The representative. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1893-1901, 1896-05-20
AN OLD FRIEND JUMPS ON Us.

AN OLD FRIEND JUMPS On Us.
WHEAT AND CORN AND GOLD AND
sILvER--A LITTLE BIT OF A DIS
CUSTOM
We have received the following let
ter:
HON. IGNATIUs DONNELLY:
herewith send you a clipping from
the Commercial Gazette. taken from
the Louisville Courier Journal which
suppose is from that chivalrous and
matchless writer Henry Watterson's
pen. Give 1t to your readers and let
them decide between the common
sense logic and truth and the sophis-
try with which THE REPRESENTATIVE
columns abound. You profess to be-
lieve truth is even mightier than the
sword. Then If you have faith in
your own utterances being true. you
will not be afraid to allow these
statements to have place along side
Of your own, and let your readers
have the opposite side Of the ques-
ton. / confess myself unable to COM
prehend how any man, with your
knowledge experience and integrity,
can take up with such transparent
fallacy as the free silver delusion. !"
Yours truly, J. B. COREY.
Pittsburg, Pa, May 9, 1895.
Now we do not think Brother Corey
does US Justice. Have we not, week
after week, printed attacks upon our
self or the Peoples Party, in this pa
per, and given our answers thereto?
In not nearly every editorial in The
REPRESENTATIVE reply to some one
who goes for us with club, just as
Brother Corey is doing?
Here Is the article he refers to. We
print it to oblige him, although most
of 1t Is but string OF words-mere
trash and truck. We feel it is a
shame to waste our valuable space
with it:
1T is noted by the Louisville
Courier Journal that the advocates Of
the single silver standard are invari-
ably men OF the Intellectual order Of
Sir Arthur Wardour, who observed
that the AnJ.Quary never got the bet
ter OF him in dispute except when
he avails himself Of a pettifogging in.
timacy with dates, names and thrilling
matters OF fact, a tiresome and fir. vol
Gus accuracy OF memory, which is en-
tirely due to his mechanical dissent
The Journal takes this and Frank
lin county silver resolution as text
for an editorial article descriptive Of
the propensity Of the silver leaders to
deal in glittering generalitieS and to
substitute explosive figures Of speech
for figures of the right kind. This
may be verified by anyone who takes
The pains to look over the speeches Of
any Of the silverite leaders or the
resolutions OF conventions dominated
by them. Cheap dcmagogy marks
them-the substitution of extrava-
CANT comparisons and startling
phrases fer facts. It has been said
that a pailtul Of water expanded into
mist will obscure pretty good-Sized
mountain. The silver demagOgue,
who Is we'll up in the art OF OratOrical
mist making, does not require whole
pailful Of words to obscure such
mountains OF fact as he desires to
keep out of sight. It is to the credit
of the laboriny men and farmers t
the country that during the past year
and particularly during the past six
months, they have afforded him grow
ing evidence that they are not to be
buncoed by the kind Of sopbistry he
had had for his capital stock. The
farmer can understand that no legiS-
latiOn can make a buShel of wheat
glKd buShel of corn continuously of
equal value, regardless Of any variance
in the size OF the crops Of either and
the market demands, and in spite Of
the speciouS arguments of the silver
mine boomers, the farmer also may be
depended upon to understand that
the government Of itself can no more
make gold and silver of equal value,
regardless Of the laws Of supply and
demand, than it can do so with corn
and wheat products. The labOring
man can unders tand it would profit
him nothing il the government
should officially fix the length of his
days work at four or five hours and at
the same time would make an official
hour OF 120 minutes duration instead
of go. and for this reason his eyes will
become as fully opened as those of the
farmer to the folly of listening to the
fellows whose financial arguments are
based on that kind of sophistry."
Now the only thing in all this screed
that one can take hold Of, with pair
of forceps, is the comparison of silver
and gold to wheat and corn. He says.
no government can ma ke bushel of
wheat and bushel Of corn of the
same value continuously. He is away
off his base. II the government of
the United States was to offer to give
dollar a bushel for both wheat and
corn, at the sub-treasury in New
York, both grains would at once be
worth dollar bushel, not only in
New York but all over the world, less
the freight to New York. II Brother
Corey had wheat or corn in Pitts
burgh or Tacoma, and he knew he
could get a dollar a bushel for it in
New York, he would not sell it for a
cent less, minus the transportation
Now would he? And if he would so
sell it would he be fit to remain and
do business outside the Insane
Asylum:
But If the government offered to
give a certain price for wheat and
corn. it would maintain them at that
price until the government was itself,
for reasons shown hereafter, bank
rupted.
But Brother Corey will say that the
United States government would
have to buy and store every bushel of
wheat and corn in the world. Not a
bit of it. What would the people live
on? They must have the wheat an d
corn. The government by Offering
that market price for wheat and cor n