The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1898-03-14
Bryan Bumps lnto
Some Hard Facts
Special to the Scranton Tribune.

Washington, ID. c.. March 49,
m m r. BkYAN'S trip through the
IAlIN| south last week is understood
lNV|lI here to have been made with the
InJII purpose of trying to strengthen
the waning cause OF silver in
| that section and at the same time to en-
courage fusion, which has been coldly re-
ceiVed by the Popuists of the south gen.
orally The tone of the Populist press
has been far from satisfactory to the au-
! thors of the fusion scheme and great anX-
iety is felt among the friends of silver lest
this last attempt to unite the voters of
| the three parties in it's support will prove
an absolute and recognized failure. The
Popuist press of that section is insisting
that the party cannot march under Demo-
cratic banners and is carefully emitting
the active support of the silver cause
which characterized the earlier history
of the party and press. The rapid i'm
provement of business conditions in the
south and the advance in prices of farm
products generally, in the face of the
steday fall of silver since Mr.. Bryans
nomination, is causing the average citi-
zen to lose confidence in those assertions
which were the entire basis of the silver
campaign of 1896.
Notwithstanding the claim that prices
could not rise without free coinage of sill
Yer, there has been a steady advance in
date of Mr.. Bryan's nomination and this
has happened in the face of a steady fall
in the price of silver. Silver which was
69.2 cents per ounce in the New York mar
ket on the date of Mr.. Bryan's nomina-
ton, was on Wednesday of last week 54.3
cents, while meats, wool, provisions,
dairy products and all kinds of grain
have advanced The excuse which the
supporters of silver in Washington have
constantly offered for the advance in
wheat has been that of the shortage
abroad and the explanation of the ad-
vance in other classes of grain has been
that it was due to sympathy" with the
advance in wheat. An examination, how
| ever, of some tables just issued by the
bureau of statistics shows that the ad-
! vance in prices, which attracted most at
| tention with reference to wheat has been
| equally felt in practically all articles of
| farm production and that all this has
! happened in the face of a steady fall in
silver
These tables, which show the range Of
| prices in silver and various farm produc-
| tions, are too lengthy to reproduce in full.
1t is practicable, however, TO present in
| a single table the history of the upward
course of prices in all classes of farm
| products in the face of the downward
| course of silver during the period since
Mr.. Bryan's nomination. These facts
| coming TO the surface as they do just at
| the time of Mr.. Bryan's tour through the
| south and his prospective visit to WASH
| ington, are especially interesting and
| make the table one well worth the study
! ana preservation of everyone interested
! in the coming campaign. The articles Sc
! lected represent the three great classes of
| farm production, breadstuffs, provision
| and wool, while other articles of the
classes thus represented have advanced
| in an equally marked ratio.
Table showing advance in prices of va
| rious farm products, and coincidental fall
in the price Of silver from July 10, 1896
| tdate of Bryan's nomination., to March
| 10, 1898: