The Goodland republic. [volume] (Goodland, Kan.) 1891-1907, 1897-01-15
WHERE is PROSPERITY?
Certainly It Has Not Returned to Bless
the People.

tAo FSgFAcs
WASHINGTON, D. c., Jan. Especial
4 ask you honest republicans to read
what I say in this letter in the spirit in
which it is written. 1 am not about to
reprOsch you for voting against Bryan
and silver. You did what you honestly
believed to be the best for your coun-
try, and if you made a mistake you
made it coRscientiously.
But, on the other hand, you can't af-
ford to initiate the ostrich, and try to
blot out facts by covering up your eyes.
The election is over. There is nothing
to be gained by Misrepresentation.
You can no longer think we have any
selfish motive in what We say to you.
Therefore we expect you to read and
reflect upon what we shall present for
your consideration.
In the first place there is no denying
the fact that we are all disappointed at
the present business condition. I never
believed for a moment the statement
made by the gold papers and speakers
during the campaign that all that We
wanted was confidence, and that imme-
diately after McKinley.s election con
fidence would be restored, money plenty
and times good. But I did look for a
considerable revival of business, and I
have been disappointed.
From week to week the weekly review
of trade by the two commercial agencies
which had made the most confident pre-
dictions Of return of prosperity, admit
their disappointment at the failure of
their predictions. They admit that
business has not revived and that prices
have fallen. All of the leading papers
have tried to. belittle the awful rush of
failures since eleetiOn, but the weekly
tables of Dunn and Bradstreet's COM
mercial agencies show that the failures
for the past four weeks have reached
the tremendous total of over fourteen
hundredl Banks have been tumbling
in every direction. The poverty and
misery in all the great cites is greater
than ever known before. Even with the
advantage of an unprecedented demand
caused by the failure Of crops and fam
inc in India, the farmers can't raise
money enough to pay their taxes.
1t is time for you to think out the
cause of these things.
You say it might have been worse if
Bryan had been elected? Well, let US
see what would have been the probable
result.
We are frank to admit that for few
days there would have been trouble for
the banks, They had talked ruin SO
persistently that it is quite reasonable
to suppose that many depositors would
have been frightened and would have
rushed to get out their deposits, and il
is even possible that a good many banks
would have had to suspend Temporal
| lily. But all such trouble would have
been temporary, for this reason.
If Bryan and a free coinage congress
had been elected everyone would know
that it would be but a few months be-
fore there would be more money, OF as
the gOldbugs worded it, "cheap money
Now if a man has something in his pos
session that he knows is going to be
cheaper what will he do with it? Viii
he hoard il upf On the contrary he viii
exchange it as quick as he can foI
something that he knows is going tC
become more valuable. Now, as all the
republican papers state, the victory Of
silver would have resulted in diminish
ing the purchasing power Of the dollar
After free silver coinage went into op
Grafton dollar would grow less anC
! less in value as compared with land
lumber, hay, and everything into which
money can be exchanged. knowing