The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1896-12-05
AN ERA OF PROSPERITY.
CORN CRACKER LETTER
TO M'klNLEY, BUT HAS RE-
CElvED NO ANSWER.
Some Things Corn Cracker Told the
People While He Was Working For
Mckinley and Sound Money,
in the Name of Palmer
and Buckner.
and Buckner.


and Buckner.
Corn Cracker in the Morganton Herald.
Just as we Republicans and sound
money men expected, an era OF prosperity
has dawned. When / was working for
Mckinley and sound money, in the name
of Palmer and Buckner, told people
II was not lack Of money but lack
of confidence. l had a pocket full Of
money, and so did every other man /
met, but there was great dearth of con-
fidence When these free silver anar-
chists said there was no gold in the
country, OF course we had it, but from a
perverse spirit, didn't show it.
1t has been observed that all people are
we'll dressed and flush of money. Then
we told people when Mckinley, Mark
Hanna and Russell were elected, cotton
would so up, and now look! when on last
Tuesday it had reached the prosperous
price of $40 and by Thursday it had
advanced rapidly backward to S7.20.
Now who could ask any better2 Why, it
costs only eight cents to make cotton
in North Carolina, and any farmer who
complains at losing cent on pound is
very unpatriotic.
=
boom. Nothing has actually started up.
hut there is strong talk Of building saw
mill i'm sixty miles Of this point. Some
mal-conteuts say the man who is to
build ii has no money, but il he ever does
set any. il won't be a base free silver
coin. Another advantage is he will be
protected. Suppose now that Anarchist
Bill Bryan had been elected and some
man in China or the Congo Free State
was to start saw mill? Why the pro-
fession Of the American saw mill would
be run out Of the field by pauper labor.
OF course the North Carolina saw mill
man viii have 10 pay from 40 TO 30 cents
tariff on his cotton hreeches. shirts and
wool hats. and sell his lumber in cheap
market, but why should he care? He
has the glorious privilege Of paying high
taxes in government Of the trusts, for
the trusts, and by the trusts and should
thank God and take courage.
Then another enterprise is being boom
ed that is far-reaching in its benefit. Col.
Brown is about to put up blockade dis
tillery. The only thing that can be charg
ed against him, is that he is free silver
crank He says it costs rs cents per
bushel to raise corn, and he can't afford
to sell it for 35 cents, That by cheating
the government out of an unjust tax he
can live by selling whiskey at $1.00 per
gallon. l told him that there had been
an oyer-production of corn. He said
that was all stuff. That people were
starving in sight of the grain elevators
of Chicago, and that thousands were
homeless and out of employment. / told
him that people who were knocked out
of a job in the cities should go to the
country and work on farms. He said
that there was no market for what farm
ers already made. That cotton, meat,
wool, corn and various other things were
below the cost of production. He even
jerked out a pencil and made some cal
culations.
He said:
For example take North Carolina
You pay man 10 cents day for labor
If you pay him corn, it takes a bushel a
day or 313 bushels a year. If you pay
him meat, it takes S pounds a day or
2504 pounds a year. If you pay him in
cotton, it takes 6 pounds a day or 1873
pounds year, or about FIVE bales. Now
how long can a man farm at that and
pay taxes, to say nothing of doctors's
bills; educating his children or support
ing the ministry"
l told him these things were nothing
as compared with an honest dollar. That
/ had talked with a banker. a cotton
mill man and a man who is book-keeper
at a distillery under Cleveland, and they
said if we had free silver and high prices
we would be just like Mexico. He said
there were more things than being like
Mexico. That when he heard some fool
deploring Mexican conditions, he felt like
commencing him to Turkey, Russia and
others. / continued that my three doctors
Of finance all said the farmer don't work
hard enough, He said he had heard just
such rot before. That one would say
that he didn't work and the other that
he worked too much. He asked if there
had been an oyerpr0duction Of land
told him more land had been opened up.
His answer was that as fast as taken, ii
was occupied by people who depended
on it for subsistence, and under the same
adverse conditions that prevailed in old
or settlements / told him that inven-
tions had cheapened the cost Of produc-
ton. He wanted to know if anything
had been invented to cause wool to grow
faster on the back Of a sheep, or if it is
easier now to raise a pound of cotton
than in '73. He further informed me
that / didn't seem to be stem winder,
and / had better 60 to my three friends
and be wound up / went to them, and
thnv said:
"Oh, he's blamed crank. What we
want is dollar that is good anywhere
in the world. Just such fellows as he are
keeping up lack of confidence"
They then told me about a man who
was boarding five hundred dollars in
gold and five hundred in silver His
house got burned down and he sold his
melted gold for five hundred dollars,
while his silver brought two hundred and
fifty. I pulled my hat and told my free
silver friend this with the confident air
of a victor. He said that improbable
story had been told before. He asked
nae how would it have been had this
happened prior to '73. / told him he
ought to be arrested for sedition, for if
men who had money didn't know what
was best forethe people, who did? He