Evening star., 1896-10-21
FARMERS AND FREE SILVER
Major McKinley's Reasons Why They Should
Be Enemies.
unlimited Coinage Will Not Cure
OverprOductfOn OF Under
consumption.

From Mai McKinley's Speech to the Farmers of
Knox County, Ohio.
Can the farmer be helped by free COIN
age of silver? No, forever no, my fellow
citizens. He cannot be helped because if
the nominal price of grain were to rise
through an imitation of the currency. the
price of everything else would rise also. and
| the farmer would be relatively no better off
than he was before He would not get any
more real value for his grain than he gets
now. and would suffer from the general
Generalization which would follow the free
coinage of silver. You cannot help the
farmer by more coinage of silver; he can
only be helped by more consumers for his
products. You cannot help him by free
trade, but he can be hurt, and seriously
hurt. by the free Introduction of competing
products into this country. Better thou
SAND times enlarge the markets for Amer
lean products than to enlarge the mints for
the silver product of the world!
You might just as well understand now
that you cannot add value to anything by di-
mnfshing the measure of the value with
which the thing is sold or exchanged. If
you can increase the value by lowering
the measure of value, and you want to
benefit the farmer, then make the bushel
smaller, the pound lighter and declare
legal dozen less than twelve
Home Market Needed.
The home market is the best friend Of
the farmer. 1t is his best market. 1t is
his only reliable market. 1t is his own
natural market. He should be protected in
its enjoyment by wise tariff legislation, and
this home market should not be permitted
to be destroyed by lessenng the demand
for American labor and diminishing the
pay of American workmen. and thereby
diminishing the demand for agricultural
products.
The sugar industry Sbould ha cultivated
and encouraged in the United States. Di-
versify the products of agriculture and
thus you will have additional employment
for your land. The only way to help the
farmer is TO increase the demand for his
farm products. This can be done by pre-
serving home market to him and by ex-
tending our markets. which we dil in 1892
3-4, under the reciprocity provisions of
the tariff law of 1870. The best consumers
for the American farmer are those at
nome. They consume eighteen times as
much of the products of the American
farm as the foreign consumer. Their earn
ing power has been cut oft in the past two
years so that it makes our home market
less desirable
Prosperity of manufactures is inseDlrable
from the prosperity of agriculture. Set all
our wheels in motion, set all our spnlies
whirling, set all our men at work on full
time, start up the idle workshops of the
country, bring back confidence and bssi-
ness. and the farmer will at once feel the
influence of the greater demand for his
products in the better prices ne would re-
ceive. He wants to be protected by wise
tariff legislation from the competition Of
the other side: and then he wants the
mines and mills and factories OF his own
country humming with busy industry, en-
pioyinS Well-paid workmen who Can buy
and consume his products. When he has
got consumers he wants his pay for what
he sells in such unqueStioned coin that he
will know il is good not only today, but
will be certain to be good every day of the
year, and in all countries of the world.
Mills, Not Mints, Will Furnish Gus
toners.
Free silver will not cure overproduction
nor underconsumption. Free silver will
not remove the competition of Russia,
India and Argentine Republic. This COM
petition would remain If you would coin all
the silver of the world. Free silver will
not increase the. demand for your wheat
or make single new consumer. You don't
get consumers through the nlints. You get
them through the factories. You will not
get them by increasing the circulation of
money in the United States. You will
only get them by increasing the manu-
featuring establishments in the United
States. Plant the factory by the farm"
said Jackson, and that is as wise now, and
as applicable now, as when the hero of
New Orleans said it years ago. The best
thing now is for the farmer 10 have a fac
tory for his neighbor. 1t would be better
10 have factory alongside of you than to
have another farm alongside of YOU
l have no fear of the farmers--the most
conservative, the most considerate snd the
most sturdy of our splendid oiviiiza ton.
They are not easily misleh. They have no
aim in politics but an honest one. In 1892
when free trade was the battle cry of our
opponents, 1t is said then that the farm
erS would follow this hereSy, but it was
not SO. 1t was the cities which followed
the free trade heresy in the country The
country voted for protection, while the
great cities did not. So this year they will
vote against free trade and free silver:
they will vote for home market, and for
a dollar as good as gold in every nls TT and
market OF the world.