The Ely miner., 1900-10-12
WHAT REpURLICANISM
HAS DONE IN WYOM ING.
Miners and Stockraisers Are
Receiving Good Returns.
Senator Warren Tells Why the West
viii Return Good Majorities for
Mckinley and Roosevelt
This Year.
(By Hon. Francis E. Warren, United
States Senator)


The people of Wyoming are vitality and
intensely interested in the outcome of the
present campaign. Wyoming has been q
State but little over eight years, and
of this period four years each Of Demo
cratic and Republican government have
served to impress upon the minds Of its
people two distinct and impressive OBJ
ject lessons. The first period was dur
ing the Democratic administration from
1893 to 1896 inclusive, in which we suf
fered so severely in business matters and
when our material conditions were con
fessedly so devoid of hope that as we
i-look back it all seems like a hideous
nightmare.
The second period of four years is that
formed by the Mckinley administration
At the outset of it we were awakened
to life and hope. During this time oui
industries, depressed and improbable
under Democratic policies, have become
prosperous, and our business ventures
remunerative and satisfactory. The
ranches, farms, cattle, sheep, mines and
railroads of our State all give substantial
returns to the capital and labor eXpend-
ed upon them, and our people, instead OF
being constant borrowers. are now pay
ing their debts and becoming lenders.
Bryan's scare Expansion, I'm
perialism and Mlitarism not an
issue of the campaign in Wyoming. This
State is the product of expansion. Every
foot of its area of 1000 square miles
was formed from territory acquired by
acts of expansion such as the Louisiana
purchase, the seizure of the Oregon coun-
try, the Mexican treaty, and the Cali
fornia purchase, and all this without the
consent of the governed.
One of our Wyoming volunteers who,
when the war broke out, was a leading
Democratic politician of the State, who
went to the Philippines as a private and
through merit won a commission, recent
ly wrote home as follows:
II would like to be home so that
could vote against Bryan. / hope he
will be defeated so badly that the buga-
boo word Imperialism will never be
heard again."
The chief industries in Wyoming are
live stock raising, farming. coal mining
and railroad operation. Sheep, cattle
and horse raising form the greatest in
dustry of the State. During the -four
years of Democratic administration, and
under the direct operations of the Will
son tariff law, the condition of the sheer
and wool industry in Wyoming was ap.
palling. Sheep brought less than one
dollar a head; wool sold for five cents
and sometimes less per pound, and NUT
ton shipments would scarcely realize the
railroad freight to market. During that
four years the highest annual assessed
valuation of all the sheep in the State
was 81, ,30S,O00.
But with the Mckinley administration
and the Dingley tariff of 1897 sheep
which could scarcely find a purchaser al
a dollar head, now sell for four dollars
Wool now brings from fourteen to seven
teen cents. Mutton now sells for from
four to six cents a pound on foot. And
the assessed valuation of sheep in Wy
years of over 300 per cent.
The contrast between the cattle in
dustry under Democratic and Republi-
can administrations is almost as start
ling From 1893 to 1897 depression and
ruin was the rule. But, as in the sheep
business, the election of Mckinley and
Inauguration of Republican policies
wrought q marvellous change. Mixed
herds of cattle for the past three years
have sold for thirty to thirty-fve dollars
head; calves bring fifteen to twenty
dollars a head, and steers now net the
cattle raiser from forty-fve to 6fty-fve
dollars each. The assessed valuation of
cattle in the State now amounts to S.
154, 600 and is rapidly increasing.
Under the past four years of Repub-
licanism, Wyoming has grown to be an
important factor among the coal-produc-
ing States. During the four years of
Democratic rule, with the same number
Of mines as at present, the annual pro-
duction was 2,439, ,311 tons as against
past two years of the Mckinley admins
tration. The increase in production
means more miners, more days worked,
better pay.
The most hopeful feature of Wyom-
ing's business condition is to be found in
the fact that its local banks now carry
the credits of its business people. The
deposits of Wyoming banks have increas-
ed four-fold in the past four years and
the number Of depositors has increased
five-fold. Western banks are now as in
dependent of the East as the East is Of
Europe, and it will be difficult, 1 think,
for Mr.. Bryan to convince our people
that this comfortable state of affairs is
not due directly to the wise and patriotic
policy Of the Republican party.
In 1896, when four years of depression
and disaster had almost driven our people
to despair, Bryan carried the State by
about $50 plurality. Now if the people
will spare time from business, from the
ranch and from the mine to go to the
polls. this plurality will not only be lost
TO Mr.. Bryan, but the Mckinley and
Roosevelt electors will carry the State
by substantial majority.
FRANCIS Z. WARREN.
United States Senator.
Cheyenne, Wyo.