The Taney County republican. (Forsyth, Mo.) 1895-1992, 1900-09-13
Dear Boy lettees---No. 2.

My Dear BOy-You say that You
have read Mr.. Bryan's speech at
Indianapolis and that sthere are
some things in it that appear to be
reasonable"
Well, Mr.. Bryan is . very pleasant
speaker and can make . plausibl
showing when he has . very weak
case. He is a clever respectable gen.
tleman who aearns his bread by the
sweat Of his jaw" and he has learned
his trade very well. but let me call
your attention to solid facts for yon
to consider before you feel inclined
to yield your mind to his brilliant
generalities about imperialism.
1. Mr.. Bryan's record proves him
to be an unsafe leader. He is q
theorist rather than q man Of affairs.
In every campaign in the past and
upon every issue heretofore present
ed to the people for settlement, Mr..
Bryan has been mistaken. The re-
suits have proved that he was mistak-
en-. The natural presumption is that
he is mistaken now. When . Demo-
cratic Congressman and also when .
Populist leader in 1892, Mr.. Bryan
was very sure that free trade was the
thing needed to insure prosperity in
the United States. He was sure that
the "robber tariff" was making it
hard for the farmer and the wage
Garner to live. He and those who be-
lieved as he did succeeded in con-
vincing tho people, and. the Wilson
bill, free trade measure, was adopt
ed and became q law. Three years
of bitter experience proved that Mr..
Bryan and his friends were mistaken.
Factories were closed; laboring men
were without employment; capital
found no productive investment, and
the produce Of the farm brought no
adequate return to the farmer from
1893 to 1897 while this free trade bill
was the law.
In 1896 Mr.. Bryan and his Demo-
cratic-Populist following dropped
the tariff issue like = bot potato and
took up that of free silver. During
that campaign he declared that if the
free coinage Of silver at the ratio OF
16 to was not adopted, if q gold
standard continued to be the law and
became the fixed policy of tho
country, ssthat prices will go down 10
as certain as the law of gravitation;"
that "the rich will grow richer and
the poor poorer" that "there will be
q decrease In the amount Of money In
circulation;" that "the army of the un-
employed will continue to increase"
Results have proved that Mr. Bryan
was again mistaken. Every one oil
his predictions turned out to be false
We havo now Q protective tariff and
tho gold standard law. Prices have
gone up instead of down, while the
rich have grown richer, the poor have
shared the general prosperity, the
amount of money in circulation has
largely increased. aud labor was never
more generally employed nor moro
adequately rewarded than now.
Is it not fair to presume that the
gentleman who has always been mis-
taken upon every other leading Issue
is mistaken about imperialism, which
he declares to be the paramount"
issue of this campalgn2
2. Your father remembers two
campaigns before this when imperial
ism and militaryism were the key
note of the Democrat: war cry.
The first was in 1864, when the
mighty Lincoln. whose name You
bear, was q candidate for reelection.
1 was not quite old enough 70 vote
for him although was carrying On
Enfield rifle in the Union army, and I
remember how unjust it seemed to
me because was old enough to fight
aud not old enough to vote. rel
member that our Democratic friends
said that the reelection Of Lincoln |
meant the downfall Of the republic
and the establishment of an empire |