Bismarck weekly tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1884-1943, 1900-10-05
BISMARCK WEEKLY TRIBUNE: FRIDAY, OCT. 4, 1900.


presidential campaign this year that
is worthy of consideration. Col. Nor
ton writes to Secretary Heath of the
national committee and says:
81 note that the democratic press
throughout the country is claiming
that many democrats who voted
against Bryan in 1896 are lined up for
the free silver advocate now. l don't
know how it may be elsewhere, but it
is not true in this section. l have
been a democrat all my life, but the
free silver heresy drove meas it did
thousands of other lifelong democrats
TO the support of Mckinley.
Il cultivate-myself and my ten
ants-between ten and eleven thous-
and acres of farm land every year. 1
hope that l am an honest MAINLAND I
intend that my methods shall be hon.
est. don't believe that it would be
honest to pay a just debt with a de-
preciated currency; and with an un-
limited coinage of silver on a l6 to l
basis, l believe that we should have a
sadly deprecated currency; a cur
rency possessing no more %instrinsic
value than that of Mexico or
the several governments of South Am
erica. I am an intense American in
my feelings. If l were travelling
abroad and the currency of my coun-
try that l carried was depreciated-in-
ferior in value to that of the other
great governments of the world, 1
should feel such humiliation that my
stay on the other side would not he
prolonged. The farmers of the west
cannot afford to have a change in our
financial conditions, and with the cleo
ton of Bryan and a democratic COIL
gress-of purse l mean both houses of
congress being democratic-a change
would be inevitable. That it would
be suicidal for our people of the north
west to hazard even a remote chance
or a change. is evidenced by the fact
that today our farmers can borrow on
their rich acres from forty to fifty per
cent OF their value, at from : to 6 per
cent interest. Four years ago the
prevailing rate was 8 and o per cent
and loans were much more frequently
made at the latter rate than the for
mer. MI. Bryan is a young man Of
ability, a young man of promise, and
while l respect his powers Of oratory,
| should not ARE to be a member of a
firm in which he managed the fin
ances. don't believe that Mr.. Bryan
will be eelcted. should regard his
election as a great calamity.
80 far as imperialism is concerned,
| don't think that many Of us are wor-
ried over the situation in that regard.
| wonder whether these anti-imperial-
lists believe that we should have al
lowed Spain to have sunk the Texas
after sinking the Misunderstanding
:HO or 4OO more OF our SallOrS-befOre
declaring war. have a supreme con-
tempt for the fellow that thinks more
of his dollars than of the national
honor, or fears that his cowardly car
ass might come in contact with for
eign lead in case that he should be
drafted and sent to the Philippines.
"These demo-pop orators with their
cargo of Falkstaffian bombast, when
denouncing the imperialistic ghost and
predicting the certainty of Bryan's
election, remind me of that pathetic
stanza of an old time song:
The bull frog raised his tail on high,
And rushed across the plain;
The lightning bug came laundering by
And then it began to rain."