The Prince George's enquirer and southern Maryland advertiser. (Upper Marlborough, Md.) 1882-1925, 1900-11-02

STATEMENT THAT CAR CONTRACT WAS AWARDED CONIlN
Mex REELECTION is CONFIRMED By
- OF "COERCION' REFUTED--
THE suns MEASUREMENTS AND CONpTCT
ANANXED--ISSUES OF THE CAMPAIGN
ABLY DISCUSSED.
their sturdy step and manly bearing and
+ he mi hllS thn1 HiSlnlnHnH

earners in 1896, as YOU described it. The
| same arrangements made for the same
men, the same kind of a gathering from
the same centers of employment, you say
is produced by coercion.
You know every man who works Tor
any one of the large employers of labor
in this State is as perfectly free to vote
every such large employer is AN advocate
of McKinleys re election Ought you
not to be ashamed of yourself for casting
such siurs upon the honest workingmen
| from thes busy places of happy, CON
tented human labor?
4th. | now pass to another phase OF
these contracts, which become void i'll case
| of Bryan's election.
You had scores of editorials il 1896
taking the position that mere fear of Bry-
ans election was paralyZing business;
| that contracts would not be made for fear
that panic and disaster would follow the
election of Bryan. and you argued that If
the mere threat or fear of the election vt
Bryan produced such results i'll the way
of the contraction of business, and the
hesitation of business men to commence
new and large expenditures, then the ac
| tual election would produce business
| panic and disaster.
Now, what did those editorials mean
| when translated into an actual business
condition? Suppose at that time, as re-
| ceiver of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad,
| | had thought the company needed 5000
! steel cars, and | had discussed the que
ton with the bankers and they had said
| we will not take the car trust certificates
| you propose issuing for your new cars,
| except at runous rates of discount, and,
most probably, not at all in case of Bryau's
q /
ours everybody must keep close to shore
and must not borrow, and, as prudent
| receiver, do not buy any more cars than
you can see your way clear to pay for out
| of the funds now in your control; better
take only 900 and make the delivery of
the other 5000 dependent on Mckinley's
election. Would l not be justified in
making such a contract, and do not your
editorials of 1896 endorse that position,
and that business men everywhere at that
time were acting that way?
quote from only two of your many
editorials.
This from the Sun editorial of October
90, 1896: There is not IA business man who
does not know of large operations which
are made contingent upon result of the
| election-of enterprises that will not be
| launched; of orders that are not to b"
| filled unless Bryan is defeated. 1t Is
period of general and anxious suspense
Here is an editorial from your issue of
| November ., 1896
That the election of Bryan will injure
workingmen by making it difficult to sell
their produce is the opinion of prudent
men everywhere. The following an
nouncement from West Virginia indicates
that the paralysis will not be confined to
any one industry:
| ..,Tho EpSipD Manufacturing ('ompanr
of Huntington, w. Va, have received an
order from the Chesapeake and Ohio Rail
way Company for two hundred coal cars
of thirty tons capacity, to be entered as
All order on "Wednesday, November 4, in
case only of the election of Mckinley.
Yours truly,
THE ENSIGN MANUFACTURISG Co,
Per E. ENSIGN, Treasurer.
"'Huntington, w. Va, October 30, 1896
| The announcement is Il business affair.
! Mr.. Bryan has intimated in his speeches
that a panic will be inaugurated by the
triumph of his policy, owing to the pros
| silver for the gold standard-the tifty-cent
dollar for the one-hundred cent dollar.
! After the transition is made all will be
| lovely, says Mr.. Bryan, but it will obvious
! lv be impossible to d., business with the
ordinary close calculation of profits dur
| ing the period of transaction, which will
last no one knows how long. Many per-
sons with more business experience than
| Mr.. Bryan have assured US that even after
the transition from the gold to the silver
basis there will still be uncertainty in
! business calculations, stagnation of indus
try and hard times. No prudent business
man will want to undertake a big con-
tract at a fixed price until he knows what
| VI ha ratS I
| he puts into Il coal car, for example, mate
rial bought on the 100, cent gold basis and
has fixed the price of delivery on that
| basis, he would be sadly out of pocket if
he got his pay on the 80 cent silver basis.
This being the case, it is interesting to the
| public to hear what practical business men
| foresee to be the effect of Mr. Rryan's
| election on business. If it is foreseen
that their employees are to be made idle by
| the triumph of a policy fatal to business,
they have a right to know it. and can then
vote for or against a policy of disaster as
they see fit. Such announcements as the
| one here quoted have been described as
efforts to bu!ldoZe employees. Not neces-
sarily. They give information. After re-
ceiving it the employe, being protected by
| the Australian ballot, can vote as he likes"
CHARGE OF COERCIN
PURE NONSENSE.
You have called my statement of the
| conditional contract made with the Steel
| Company threat and "coercon." Tnreat
TO whom. Coercion to whom? II W you
taken leave of your seven, or Ii 5 your
WORSHIP OF the Great Tribune' gone the
! length of initiating linn in hi IL ei, un gleSs
form of speech. How could the cancel
ing Of an order to PUt>butg firm be IA
/ f ~
you lost The power To construct even IA
| plausible SANDER. But | 20 futher If
| had had us clear aud concrete an illus
tratiou that directly affected the men be-
| fore me, would have given it. | now
say, without hesitation, that the Pi tsburg
| case is only an Illustration of an effect
that will in an hundred ways reach the
very men to whom | spoke. The cleo
ton of Populist would injurc them not
| Gully in its menace to the wages of all
| living by wages and salaries, but in its
| drying up of enterprise.
AN EFFORT TO DECEIVE ALL
CLASSES IN SUCCESSION.
50 far from this being coercion, | gree
! with " hat vou said in 1896, that the work
men had IA right to know such facts and
they ought to be told. SO you thought
| that the workman ought 10 get iuforma-
year | cheerfully admit that your Popu-
| list and his platform look better in the
dark, but we must bet the light in on you
all the same. Why are you interested in
| keeping from the workman in 1900 infor-
| nation that you said in 1896 it was wrong
TO withhold from him. We fad out of
your own mouth that you are engaged in
| an effort to deceive the workingmen of
| this state You tried first to deceive the
commercial classes with your nonsense
about imperialism. The business man
! laughed at you. You then raised an
hysterical shrek about trusts. He sml
ed at you good naturally and wondered
what you took him for. The business
man was too intelligent to be caught with
your claptrap. 1t remains to be seen how
you will succeed in your effort to deceive
the wage Garner. But who is coerced:
| All of us arc under certain forms of coer-
cion. Do you remember the witty reply
| of the Irshman when his Scotch friend
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