Turner County herald. (Hurley, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-19??, 1897-01-07
THE SOUND CURRENCY PROPAGANDA

coinage party IN the recent cleo
ton, the sou d currency committe,
Eof the New York Reform Clut
merits a conspicuous place. 1t
work was not limited to the cam
palgn itself, for nearly two year,
before the election was decided
and more than a year and hal
before the adoption of the CHI
cago platform, it had made pre-
parations for an extended educa
tlonal campaign. In the spring
and summer of 1895 it was the
only organization actively en-
gagged throughout the country ii
opposing in systematic way the
attacks of the freeze oina e c
propagandists, and it was natur-
ally in a position to do notable
work in the electoral campaign
which ended in the election OF
Mckinley. In an interesting re-
port just issued it gives an account
of the work done by it in the
course of the last year---an ac-
count which will be found sug-
gestive III view of the threats Of
a reopening- of the silver agita-
ton.
According to the report the
best work of the committee was
done through furnishing stereo-
typed plates and printed supple
ments, supplied free of charge by
the committee to newspapers,
whose cooperation in using them
made the work effective. This
method of educational work is
declared to be undoubtedly the
most effective ever used in any
campaign. In no other way can
so small an expenditure produce
such great and certain results.
In the opinion Of many editors
who used the plates and know
their effectiveness, this newspaper
work was one Of the most effect
i've agencies in defeating the
party of Reputation and cheap
money; and yet its total cost for
the year had been less than
$50, O00---a small sum when COM
pared with the immense sums
spent by both parties in the old
fashioned ways of distributing in
bulk during campaigns pamphlets
and speeches of which at best
only small proportion ever reach
the hands of those for whom they
are intended: In addition to furn-
lshlng plate pages, speech plates,
ready prints and broadsides or
supplements, the committee kept
up a constant supply of cartoons
for newspaper service, aud con-
tinued to publish at regular
semi-monthly intervals its sound
currency series, maintaining it's
original character as a source of
original and particular informa-
ton for editors, bankers, business
men, public speakers and writer's,
and that important body Of men
in general who are chiefly in
strumental IN forming public
opinion. In addition, special calls
for pamphlet literature more suit
ed for general distribution led to
the publication of a few popular
numbers of special merit. Final
ly as the campaign drew to a
close, the demand for short, pithy
statements of fact and argument
led to the preparation of series
of some fifty cards of convenient
pocket-size, many of them bear
ing on one side taking cartoon,
and all of them simple and forci-
BILE presentations of the subjects
with which they dealt, these be-
ing used for distribution at large
political gatherings, particularly
in the central western states.
Some idea of the extent of the
work done by the committee may
be gathered from the statement
that it distributed pamphlets and
other printed matter equivalent
to As, ,32S, sos documents, reckon
ing plate pages, speech plates
and broadside St1nn1an1a.7fS &c