Cameron County press. [volume] (Emporium, Cameron County, Pa.) 1866-1922, 1898-03-10
WASHINGTON LETTER.
WASUTNGTON, March.

Dc liltItHlch III Solllc llS llco NlllCh
are incidentally but necessarially
presented by that chief organ of
the silver trust, the "Silver Knight
Watchman. This publication is
owned by silver-millionaire Stewart
the most active and persistent Of
the calamity walters, who never
misses an opportunity OF telling
the public what sufferers they are
under the gold standard and how
impossible it is for the farmers to
prosper without the free and un-
limited coinage of silver. Profess
ing, as it does, to be newspaper,
the Silver Knight Waterman nee
essarially reports some of the cur
rent features of the week S develop
ments, including important feat
ureS of commerce, markets, etc,
and here, in its presentation of
these facts and conditions which
cannot be ignored the Knight
Watchman destroys the entire
structure of argument which the
calamity walters have washed with
the tears during each succeeding
year that they have determined to
trick the people of the United
States into aiding them in behalf
of their free-silver scheme.
Examined in the light of the
constant assertion of the silverites
that prosperity cannot come to the
farmers without the free coinage of
silver, and that prices OF farm pro-
ducts and prices of silver keep pace,
the figures presented by the Knight
Watchman in its issue Of Feb. "a,
1898, are TO say the least, interest
ing. II shows, for instance, the
closing price of wheat in New York
ON February p, 1898, to be $1.O3B
per bushel. When Mr.. Bryan was
nominated and assured the farmers
Of the country, as did all his asso-
ciates, that farm products could
not advance without the free coin
age of silver, wheat was worth 643
cents per bushel.
The market report of the Knight
Watchman gives the price Of corn
in New York, February 21, 1898,
at 81 rs cents, which is just five
cents a bushel more than it was on
April !, 1897, showing an advance
of nearly twenty per cent. in price
in lo77 tiIaI IL nivIulIo wlulIUuU tie
free coinage of silve. The same
report in the Knight-Watchman
gives the price Of oats in New
York at 3O3 cents per bushel.
When Mr.. Bryan was nominated
in 1896, the price of oats in New
York was 214 cents, a gain of
nearly 80 per cent. without the
free coinage of silver.
Mess pork is quoted in the same
market report of the Knight
Watchman at $1O.25 per barrel.
That highest authority on prices,
Bradstreet's, shows that mess pork
in New York was worth $500
per barrel on October |, 1896, Just
at the time that Mr.. Bryan, mine
owner Stewart, the Knight Watch
man, and other advocates were as
suring the farmers that products
could not advance except through
the free coinage of silver. Yet
here is an advance of nearly fifty
per cent. in 16 months.
Beef, family, is quoted by the
Knight Watchman SLID per bar
rel in New York of February 21,
1898. 1t is shown by Bradstreets
to have been $500 per barrel on
October II, 1896, another increase
of practically 80 per cent. within
16 months without the free coin
age Of silver.
The favorite reply, indeed the
only reply, which the silver men
have been able to make to advance
in prices which has come with the
adoption Of the protective system
and the opening of factories and
consequent increase in consump-
tion-all without the free coinage
of silver-has been that the ad-
vance in price of wheat was due to
the chortage abroad. But how
about corn; how about rye; how
about oats? Perhaps they will re-
ply that the advance in wheat in
cidentally affected other breadstuffs
and resulred in the advance of
corn, rye and oats. Then how
about apples, wool, and butter and
obaaCoo How, ahon+ lnrl aDI bn