO tell the farmer that the price
of their wheat goes down in company with
silyer.-Mishawaka Enterprise.
The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1896-10-19
INDIANA NEWSPAPER OPINION.

Free silver means higher prices. but low
err wages.-Warren Republican.
As a presidential globe trotter Bryan
beats all OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES Banner.
Free silver may do for Mexico but not
for the United States.-Kendallville Stand
ard.
Mr.. Bryan rests on Sunday, and thus
the winds are given a chance.-Lafayette
Call.
Good money never made bad times, and
bad money never can make good times.
Madison Courier.
This is a Republican fight for honesty
and prosperity against reputation and deg
radation.-Rloomfield News.
The treasury deficit continues TO grow.
And yet Bryan says he has no time to
devote TO the tariff.-Tipton Advocate.
Destruction of credit means destruction
of commerce and destruction of
means idle mills and laborers.-Attica
Ledger.
Bryan tells his audiences that the Amer
lean dollar Is too good; 1t buys too much.
If only the people who believe they can
The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1896-10-19

1t IS one of the encouraging indications
that bodies representing organized labor
can no longer be induced to adopt resolu-
tons favoring the free coinage of silver, as
has often been the case in the past. That
element in this State, more or less political.
was so confident that it could put a free
coinage resolution through the State con-
vention of the Labor Federation that 1t
was announced in several papers. When
the resolution came up it was assailed
vigorously by delegates who a year ago
would nave voted for it. AS the result of a
prolonged contest the resolution was laid
over to the next annual meeting by a vote
of two to one. While such meetings con-
tain many earnest and able men, a con-
siderable number of delegates who attend
are better known in politics than in fac
tories. and very naturally they strive to
use their organizations to promote their
political aspirations. Those unions which
keep clear of politics are the strongest and
most Influential.
The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1896-10-19

The New York Sun has unearthed the
message of the Governor of Mississippi to
the Legislature of that State, fifty years
ago, advising Reputation of the State
bonds. Following is an extract from the
message:
The bank has hypothetical these bonds
and borrowed money upon them of the
Baron Rothschild. The blood of Judas and
Shyiock flows in his veins. and he unites the
qualities of both his countrymen. He has
and the quicksilver mines of Spain. He has
advanced money to the Sublime Porte and
taken as security a mortgage upon the holy
city of Jerusalem and the sepulchre of our
Savior. 1t is for this people to say whether
he shall have n mortgage upon our cotton
fields and make serfs of our children.
Acting on this advice Mississippi re-
pudiated her bonds and incurred disgrace
from which she has never recovered. The
The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1896-10-19

Major Mckinley in one of his speeches
the past week quoted Macaulay to show
the evils of a depreeiated currency in the
experience of Great Britain. He did not
quote the whole that Macaulay wrote upon
the subject. as the following appears in
the same connections:
Those politicians whose voice was for
delay gave less trouble. than another set
If politicians who were for a general and
immediate recoinage but who insisted that
the new shilling should be worth only nine
pence or ninepence halfpenny. AT the head
Of this party was William Lowndes, Sec
rotary of the Treasury, and a member of
Parliament for the borough Of Seaford, q
servant, but much more versed in the de-
tails of his office than in the highe parts
Of political philosophy. He was not in the
least aware that a piece OF metal with the
which the price was governed by the same
laws which govern the price of a piece of
metal fashioned into a spoon or a buckle,
and that it was no more in the power of
calling a crown a pound than to make the
kingdom larger by calling a furlong a. mile.
He seriously believed, incredible as it may
seem, that, If the ounce of silver were d.
vided into seven shillings instead of five.
foreign nations would, sell us their wines
and their silks for a smaller number of
composed partly of dull men who really
believed what he told them. and partly of
shrewd men who were perfectly willing to
be authorized by, law to pay a hundred
prevailed. the evils of a vast coniscation
would have been added to all the other
evils which afflicted the nation; public
credit, still in its tender and sickly infancy,
would have been destroyed. and there
would have been much risk of a general
nlutiny of the fleet and army.
The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1896-10-19

Many farmers carry fire insurance poll
cies on their barns and contents. Under
our present money system, in case of fire,
they would be paid their loss IN money as
good as gold and with the same purchasing
power. With the money they could re-
build and purchase new agricultural imple-
ments. wagons, ETC., at prices lower than
eyer before known. With Bryan elected,
Iand~with free and unlimited coinage of sill
yer. the farmer whose barn burned would
n paid In dollars worth only about half
The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1896-10-19

Colonel r.. w. Thompson, of Tefre Haute,
has written a letter correcting a statement
which misrepresented him on the money
question, in which he says:
[ believe as 7 have always done, that the
free and unlimited coinage of silver at the
ratio of 16 to /, would produce a more dis
astrouS financial panic than this country
has ever known. That it would derange all
yalUes by driving our gold to Europe; that
it would lessen the value and profits of
labor; that it would reduce the value of
our silver coin about one-half, and that It
would infict universal injury upon all
classes of socisty. In my opinion Congress
has no authority under the Constitution to
increase or diminish the purchasing power
of money any more than it has to shorten
a yardstick or diminish the contents of a
bushel. The pretense that silver Will in
crease in value by this means is, to my
mind. perfectly idle. It's value must be
regulated, like other things. by the law of
supply and demand.
The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1896-10-19

Mr.. Bryans advice to -workingmen to join
the Republican clubs and wear the McKin-
ley button has been criticised by many
writer's and speakers. but of them all no
one has denounced it in more scathing
words than did Mr.. Sheerin in his recent
declaration. 1t is so vigorous an arraign-
ment that 1T will bear repetition every day.
On this point Mr.. Sheerin said:
Could anything be more degrading or hu-
initiating to an honest man, earning his
bread by honest toll. selling nothing to his
told in public speeches. by a candidate for
the highest office in the gift of this free
and enlightened people 20 meet attempts at
coercion not in a manly and vigorous asser-
ton of personal independence and political
equity, but by a cringipg exhibition of
meanness. cowardice and hypocrisy.
Put on their buttons and BADGES" said
Bryan, Join their clubs and march in their
professions, pretend TO be a Republican.
but you have the Australian ballot law in
your Creator. you can vote your senti-
mentS. / don't care If you are Republicans
every other day in the year, so that you
are Democrats. on election day
Could anything be more insulting to
American manhood than this? No man
who ever worked with workingmen for a
living could have given utterance to such
a degraded sentiment. 1t is unmanly, I'M
American, un-Demoeratic, and should meet
its proper rebuke at the polls Mr.. Bryan
would shield the brow of the American
laborer from an imaginary crown of
thorns." but advises him TO put on and
wear before the world a real crown of
shame. a crown of thorns may be placed
upon ones brow by another. No man
wears a crown of dishonor by any mans
act but his own
The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1896-10-19

There is a story of a man who guaran-
teed a dog he was selling to be "a coon
dog" and it turned out afterwards that he
thought the animal must be a coon dog be-
cause he was not good for anything else.
Mr.. Bryan seems to have thought because
he had failed in the law and as a news
paper man that he would make a good
theatrical press agent.
The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1896-10-19

Every Democrat in Indiana who stamps
In the rooster square votes for ten Demo-
cratic and five Pooulist presidential cleo
tors. In other words, he votes a two-thirds
Democratic and one-third Populist presi-
Dental ticket.
The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1896-10-19
IMPORTANT FACTS RECALLED.

Last Monday the Journal published the
report of the two members of the Chicago
Trade and Labor Assembly sent to Mexico
to examine and report on the conditions of
the laboring classes. In connection with
the report the labor representatives made
comparisons of the wages paid in the city
of Chicago and of Mexico for the same
trades and employments. These figures
should be accepted by wage earners, be-
cause they have been made by laboring
men. Lest their Importance be forgotten,
the Journal will quote a few of them, as
follows:
The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1896-10-19

to be really wicked. The name of McKin-
ley stands in England for a system OF tar
if which would close our markets to the
prosperous trade which English manufac-
turers and w~orkingmen are having in this
country under the present tariff. No one
is better aware of this fact than the En-
glish. Very naturally. the British, and
particularly the English factory workers,
are opposed to Major Mckinley. In view
of that fact it is absurd to assert that the
men who would be injured by the McKin-
ley policy have contributed money from
their scanty wage to promote his cleo
ton. 1t would be as idiotic On the part
of British ~workingmen TO desire the cleo
ton of Mckinley as it would be for them
to vote to have their wages reduced. The
Journal does not accuse Mr.. Clark of the
authorship of the fake, but it is very evil
dent that some feeble-minded Bryanite has
prepared it and sent it to Mr.. Clark, whose
limited residence in a country of intelli-
gence has not given him the time to ac-
quire Information while running the sill
yer push" That sort of yarn might do
in Arkansas, but it will not do here. True,
the Sentinel published it, but just now the
Sentinel is so given over to the circulation
of fakes that since its Generalization over
the Silver Republican Club in Ohio coun-
ty it publishes anything in that line which
is brought to it. 1t may be that some
wag, hearing of Mr.. Clark, has prepared
this forgery and sent it to him to see If
there is no limit to his gullibility.
The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1896-10-19

In Morrison, Ill, some weeks since sena-
tor Teller, of Colorado, gave the following
passage as a verbatim quotation from the
report of the British gold and silver COM
mission Of 1888:
We find on the contrary that every coun-
try that has maintained d double STANDARD,
or that uses the gold or silver, or that mas
gone to the silver basis is in a better con-
ard. We find that they are improving and
making progress while we are standing
still. and the difference between their con-
dition and that of the gold standard coun-
tries. we are compelled 10 DeheVe, arises
largely out of the currency disturbances
A few days after the New York Evening
Post told Mr.. Teller that no such language
appeared in the report of the commission,
and that his quotation was consequently a
forgery. Unless he has done it recently,
Senator Teller has not noticed the accusa-
ton of the Post. Probably he has been i'm
posed upon by one of the imaginative men,
bers of the literary bureau of the silver
lobby at Washington. AS the Senator Is
to make a few speeches in Indiana, 1t IS
proper to call attention to this charge and
TO add. nothing of the kind appears in an
abstract of the report in which the more
import at features are given verbatim.
The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1896-10-19
Failing

Mr.. Figg-I have called to get something
done for my boy Tommy. Perhaps you can
pTe scribe without going to the house.
Doctor Bowless-What are the symp-
toms? How is his appetite?
Mr.. Figg-That is just what I called to
see you about. He has got so for the last
two or three days that he doesn't eat more
than twice as much as l do.
The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1896-10-19

During the twenty-five months which
ended with September the net deficit of the
revenues was $10s. O5z, SIS. This constantly
increasing deficit is one of the evils which
the free-trade and free-silver Senators re-
fused to join the Republican House in
putting an end to.
The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1896-10-19

The sound-money people in Kansas City
members. On Friday three thousand names
were added, and it is expected that before
the election the membership will reach ten
thousand. A few months ago Kansas City
was regarded as a fr~ee-coinage stronghold.