Omaha daily bee., 1898-01-18
nRYAN As AN ORATOR
His Remarkable Proficiency ns
Slcieht-of-Mouth Performer.


Sleieht-of-Mouth Performer.
| ST raul Ponccr Press
Mr.. Bryan. in his address to the students
OF the State university, told them that the
essential qualifications OF an orator were
that he should know what he was talking
about and believe what he said" Tried by
this test the Boy Orator has about as much
claim to the title as a slcight-of hand per-
former in dime museum. On his favorite
subject OF money and finance on which he
has set about to Instruct his auditors at
prices ranging from % cents TO 81 a head he
/ probably knows less OF what he talks about
/ than any man OF mature years In America.
engaged In a similar vocation, unless II be
/ lsaatius Donnely And II he actually be-
/ lieyes what he says, whatever credit may be
| given to his sincerity must bc denied to his
/ Intelligence. by his own criterion he Is not
an orator at all. But In the popular ccn-
ccption of the term that Is all he Is. He is
| a plausible and elOqucnt daClaimCr. He has
the superficial gifts and graces OF ocatory,
| but none Of its higher intellectual or moral
| elements Fer he lacks the logical faculty
| He lacks honesty. He lacks truthfulness
He lacks knowledge. He is deit spinner of
| catchwords, OF phrases that catch the car Of
the grourdlings. His arguments are tricks
| Of verbal preStidigi alton,
Every speech be has ever made on THE
question ciuce his thoutrical debut before the
| Chicago convention with his crces OF gold
1 ald crown OF thorns has been full OF proofs
! OF the accuracy OF this characterization.
| Take the one delivered at the Peoples church
| 5n Wednesday--the same old ole which he
| has rec ted from hundreds Of platforms in his
| peripatctic prcpagandsm of free silver. 81
| propose" he said. ito show you that the
geld standard is larceny by law" He would
| briag proof that would convince his auditors
of this. Now, how did he prove it? First,
| he alleged in roundabout way that gold
| had appreciated In value by rcaeon of its
| relative scarcity and therefore had increased
| in purchasing power, But where Is the
proof that gold has appreciated in &lue?
| That is the very proposition to be proved.
| He quietly assumes the truth of the PROPOSE
! tion he promised to prove and then affects
| to have proved it,
| And with this assumption that he has
| proved it by asserting it, he goes on to say:
! Eve condemn the gold standard because IL
| gives us a rising Gol,Ir''-that is. dollar
| which has appreciated in value because of
| its scarcity-Gnd then adds, as II he was
| simply giving another name to the came
thing, "a dollar OF increasing purchasing
! power | tell you that a rising dollar is
d5h0neet dollar" Thus, by a trick of am
bideXtrous word-shuffing, he substitutes for
| the original proposition. which is universally
| denied by his opponents. that the value of
| the dollar has been increased by the scarcity
| Of gold, the far broader and in some respects
| entirely distinct and unrelated proposition
| that the purchasing power of the dollar has
increased, which under proper limitations
mo one denies.
No one denies-it is everywhere recog
| nzed as one of the most belefcent advances
| of modern civilization-that the purchasing
| power of the dollar has increased in refer
| ence to many things You can buy more
| shoes and clothes, more books ana news
| papers. more light and heat and steel rails
and more of a thousand things with a given
| number of dollars today than could be
| bought with the same sum twenty-five or
| fifty years ago. The luXuries of the rich have
| become the ordinary comforts of the poor.
| Not because gold has appreciated in value.
but because, IN nearly every department Of
industry, one man is now able to do the
work of four or five, and in some cases Of
twenty or more men a generation ago. If,
by reason of this vastly increased efficiency
given to human labor by its increased com
| mand of the powers of nature. the poor man
can now purchase a suit of clothes a pair
of shoes or almost any other manufactured
article for a third a quarter tenth
of what the same things would have cost
him thirty or forty years ago, is that rob
berry? Is it larceny which now fills the cot
tage OF the intelligent worfingman with car
pets and furniture and pictures and books
and musical instruments and comforts of
every sort which were beyond the reach of
all but the rich fifty years ago, and in many
cases not purchasable with the wealth of
kings?
If it is through larceny that this benefCent
revolution has been wrought. who has been
robbed? Not the workman whose skilled
labor is employed in the processes of pro-
duction. fer the wage of his labor is the
one thing that has not fallen. In one sense
labor is the fundamental measure of values.
A given unit of skilled labor commands as
many dollars on the average now thirty
or forty years ago, while these dollars COM
mand a vastly increased quantity and range
OF the comforts and luXuries of life. We
have in these two facts a complete demon
stration that it is not the appreciation of
gold which has reduced prices. but the in
creased efficiency of human labor
And no one knows this better than Mr..
Bryan. For no one has ever stated more
eloquenty than he the stupendous progress
of labor saving inventions as the cause OF
the reduced prices of most of the pro 3ucts
Of labor. But that was before he took it |
into his head that the truth was not the
road to political popularity. His congress
sional speeches afford the proof that in this |
case, at least. he knows what he Is talking |
about, but does not believe what he says
We might multiply examples. Did he be- |
iieve what he said when he reiterated that |
ten thousand times exploded falsehood that |
the bill which dropped the silver dollar from |
the coinage in 1878 was surreptitiously |
passed? Did he believe what he said when |
he asserted that at the last election 80 per |
cent Of the people voted for bimetalism? |
BY 1000 900 majority they voted for Nc !
Kinley on a platform which pledged him and |
his supporters to the maintenance of the |
gold standard. and which distinctly repudi-
ated any kind of bimetallism which was not |
based on the cooperation of the great com
mercial powers Of the earth. BY a million
majority they condemned Mr.. Bryan's scheme |
OF a monometallic silver standard, which it
Is one of his tricks of verbal legerdemain to
pass off on his hearers as bmetallism.
IL