The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1897-10-01
BRYAN'S FALLACTES.
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.

Test of Wages Paid For Labor Shows
That Gold Has Depreciated.
Bryan says in his letter printed in
last Sundays Tribune, among other
things, the following:
First.-We were told last fall that an appre-
ciating dollar was national blessing and yet
within year the entire Republican press is in
ecstasy because the purchasing power of a
dollar las been to some extent decreased.
| Second.-The wage earners were told last
fall that a rise in the price of commodities
would be detrimental to them, and yet be-
hold how happy the Republican spellbinders
are because one great staple, flour, has risen
Third.-Laboring men were told that their
wages would be virtually reduced when it re-
CURED more dollars to buy a given amount of
food and clothing. Can it be that our oppo-
nents have forgotten the railway sound mon
| ey clubsP"
First.-Most of the above is 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 would buy
more commodities than it did before
the ''crime" of stopping the free COIN
age of silver was perpetrated in 1873,
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 3 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 i'll gold had in
creased sc to rs per cent These facts
knocked out Bryan's false assertions,
and he neither denied nor attempted to
explain them.
Second.-The wage earners were not
told by the Republicans last fall or at
any other time that "a rise in the prices
of commodities or wages Gin sound,
gold standard money! would be detri-
mental to them" Bryan sneaks in a
falsehood by suppressing the qualifying
phrase, sin sound, gold standard mon
ey."
The rise in the price of commodities
which Bryan called for was rise meas
ured in 46 cent dollars Of such a rise,
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 price as had been paid
46 cent free silver dollars were not as
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 it
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
80 cent free silver dollar is as good, if
congress so enacts, as gold dollar for
paying 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 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 to them, when
there was 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 were
also told by The Tribune and other Re-
publicans that if free silver coinage had
not been stopped in 1878 the laboring
classes or masses would have been paid
in rapidly depreciating silver money
from the time of resumption in 1878 to
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, 900 of them are getting work now
who were idle last year when it was
, thought that free silver at Is to might
be substituted for the gold standard and
, that Bryan might possibly be elected
president, and the tendency is now to-