Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1897-11-11
BRYAN'S PALACES.
EXPOSURE OF FALSeHooDS AND SUB.
TERFUGES.
Facts Which Disprove His Assertions--Free
Silver Left without = Leg to Stand On.
Test of Wages Paid For Labor Shows
That Gold Has Deprecated

That Gold Has Deprecated.
Bryan says in his letter printed in
last Sundays Tribune, among other
things, the following:
First.-we We're told last fall that an apprc.
| eating dollar was national blessing, and yet
| within year the entire Republican press is in
ecstasy because the purchasing power Of a
| dollar ;as been to some extent decreased
Second.-The wage earners were told last
fall that rise in the price Of commodities
| would be detrimental TO them, and yet be
hold how happy the Republican spellbnders
are because one great staple, -four, has risenl
| Third. -Laboring men told that their
| wages would be virtually reduced when II re
| CURED more dollars to buy a given amount OF
| food and clothing. Can il be that our oppo
| nents have forgotten the railway sound mon
ey clubsi
First. Most of the above is the
manufacture Of the boy Orator of the
Platte" himself. He is the man who
proclaimed from several hundred stumps
that gold was approaching to the great
injury of the country, that it ould buy
more commodities than it did before
the crime" of stopping the free coin.
age of silver was perpetrated in 1878,
and that it bought more solely because
of that crime.
The reply was made to him scores Of
times by The Tribune and other leading
newspapers that gold had not appreci-
ated, but had deprecated by the great
| crucial test of wages for labor They
cited congressional official reports prov
| ing it, showing that from 1850 to 1860
| gold had deprecated about to per
cent year by that test on the compen-
sation Of 5000, 900 or more wage earn
ers of all classes, and that from 1860 to
1890 wages measured by grains of gold
| paid per hour or day had more than
doubled, and that from the date of the
crime of stopping free silver coinage
in 1878 to 1898 wages in gold had in
creased &c to 70 per cent These facts
knocked out Bryan's false assertions,
and he neither denied nor attempted to
explain them.
Second The wage earners We're not
told by the Republicans last fall or at
any other time that "a rise i'll the prices
of commodities, " or wages lin sound,
gold standard money!, would be detri-
mental to them. Bryan sneaks in a
fa' hood by suppressing the qualifying
ph.a lin sound, gold standard mon
ey
The rise in the price of commodities
which Bryan called for was a rise meas
measured in half bogus money, the
Republicans said last fall million
times that in reality the seller got no
| better price, that no one was benefited
| if he received in deprecated silver with
only 80 per cent of purchasing power
twice as high u price as had been paid
him in full value money, and that two
as cent free silver dollars were not MS
good as one 100 cent gold dollar.
Bryan never could be coaxed or
driven to face this self evident PROPOSE
ton. If he could not explain it away,
his free silver argument was left with
out leg to stand on AS he could not
controvert that proposition he lodged il
to the end of the campaign. He is dodg
ing still
Bryan will not admit even yet that
one 80 cent silver dollar is of less value
| TO the holder than one 100 cent dollar
| The question is one he evades whenever
he can, but when crowded to the wall
and choked till his tongue hangs out he
| gasps out dishonest declaration that a
| 80 cent free silver dollar is as good, if
| congress SO enacts, as a gold dollar for
| paving debts made on the gold standard
and worth 100 cents. Cheating a cred
itor out Of 81 cents on the dollar by ex
post facto, or rather by retroactive, leg
| islation does not trouble the conscience
| or kind of elastic or bogus honesty with
which William J. Bryan is endowed
| in his idiotic or mad chase after the
| shadow of the presidency.
Third. The laboring men were not
told that their wages would be virtu
| ally reduced when it required more dol
lars to buy a given amount OF food and
clothing What they were told was
that if they had to pay the inflated
prices for commodities occasioned by
the depreciation of the currency they
would be great sufferers.
| For. as was explained 10 them, When
there was a slump in currency the wage
scale would not go up as rapidly as the
price Of goods and wares. Thus their
wages would be reduced because, while
they would not be receiving two cheap
silver dollars where they had received
one gold dollar, the shopkeepers would
be demanding more than two cheap sill
yer dollars where they used to ask one
gold dollar The workingmen We're
also told by The Tribune and other Re
publicans that if free silver coinage had
not been stopped in 1873 the laboring
classes or masses would have been paid
in rapidly depreciating silver money
from the time Of resumption in 1873 70
the present day instead OF in gold money
Mr.. Bryan has never tried his teeth
in cracking that nut, fearing he would
break his teeth rather than the nut He
lodges that point also
AS TO the railroad men, about
100 600 of them are getting work now
who were idle last year when 1t was
Thought that free silver at rs 20 ] might