Las Vegas optic., 1912-10-30

/ SthlSI uOiCilcu lOIIu JlSh blttCh
smoke as a token Of prosperity The
poor working man, whose family had
come to hunger and rags. was en-
abled to secure employment. He nc
longer sought free soup but was en-
able dto buy the best Of beef steak
His children clothed, sent to school
and enabled, on account of his i'm
proved financial condition, to help
make up the best of society. With
a satisfied mind, three square meals
daily and his back clothed with raj
ment equal to that of his employer,
he has gone on rejoicing for almost 16
years.
Has he forgotten the days of free
soup? Does he realize what it is to
be without employment? Why four
months Of a strike puts business on
the bum and not only the wage earn
er knows it but the merchant, the
doctor, the lawyer, the operators and
most of all the farmers whose pro-
ducts go begging for want of market.
There is no farmer, labor5r, mer-
chant or business man who does not
know, when he lays aside prejudice,
that the free trade policy advocated
in the democratic platform of 1892
and put into effect from 1893 to 1897
closed our factory doors, made
tramps of our laboring men and re-
versed the scales of commerce.
Our supplies we're brought from for
eign markets. Yes, they were cheap
but our laboring men had no employ
ment and consequently had nothing
with which to buy.
Think for moment you farmers
when in 1893 to 1897 your eggs were
on the market at cents per dozen
and you know and so does the labor
ing man knows that he did not have
the cents with which to buy and
your eggs went dragging for want of
the price
l don't believe that the American
people can be led, by sweet sounding
music or glowing oratory, into four
years Of suffering and unknown mis-
cry just to crafty the ambitious po-
litician. Neither do l believe that
they can be persuaded to gag at
gnat and swallow a camel; they are
thinking.
Even the southern rockribbed dem
ocrat is writing his friends to look
out for a change in government po-
licies and should that change come
for them (his friends) to trim their
sails accordingly.
In the new state Of New Mexico,
the sheep growers, herders, cattle
men, stock men of every character
and farmers have not forgotten those
days when wool was cents a
pound, when the best milk COW and
calf sold for ten dollars and l ask
you to watch the returns from New
Mexico and you will see that a plu
rality for William Howard Taft, Ma
than Jaffa for congress, and the con
tinuance of a protective policy that
is good for the working man, the pro
ducer and the manufacturer will be
given $4,000 strong. and in my hum
BILE judgment, when the majority of
the states in the union are heard from
it can be clearly noted that the horny
handed farmer who is the bone and
sinew Of our government is awaken
ed to his own interests and is able
to realize that not until within the
last decade he has more nearly come
into his own than ever before and his
condition has enabled him to know
what is good for the consumer, because
when the producer gets a price equi-
valent to the worth of his product,
the wage Garner gets a wage suffi-
cient to maintain his family equal to
that of the producer In other words,
the producer and the consumer com
pose the population Of this nation and
in the very nature OF things they are
compelled to go hand in hand and he
who undertakes to create an enmity
between the classes is unworthy to
preside over the destinies Of great
people like ours.
beg your pardon for imposing on
your good nature, but | am interested
to the extent that / would like to see
Franklin county turn UP such a plu
rality for the republican ticket as was
never known before, and | believe
conscientiously that every man re-
gardless of politics, should vote for
his own interests, and when he has
done so there is no question in my
mind as to what the result will be. n
remain, as ever
Your friend,
J. w. CRAWFORD
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