The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1896-09-03
PORTLAND MAINE. MORNING. SEPTEMBER s. 1896

4As C' Aos >CLASs
ever dared to use this fact to arouse man
against man and to kindle the fires Of
social discOntent and disorder,
All OF Mr.. Bryan specious pleas and
arguments for silver are based on the as
sumption that the free coinage Of silver
by United States alone would establish
ana maintain blnetallism-the parity of
gold and silver at the exchangeaple of 16
| 10 II mat assumption ia incorrect or ILL
founded each of his arguments falls to
the ground and every one of his predic-
tfonsE loses it's force. Not one word has
he uttered in advocacy of a silver stand
ara. NOT ono word does he dare utter in
oehalf OF silver standard. He will de-
claim by the hour against the evils of
golo monometallism, and nearly every
thing ne says on that subject Is equally
applioa BILE to silver mouometallism also.
BlmetalllsIn Is genuine Demoor ATTIC
doctrine, but bimetallism can never be
attained by the men who dominated the
Chicago convention or by the meth cd
| Is reason to doubt whether the forces
which controlled that convention even
desired to accomplish bimetallism. The
word bimetallism. does not appear in the
platform. The convention by an over
whelming vote rejected proposition
pledging the government to maintain
the parity of the two metals. The dispo-
sition of the convention rs indicated by
it's expressions and it's actions was
towards silver monometallism or ire
deemable at money. AS we'll might the
| Covenant have been entrusted to the
| Philistines as to entrnst the case of BIZ
metallism to the revolutionary horde be-
hind Bryan.
1t is not a difficult task to show that
6a-,v ~
silver by the United States alone would
result in silver monometalism. Foolish
experiments In that direction have al
ready caused the loss of a great part Of
| our gold from circulation. Part of it
has gone abroad, Withdrawn from invest
ment in our industries, and part has
been boarded for the day when it should
bring high premium. Oar government
can get none except by increasing the
national debt and the burden of taxation.
About S10Q 600, 600 in gold Is In the
United States treasury to support the
parity, not alone of the S346, 900, 00c of
green backs which was it's original func-
tion, but the six hundred and twenty five
millions of silver currency, which has
been issued since. That frail foundation
has been trembling since 1880 with the
additional weight put upon it. Only 10y
heroic means has the government been
able to prop up the immense superstruc-
ture. But even the prospect of unlimited
silver coinage under present conditions
If In quicksand, and you and / and
every man who has property or wages
would find their value changed from a
gold to a silver measure.
| This would be the certain result of I'M
| posing such an additional burden upon
the government, but whom with that in
| view we consider the disposition of for
I oin Ia ko otrorotban THAR GOLD
reserves and the suspension of free silver
coinage in India, which has heretofore
been the worlds sink fer all Its surplus
silver, but Is SO no longer, the conclusion
is inevitable that we would be reduced
to a silver basis and to very cheap sill
yer basis at that.
/ One characteristic of political remedies
administered and recommended by quack
political doctors is that they are alleged
to cure all diseases. 70 every man in
distress in any part of the country the
demonstration Of silver Is pointed out
as the cause of his misery, and the re-
monetlzation of silver as his remedy. By
reason of perfectly simple causes the
prices of wheat and corn and other ag-
rioultural products have declined but this
| is attributed by these political quaoks to
| demonstration of silver, and the farmer,
along with every other man who finds it
hard to make both ends meet, Is told that
| ny foIu0u0tiZluR SllV6f WuettU Will go GO "a
dollar abushel. and other farm products
will rise proportionately. If this were
true, rising prices would affect the COM
| modities which a farmer buys, the in
| terest he pays on his debts, the freight
rates which determine the cost of getting
| his products to market. and he would he
relatively no better off than before. To
expect the farmer to accept so great de-
lusion is to presume upon his intelligence.
Ask the farmers Of my state why they
are giving up the production of wheat
and corn, and they will not tell you 1t is
because of the depreciation of silver.
| They will point to these great western
prairies and tell you they can not COM
pete with these In the growth of the
staple cereals. And they have taken to
raising other crops which are more profit
able and less oom petitive. The same ten
denoy is manifest throughout the agricul-
| tural world. Not only have thousands of
acres of western lands in America been
thrown open to cultivation within recent
years, but in Russia, India and the Ar
gentine Repulbio railroads and enterprise
have brought large additional acreage un-
| der cultivation and poured millions of
| additional bushels upon the markets of
the world. The same cheap ening in the
/ cost of boots and shoes, of hats and coats
| and other clothing, which has followed
| ex cessive production In the manufat tn. re
excessive production of agricultural pro-
ducts. 1t is the old familiar law of sup
ply and demand. In my state of New
York hay is selling at SIS per toa; last
year 1t was $40 per ton-do our silver
friends attribute that to the demonetiza-
tion of silver? They ought to if they wish
to be consistent. Silver dollars in the
pockets of the mine owners are of no
benefit to western farmers-what they
| want is prosperous conditions which will
put silver dollars in their own pockets
dollars which when taken out will buy
just as much as gold dollars.
However much the prices of agrioultu-
raj products have declined they have not
declined more rapidly than the necessities
which the farmer buys, nor SO rapidly as
the freight rates which promote the mar
ket for his products. The report of the
National Board OF Trade shows that the
average charge for carrying a ton of
freight one mile on thirteen of the most
mportant railroads of the United States
has fallen from 8. 09 cents in 1866. and 1.S1
cents in 1870 to .76 cents in 1893. You
will thus see that in 1855 it cost $50 to
transfer one ton |, 900 miles and only $3.50
in I8Q3