The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1896-08-14
CLAP TRAP ISSUE.
Is the Cry of the rlasses Against
the Classes.
Washington, August 7, 1896

the Classes.
Washington, August 7, 1896.
EDITOR FREE PRESS: One of the
features of the campaign is just COM
ing to light. 1t is the secret dissent
nation of false notions regarding free
silver and what it means. The secre-
taryEof the treasury receives a great
many letters showing the depths of
ignorance that prevails about the
financial affairs of the country. Re-
Gently three letters have been received
by the department, stating that they
the writers) needed certain sums of
money, and asking the secretary
would he kindly send them the respec-
tive amounts of 'free silver" by ex-
press. To what extent the "free sill
ver'' campaign workers are trying to
delude the uniformed by whispered
falsehoods, there is of course no way
of judging, but that more or less of
the Ubiquitous method prevails there
can be no doubt. Senator Faulkner
and Chairman Jones are both struggl-
ing to array the masses against the
classes, by system of interviews,
that are as clumsy as they are disre-
spectacle. In fact, the entire demo
cratic campaign is one gigantic conf
dence game. The tail end of the
Democratic ticket is a plutocrat, a
banker, shipbuilding monopolist
and railroad magnate. This nOtOri-
Gus fact makes the claim that Bryan
and Sewell are the standard bearers
of the poor against the rich mon
strous absurdity. Mr.. Sewell is not
in the fight to wage war on himself
or on his fortune and as Mr.. Bryan
has repeatedly expressed his frienship
for Mr.. Sewell, it is not reasonable to
suppose that he intends to permit any
legislation that .will deprive Mr..
Sewell of his great wealth. Hence
the attempt to make the people be-
lieve that Bryan and Sewell represent
the masses as against the classes is
clap trap of the cheapest kind. And
then again, there are the Hearsts,
Stewards, Tellers and NeWlands, the
backbone of the Bryan and Sewell
ticket are millionaire silver mine
owners, the men who have plastered
this country with free silver litera-
allure and furnished the money for
numerous free silver publications.
Does any one suppose these men will
attempt to dissipate their vast
wealth? 1t is preposterous to expect
intelligent people to believe such non
sense. These men are at work to in
crease their wealth, and if they do
somebody must pay for it, The
charge has been publicly made that
Mr.. Bryan, himself, has been on the
pay roll of this free silver junta, and
the charge has never been successful
ly refuted.
Again, reports are sent out every
day from the Democratic and silver
headquarters here saying that the
free silver wave is sweeping like
prairie fire through sound money
states. The purpose of this is to keep
up the courage of their workers in
other sections. Being in a position
to know something about these claims
can say that they are greatly exag-
gerated. The ''boom" and excite
ment is now perceptibly decreased
and the inquiries are pouring in from
all sections of the country for litera-
ture. The inflammation created by
the literature of the free silver peo-
pie, industriously circulated all win
ter, is slowly but surely reced-
ing before the reflection that
there are two sides to the story. 1t
is time that the mail Of the republi-
can congressional committee is in
creasing every day and that people
who were at first swept off their feet
by the 16 to fever, are beginning to
look up the other side of the question,
and as a result, far greater quantity
OF sound money literature is going out
from Republican headquarters now
than from the other side. There are
indications here that the pendulum
has reached it's maximum silver swing
and is about to return.
~
Since writing the above / have seen
the statement that % Of the silver
mine owners aggregate over S500,000,-
900 of wealth. AS the names and re-
spective amounts are given, and can