Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1900-09-07
EIO(DEN,E and LOGIC
FOR WEST v|RG|N|ANS.
Continued From First Page.

years YOUR party UOdolcu VI LuC iSOuS7
ton OF the national debt. To-day 1t
stands for currency system under
which bank notes are issued upon the
security of gCv>fnmen. bonds. How
can such system be permanent unless
the bonds are permanent? Your sys-
tenn means a perpetual and increasing
debt No Republican speaker or writer
dares to defend public debt, and yet
that financial bill which your party
platform endorsed cannot give a per-
manent banking system without per-
manent debt for 1t to rest upon.
''Your party used to denounce trusts,
yet your newspapers are busy explain
ing their benefits. Your platform of
1896 held out the hope of international
himetallism: your editors now tell how
good the gold standard is. Is a trust
a good thing? (Cries of 'No, no.") If it
is, why does your platform denounce
trusts? If trust is bad thing, why
did Republican administration allow
more to be organized in three and one
half years than in all the previous his
tory of the country? Your Republican
papers say there are good and bad
trusts, and then they go on to pros
perity.'
Prosperity, like charity, covers
multitude Of SINS Ask a Republican
why his party does not bring about
double standard. He answers. look
at the prosperity of the country Ask
him why they don't destroy the trusts.
he says, look at the prosperity Ask
him why they are trying to fasten a
large standing army on the country;
ask him why they are trying to trample
the Declaration of Independence This
answer is look at our prosperous coun-
try The Republican party is not pre-
pared to defend one single policy it
has. They used to talk protective tar
if, and now, instead of telling you we
must have home market, they
are reaching out for the foreign mar
ket, in competition with the cheap la
Dor of the world. They are not talking
tariff. They simply talk prosperity.
Don't let them generalize. Their pros
perity argument is like the milk sick
in Illinois. 1t is always in the next
county. I didn't hear of prosperity out
west. 1t is not circulated out there"
Mr. Bryan next answered the argu-
ment in the very incorrect and mislead-
ing article published in the New York
Sun, relative to his farm and his oat
crop. 1t has been published in sub
stance in an interview given out by
him He next showed from the reports
of Henry Clews & Co., who are certain
ly not favorable to Mr.. Bryan,
that the average price OF oats was 20
cents per bushel under Cleveland's adj
ministration, and "a cents per bushel
under the three years OF McKipley's
administration. He asked farmers,
who receive less for their oats than I'M
der the last Democratic administration,
if, when they take the proceeds OF their
crops, they do not pay more for lum-
Der, barbed wire, sugar, clothing, fur
niture, stoves. He gets less for his
oats, and the trusts have raised the
price of wheat he buys.
Il want you farmers to apply COM
mon sense to the Republican argument
Of prosperity. How may you become
more prosperous? First, by larger
yield from your farms; second, by
higher price for your product. Does
The Republican party control the rain
TALL? Does it provide bounteous show
srs when you vote the Republican
ticket? Think a moment. If the Re-
publican party controlled the rain there
would be a monopoly on water. II
it controlled the atmosphere, there
would be an air trust 1t has permit
ted monopoly to be formed wherever
monopoly is possible. The RepubH-
can party is not trying to raise the
price of what you sell. The trusts are
plundering the farmer, and the party
does nothing to prevent it."
Continuing on the subject of pros
perity, Mr.. Bryan asserted that R. G.
Dun & Co.'s reports show more failures
every month in 1900 than in the same
months last year. In spite of wars in
three continents, business failures are
increasing. Iron furnaces are out of
blast. Wooden mills are running at half
capacity. This prosperity is on the
Wane. 1t never was as great as they
claim, and it never embraced all the
people. Later on he said:
When you increased the army, you
have two reasons-to help some men
exploit in foreign lands; and to keep
down by force in this country, discon-
tent that ought to be remedied by legis-
lation. (Cheers.)"
Mr.. Bryan said the idea of concentra-
ton was being considered by Republic
cans with view to applying it to the
banks. He explained the proposed
branch bank system, and dwelt upon its
pernicious effects.
Il want to ask you" he said, what
interest you have in making the stand
ing army four times as great as it was
in 1896? You are not army contractors.
You have no chance to get your sons in
good positions. The poor man furnish
ss the private soldiers, not the officers"
Gel. Bryan said he did not know whether
the people are going to approve this pol
icy. He pointed out the fact that imper-
ialism had never been submitted to the
people, and the voters had never passed
upon it. He said the Republican party
bad never outlined any policy for the
Philippine Islands. They try to hide be-
hind the term Expansion" He said it
did not require much intelligence to dis
tinguish between taking American land to
be settled by American people and cross
Ing an ocean to conquer a people who are
never to be citizens. Thomas Jefferson
believed in expanding the republic in
North America. and he believed that
whenever the flag went anywhere, the
constitution should follow it. He chal-
lenged any Republican to find a single
syllable spoken or written by jefferson,
to be used in support of the doctrine of
imperialism as contained in the Porto