, 1896-09-10
TO THE FARMERS.
HENRY CABOT LODGE APPEALS
TO THEIR GOOD SENSE.
Blinded by the Prospect of Higher
Prices-torGe That Prices of City
Made Gnods, Which They Need, VIII
Also Increase.

AS a class. the farmers are honest,
intelligent. and patriotic. We cannot
believe that after they have examined
into the silver question they will vote
for free coinage. Certainly they have
no wish to injure either themselves or
their country. Some of the reasons
why they should not support Mr.. Bry-
an are set forth in the following state
ment prepared at our request, by the
Hon. Henry Cabot Lodge, one of the
able senators from Massachusetts,:
To the Editor of The Post Express:
The wage Of the United
States, whether employed in the fac
tory or on the farm, would suffer more
severely from the free coinage of sill
yer than any other class in the COM
munity. They might receive the am
number of dollars that they do now,
but the value of those dollars would be
cut in halves by reduction of their pur-
chasing power. The wage farmers, the
men who a-e paid at the end of each
day, or each week, or each month, are
the great creditor class in the country,
and it is upon them thai the free coin
age of silver would fall with the great
est severity.
The farmers are the class to whom
the free silver advocates appeal most
strongly. They tell them that prices
Of farm products would rise with free
silver. This is no doubt true, but they
do not tell them that the price of
everything they have to buy would
also rise, so that they would be no
better off than they were before. On
the other hand, farmers would be in
jured directly in other ways. apart
from the question of the price of what
they sell and buy. Any farmer who
had laid up money in the savings bank
or elsewhere would have it cut in
two. If he happened to he a soldier
and drawing a pension. he would lose
one-half his pension. If he has in
sured his life for the benefit of his
family he has paid his premium in
gold, but under free silver coinage the
insurance would be paid in silver and
reduced ore-half in value.
But there Is a broader view to be
taken than this, and one which every
ihNi ''Ch' " Nhh'. !It
farmers are a part of the great COM
munity which we call the people of
the United States. One portion of the
population cannot prosper if all the
rest suffer. The farmer will not make
money il the people who buy their
products are injured and ruined by a
bad financial policy. The election OF
Bryan would mean the most terrible
panic that this country has ever seen.
1t would mean the wholesale rcduc-
ton of wages and the temporary or
permanent destruction of many indus
tries. The rcss age earning and
business classes On whom this disaster
would chiefly fall are those who buy
of the farmer and make his %prosperi-
ty, and when they suffer he will suf-
fer, 100
There is no class in the community
so profoundly interested in the main
tenance Of sound currency, which is
n of the essential conditions of good
business. as the farmer. ! cannot be-
lieve that the farmers of the United
States, who are an intelligent and pa
triotic class of men, can support a pol
icy or vote for a party whose success
would not only ruin them but involve
the reputation of the national debt,
and deal a deadly blow at national
credit and national honor.
II. C. LODGE.
Mr.. Lodge was elected three times
to the house of representatives, and
in January, 1898, was sent to the Fed
eral senate, as the successor to the
Hon. Henry L. Dawes. He is chair
man of the committee Oh immigration
nj a member of the committees on
civil service, foreign relations, and
pensions. He has taken an active part
in the debates on tariff and finance.
and is regarded as one of the ablest
men in public life. We are sure that
what he says to the farmers will have
very great weight with them.-Roch-
ester IN. " Post M Express.