Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1896-10-22
A VICIOUS DELUSION.
,mise of Free Si1verites of an Advance
on Farm Products

yomise of Free Silverites of an Advance
| on Farm Products.
4 he capital delusion of the free sill
| victim is that there will be an adj
zee in the market value Of farm pro-
is Immediately upon the adoption of
| free and unlimited coinage of silver.
: silver price, they believe, will CORE
nd with the premium on gold. This
10 more vicious delusion than that
Bryan that, if anyone has acquired
lacy or property he has acquired it
stealing Or robbery, the possession of
nth being prima facie evidence of
guilt OF a man of theft. !.
0 far as the first delusiofl is con-
ned, the free silver champion always
SITS that the farmer will be the chief
eficiary. The ordinary wage-earn-
nay whistle for benefits. The farm
Is the fellow who will be certainly
bred. The American farmer is rep
nted by the Bryanites as pauper OF
nty-tlve years standing, the victim
The act of 1873 which ''struck down
err" None of these victims is even
L to tell how he was stricken down
a silver, but they have all been taught
attribute their disabilities to low
es said to have been thrust upon
country concurrently with the
liking down of silver in 1873.
ionic and financial untruth. Prices
not depend upon the quantity of
hey in circulation, nor is it true that
act OF 1873 struck out of the circula-
/ half the money in use. 1t didn't
air the value of single dollar in cir
ton in this country, and so far as
}'r is concerned, the country, within
|nty years after the Striking down
silver" had fifty or sixty times as
|h silver as it had had in the eighty
is previous: In 1873 there was in
alton in this country money and its
|esentatives aggregating S751 .SS1, SO9,
, there were only about 100000 sill
/ dollars in existence On July 1,
!. there were $47S,652, 1868 silver in
llation. Potential facts squarely
INST the assumptions of Bryan! Mr..
an keeps On saying that, with free
age silver will jump to $129 an
he. 1t may be worth that in silver
1T does that amount to? No act of
sress can pull silver up to the par
bid. however. The act Of 1890 didn't
i silver up to $1.29. In 1890 it was
1893 an ounce. and when the act was
|aled it was S.7S031 an ounce. Gov
l.
a raise silver to $1.29 there would
he same ''too valuabl dollar which
I'm says must give way to Ncheap
Er'' to "help the farmer" All Bry-
rs in fact want to see the present
eent dollar knocked out and the prop
drawn and every man with his
BIS worth so cents on the dollar.
tier all the talk about big prices
the farmer what would be accom-
led for him? In 1860, taking the
k figure 100 to Indicate all prices.
B65 wheat was 14O.5; corn, 1924:
1863. and the general average Of
cultural products was 1916. How
the farmer fare? His clothes in
sed the same time to 1902; fuel to
;; price of farm implements to 1914.
hr such big advances in prices where
the benefit to the farmer from the
Ease of farm product prices? The
st prices for farm products were
led before the ''crime of 1873" was
etrated and since then few products
shown an appreciable decline, while
ower cost of production, the inven-
of labor-saving machinery, the great
elton of freights and taxes have been
,ibutory to the farmers advantage.
van and his friends say cheap com
ties are a course" to the farmer.
the farmer think them so? Do
learners think cheap clothes, cheap
( cheap food, cheap tools big
'e,'" as Bryan says they are? A
who pronounces these things a curse
her a fool or a knave.-Minneapolis