Staunton spectator and vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1896-1916, 1897-12-23
Prosperity.

Prosperity.
In vain have we awaited the prom.
ised prosperity and it came not Now
the latest cause OF it's failure to arrive,
comes from Mr.. Marcus A. Hanna, who
announces that SO long as there is the
slightest fear that silver may win there
can never be real prosperity There
have been other causes assigned which
account for its non arrival by those
who promised SO much during the last
election. but the very fact that there
are causes assigned, shows that not
only we calamity howlers," but the
great givers OF so many good things,
know it has not arrived, and are COM
PEELED to apologize for the delay. Had
money been easy, had business been
prosperous, had our wOrkmen been
employed. the farmers of this country
would today be getting $1.50 for their
wheat instead of so cents. There never
were such conditions abroad to help
out our expectation of wheat and other
food products, and the stringency of
the money market is the sole cause of
the presel t low price of these. When
In the history of this country was there
ever SO great foreign demand. when
was there such universal famine
abroad? Yet with these advantages
wheat has been held down to about 80
cents and beef and pork one or two
cents lower than they ought reasona-
bly, to have been. 1t is further fact
that foreign demand for our products
has brought into the United States the
only fresh, or new money We have had
since McKinley's election. Now If our
farmers can grow products for our
foreign neighbors, why cannot our
manufacturers produce stuffs for them
also, and thus help swell the money of
the country? They might if they de.
sired, but our manufacturers will not
seek foreign markets. They have
home market which they prefer, they
have seventy millions of gullible PEG
pie in the United States who "a they
plumber and rob as regularly as the
year comes round. and they are now
grinning and wetting their chops over
the present outlook. No sooner will
the farmer get into his pocket the
money of the foreigner than these
home manufacturers who control the
legislation of this country, will form
combinations under existing laws, or
will make Congress pass such laws as
will enable them to steal all the farmer
has. Why go abroad and seek legiti-
mate trade against foreign competition,
when they have such easy fruit such
splendid picking at their very doors?
The manufacturers of this country
are not numerous. every one knows
every other one better than we know
our neighbors; they meet. and they
arrange their robberies just as easily
and far more systematically than ever
did Pirate Chief or Jessy James. One
half cent advance puts $4,000, 600 in
the pockets of the sugar trust. One
cent advance per pound paws all the
campaigning subscription of the wire
trust and leaves it millions besides.
One cent advance per gallon enables
the Standard Oil trust to declare large
dividends, and these all take place as
soon as the farmer thinks he has his
money safely in his pocket, and what
occurs with these occurs with every
article mentioned in the Dingley bill.
But trouble seems brewing. these rob-
beers raised things too high and now
the government is becoming bank
rupt. A deficit of $41 100000 stnres
Mckinley in the face. Itreached those
enormous figures on Dec LIST, and there
seems to be no very good way of get
ting out of the muddle. Cleveland
issued bonds, but Mckinley denounced
such course, and had the Dingley
bill passed to avoid such a contingent
cy. The Democrats showed a way
out, which was to tax incomes, but a
Repu blican Supreme Court declared
this unconstitutional, hence trouble
seems hedging in the administration
on every side, and prosperity which
has been SO plentiful in the mouths of
some, and SO scarce in the pockets of
all. seems further and further away
than before. Ali these troubles are
chargel to Bryan and his fre.. silver
followers. How strange that SO dead
an issue as silver. so dead an individu
al as Bryan, aud SO dead duck as the
Democratic party. can with the slight.
est muscular movement or signs OF
life, scare away in moment all the
prosperity Mckinley aud his mighty
forces can put into operation in Il
year. Mckin'ey's prosperity sentences
in his message sound like VIEWERS
bombastic utterances about the end of
the Cuban war, they are pure wind,
nothing but wind, and the party ia.
fast reaching that point where it must
admit with due humiliation that its
prosperity show has been gigantic
fraud.
GRAIN TRADE AND CROPS
The Cincinnati Price Current of last
Thursday says
Weather conditions have been gen
orally favorable for fall sown grain
Considerable snow has fallen in the