Crawford avalanche. (Grayling, Mich.) 1879-19??, 1896-10-08

nclaily INFORMED OF his NOMINATION ny
the National Silver party at St. Louis,
suggests several things that are worthy
of note in this campaign.
1t was a meeting of the Silver party.
1t was not a Democratic meeting, not
Popocratic meeting, not Populist meet
ing, but a silver meeting of the Silver
party to notify the silver candidate of his
nomination, on a platform that Is nothing
but silver.
Mr.. Bryan says silver is the issue and
the only issue. He calls, II the para
mount issue. If silver is the paramount
issue then the silver party is the para
mount party and this silver meeting may
be judged as the paramount meeting and
at this meeting the silver cause should
have touched its highest point
Mr.. Bryan was met at the b. Il M.
depot by a struggling crowd of about 500
people, some of whom followed him in
draggled procession through the streets
to his home. Not the business men of
Lincoln, not the business men of Oma-
ha, not the business men of any city in
ness mind which the nation looks to for
the guidance and the maintenance of its
industrial and business energies was rep
resented in that parade or at the notifi-
cation ceremonies which afterwards
took place.
Where are the business forces of this
country in this contest? Are they for
silver? If it is the paramount thing,
then the business men ought to have
been so notified, they should have been
represented here, and the idle people
who gathered at the depot and followed
the candidate through the streets would
know that this silver movement has the
confidence of someone who can and will
use 1t, when 1t is put into law, as a
means of restoring industry and giving
employment. 1t a new yardstick had
been proposed by Mr. Bryan, and if a
| new party had been organized on the
sole issue of this new yardstick, and if
this was the only issue of Importance,
If revival of business depended solely
upon the adoption of this new yardstick,
then would it not be reasonable to sup
pose that the merchants and business
men who are expected to use this new
system would manifest their approval
OF it in some way, and give the waiting
people some reason to hope that this new
system would be put into use after it
was put into law? If new business
plan is proposed and put into law, which
the business forces of the country re-
jects as unsafe and impractical, then of
what use is this new plan? If the mer-
chant cannot and will not use the new
yardstick, then why have new yard
stick? Mr.. Bryan says we will compel
law declaring that eighteen inches is a
yard when it is not yard, but only
half yard, and if you compel the mer-
chant to use this new measure, then he
will change his price to suit the new
measure and he will narrow his bust
ness into as small scope as possible
and wait until the new experiment has
spent it's force and is abolished. You
will simply confuse the merchant in
stead or assisting him.
Mr.. Bryan smiled upon the small
crowd who gathered about him as he
moved along the streets of Lincoln, but
his smile took on pale and painful ex-
dows and saw McKinley's picture every
where along the business streets. And
not only along the business street, but
ont all over the city Mckinley looked
from the window of the houses. Not
that Lincoln people felt unfriendly to-
friendly toward Mr.. Mckinley because
it was he. but some how Lincoln people
feel that Mckinley and his plan of gov
eminent are safer. are more matured,
and have the confidence of the business
mind all over the nation. After all,
what will this new financial plan avail
II the men who are expected to use il in
business are afraid of it?
Every man in Lincoln, Omaha, Kansas
City and Des Mones who are expected
to engineer the labor industries in those
cities during the next four years is afraid
of Mr.. Bryan and his new silver dollar.
If the notification had been in either of
those cities the business men would have
been absent from the parade just the
same as in Lincoln and McKinley's pic
ture would have been in the business
houses just the same. Mr.. Bryan gets
great deal of sport out of the cam
paign shaking his fists at the banks and
the business of the country. Mr.. Groot,
who was the chief representative of the
silver party and who presented the
notification to Mr.. Bryan, shook his
hist in excited anger at the bankers and
said they ought to be hung to the tele-
graph poles. When Mr.. Groot said this,
a number of men who stood out in front
of him shook their fists also and said:
THAT'S right" While all this threatens
ing to hang the bankers and shaking of
fists was going on, Mr.. Bryan nodded
his head and smiled his approval. He
not only nodded and smiled, but when it
came his turn to speak, he shook his
list also and the workingmen shouted
louder than ever at the prospect of hang
ing the bankers as means of restoring
confidence and bringing back good times.
MIR. Bryan seemed to enjoy himself as
he looked out over the crowd and said
as many things as he could think of to
please the people and encourage his fol-
lowers all over the nation.
AS l said before, Mr.. Bryan had exhib-
tied some symptoms of panic in his face
when he saw that the business men had
put McKinley's picture instead of his
picture in the windows. But when he
saw how the crowd cheered the prospect
of hanging a few of these bankers and
business men, it seemed to restore his
confidence. And then again, when he
himself stood up to address them and
one man shouted, Give it to en-. Bill
~" and another shouted "You betw
he seemed to interpret this as n sign
that the workingmen were in the ma
jority and would elect him just the same
in spite of the business men. And so
he told them he had no fear of the oppo-
sition of the business men so long as
he saw so many of the brave and honest
toilers who were ready to reject the
advice of their employers and follow
him.
Mr.. Bryan knows it will be good
thing for him to get the labor vote, even
If he paralyzes industry in the attempt
Some of the laboring men seem to think
1t will be good thing for them also,
but just why they think so is not very
clear. 1t may be just the thing for
Mr.. Bryan's candidacy to bully the
bankers and scare the business mind
of the country. 1t may be that scar
ing the men who employ labor is the way
to get the labor vote. but just why such
course will get the labor vote and
where the laborer himself will be benefit
ed is puzzle.
From the Mckinley pictures which
hang in the windows of Lincoln, from
the anti-Bryan and anti-silver sentiment
which is almost universal among the
men of business affairs at Omaha and
in all the commercial centers of the ma
ton, it may now be recorded as per-
manent living fact. that Bryan, with all
| his elonuencn- with all the nlausihilifv