Cameron County press. [volume] (Emporium, Cameron County, Pa.) 1866-1922, 1900-09-20

statement might apply: but II cannot pos
sibly apply to the present conditions AS
things are now, II can best be compared
with Mr. Bryan's other statement of Sep
tember 19, 1896, in which he denounced the
gold dollar as 'rObber' dollar. one state
ment means just as much as the other ana
no more. Instead of bothering about
whether the man is ahead of the dollar or
the dollar is ahead of the man, or whether
the gold dollar is a 'robber'-whatever that
may mean--or anything else preposterois,
let us fix our attention on the fact that the
policy followed for the last three years
has resulted in bringing the man and the
dollar together. That is what a man really
wants with n dollar. He is not Interested
i'm any flight of fancy as TO whether he Is
behind or in front of the dollar. lie wants
to get hold of it; and when he has got hold
of it he wants to find II worth lOO cents
and not As cents. When man can get
hold of a dollar he is it's master; and when
he cannot get hold of it, then he cannot
master it. At present we give the wage
worker work and we provide that he Is
paid full value for his work. That is the
only practical way to bring the man ana
the dollar together on terms which Will
give the man the advantage; and the tact
of having actually carried out the policy
which secured this, of having done the
deeds which produced these conditions, Is
worth to the laboring man 10000 times
more than all the fine phrases that can ever
be uttered as TO some wholly imaginary
precedence of position between the man
and the dollar he earns.
"In his speeches Mr.. Bryan kept insist
ing upon the alleged fact that money was
growing dearer; that under a gold standard
II was bound to continue to grow Scarcer
Well, as a matter of fact. and thanks to our
prosperity, there is more money IN CIR
culation per capita in the United states
to-day than ever before in the history OF
the country. On July last the circulation
per capita was $3.50, an increase in circu-
lation of s.. 40 for every man, woman and
child in the country, as compared with
what it was on July /. 1896. So Mr.. Bryan :
prophecy has been as wide Of the mark in
this instance as in every other. The pres
ent year is the first in which the 81 0OO, 600, 900
mark in circulation has ever been passed.
In other words. the increase of money in
circulation has kept pace with the expand
ing industries and commerce of the COUP
try, and this increase has been predom-
inately due to the condition of prosperity
produced by the gold standard: yet Mr..
Bryan in his Minneapolis speech of four
years ago predicted that commerce would
be at a Standstill because gold would go
out of the country, and that the issuing
of bonds would be necessary TO bring 1t
back.
Every single prediction he has made
has been falsitied by the event. On October
13 he said: These are hard times. They
continues on September % he said: If
you ask how the gold standard affects the
farmer, We tell you that the gold standard
lowers the price of products of him who
sells without lowering his taxes or debts.
If you ask us how the gold standard affects
the laboring man, we reply that it destroys
the opportunity for labor, multiplies the
number of idle men and fills our streets
with those anxious for work who cannot
find the opportunity. The gold standard
by increasing idleness brings poverty to
those who ought to have enough and to
spare On October he said The gold
standard means a dearer dollar and falling
prices, and falling prices mean hard
times. On October he said: If We have
a gold standard prices are as certain to
fall as a stone which is thrown in the air.
j do not have to comment on these proph-
ecies. Their ludiCrouS falsity is patent
to every farmer, every business man, every
wage worker.
Sometimes Mr.. Bryan would go into
more specific prophecy. In his Madison
Square garden speech he insisted that say
ings bank depositors under the gold stand
ard would be liable to lose their deposits
and if the gold standard continued indefi-
nitely, would have to withdraw their de-
posts in order to pay living expenses.
Well, last year 0S99D there were in the Unit
ed States 5,6S7000 savings bank depositors,
as against 50S5.0O0 in the year when Mr.
bryan spoke, ana IHt amount bl illcIl tt-
posits had increased by 1923, coo 600. Evi-
IDENTIFY Mr.. Bryan did not make a happy
shot when he prophesied that If the gold
standard continued the depositors would
lose their deposits, or would have to with
draw them
again, in his speech al New Haven he
dwelt upon the fact that if the gold stand
ard continued, the number of failures
among business men would increase. Well
in 1899, as compared to 1896, the number of
failures had shrunk from over 1900 to less
than 10000, and the liabilities from over
S226, 100000 TO less than $50, 0OO, 600. Again Mr..
Bryan's prophecy did not prove happy.
"In HIS Chicago speech he dwelt upon the
fact that if the gold standard continued it
meant half time in the factories and double
time on the farms. You have only to look
at any factory you know to appreciate The
unconsciously humorous side of that state
ment.
1T was on September "a, among other oc-
casions that he dwelt upon his doctrine
that wheat and silver went up or down to-
gether, and prophesied as follows An
American dollar will buy two Mexican dol
lars, and also two bushels of wheat at the
same time. There was a time when an
American dollar would buy only one Mex
lean dollar and then an American dollar
would buy only one bushel of wheat. If the
time ever comes when an American dollar
will buy three Mexican dollars, then II will
DuS ttlTee DuSnelS OF wnedt. But, unIOr-
tunately, since then we have on several oc-
casiOns had dollar wheat, and, on the
whole, wheat has risen while silver has
continued to fall At present one of our
dollars Will purchase more than two Mex
lean dollars; but it will only purchase a
bushel and quarter of wheat. OF course.
as any child who had studied the subject
would know, the price of wheat and the
price of silver do not bear the slightest re-
| lation to one another.
'In his speech at Tammany Hall he said I:
| You know that with the slightest prOspe ct
of a foreign war we would suspend gold
payments, and go either to silver or to a
paper basis at once Well since then we
have had the Spanish war We fought it to
a successful conclusion, and no human be-
ing ever thought of the gold standard be-
! ing suspended
Now, when utterances such as I have
quoted represent the fine flower of states
mans thought as to what is best for the
country from an economical and financial
standpoint, the country is itself to blame If
it invites disaster by giving him chance
to put his theories into effect Remember
that all these statements | have quoted
rtalNy