The Republican journal., 1896-07-30
Temper of the Woriingmen.
Chairman Apsley Says They VIII Not consent to
the Crime OF Reputation.

! Ice hartman ApSleN or tue hepuDn-
can congressional campaign committee
said recently, pointing to a stack Of cor
respondance on his desk:
''All these letters are on the money
question. In my position as vice chair
man OF the congressional committee |
am daily receiving dozens of letters from
workingmen and Workingmen' clubs. not
only of New England, but OF the middle
States and elsewhere, which form a bar
ometric indication of the temper of these
men, and l tell you that when the Novem-
Der election has come and gone it will
surprise people how stanchly adherent to
honesty and intelligent government the
great working masses of the population
have proved themselves to be.
| 'sThis talk of certain Democratic lead
ers who have not repudated the Chicago
platform of making heavy inroads among
the factory operatives of the East and
| New England with their free silver shib-
| boleth is the veriest nonsense.
"The factory operatives and the work
| ingmen of the East, as well as of all sec
| tons Of the United States, have not for
gotten that they were receiving higher
wages in 1892 than they have enjoyed
since, and that the action of the sd
Congress scaled down not only their pay,
but their hours of labor. They have not
forgotten that they We're happy and pros
porous under Republican rule, and that
their prosperity ended with the close of
the Republican administration and the
advent of a Democratic Congress.
1.-The working people of the entire
country are thinking people, continued
Mr. Apsley, land the wild and feather
Drained propaganda will not convert
them. They have had one experience
with Democratic free trade and they paid
dearly for it. 1t is absurd to imagine
that they can be induced to desert the
party that has always looked out for their
interest by providing them with work ana
the means Of enjoying happiness to follow
the standard of a party which, having
made failure of running tine government,
now takes up the dangerous proposition
to experiment with the finances Of the
country.
IF Mr. Bryan, in his speech to the
Chicago convention, made one point that
appeals strongly to the people. it is that
the term business men is entitled to
construction which shall include the
workingmen of the country. To this
sentiment | subscribe. The factory
operatives, the great class of working
men and the farmers are all business men
and part of the great business system of
the country. But as such they are not
going to be carried away from the firm
moorings of our economic system by an
appeal to their passions and their implied
ignorance of the great issue which affects
all channels of trade alike.
LAS a rule, the workingmen of our
country are thoroughly honest. They
are not regulators, and they will not
consent to countenance the proposed
crime of repudiating so per cent. of all
debts, private and public, by voting to
substitute debased currency for tinan-
cial system, which, under Republican
management, has always insured happi-
ness and prosperity-the happiest eras in
the history of the country AS business
men, they are as competent to judge the
issues as are their employers; as business
men they will consult their own interests
and exercise their rights as conservative
business men by preserving the financial
integrity of the country. To imagine
that these men, with the experience of
the past four years to guide them, will
deposit their ballots for a candidate who
stands on platform which attacks the
protective system and proposes to circu-
late a 50-cent dollar with no government
guarantee of redemption behind it, is an
insult to their intelligence