Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1896-10-07
BRYAN'S EGG MARKET.
BOY ORATORS METHOD OF FIX
ING THE PRICES.
Barnyard Argument on the Free Silver
Issue-Piain Scheme for the Repudi-
alton of Honest Debts.

Mr.. Bryan recently said, in one of his
free coinage speeches in Kentucky, that
free coinage of silver would establish
the market price of that metal at S1.29
per ounce. and nobody would sell it for
a cent less" To prove his assertion, he
stated that eff any man in this COM
munity would offer TO buy all the eggs
produced at % cents dozen, and was
able to make good the offer, nobody
would sell eggs for less, no matter what
the cost of production. whether one cent
or five cents q dozen" Then some peo-
pie in the crowd cheered and some
shrieked and the locomotive whistle
footed and everybody felt good.
Mr.. Bryan's comparison is very weak,
in that neither he nor anybody else pro-
poses that the government shall buy sill
yer at S1.29 per ounce. All that free
coinage proposes is that the government
shall put its stamp upon the silver
brought to it, and shall make that silver
legal tender for debts, public and
private. It will take just as much
coined silver as it would take bullion
silver to buy oats, wheat, flour, bread,
meat, clothing or anything else, except
labor unless the United States proposes
to exchange gold for silver, at the coin
age rate; and the United States has not
gold enough to do so longer than a day
or two.
Mr.. Bryan. therefore, should put his
case in another form. If a storekeeper
or anybody else in the community should
offer to take eggs at % cents, paying in
return eggs at % cents, per dozen, his
offer would have not the slightest effect
upon the market price of eggs. They
would sell for just what they could
command in actual cash, SO that If the
highest price to be obtained elsewhere
4 10 ~hs
20 cents would get the eggs, while the
man who offered % cents, to be paid in
the shape of twelve eggs, would not find
4 single patron, unless somebody owed
him % cents and made him take the
eggs III payment.
This brings the free-Silver issue eX-
actly to where it belongs: that is, in
the class of schemes for the Reputation
of honest debts. The moment the Unit
ed States goes on Il silver basis, and re-
deems its obligations IN silver, as the
free-silver advocates propose, that mo-
ment the entire amount of money IN cir
culation other than gold would lose half
its value. while gold itself would nat
urally and inevitably be retired from cir
culation. The effect of such Il tremen-
dOuS change in the currency of the Unit
ed States would be ruinous TO many
branches of business. 1t is hard to find
Il single experienced business man in the
of thousands in the country, who does
not know that a free-silyer victory in
November would bring about a panic.
Reputation has never been popular
with the American people. The average
American may be shrewd in business,
eager TO make money, and keenly alive
to the Importance of business success,
but he has never shown himself in favor
of national dishonesty. Mr.. Bryan's of
fer of reputation of 90 cents on every
dollar of debt has not been we'll received
i'll this section of the country. We do
not believe that it will be we'll received
in the West when the true character of
the issue is made plain. The farmers
of Vermont and the working people of
Maine as well as the planters of Ar
kansas have given their verdict, and in
every case the significant Republican
gain is evidence that the American peo-
pie do not want a dishonest dollar, eth
er for payments to themselves or for
their payments to OtherS.-Boston
(MaSS.) Advertiser.