Herald and tribune. [volume] (Jonesborough, Tenn.) 1869-current, 1896-09-30
BOURKE COCHRAN on BRYAN.
The Eloquent Ex-Congressman Exposes the
Free Silver Fraud on Workingmen.

The Eloquent Ex-Congressman Exposes the
Free Silver Fraud on Workingmen.
In his great speech in Madison Square
Garden, New York City, ex-Congress
man Bourke Cochran said in reply to
Presidential Candidate Bryan.
If everything in this world or in this
country, including labor, be increased
in value tomorrow in like proportion,
not one of US would be effected at all.
If that was Mr.. Bryan's scheme, he
would never have Populist nomination
to give him importance in the eyes of
this community. If that were all that |
he meant, he would not be supporting
it, and l would not be taking the trou-
BILE to oppose it, If everything in the
world be increased 10 per centin value,
why, we would pay 10 per cent in addi
tion for what we could buy and get..10
per cent more for what we would sell.
What, then, is it? 1t is an increase in
the price of commodities and allowing
labor to shift for itself. If the price of
commodities be increased and the price
of labor be left stationary that means
cutting down of the rates of wages. If,
instead of dollar which consists of
given quantity of gold equal to a hun.
dred cents anywhere in the world with
the purchasing power of q hundred
cents, the laborer is to be paid in dol
lars worth so cents each, he can only
buy half as much with days wages
as he buys now. If the value of this
Populist scheme, then, is to be tested,
let the laboring men..of this'country ask
Mr.. Bryan and his Populist friends a
simple, common, everyday question,
Where do l come in?"
Mr.. Bryan himself has n glimmering
idea OF where the laborer will come in,
or, rather, of where he will go out.
There is one paragraph in his speech
which whether it was the result of an
unconscious stumbling into candor or
whether it was contribution made in
the stress of logical discussion am ut
terly unable to say-that throws flood
of light upon the whole purpose under
lying this Populist agitation. Wage
earners, Mr.. Bryan says, know that
while gold standard raises the pur-
chasing power Of the dollar it also
makes it more difficult to obtain pos.
session of the dollar. They know that
employment is less permanent, loss of
work more probable and re employ
ment less certain.
If that means anything, it means
that cheap dollar would give him
more employment, more frequent en-
ployment, more work and chance to
get unemployment after he was dis
charged. If that means anything in the
world to sane man, it means that if
the laborer is willing to have his wages
cut down he will get more work.
If it were true that reduction in the
rate of wages would increase the chance
of employment, l would not blame Mr.
Bryan for telling the truth, because,
however unpalpable the truth may be,
conceive it the duty of any man who
attempts TO address his fellow citizens
never to shrink from q statemect of the
whole truth, whatever may be the con.
sequences to himself. But, as matter
of fact, diminuton in the rate of
wages does not increase the scope of
employment.
There can not be an abundant pro-
duct unless labor is extensively en-
ployed. You can not have high wages
unless there is an extensive production
in every department of industry, and
that is why claim that wages are the
one sole test of country's condition
that high wages means abundant pro.
lection, and abundance necessarily
means prosperity. Mr. Bryan, on the
other hand, would have you believe
that prosperity is advanced by cheap
ening the rate of wages but the fal
In the rate of wages always comes
from a narrow production, and narrow
production means there is little de
mand for labor in the market. When
after the panic of 1878, the price ol
labor fell to 90 cents a day, it wal
harder to obtain work than when the
rate of labor was S2, and the difference
between the Populist, who seeks to cuI
down the rate of wages, and the Dem
ocrat, who seeks to protect it is that
the Democrat believes that high wages
and prosperity are synonymous, and
the Populist wants to cut the rate oI
wages in order that he may tempt thu
farmer to make war on his own work
ingmen.
Property and Industry.
prnpertv 10 tho fruit of labor prom