The National tribune., 1896-10-29
AN OLD MAN.
Whose Years Have Taught Him Plain,
Hard Sense.

To my old and best friend, The NATIONAL
TRIBUNE, with all comrades in blue that are
for Mckinley and Sound Money:
/, an old man, way out here in the West
Virginia hills, am true blue. / read THE
NATIONAL TRIBUNE for all that is in it.
read with much pleasure the epistles from
New York, Arkansas, Texas, Tennessee.
New Jersey, California, and Missouri, and
especially those from the Southern States,
and cannot help but pity the man that has
become 80 lost to a sense Of duty and patri-
otism as to now, in his old days, forsake
his blood bought rights and be led off by the
dishonest fallacies of Organism, which are
no more nor less than to dishonor our flag
and lower the standing of the grandest Ma
ton on the globe to level with Mexico
and China by the silly departure from an
honored gold standard to the free and I'M
limited coinage of silver.
If Mr.. Bryan had 80 much sympathy for
the poor farmer, why did he not introduce a
plank in his platform that our days work
should bring us in 50 instead Of so cents, as
it is now, and that our wheat should bring
So per bushel, and oats 81
If So cents worth of silver can be stamped
to make it worth 81, why can't 25 cents be
stamped the same? Or, if value can be
fixed by legislation and United States
stamps, why not say that oats shall be worth
as much as wheat, or that hog hair be worth
as much as wool? Or, why not coin for
each man, woman, and child in the Union
$1,000, 900, and let us all be happy at once
No, comrades, this is not the Bryan object
because they say in the Chicago platform
that until the money question is settled we
are opposed to any agitation for further
changes in the tariff laws, except such as
are necessary to meet the deficit in revenue
caused by the adverse decision of the Su.
preme Court on the income tax. See plat
form in THE NATIONAL TRIBUNE of July
Is, 1896, eighth page. Read carefully. and
see how the Demopopocrats propose to take
that honorable body-the Supreme Court
by the throat and show them that an Ordi
nary Congressman like Mr.. Bryan or Sock.
less Simpson and others are better authority
on constitutional law than they are, and
that Gov. Altgeld can burn and destroy pri-
vate property if he chooses, and the Presi.
dent has no right to interfere.
No, comrades, Mr.. Bryan's object is on the
other page, and reads like this: Hello
there, you silver-mine owners; you make
me President of the United States, and
will coin all of your bullion into 53-cenl
dollars, and you can buy the farmers WOO
at 124 cents a pound, and make millions By
the purchase"
"Well," says the mine owner, "your propo-
sition seems to be we'll taken, but we DOM
quite see what we will do with the WOOL"
"Ah, indeed" says Mr.. Bryan; don't you
see that your dollar is only worth 50 cents
and the farmer is poor and will be compelled
to give you eight pounds of wool for it, leav
ing you Al cents on each dollars worth; an6
as we object to any further tinkering with
the tariff law, the Wilson Bill will remain il
force, and the farmers and laboring men will
foot the bill, and what need we care? They
can live and we can get fat"
Let US all, comrades, remember the gold
en- link that united US from 81 to 'G5, and
from '65 to 49, Mr.. Bryan is in dilemma
as regards the old soldiers and their sons.
Mr.. Bryan reminds we West Virginia COM
rades of an old hen with one chicken: all
cackle, flop, and futter-twice as much as il
she had whole brood. Onr votes will be
cast for Comrade Mckinley, Hobart, and
Sound Money. Mckinley, under Benjamin
Harrison, gave us plenty of work. He gave
us dollar worth 100 cents for the work
that brought US 90 pounds of granulated
sugar. He gave US dollar worth 100 cent:
for four pounds of wool, and he (Comrade
Mckinley promises to do it again; while
Mr.. Bryan used all his power to assist w. L
Wilson to take these good things from Us
and is now only giving Us Is and Is pound:
Of graduated sugar for a dollar, with nj
place for the labOrer to get the dollar, an6
the farmer must pay two bushels of wheat
four bushels Of oats, or eight pounds o.
wool for the dollar.
g ~ G. - ~
ginia, and now Mr.. Bryan, on his hyine
train, is telling US that 53-cent silver dol
lar will be better for US, as if we were igno
ramuses, and did not know that the 53-cen
dollar would cost us 8 pounds of wool, and
only buy US 81 pounds, or fraction over, o.
the same of sugar.
MY comrades, we'uns of West Virgins
have experienced what the Wilson Bill ha:
cost US, and we have read the Chicago-Bryar
platform, and know that Billy is opposed tt
changing it; and we will cast our ballots fo
Mckinley and Hobart. Why not? Woulf
we not rather support man who had done
a good thing, and says upon his honor anG
support q man who has done bad thins
and avows upon his honor that he will re
peat it in his platform and add so per cent
of fuel to the fire by taking AZ cents of tn,
value from the dollar that buys tine necessa
ries of life?
Now, comrades, it will take more thar
two tails to fly a train through West Vir
ginia that can catch the boys in blue nap
ping, and we have failed as yet to find {
man of the POpocrat faith that could tell III
which of the tails was wagging the dog
and the latest account we have had of tn,
poor thing was that the tails had got so fa
ahead Of the dog that he had not been abl'
to touch the ground with his hind feet since
he left West Virginia; and we'uns assure
you'uns of the West and South that if tht
tide runs on in all other parts as it is flow
ing in West Virginia, before the Sd of No
vember closes the poor dog will be fiat OF
his back, tail foremost; and ere the sun hide.
his face behind the western horizon on TIN,
4th, the poor thing will be swallowed up il
the great gulf of oblivion, never to be resur
rected; and that tails will be going at the rat'
of 40 knots an hour for that great 4O0, 600, 900
inhabited country called China, seekins
some consolation in the free and unlimited
coinage of siIver.-F. NJ. HUFFMAN, Cor
poral, Co. D, Sd W. Va. Marques, W. Va.
s--
"Purchasing Power"
EDITOR NATIONAL TRIBUNE: 1. TIL
purchasing power of dollar" is nov
worrying some people If prices are Low
the purchasing power is high; if prices ar
high its purchasing power is low. 1t is tn
effect. not the cause.
g The man who would bring up prices b,
reducing the purchasing power of dolla
would put lump Of ice against the ther
mometer to reduce the temperature of th