Worcester morning daily spy. (Worcester, Mass.) 1888-1898, 1898-03-15

Since the beginning of the excitement
caused by the loss of the Maine, little
has been heard of William ]. Bryan and
his campaign of education. How is he
getting on, and how fares his mission?
Well truth to say, neither is doing very
well. Mr.. Bryan has been down SOUTH
trying hard to infuse the breath of new
life into the inanimate form Of free sill
YER This great cause, on which the in
was supposed to depend, has received a
serious setback, owing to the contemp-
oraneous fall of silver and the rise of
the prices Of agricultural products. 1t
was Mr.. Bryan's purpose, if possible, to
stem the rising tide OF infidelity to sill
yer, but it does not appear that he has
had the best of success. Here are some
Of the facts that he was called upon to
explain, for to dispute them was impos-
sible, especially as they had been pub
lished in various southern journals.
When Mr.. Bryan was nominated, sill
yer sold for 69.2 cents an ounce in New
York. Now it is down to SAB cents,
showing a decline of Is cents an ounce
backing fraction) OF course, Mr..
Bryan would be equal to the task of ex-
planning that. Then there is wheat,
which sold for 63.5 cents a bushel last
July, lately selling in March for $1.06 a
bushel. This, also, Mr.. Bryan could
account for, because of the shortage of
b,,aa Il in Ie11L
other things not SO easily explained,
Pork has risen from $775 a barrel to
$1075. Ohio wool has gone from II
cents per pound 10 %. Why is this?
There has been no shortage in these
things.
Yet another puzzler. During all the
time that the gold bugs have been tyr
annizing over silver, manufactures in
the south have been increasing at a
wondrous rate. Last year, for example,
81 new cotton mills, with more than
250,009 spindles, were erected in the
south The number of mills has been
doubled in the last eight years, making
present total Of $50; the number Of
spindles has also been more than dou-
bled, the number of looms tripled, and
the amount Of capital more than dou-
bled, till it amounts to SIPS, 900, 900 All
the while, bear in mind, the price of sill
yer has been falling fast
Finally, as to the declining price of
cotton. Democratic newspapers of the
south have been printing tables, show
ing that the cotton product Of the world
has quadrupled since 1892 and the same
thing has happened in the United States,
our own product having been increased
from 100000 to 100000 pounds. Fur
thermore, it is shown that the price OF
cotton f1uctuated widely between 1S49
and 1871, though within that period the
price of silver remained almost UNI
changed in comparison.
These facts seem to have got into the
southern mind, ana they have had a
very unsettling effect upon farmers and
others who have SO long taken on trust,
the assertion that as the price of silver
goes up or down, so go the prices of all
farm products. AS the whole silver
campaign is based upon this assump-
! ton, the necessity of maintaining it is
sufficiently obvious from Mr.. Bryan's
point of view. 1t is all the more urgent,
because there is an increasing reluct-
ance to fusion among silver democrats.
silver republicans and popullsts in the
south, and fusion, it is admitted, is the
one hope Of the silver forces.