Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1897-02-25
"eRYAN AS A coNJuRER."
Andrew Carnegie writes an Essay
A Story of Hermann

Andrew Carnegie Writes an Essay
A Story of Hermann
Andrew Carnegie,iron and steel manu-
fscturer, philanthropist, traveller in Eu-
rope, occasional essayist, and construc-
tor of naval armor plate, for which he
charges the United States $500 and Rus
STA S225, has written for the North
American Review an article under the
bead OF Bryan as a Conjurer." The
article is entertaining and seductive,
quite as much SO as Mr.. Carnegie would
have his readers believe Mr.. Bryan to
be. Its literary style is crisp, its logic
Is well oiled, and its strateg1caI use of
Mr.. Carnegie as an authority is clever
and cunning.
The article purports to be an answer
to Mr.. Bryan's article in the same maya
zine last month on the future of the
bimetallic cause. 1t sets forth, to begin
with that the public were hoodwinked
into believing that Mr.. Bryan was the
leader of the late campaign, when, in
reality, Mr.. Altgeld was the leader.
Conjury No. 1. Following this Mr..
Bryan is accused of slick confusion of
the terms 'bimetalIism" and "free sill
yer" so that he makes either one appear
to signify the other. Conjury No 2
A third trick Mr.. Carnegie labels
'east and west" and asserts that in
playing it Mr.. Bryan leads the eastern
laborer to believe exactly what he
wants the western farmer not to believe
concerning the effect of gold monomet-
allism upon prices and wages. In other
words, he states that Mr.. Bryan prom
ises the farmer of the west 5O-cent dol
lars under free silver, and the Iaborer
of the east 12o cent dollars. Conjury
No. g.
Fourth ard last of the tricks which
Mr.. Carnegie attributes to Mr.. Bryan
or rather fourth and next to last, for
the last is accusing Mr.. Bryan of fool
ing himself into believing that he is
honest-is denominated Money and
Prices" To prove that Mr.. Bryan per-
formed bunco trick in his argument
concerning the effect of the kind and
quantity of money upon prices Mr..
Carnegie confines himself to simply Cit
ing the fact that wheat and cotton rose
III price during the campaign and that
stocks and silver fell.
Men have been known to sit in the
playhouse and describe to their much
afflicted neighbors how Hermann, KEEL
Ter and others have done their Iegerde-
main. 1t is, of course, bit of smart
ness which some people may envy. but
1t reminds one of the story told of the
two young men in New York who
wagered that Herrmann's pocket could
not be picked without Hermann being
aware of il. One of the young men,
who was considered an adept in, the
sieight-of-hand business, essayed to do
the picking. He succeeded and Herr
mann lost his watch. But when the
young man returned to his home he
found that he not only did not have
Herrmann's watch, but was minus his
own as we'll Hermann had both of
them.
1t is not difficult for any man who is
versed in the silver question to answer
Mr.. Carnegie's article in the Review, but
it may be well to recall this little story
of Hermann to Mr.. Carnegie's mind.
The conjury which he finds in Mr.. Bry-
an may be exactly skillful enough to
fitch back from his pocket the many
little $500 pieces he has taken from the
pockets of the people, whom Mr.. Bryan
has had the honor to represent, to pay
for armor plates which he has sold for
$575 less to the governments of Europe.
and the innumerable other beneficences
which he has gained with the nimble
fingers of the hand of excessive tariff
rates, and in the filching back of these
valuables it will be fortunate for Mr..
Carnegie and his class if they do not
lose something additional as punish
ment.
Things that astonish us do most often
appear as conjury, and it would indeed
astonish Mr.. Carnegie if the free coin
age of silver should soon be synonym
Gus with bimetallism and bimetallism
should be equally Synonymous with the
prosperity which seems at present.to be
very foreign to Mr.. Carnegie's much
honored gold metallism.-Denver
Times.