Ottumwa semi-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1899-1903, 1900-09-25

/ 4. Il - :
be rich only with free trade.
r. AT this time, Mr.. Reel made an apt
comparison, likening the country under
free trade legislation to the dog CROSS
| ing the stream with a bone. The dog,
looking into the water, sees the reflec-
ton of his bone, dives for it and comes
! up. wetter and hungrier, but wiser. In
1882, the democratic party with free
trade policy, realized this same expe-
rience. They opened the markets of
the United States to the world, but in
doing so, lost sight of our home mar
kets, until, when they found that they
could not gather in the markets of the
whole world they also found that they
had lost the home markets, and the
country was in state of panic. l
/ hope and think that this has been a
| that they havelearned the fallacy of at
least one democratic issue. The pros
| perity of one section of the country is
dependent upon that of other sections.
| The east cannot cease to use the prod
/ uts of western fields and ranches with
out a falling off in the ability of the
west to buy the manufactured products
\ of the east. Free trade in 1892 closed
1 the factories of the east. causing the
west to suffer, and the financial troub-
les of 1893 We're the direct result. For
this reason. the tariff issue was useless
for the campaign of 1896, and in cast
j ing about for a question to argue, the
democrats, under Bryan, seized upon
the silver issue. and declared that the
only salvation of the country was in
the free and unlimited coinage of gold
and silver at ratio of 16 to l without
1.-The aid or consent of any other nation.
Now it is difficult to combat party
like this, which changes issues often.
| In 1885, we had to throw away all the
documents that had been printed about
tariff; they had no bearing on the cam
paign; all our arguments on the tariff
We're useless, because the democrats
Ethad given up tariff reform and said
lSthere was no issue but that of free sill
ver We defeated them on that ques-
ton, and this campaign should be
fought on the experience of the past
four years, but, unfortunately Bryan,
inn1S96, was not content to speak on
current events, but ventured to pro-
phecy. He foretold the disasters the
nation would meet if free silver were
defeated, but we know that none of
these prophesies have come to pass.
Consequently, this year, the silver
question is a back number, and would
be of no avail in the campaign, for it's
wrongs have been demonstrated. So
we find the democratic party at the
Kansas City convention, while reiter-
ating the silver arguments, declaring
that imperialism is the real issue of
the campaign of 1900. Bryan demand
ed that the Kansas City convention in
corporate into the platform the silver
plank but soon after, in indianapolis,
in his speech of acceptance, composed
of 5000 words, he did not touch upon
that question. Since that time. he
has said that the issue is dead, but if
he wants that fact established fail to
see why he was so DESTROYS of having
it in the platform. But | feel sure
that no political party would put a
question into its platform, and, If put
into power not put this question into
practice, and for that reason, regard
the silver question one of the issues of
the present campaign.
Free Silver.
"These gentlemen say that they are
in favor of the free and unlimited coin
age of silver and gold at the ratio Of
16 to 1 without the aid or consent of
any other nation on earth. They say
it would increase the circulating me-
dunn. We say it would not. We now
certificates; treasury notes and bank
notes, all on a par and as good as
gold. Under free coinage, gold and sill
yer have each dual property They
are both legal tender in this country,
and are equal as debt payers. Outside
of this country, however, in Paris, Ber
lin, or any European market, the gold
as bullion is worth more than the sill
yer. Cannot the owner of gold ship
it to these foreign markets, exchange
it for silver bullion, bring the silver
back, and, under the free coinage sys-
TEN advocated by the opposition, have
this bullion converted into United
States money worth at home twice the
amount Of the original gold? Will
not the ability to do this put gold at a
premium and eventually retire it from
circulation? Their argument is that leg
islative refusal to coin silver free is
groundless, for it would be impossible
to maintain the value of the silver dol
lar unless the value of the bullion be
maintained To my mind it is useless
for the 75,000,000 people in the United
States to attempt to counterfeit the
legislation of the 7O0,000,000 in the
other parts of the world who are
against free coinage"
The Trust Question.
Judge Smith told of the history Of
the trust, how at first it was a business
conducted by trustees. and was de-
clared illegal. Thereupon, those who
were interested in this matter bought
up all the industries in certain lines
of business, and conducted their at
fairs in such way that it was difficult
to destroy trusts without destroying
all corporations. This difficulty was
heightened by the fact that the Jeffer-
sonian party, when making the consti-
tution,l left no power to congress to dis
solve trust organized under the laws
of a state. 1t was therefore left to
the several states to act in the matter.
Iowa has legislated on the question: as
have also some of the other states,
but in New Jersey, the trusts may be
organized and conduct their buSiuesa