Hot Springs weekly star. (Hot Springs, S.D.) 1892-1917, 1896-10-16
BRYAN'S EGG MARKET.
coy ORATORS METHOD OF FIX.
ING THE PRICES.
Barnyard Argument on the Free silver
atom 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 nj that metal at $1.29
per ounce. and nobody would sell it for
cent less" To prove his assertion. he
stated that 'if any man in this COM
munity would offer to buy all the eggs
produced ut % 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 dozen" Then some peo-
shrieked and the locomotive whistle
footed. and everybody felt good.
MIR. Bryan's comparison is very weak,
In that neither he nor anybody else pro-
poses that the government shall buy sill
yer at $1.29 per ounce. All that free
coinage proposes is that the government
shall sa put its stamp upon the silver silver
legal tender nc IT. un9 for S,a debts. Ap public @ S and
private. 1t 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. ut the coin
age rate: and the United States has not
gold enough to do so longer than II 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 r!n egg; eggs ~ at % cents. per dozen. his
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
would he ~ cents. the man who offered
20 cents would get the eggs. while the
man who offered % cents. to he paid in
the shape of twelve eggs. would not find
q. single patron. unless somebody owed
him 20 cents and made him take the
eggs i'll 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
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 he retired from cir
culation. The effect of such a trcmcn-
dous change in the currency of the Unit
ed States would he ruinous to many
branches of business. 1t is hard to find
single experienced business man in the
United States, out of all the hundreds
of thousands in the country, who does
not know that Il frccsilver victory in
November would bring about IL panic.
Repu'liation has never been popular
with the American people. The average
American may be S!rewd in business.
eager to make money. and kecnly alive
to the Importance of business success.
but he has never shown himself i'll favor
OF national dishonesty. MIR. Bryan's Of
dollar of debt has not hccn we'll received
in this section of the country. We do
not believe that it will he 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 we'll 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 Il dishonest dollar. ei,ll-
er for payments to themselves or for
their payments TO others.-Boston
(Mass.) Advertiser.