The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1897-09-07
BRYAN TURNS A soMERsAULT.

wheat has risen because the foreign
crop has been exceedingly short. Bime-
tallists contend that the law of supply
and demand is universal. They apply it
not only to money, but to bullion, both
gold and silver, to wheat and every other
article of value. They contend that the
exchangeable value of both money and
merchandise will be affected by anyth ing
which affects either the demand or the
supply-William j. Bryan.
With due respect to the Hon. William
j. Bryan, hi +metallists of his stamp have
not always contended that the law of supply
and demand is universal. The explanation
of the low prices of wheat for some years
past which was offered by the opponents
of Mr.. Bryan's theories last summer was
improved machinery for sowing and har.
vesting the supply of what had outrun
the demand and therefore it's price had
fallen i'll obedience to the universal law
of supply and demand. But Mr.. Bryan
would not listen to this explanation then.
1t did not suit his theory which was that
wheat was cheaper because silver was
cheaper. How often we heard from his
lips and from the lips of the other silver
propagandists that the fall in wheat had
been coincident with the fall in silver,
and how often on the strength of this
fact they. setsup the claim that as matter
of fact the price of wheat had not de-
clined at all, that the. seeming decline was
an illusion brought about by the increase
OF the purchasing power of the gold dol
lar. Since that time certain facts have
made their appearance-facts that are
not in accord with Mr. Bryan's theories
OF last summer, but Numerically op-
posed to them. Silver has continued to
go down until it has reached lower
point than ever before in it's history. At
the same time wheat has gone up until
it has reached the dollar mark. Judged
by the criterion which the silver men all
commended year ago was the correct one
the price of silver-the purchasing
power Of the gold dollar is greater today
than it was when one gold dollar would
buy two bushels Of wheat, and yet 1t will
now buy but little more than one
bushel of wheat. These be stubborn facts
for the silver theorist and it is not
to be wondered at that in the presence of
them he gets somewhat ratified
How does Mr.. Bryan meet them? He
promptly executes somersault, reverses
his theory of last year and with an
effrontery quite monumental in its pro-
portions proceeds to claim that dollar
wheat and forty-cent silver prove the cor
rectness of the bi-metallic position. The
keynote of his whole argument last year
was that The coincident fall of silver and
wheat showed that silver and wheat
were tied together. and that
the only possible way to raise the
price of wheat was to raise the
price of silver. This coincident fall
was then pointed to as the strongest proof
of the correctness of the bimetallic
theory. Yet now the exact opposite of
this condition is held up as the strongest
proof of the bimetalli theory.
| 1t is altogether too much to believe that
Mr.. Bryan does see the fatal variance
between his position of this year and that
of last. Though shallow he is not stupid.
What he is doing now is presuming upon
the ignorance or blindness of his follow
ers. But he is presuming altogether too
much upon that. Since he perambulated
the country a year ago a good many of
them have got their eyes open.