Omaha daily bee., 1908-10-17

free trade in the face of the populace who
were living on soup diet, caused by this
Identical free trade measure that he is
talking today, that his proteges would have
taken him out and mobbed him.. Time has
softened the minds of his standard bearers
in twelve years, and after trying to be-
come president on every issue that he could
think Of, he has fully decided that free
traders the panacea to cure all human ills
He is not sure of this measure to do the
business, so he states in that great speech
of his, the cream de lux speech of the cam
paign delivered at Des Moines, when
he stated that as we elected our congress
every two years and our president every
four, and that ifl it didn't work, we only
haG to bear it four years at the most. But,
thanks to Mr.. Bryan, soup is all right for
one meal, but would get monotonous 400
days successive.
Mr.. Bryan is also an advocate of low
prices and smaller profits on all commodi-
ties Cbarring lectures and subscriptions on
political magazines) so he states in this
same speech. Here are his exact words:
"A reduction OF the tariff will reduce the
extortion that is now practiced because of
the high schedules. A reduction in price
will enable more people to buy, and this
larger demand for the goods will put more
people to work and increase the number
of industries, a lower price will greatly
stimulate expectation and manufacturer
who are crippled by n tariff upon what
they use will be better prepared to enter
the contest for supremacy in the worlds
trade"
Here he contends that prices on all com
modities are too high; that IL they were
sold for less money more pRople would be
able to buy. This is the same contention
that Cleveland made and put in force in
1892. But were the people able to buy?
Prices were never less and there was never
a time when more people went hungry in
the history OF this country. But this is
not the impression Mr.. Bryan would like
to have you take of this. He would like
to leave the impression with the farmer he
should get 81 a bushel for his wheat, and
at the same time rave the shop laborer
think he should only pay so cents a sack
for his flour; that milling trusts are
thieves.
II you will stop and sum up all his
theories to a fine point, you will find about
the same judgment In all of them.
1t is a hard matter to convince a COM
mercial salesman that his house or factory,
as It may be, is robbing the public, or his
prices are out of proportion to the value
Of other commodities, He might admit that
business is better, profits are better, ard his
firm is in a better condition than ever be-
fore, but that does not infer they are a set
Of robbers. They are turning their invest
ment ten times to where they turned il
once twelve years ago.
Mr.. Bryan attacks the Steel trust, claims
ing they make 100 per cent profit on their
investment. One per cent on their gross
sales would not look big, but supposing
they turned their stock 100 times a year
Is not supposing to much. The larger force
they work the more work they can turn
out. but there has to be a demnad for
their product or their percentage of profit
will be curtailed. AS far as eXtortion in
prices is concerned, In my estimation there
is not a firm in the United States that
sells their product as reasonable as the
Steel trust, and when this mighty firm
closes its shop doors thousands of work
men will go begging in the streets.
When it comes down to a matter of prices,
there is not a salesmaB on the road that
wants to see a decline in prices. They are
in keeping with the evolution of the times,
and no one is complaing Of them except a
few pessimists that can't see the ~doughnut
for the hole. J. +. SCHLOTT.