The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1900-10-30

state ana section of this broad land of
ours.
No man who is engaged in legitimate
businesses need, for one instant, fear the
success of our party. On the contrary
he ought to give us his support. The
honest merchant does not want swind-
Ter to open store by the side of his
nor does the patriotic citizen want a law
passed which confers special privileges
upon the few.
Some pious Republicans pretend to fear
the results of Bryan's election. l be-
lieve this country has never produced a
more honest man. Only the violators of
the law need fear the election of an hon
est President.
The trusts which are violating the law
may expect some attention at his hands,
but Mr.. Bryan will not propose nor ad-
wise a Democratic Congress to pass any
measure which would make an unjust
attack upon wealth honestly acquired.
But, my friends, the trusts are here.
They have come to stay under Republican
rule Twice as many have been formed
under McKinleys administration as ever
before during the same length of time.
What does the trust do? 1t puts the
price upon every article you sell it, and
upon every article it sells you, and you
can't help yourself, for it has stifled all
competition. The law of supply and de-
mand is natures law. 1t should fix the
price of every commodity produced wheth
er upon the farm or in the workshop The
trust utterly abrogates this law 1t sti
fles healthy competition and defies the
toiling millions who come under it's
power.
The American Steel and Wire Com
pany was formed on the 18th day of jan
uary, 1899. 1t absorbed every concern
in the country which manufactured barb
ed wire or wire nails except one. In less
than twelve months the price of barbed
wire had risen more than 100 per cent
and the rise in the price of nails was
about as great. The tin plate trust put
up the price of tin plate about as much
during the same length of time.
The man doing a general merchandise
business is compelled to purchase SIS per
cent of the articles on his shelves from
the trust. A fixed scale of prices is sent
him and he buys at those prices or not
at ALL The merchants of the city of Raj
eigh can get graduated sugar just as
cheap from one jobbing house as from
another; so with snuff, so with most OF
the hardware we use. At least this is
what merchants tell me everywhere |
go. The merchant wants to buy in mar
ket where there is honest competition.
because he has competition at home, and
he wants to sell to you just as cheap as
he can.
Every member of society suffers except
those who constitute the trust.
But the Republican party tells you that
because the trust saves in advertising
and in the help it needs, it is therefore,
enabled to sell to you cheaper and is en-
abled to pay those in its employ higher
wages. This would be very beautiful if it
were only true. Does a man pay accord
ing to his ability to pay in this country
Of ours? No, my friends The men who
work for the trusts get less salaries than
they received before the trust was
formed and the consumer pays more for
the articles which the trust puts on the
market.
Let us examine this one moment. My
friend, Mr.. Stronach, is worth $4,000, We
will say, and l am worth $4,000. l go
in a hardware store here in Raleigh and
buy knife that suits me for fifty cents
My friend Stronach comes in and seeing my
knife offers the merchant another fifty
cents for one of the same kind. But the
merchant says mo, Mr. Stronach, l will
charge you a dollar for that knife. Mr..
Pou is worth $4,000 and he pays me 90
cents, but you are worth twice that sum
and you must pay me one dollar Now
l know my friend, Mr.. Stronach, is mild
hammered man, but if any merchant
should offer to treat him that way l am
afraid he would deliver himself of Ian
guage which would be remembered in
this community.
Again, the Republican party tells us
it has given us high prices. My oppo-
nent, Mr.. Giles, at Nashville, claimed
that Mckinley had given us 10 cent cot
ton. No, my friends it wasn't Mckinley,
but the constitutional amendment which
brought us 10 cent cotton and l can
prove it. Cotton brought only eight cents
before the amendment was ratified. Just
as soon as this was done, on the second
of August, the price commenced to rise,
and never stopped until it reached ten
cents, therefore the constitutional amend
ment did it. There is just as much sense
in this as there is in Mr.. Giles PROPOSE
ton. Why hasn't Mr.. Mckinley kept
it up four years ago. Why don't he put it
up four years ago. Why don't he put it
back there now? If he has had this
power all these years and has failed to
exercise it in the interest of our people,
he ought to be impeached and banished
to the Philippine Islands to work out
in person all the balance of his life, his
plan of benevolent assimilation.
Mr.. Pou then showed that the price
of wheat and of cotton was put up by
partial failure in each of these crops,
and pointed out that the short crop of
tobacco did not bring a correspondingly
high price because the price of that COM
modify was fixed by the trust.
He ridiculed the full dinner pail ar
gument and said that was the estimate
put upon the the effort of the laborng
man by the Republican party
He quoted from Theodore Roosevelt's
article in which that gentleman declared
that drunken rough rider was far bet
ter fellow and a pleasanter companion
than the small farmer and agricultural
laborer, and that the city mechanic was
not to be mentioned in the same breath
with him" (the rough rider).
81 don't know what to think of the Ia
boring man or mechanic who can vote
for this man" Remember, Mckinley, if
elected might die, and then Roosevelt