The true northerner., 1898-11-02

FRIDAY EVENING.
~ Hon. j. Nelson Lewis is
Ak pleasant speaker, having good
command of the English Ian
! guage and being always at ease
III in the presence of his audience
- His oratorical attainments are
good, but he views the world, figuratively,
through goggles of darkest blue, and in
the clear stream of plenty flowing through
our land, he sees the dark indigo of mis-
fortune and woe. Hon. j. Nelson must
be a dyspeptic or else he talks calamity
because there is no other way to make a
! fiat speech, and he is so conscientious
that he wants to earn his salary. A big
crowd greeted him at the opera house
Friday evening, and the Northerner
wishes he might come again before cleo
tion, as such speeches cannot fail to make
votes for the republican ticket.
Early in his speech he said, "If there
is anything in the world that the people
of this country are out of to-day, it's
work! "And there wasn't a man able to
do manual labor, within the sound of his
voice, who couldn't go to work at fair
wages the next morning if he wanted to.
In community where there has never
been such scarcity of help as since the
last spring opened, and where employers
have sought the men instead of the en-
ployes the jobs, such statement could
not fail to fall exceedingly fiat.
Again, he argued that conditions were
wrong because nowhere in the land could
he find such thing as absolute con
tent" Hon. j. Nelson should emigrate
to Heaven; it is an absolute certainty
that, unless he can override the will of
Providence and change the nature of man,
"absolute content" he will never see this
side of the celestial shore.
Again, he said he was not "croaking
rayen"-anyone could see he was not a
raven-but that there could be no pros
perity until the people can buy. He
neglected to tell what would enable the
people to buy, if not bountiful crops and
good prices, plenty of work and good
wages such as the people at present en-
joy. He ignored the fact that the people
, are buying, and that very literally in
deed, as is plainly evidenced by the in
dustrial and commercial reports from
time to time.
prices are low," said j. Nelson, for
getting for the moment that he and his
party argue for free trade because prices
are high. BY the way, this is one of the
many anomoies of the present democrat
ic position. The stump and the press
argue for free trade because prices are
; too high, and for free silver because prices
are too low BY such line of reasoning, it
, will be seen, they fit the ideas of any
, , body as to prices, unless, perchance, it
be one who has that absolute content"
that Hon. j. Nelson fails to find.
2 He gave Joe Letter credit for the wheat
bulge last year, but failed to tell why
. wheat's running mate, silver, bulged
2 down while wheat bulged up. Hon. j.
Nelson should re-read his "Coin."
5 He said "the war is not an issue" while
Y he knows that every democratic paper
e in the land is trying to down the McKin-
5 ley administration on the very question
E of the conduct of the war. 1t is an issue.
A vote for a republican congressman is a
vote to sustain the president; vote for
/ democratic congressman is vote of
g condemnation.
Hon. j. Nelson referred to the popu-
lists as "long haired, crack Drained peo-
| pie" all of which will have a lively ten
dency to cause the populists who heard
him to vote it straight for Sui Cook and
Cunningham, rather than for Whiting
, and Jarvis.
Again, he said man with a million
could do business on three per cent
basis and get rich at it, while man with
ten thousand could not live thereon. We
do not know exactly what Hon. j. Mel
sons "Bostonese" ideas are about riches,
:, but we people of Michigan are inclined
to smile at talk of millionaire getting"
: rich. Nor can we see what argument
:, Hon. j. Nelson could adduce from the
statement He might have said, with
= Just as much truth and just as much
i force, that the man with a million might
: live a hundred years and spend ten
!, = thousand year, and that without his
i fortune earning any percentage what
ever. Either statement is a mathemat-
ical one-nothing more-and no argu-
Y ment for or against any political policy
N These are only few of the funny
, things Hon. j. Nelson said, and at which
e some ultra-silverites cheered Justify
,r Thinking men took the talk for exactly
s, what it was worth-nothing more.
$ The speech concluded with typical
k worn out, Bryanized, Harveyized appeal
lie for free coinage at the ratio of Is to l
IL In this Hon. j. Nelson drew compari
" son between the per capita circulation
lie of the United States and England. III,
e admitted that ours is considerabl,
$. greater; but, he said, as our interna
A. commerce is two and a half times tn,
Ig amount of that of England, we SHOULD
D. have two and half times as much pc
d capita circulation, or about $50. And th'
ly crowd cheered Hon. J. Nelson ignored
ID the fact that the two and half times a
ly much trade is done by two and a hal
al times as many people, and that the sam