The Dakota chief. (Gann Valley, Buffalo County, S.D.) 18??-1913, 1896-10-08
The Real Issue,

Mr.. Bryan's latest device TO get away
from the tariff issue. which his audi.
tors persist in thrusting upon him. is 70
Delittle it. The other day the boy orator
told a crowd that. when compared with
the currency question. the matter of high
OF low duties was insignificant" The
tarift was Il subject to he waved aside,
to be shelved, or to be thrown mon the
rubbish heap of time-worn and inmate
rial politics, Mr.. Bryan did not care
Whlcil: But as an issue in this canvass,
iauSh. The idea was revolving to every
honest sentiment of the masses. and mar.
ticularly to the candidate with the record
OF having predicted a rise in the price of
wheat to $50 per bushel upon the pas.
sage of the Gorman-W Wilson bill.
Yet, insignificant" as this question
may seem TO men who have made a
record upon which they want to have
forgotten. the voting masses have some
now been misled into thinking that so
long as the present tariff is running the
country into debt at the rate of 81, OOO,-
OOO a day it is a good thing to have re-
pealed. They do not believe that the
treatment of a vast and growing deficit
is outside the realm of practical and
necessary politics. Mr.. Bryan apparent
~ does. To the idle operative who wants
nothing more than to have the mill or
factory which once employed him open
its doors again so that he may support
his family as he did in Mckinley times.
the assurance that the tariff question is
puerile comes with very little force. To
him it is the political question of all
questions. 1t concerns his bread and but
ter. by the taxpayer who finds that the
government has put a lien on him for
twenty years for the payment of interest
on q quarter of a billion dollars. which
WnnIH hova hoan ,nlloo%oI %l,o,-l A.
custom houses of the importer of foreign
goods II the Mckinley law had been kept
lnstact. the Bryan sheer at the impor-
lance OF the issue is poorly appreciated.
Likewise the retailer, the tradesman, the
professional man and the labOrer-all
these, after four years of reduced bust
ness and incomes and uncertain work be-
cause OF the hard times, know of no more
important issue han that of starting the
wheels of industry and business once
more in motion.
1t is useless to tell the thoughtful and
discerning voter that the desired effect
could be had from a mere change in the
of the currency, leaving the
general economic conditions as they
were. No form of money produces pros
perity unaided. AS for free silver, moth
ing would 81 we'll lubricate the machin-
cry of business after the machinery had
begun 10 workout no one pretendS that
free silver would start the engine. 1t
could not open a factory which had been
closed by free trade competition. Pro-
lection would have to be used for that.
There must first be some means found
of putting more money into circulation
before an extra volume of either gold,
silver or paper can reach the masses,
and if there is any better way to do
this than by making it possible for
American industries to put their old pay
rolls into force again, experience does
not suggest it.
In a word, to have a return to pros
perity we must first repeal the tariff
law which drove it away and the re-
store the law which produced it. There
is no other recourse, and, in spite of all
that Bryan may say about the ''insig-
niticance' of the tariff question, it looms
up before every discerning eye as the
issue of real moment in this
San Francisco Chronicle.