The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1896-09-18
The Goldbug Club Speech.

addressed the goldbug club of Rising Sun
on Saturday evening Mr.. Reynolds IS a
member of the rump democratic party or
remnant of the old machine that cleaved
to the Rothschild goldring when the great
body of the party pulled up stakes and
went over to the Populist camp at the
Chicago convention. That Rothschild
remnant nominated at indianapolis the
two old fossils, Palmer and Buckner.
The mission of this rump democratic party
Mr.. Reynolds told his audience, which
was very slim, like the attenuated party
he professed to belong to, was to defeat
Bryan, and there were two moves which
could be made for that purpose, one was
to vote for Mckinley and the other was to
vote for the rump ticket i'll place of voting
for Bryan, neither of which Mr. Reynolds
was able to present any good and sufficient
reasons for doing, the upshot of which
will be that no Bryan man proposes to do
either such foolish thing.
Mr.. Reynolds had noticed from the car
windows that the farms were nicely Gull
tivated, i'll excellent condition with splen-
did crops, and that every indication be-
spoke thrift and good times, prosperity,
in fact, among the farmers. Mr.. Reyn-
olds was unable to see the reverse of the
farm picture. The appearance of the
we'll cultivated farms and good corn indi-
Gated that farming ought to be profitable
and fore handed business, but the fact is
I that though the farms are i'll fine condl-
ton the farmers are not, and the farmers
believe that the cause of this anomaly is
goldbugism which Mr.. Reynolds made
hopeless effort to disprove, and failed, as
they all do.
When the republicans are driven to the
desperate shifts of employing speakers of
the rump of the old defunct democratic
party to plead their cause, their case has
become desperate. Just look back through
the vista of twenty years and review the
sham battles these two old parties fought
with blank cartridges, and behold the
smoke and noise they made to fool the
honest voters of both parties, then turn
and take look at them now falling into
each others arms and calling the noun
tains to fall upon and hide them from the
wrath of the people they have betrayed.
Mr.. Reynolds effort was very fair
specimen of the goldbug defense of their
sinking cause. His attempted arguments,
made up of quarter truths and pieced up
statistics, were very fair showing of the
hopeless task they have undertaken to
impose upon the awakened people. The
farmer must be dumb indeed whom Mr..
Reynolds did not convince it was his in
terest to vote for the free coinage ofsilver.
He assured the farmers many times ill the
course of his speech that the renlonetiza-
ton of silver would raise the price of their
products, while he dwelt appealingly,
feelingly, imploringly, tearfully upon the
fact-a goldbug fact only-that the poor
laborer's wages would not rise only just a
little, and that he would have to pay SO
much more for the necessaries he had to
buy. Mr.. Reynolds never mentioned the
fact once that the laborer can find but
little work to do, that the greater number
of laborers are unwillingly idle half their
time and vast multitudes idle all the time,
or most Of the time, so the nice wages in
these prosperous" goldbug times go
glimmering. He also forgot to remind
the farmers that they are day laborers,
i and that their crops paid their wages.
And in this connection while Mr.. Reyn-
olds was reading garbled statistics from
the census reports showing the wealth Of
the country, he did not read the compiled
: statistics of the Agricultural Departments
of twelve of the best agricultural states Of
the middle-west which show the farmers
wages to be rs cents per day. Our farm
f ers know this from their own experience
Mr.. Reynolds told his slim audience Of
the great march this country had made in
, wealth from 1880 to 1890, the great bill
lions of increase in wealth which had
been made in that time, but he forgot to
tell them who had that wealth in their
possession. The farmers know they do
not have it. They know their farms
aren't worth half so much as they used to
be. To be exactly honest with the farm
ers and laborers, whom the gold ring is
solicitous TO gather under his wing as a
hen to haver her chickens, that the Van
derbilts, the Goulds, the Astors, the
Rockefellers, the great ''fnanciers" had
all that wealth and great deal more
which the people, in justice, ought to
have; in short that 81 900 persons owned
three-ffths of the wealth of the nation
and the remainder was unequally divided
among 70 millions; that there were over
four thousand millionaires and multi
mllionaires in the country while there
were not half dozen twenty-five years
ago. These and great many more sim
liar facts Mr.. Reynolds should have told
the farmers about the wealth of the coun-
try while he was on the subject, and
which are part of the statistics he was
quoting from.
He forgot to tell the farmers that during
the great wave of prosperity from 1880 to
1890 that 5000, 900 of mortgages had been
placed on the farms of the nation, and
covering the periods of unparalleled pros