Birmingham state herald. (Birmingham, Ala.) 1895-1897, 1896-06-21

ducer's products, then double the length
or the size of the measure. 1t doesn't
matter now who originally doubled the
value of the dollar and made 1t twice as
hard for the farmer to- get. Recrimina-
tons are out of place. The fact is that 1t
was done, and the non-produoerS who
still levy nearly as much toll as they ever
did ought in common honesty to join In
and give back to the producer a just
measure of value, which means a just
price.
Somewhere above alluded to the SIM
plicity of the conflict between two pro-
dueers who consumed each others pro-
ducts. 1t is on a single point-that of
price. There Is no toll taking. Twenty
years ago it was a wild thought that the
southern cotton planter and the western
corn raiser, each of whom wanted the
others goods as cheaply as possible,
could ever make common cause. Yet
they are doing 1t. Each wants a fair
price, knowing in that event he can pay
fair price for the goods of the other
man. So they unite against the yard
stick that has been doubled in length. and
the pound that has been doubled in
weight, and the non-producer who takes
the same toll by the increased standard
of measurement. .~p fl aa4
1t Is an interesting struggle looked at
from this distance. The great body OF
producers fighting for the old standard
of value, the same old yard stick, made
Oh silver OF ROlu. 1Ou hilOW that iilOiO
sephstry has been twined about this
yardstick business than about any sin
gle phrase in connection with the whole
financial question. Suppose the govern
ment should say: IA yard is the measure
of length, but you shall not make your
yard stick of any material except rose
wood" The time might come when, ow-
ing to the scarcity of rosewood, nobody
but the rich could afford yardstick at
all. The government does say: "A dol
lar is the measure of value, but you shall
not make dollar of any material except
gold" And behold, gold has already be-
come so valuable that few people can az
ford to have a dollar at all.
At this distance, then, the issue ap-
pears certain to an onfooker who was
anything but confident till the result IN
Missouri announced that the people were
rallying around their honest firesides in
a last fierce struggle against the ag-
gressons of the non-producing toll
takers and dishonest measures or their
own country and of Europe. The pro-
ducers of the west and the south nave
Joined for the common righting OF COM
mon wrongs. Their fellow producers in
the east and scattered here and there
through the country, the manufacturers,
still cling to the belief that what they
want is protection, an artificial advan-
tage at somebody else's expense. They
are a mere side issue They will create
a diversion, but go down in 1896 as they
did in 1892. / was still uneasy lest the
final and successful struggle would be
postponed till 1900, but when Kentucky
in just wrath stamped on Mr.. Carlisle's
forehead the never to be effaced brand
of treason to his party and his people, I
feel somewhat as the Israelites did when
they crossed the Jordan and set their
feet upon the hither shore of the Prom
Used Land.
I have no fear that the. democrats will
nominate Bland or any other southern
man. They are not fools, If they are sill
verloons. With a strong man from Ohio,
Illinois or Iowa, I have no doubt in my
own mind but that they will carry every
state west of the Alleghenies and south
of the Potomac and put in president by
the largest majority that ever escorted
a man to the White House since WASH
ington walked in without any opposition
at all. wa ~
Here are my reasons for thinking so:
Protection is a beaten and discredited
factor. Nobody attaches much import
ance to it except the manufacturers, and
a great many of them are not in earnest.
The real forces in the struggle are the
farmers, fighting for the restoration of an
honest measure of the value of their pro-
ducts, and the non-producers, headed and
inspired by the dealers in money, fight