Marietta daily leader. (Marietta, Ohio) 1895-1906, 1896-09-02
PRODUCTS
How Their Prices Are to Be
Affected
BY THE FREE COINAGE OF SILVER.

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The American Farmer VIII Take Time
to Consider Matters Carefully and Get
ut the Truth--A Clear Cut Answer to
Bryan's Claim That Free Silver Coin
age VIII Increase the Price of Farm
Products.
The American farmer is q sagacious
and conservative citizen. He takes
time to think, and consequently speaks
to the point and acts with purpose.
The free silver popocratic conspirators
are confident of the support Of the farm
ers of the country, and it is on the basis
of the farmer vote that they make their
calculations and predictions.
This shows the extent of their delu-
sion. They are chasing shadows re-
dected by their own groundless hopes.
In counting the farmer as fool they
are fooling themselves. 1t is probable
that the average farmer has as accurate
a conception Of the essential weakness
of the free silver proposition as has the
average merchant and manufacturer.
He may not voice his thought on this
subject in public, but he can be de.
pended upon to vote it at the polls. He
is not seeking for temporary advan-
tage at the expense of those to whom
he has to look for an available and re.
munerative home market. He knows
that the people who work for their daily
bread are the largest consumers Of farm
products, and that. therefore, his thrift
depends upon their prosperity.
The argument Of free silver at this
point, or from the farmers standpoint,
is unanswerable. Under free coinage
the wage-earner would lose about AZ
cents on each dollar that he received
Moreover, the prices of all articles Of
necessity would Immediately double
The workingman would lose at both
ends. He would receive less and have
to pay more. In order to pay at all he
would have to buy less. The farmer
would thus lose at least one-haf of the
home market, which represents about
"a per cent of the total consumption of
American agricultural products, only
per cent being disposed of in foreign
countries. This shows the advantage
Of the domestic market under the di-
versified occupations of our people, over
an unfriendly, uncertain and often dis
appointing foreign market.
The American farmer is too sensible
citizen to deliberately kill the goose
that lays for him the golden egg of pros
perity. This he would do most effectu-
ally by destroying the home market,
which is practically the only market for
the fruits of his industry
1t must now be clear to the farmer
that the opportunity to pay off debt
or, here and there, mortgage, in half
value silver dollars, even if that could
be done with a temporary gain, would
not begin to compensate him for the loss
of the natural market for his products
through the inability of the great body
of American wage earners to pay for
what they need. Credit ceases when
cash fails. The farmer wants cash for
what he sells, and this he would not be
able to get.
The farmer has carefully considered
this matter An all its bearings, relations
and probable results, and has concluded
to cast his vote on the safe side of this
burning question. This is creditable to
his intelligence. He fully realizes that
TO vote Tor Bryan would be the aban-
donlnent and repudiation of all those
principles and conditions essential to
his we'll being. He knows that to vote
for Mckinley will bring success to that
party and policy which have in the past
brought the greatest measure of thrift
and happiness ever possessed by tie
American people. None but Grass minds
can resist the logic of recent events.
Swagger, bluster and juvenile elocution
can not deceive or mislead the average
farmer on he issues Of this campaign.
An argument that reaches the head
through an empty pocket is not soon
forgotten. But this is not campaign
of dispair and desperation on the Re-
publican 81 g. Patriotism, reason and
interest unite in demanding the elec-
ton of Mckinley and Hobart.-N. Y.
Mail and Express.