Democratic watchman. (Bellefonte, Pa.) 1855-1940, August 21, 1896, Image 4

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Demonic ia fa
Terms, 82.00 a Year, in Advance.
Bellefonte, Pa., Aug. 21, 1896.
P. GRAY MEEK, - - Eptror.
Democratic National Ticket.
FOR PRESIDENT
WILLIAM JENNINGS BRYAN,
of Nebraska.
FOR VICE PRESIDENT
ARTHUR SEWELL,
of Maine.
Democratic State Ticket.
FOR CONGRESSMEN AT-LARGE,
JOHN M. BRADIN, Washington Co.
BENJ. C. POTTS, Delaware Co.
FOR ELECTORS AT-LARGE,
WILLIAM M. SINGERLY, Philadelphia.
JAS. DENTON HANCQCK, Venago.
A. H. COFFROTH, Somerset.
GEO. W. GUTHRIE, Pittsburg.
FOR DISTRICT ELECTORS,
John M. Carroll,
Samuel Dickson,
Chas. J. Reilly,
Albert M. Hicks,
John M. Campbell, J. P. Hoffar,
James J. Ryan, Lucien Banks,
John Hagen, A.J. Br¥dy, |
John H. Hickson, George W. Rhine,
John B. Storm, John C. Patton,
Thos. A. Haak, William Weihe,
Chas. F. Reninger, Judson J. Brooks,
Chas. H. Schadt, John J. McFarland,
Thomas R. Philips, C. H. Aikens,
Charles F. King, Seymour S. Hackett,
John K. Royal, Harry Alvin Hall.
William Stahler.
Democratic County Ticket.
FOR CONGRESS.
J. I. SPANGLER.
Subject to the decision of the district conference,
(JAS. SCHOFIELD,
{ ROBERT M. FOSTER.
2 Sheriff—W. M. CRONISTER.
r Treasurer—C. A. WEAVER.
r Recorder—J. C. HARPER.
* Register—GEO. W. RUMBERGER.
in Ialoi rs iP. H. MEYER, .
ForCominissioners— { DANIEL HECKMAN.
For Auditors— ! i
For County Swrveyor—J. H. \WETZEL.
For Coroner—\W. U. IRVIN.
For Assembly—
Who Demanded The Demonetization
of Silver?
The late Hon. WILLIAM A. WALLACE,
speaking of the demonetization act of 1873,
said that it deprived our people of the ad-
vantage of an optional standard. It put
the debtor at the mercy of the creditor by
with-holding from the former the right to
pay in silver, and giving the latter the
power to exact payment in gold. But for
the suspension of silver coinage by that act
the mints could have supplied the silver
coin so greatly needed by the people in
their business, and they would have glad-
ly welcomed such a relief, yet, to use his
language, ‘‘we deliberately closed our
mints and cut off the supply of the very
thing our necessities called for.’’
After enlarging upon the injurious effects
of such a constriction of the currency, he
asked : ‘‘who dictated this policy ?”’
This is certainly an important and inter-
esting question? At whose instance and
in whose interest was the coinage of silver
money, which the constitution authorized
and which was practiced from the begin-
ning of the government, suddenly and si-
lently discontinued ?
Surely the people did not demand it.
There was no popular request for an ar-
rangement of the currency that put the
mass of the people at the mercy of the few,
who with their British backing were thus
enabled to corner and control the country’s
supply of money.
There can then be no other conclusion
than that the demonetization act was in-
tended to promote a special interest, it be-
ing a part of the class legislation that has
characterized the policy of the Republican
party. It was the same policy of favorit-
ism which, while it enacted tariff bills for
the advantage of the millionaire beneficia-
ries of a system of so-called protection, and
abolished income tax laws to enable wealth
to escape the payment of its share of taxa-
tion, made an additional arrangement for
the benefit of the money power of this
country and Europe by restricting the cur-
rency to a coinage that would limit its
volume and by such limitation bring it
more easily within the control of the
money dealers.
In reference to the question, who dictat-
ed the act that demonetized silver? It can
be said that it was done upon the demand
of the ROTHSCHILDS of Europe, and the
greedy and overbearing interests that have
dictated all the class legislation of the Re-
publican party, which has made the rich
man richer and increased the poverty of the
poor.
Silver was dropped from the currency to
make the power of the money kings more
complete, in return for@vhich service their
aid is liberally extended to the Republi-
can party, as is evidenced by the sympathy
and support it is getting from the SHY-
LOCKS of London and the list of home
maulti-millionaires, whose wealth aggre-
gates five hundred millions of dollars, and
who are counselling and helping MARK
HANNA run the MCKINLEY campaign.
Paid for Arguments.
It is not always the man who talks the
loudest and longest who is most to be be-
lieved and is most interested in the subject
he presents. BOURKE COCHRAN, who is
now paraded as the great mouthpiece of
the gold standard advocates, is said to have
received five thousand dollars for his
speech in New York, on Tuesday night, last,
and is to receive one thousand dollars each
for ten speeches to be delivered in different
parts of the West during the campaign.
How much reliance can be placed on the
statements and arguments of a subsidized
speaker, the people will show when they
come to the polls.
The Effect of Vile Abuse.
Sensible Republicans are discovering
that their party leaders have made a mis-
take in antagonizing the free silver move-
ment, and attacking the free silver leaders
with abuse, vilification and scurrilous de-
traction.
No party is helped by an indiscriminate
charge that those who belong to a different
party and entertain different views are
lunatics, revolutionists, repudiationists
and anarchists. When those who are thus
denounced are found to embrace probably
the larger portion of the population includ-
ing people of good sense and good charac-
ter, whose actions are moral and whose
purpose is honest, sweeping and indis-
criminate abuse applied to them shows a
recklessness of vilification that does those
who resort to it more harm than those to
whom it is applied.
For example a large proportion of the
American citizens, who believe tha en-
largement of the currency would afford the
country financial relief and improve their
own condition, consists of so sensible and
orderly a class of people as the farmers. Is
it not an outrageous misapplication of the
terms to apply to them such epithets as
cranks, lunatics, repudiationists and anar-
chists ? And yet that is what they are
called for believing that free silver would
be a benefit to them, and for proposing to
vote for it. Is the intellegehit and respec-
table mechanic or mill-hand, who enter-
tains the opinion that the free coinage of
silver would be an advantage to. him, any
more of a crank or anarchist than the bank-
er or money lender who believes that his
interests are promoted by the gold stand-
ard ?
In the division of public opinion on the
currency question how can it be made to
appear that all the intelligence, all the
honesty, all the good sense and good inten-,
tion, belong to the gold-bugs and their
backers? Such an assumption displays
such an amount of arrogance, recklessness
and conceit that its enormity must disgust
and offend the common sense of the people,
and it is this offense to common sense and
common decency that is making the abuse
and blackguardism of the gold advocates
redound to the advantage of the free silver
cause.
Fat-Frying in Philadelphia.
There are ugly reports to the effect that
when MARK HANNA, the high tariff free-
booter who is managing the MCKINLEY
campaign for the benefit of trusts, monopo-
lies and other protected pillagers of the
people, was in Philadelphia on a fat-frying
expedition, three wealthy Democrats were
among the millionaires that waited on him
to devise measures and contribute funds for
the defeat of the Democratic presidential
ticket, and that one of them was WILLIAM
M. SINGERLY, recent champion of tariff re-
form, but now cheek by jowl with MARK
HANNA in his schemes for the election of
McKINLEY and the restoration and perfec-
tion of tariff robbery in this country.
It issaid that Mr. SINGERLY made a
speech on that occasion, expressing his wil-
ingness to have a liberal amount of fat
fried out ‘of him in support of the cause
which HANNA is engineering. We should
like to have heard his remarks to that col-
lection of campaign boodlers, so that we
could contrast them with the addresses he
made but two short years ago to the Demo-
crats of the State when he was their candi-
date for Governor, assuch a contrast would
be interesting although not edifying.
When the editor of the Record began to
denounce the income tax in his paper,
stigmatizing that most equitable method
of taxation as an agrarian scheme of con-
fiscation intended for the spoiliation of well-
to-do citizens, we began to doubt the good
faith of a tariff reformer who would de-
nounce a source of revenue designed to re-
lieve a tariff burdened people ; but now
when he is willing to have himself stretch-
ed on the grid-iron, and render his allot-
ment of fat for the boodle purposes of a
McKINLEY campaign, we are forced to the
‘conclusion that his claim to being a tariff
reformer is as questionable as was his right
to remain on the Democratic electoral
ticket. :
Sherman’s Consistency.
What an edifying old spectacle JOHN
SHERMAN presents as the defender of the
country’s credit against such repudiation as
the payment of government bonds in any-
thing hut gold.
JOHN forgets, or must believe that the
people forget, that in 1866 he wrote the
MANN letter in which he maintained that
the bonds could be paid in greenbacks
without violating the terms of the contract
—that the government’s own paper money
was lawful enough for the payment of its
bonds. That doctrine contrasts strongly
with his present contention that the coun-
try would be dishonored by the use of
anything but gold for bond redemption.
He subsequently claimed that the silver
dollars coined under the BLAINE-ALLISON
act were a sufficient basis on which to
maintain specie payment, and in 1878,
when he was secretary of the treasury in
the HAYES administration, and the bhond-
holders became troublesome, he threatened
to pay their demands in silver, and main-
tained that he could lawfully do so.
What a paragon of consistency is ‘‘honest
JOHN’ on the currency question.
the single gold standard and McKINLEY,
and yet there is not one of them that to-
day, or to-morrow, or the next day, or
next week, or next month for that matter,
A Professor's View of Free Silver.
There has been much boasting on the
part of goldites that they have all the col-
lege professors and scientific teachers of fi-
nance on their side of the currency question,
and that silver is supported only by the ig-
norant and dishonest. This boast has been
called to a halt by the declaration of Pres.
ANDREWS, of Brown University in favor of
the free coinage of silver. -
In response to a request for his views on
this question the professor declared that he
was in favor of coining silver without limit
at a ratio of 16 to 1 without waiting for aid
trom other nations, believing that if the
United States should adopt such free coin-
age, it would be able to maintain the
parity of the gold and silver dollar.
We must expect to hear the gold organs de-
ounce Pres. ANDREWS as being either ‘a
fool or an anarchist. But no such black-
guard opinion of him would deter him
from entertaining and expressing the be-
lief that our credit with foreign capitalists
would not be injured by the free coinage
of silver ; that our gold would not go from
us in consequence of such silver coinage ;
that people would not hoard or export
gold in the face of a movenrent that is cer-
tain to cheapen that metal, and that it is
more likely that the rehabilitation of silver
by us would be the occasion of setting free
vast amounts of gold now hoarded for mili-
tary and other purposes.
These views are directly opposed to the
doctrines and schemes of the goldbugs, and
we may consequently expect a shower of
mud aimed at president ANDREWS. They
will at least call him a fool, if not an anar-
chist.
A Pertinent Query.
Bishop McGovern, of Harrisburg, who is
| well-known throughout Pennsylvania, re-
fers to the attitude of Bourke Cochran, to-
ward the Democratic ticket and platform
in the following manner in a recent inter-
view :
“Bourke Cockran in one of his many inter-
views, which are just now in such high favor
with the goldbug press, declares as to the free
“coinage of silver.”” It is a question of morals
as well as politics, and I decline to follow Mr.
Bryan in his crusade against honesty, moral-
ity and the rights of labor.” - Yet at the Chi-
cago convention of 1892 Mr. Cochran, it is
well understood, would have supported Sen-
| ator Daniel, of Virginia, or any other free
silverite, if by so doing he could have de-
feated the nomination of Cleveland. This
talk of the moralities being on one side and
the ilnmoralities on the other is rather sicken-
ing when we compare the controlling in-
fluences of the two great parties to the issue.
On one side it is monopoly and organized
wealth prepared to corrupt the legislatures,
the executives, the judiciary and the suffrage
of the people. On the ‘other it is the farm
and the workshop. Do we always find moral-
ity on Wall street, and what it owns in
politics and law, and the immoralities on the
farm ?
——After raking the county from the
Brush Valley narrows to the Clearfield
county line the disgruntled Democrats, or
those who call themselves ‘‘Democrats,’’
succeeded in getting thirteen individuals to-
gether in Insurance Agent SMITH’S office in
this place on Tuesday night last and ap-
pointed ELLIS ORvis and SAM BUCK, to
represent them at the convention of Gold
Democrats to be held in Philadelphia on
Tuesday next. It is but just to the Demo-
crats from the county to state that there
was ‘not a man from outside the Borough
of Bellefonte present, and it is due political
truth that the public know that of the thir-
teen but three voted the Democratic ticket
at the last general election.
A Dirty Lie Stopped Suddenly.
No Pay to Bryan for Free Silver Speeches.
Upper Red Hook, N. Y. (via Barrytown,
N. Y.), Aug. 18.
I bave already denied this charge on
several occasions, but the reiteration of it
by Senator Thurston, a distinguished resi-
dent of my own State, justifies me in an-
swering it again.
I have never at any time or under any cir-
cumstances been in the employ of any mine
owners; individually or collectively, directly or
indirectly, nor have I ever been in the employ
of or been paid by any bimetallic association.
Aside from my editerial salary of about
$150 per month, paid by the Omaha World-
Herald, and a small amount derived. from
the legal profession, my income since my
retirement from Cougress has been deri-
ved entirely from lectures before Chautau-
qua lyceums and lecture bureaus, which
have usually paid me a fixed sum, and
from contributions made by the people of
the localities where I have spoken. In
some instances I have received nothing at
all. In most cases I have not received
more than enough to cover my travelling
expenses. In only two instances, I think,
has my compensation exceeded $100, and
in those instances it was about $200 at one
place and about $300 at the other.
The first platform upon which I ran for
Congress, in 1890, before I was known poli-
tically outside of my State, contained a
free coinage plank, and my Republican op-
ponent that year was an advocate of free
coinage. In the campaign of 1892 I again
ran upon a free coinage platform. In 1894
I again ran upon a free coinage platform,
and my opponent for the Senate, Mr.
Thurston, while opposing unlimited coin-
age at 16 to 1, insisted that he favored bi-
metallism.
I wrote the free coinage plank upon
which I ran in 1890, and the free coinage
planks in the Nebraska State platforms in
1891, 1894, 1895 and 1896, and tried to
secure the adoption of free coinage planks
in the State platforms of 1892 and 1893. I
only mention this to show that my advo-
{ cacy of free silver is not of recent date.
| Having made this answer to Mr. Thurston’s
| letter, I shall hereafter take no notice of
{individual or newspaper comment upon
| this subject.
| If the Republican National Committee
| will say officially that it believes I have
| ever been employed to deliver speeches by
any mine owner or group of mine owners
| or any association supported by mine own-
{ ers, I am ready to make a statement show-
| ing in detail all money reeeived by me for
| speechmaking.— WILLIAM J. BRYAN.
| -
|
|
|
In Jacksons Time.
Facts that Old Men Will Remember and that Young Men Should Read and
Reflect Over. The Same Fight on Again, and if the People are True to Them-
selves they Will Win Again as they Did in Jackson’s Time.
There is much in the battle now waging between the organized corporation and
money power of the country and the people that recalls the tremendous’'battle that
Andrew Jackson.-fought and won, over 60 years ago, against the same power. It
will hardly be questioned that since Jackson's time the great money power has swol-
len tremendously in volume and influence on the governing powers of this country,
federal, state and municipal. = But the people have also grown, from 15,000,000 to
nearly 70,000,000 and have progressed in intelligence and alertness. The diffi-
culty-has been toarouse them to their danger and compass united action in defer-
ence of their liberties and to redress grievances. Asa result, since the close of the
civil war, step by step the governments of these United States big or little, have
more and more become subject to the rule of the moneyed corporations, naturally
selfish in the advancement of their own interests. The great movement of the peo-
ple today has for its basic motive their liberation. It was no unmeaning hoast we
yesterday quoted from a capitalistic organ, ‘‘that the machinery is now furnished
by which in any emergency the financial corporations of the East can act on a sin-
gle day’s notice with such power that no act of congress can overcome their de-
cision.” We all feel this to be true. They are
determined to regain the right to rule.
It is interesting to recall at this time Jackson’s great fight with the money pow-
er. The events of 1836 blaze a pathway for the people in 1896. The facts we
gather from a published address in Chicago by Charles H. Schreiner, who was a
Lineoln elector in the Harrisburg district in 1864 and is now a supporter of Bryan.
The great money power of Jackson’s day was concentrated in the United States
bank, which, with its branch banks in all the states, and the fact that all the money
belonging to the government was required to be deposited in them, was potential
in politics and administration. The bank managers had millions of money and
Hence the people are in revolt.
vast power, for money was then worth from 1 to 5 per cent a month and there was
no legal restraint on the amount that could be issued.
Schreiner’s narrative :
‘Nicholas Biddle was president of the great bank. He was the money king of that
day and generation. He was not only a banker, he was a scholar, an author, an orator
and a Democrat, and had supported Jackson at his first election. He lived in a marble
palace on the banks of the Delaware, 15 miles above Philadelphia, and there in that pal-
ace of pure white marble, with great corinthian columns, this money king dispensed a
hospitality equal almost to any king in Europe. Thousands of people thought him a vast-
ly greater man than General Jackson.
I was a boy then, 14 or 15 years old, working in a printing office, and I remember all
the papers announced one day that Nicholas Biddle would pass through our village.
We had no railreads then. People traveled in the old stage coach or in the canal packet
four or five miles an hour. You will hardly believe me when I say that people came 50,
60, 80 and 100 miles—came on foot, on horseback, in wagons, anyway and everyway.
Came for what ? Why, to see the great money king, Nicholas Biddle, as he stood on the
deck of the boat going up north to take command of his party in the fight against Jack-
son ! These good people wanted to tell their children that they had seen the great
money king, Nicholas Biddle, ‘the man that crushed General Jackson I” Of course
Jackson was not yet crushed. but they were so sure he would be that to them it was just
the same thing. Well, some time before Biddle’s charter expired, he took a trip to
Washington to have a talk with his then friend Jackson about a new charter for his
bank. The old one would expire in 1636, and as Jackson was a candidate for re-
election he thought it would be a good thing to tell him about the vast power and influ-
ence of his bank and its many branches. He told Jackson that the merchants and men
of affairs through all the states were, asa rule largely indebted to his banks, and that
through the influence of his branch banks he could control the election of any state
in the Union. Then ‘‘up rose” Andrew Jackson, and with supressed emotion said ’
“Mr Biddle, if that is true, and I think it is, I tell you here and now that if you can control
the election of any state in the Union, that is too much power for one man to have in a free coun-
try in time of peace. And I will tell you further, here and now, that if you get a new charter
Srom congress for that bank, by the eternal I will veto that charter.’ . Then the fight began in
earnest. Then the great money king set himself to work to defeat the re-election of
Andrew Jackson.
The first move of Biddle was to buy or influence all the great Democratic papers
that were for sale, from Boston to New Orleans. Jackson had as few supporters
with the eastern press as Bryan has to-day, The Whig papers were all against him,
and many of the Democratic papers turned traitor to their party, just as some of
them at the east are now doing. A congressional investigation showed that govern-
ment money in Biddle’s banks was used to influence Democratic papers. When
Jackson saw this he instructed his secretary of the treasury, Duane, to remove the
government deposits from the banks. Duane was under the influence of the money
power, and refused. Then ‘‘Old Hickory’’ showed his indomitable purpose, and
Mr. Duane was made an official head shorter in a jiffy.
Clay, Webster and Calhoun were then in the senate—all ambitious of the presi-
dency as Jackson's successor in 1836. Webster was a WW hig, and Clay and Calhoun
called themselves Democrats. The trio pooled their issues and formed what Benton
called ‘‘the great triumvirate,’’ and made war on Jackson for removing the deposits
from Biddle’s banks and his avowed purpose to veto the bank charter. There were
bank Democrats in those days, just as there are gold Democrats in these days.
They got up meetings, thinking they could head off Jackson by invoking the name
of “honest Democrats.’ - Here again we take up,Mr. Schreiner’s narrative ’
“I remember very well a meeting of this kind that was held in Williamsport, Pa.,
near where I was born and lived. Judge Anthony, then a Democratic member of Con-
gress, presided and make a speech. They passed resolutions setting forth that it was a
libel on Andrew Jackson to say that he would veto the rechartering of the great bank,
or that he would remove the deposits. These good people thought they could head off
General Jackson in this way. But, thanks to God, Andrew Jackson was made Of stern-
er stuff. A great anti-Jackson, an ‘‘honest Democratic’ meeting of this kind was held
in Philadelphia, where the great bank was located, at which they gave a free dinner to
8,000 men—all paid for by the great bank. Benton in his great work, ‘Thirty Years in
the Senate,” gives an account of this great meeting. John Sargent, with 300 Democra-
tic vice-presidents, presided. All the speakers, speaking from 20 stands, were anti-Jack-
son Democrats—men who had voted for Jackson at his first election, but now opposed
him because he had turned traitor and was trampling on the constitution and the liber-
ties of the people. They appointed a committee of 300 Democrats to go to Washington
and ask Jackson to desist from his course in ruining the country. When the committee
got to Washington one of these pride-swollen bankers so far forgot himself as to say to
the president that if he persisted in 1 course the people would rise up en masse and
come to Washington with shotguns, pitchforks and anything that a kill, “to expel
the Goths from Rome.”” Jackson replied : ‘‘Do you come here to threaten me? If you
men dare to put any of your big threats into execution, by the great eternal I will hang you as
high as Haman.” 1 remember very well the long columns of names that were printed in
all the papers—mostly the names of great bankers who had left the party—and each one
went out with a great flourish of trumpets as though he owned the party. Itis wonder-
ful what an amount of noise a few men can make, with plenty of money and plenty of
great papers to back them ! For a time it did look blue for ‘Old Hickory’. It seemed
as if he was being forsaken by all his old friends. But aftera while it began to be seen
that for each great banker that left him four or five honest farmers, mechanics and la-
borers came to him. Ah! Mr. President, in those days the Democratic party was Demo-
cratic, No, sir ; the Democratic party then was the laboring man’s friend.
~ Well, what was the final result ? When the election was over and the vote counted
Andrew Jackson, the Hero of the People, had swept the whole country bystorm! He
had more majority than the other candidates had votes ! Then Democrats rejoiced with
an exceeding great joy. Bonfires were kindled on the. hills, church bells were rung,
and towns, villages and cities were illuminated. And amid the general joy the Jackson
men sang a song of victory. How well I remember those glorious days! Sixty years
have rolled around since, but I can hear that song yet :
“Freeman ! cheer the hickory tree !
In storms its boughs have sheltered thee,
O’er freedmen’s land its branches wave—
It was planted on the Lion’s grave.’
Yes! Andrew Jackson was indeed a great man, and his name will live forever with
the republic. He crushed the great money power of his day and generation. as a strong
man crushes an egg shell in his hand.”
It is the same battle that is on to-day. It is the same banded money and corpo-
ration power that is fighting the people to-day that Jackson overcame more than 60
years ago, but with resources and power vastly increased. It influences and con-
trols the press of the great eastern cities, or wherever there are great aggregations of
capital, just as it did in Jackson’s times. It has its bishops and clergy and law-
yers and eminently respectables preaching gold bug finance and denouncing the
plain people as anarchists and repudiators, precisely as in Jackson’s times. It
claims for itself the respectability, intelligence and money, just as it did over 60
years ago. It is as great a pretender and as big a sham now as ever.
But the people have a champion today, just as they had, away back in the ’30s.
“Young Hickory’’ has come out of the west, and he is in the field to lead the plain
people—the farmers and the workingmen and the business men—to as glorious a
victory as Jackson conquered, and win it against pretty much the same influences,
but mightily strengthened in power and resources. In this year of our Lord it is
money against votes, and the votes are bound to win the victory.— Pittsburg Post.
Here we take up Mr.
a mms
Fooling Bimetalists.
: ; via Pennsylvania Railroad.
As an evidence that the Republicans are
Greatly Reduced Rates to Cleveland, Ohio,
not sincere when they declare that they
favor bimetallism, when England is ready,
it is but necessary to state the Republicans
in Philadelphia last Friday night pledged
themselves by resolution to ‘‘promote the
| elections of McKinley and Hobart, and to
that could pay in gold twenty per cent of | Knows a Good Thing When He Sces It. | forever fix an honest and unchanging gold
what they owe their depositors. The fact is
‘‘honest money’ is not what they are after.
It is SCARCE money that they want in order
that the rates of interest.can be maintain-
ed.
From Interview of Ex-Senator Ingalls.
{ “It is not undue eulogy to say that by
his Madison Square Garden speech Bryan
{ has put himself on a higher plane than he
| has yet occupied intellectually.
| standard for our currency.’’” Mark the
{ words, gold standard FOREVER.—Exz-
| change.
|
——Subseribe for the WATCHMAN.
For the Biennial Encampment of the
Knights of Pythias, to be held at Cleve-
land, Ohio, August 23rd to 30th, the Penn-
sylvania railroad company will sell from
all stations on its system, on August 22nd
to 24th inclusive, special excursion tickets
to Cleveland at one fare and a third for the
round trip, good to return leaving Cleve-
land August 27th to 31st inclusive.
Read the WATCHMAN.
Effect of Free Silver.
President Andrews, of Brown University, Answers
Some Questions on this Subject.
Rev. Henry W. Pinkham, pastor of the
First Baptist church, of Denver, and a
friend of President Andrews, of Brown
University, Providence, Rhode Island, re-
cently wrote to Mr. Andrews, asking these
questions :
1. Do you favor the free coinage of silver
at the ratio of 16 to 1 by the United States
without waiting for aid from other na-
tions ?
2. Could the United States, having
adopted such free coinage, maintain the
practical parity of the gold and the silver
dollar ?
3. Would not free coinage by the United
States alone lead to a complete displace-
ment of our gold ? Why not ?
4. Would not the effect of the recent in-
creased production of gold as compared to
silver be counter-balanced in the event of
free coinage by the stimulus thus given to
silver mining and by the influx of foreign
silver ? J
5. Would not the advantages of free
coinage he more than negatived by the in-
jury to our credit, thus causing a with-
drawal of foreign capital ?
In reply President Andrews has written :
“My dear Pinkham, I was delighted to
receive your letter of the 6th, and will en-
deavor to answer your questions in .their
order as well as I can.
41. Ido,
+2. I believe so.
“3. I do not think so. People would
not hoard or export gold in face of a move-
ment certain to cheapen gold. It seems to
me rather likely that the rehabilitation of
silver by us would be the occasion of set-
ting free vast amounts-of gold now hoard-
ed for military and other purposes.
‘4. This is partly answered under the
last. Further, there would be no influx of
foreign silver. Undoubtedly free coinage
by us would increase the total amount of
silver produced, but the new silver could
not be mined at so low a marginal cost as
at present prevails. The marginal cost
would be on the contrary increased with
the output, so that all tendency from this
source to lower the gold price of silver
would be negatived. The very prolific
silver mines now are very few.
5. Quite the reverse. After a possible
first shock our credit would improve after
free coinage. It is our present course
which must speedily lower our credit.
How long could a man or a firm continue
to have credit who borrowed each year to
pay a large portion of his running ex-
penses? Yet on a gold basis this course is
inevitable, and that is at this moment the
reason why foreign lenders are shy of our
securities. There must be a change if we
would avoid bankruptcy. With free coin-
age cvery industry would look up, and
even if we lost our gold our prosperity
would invite in English capital, just as
Japan’s prosperity now causes it to rush
there.
‘‘Never since slavery days has the press
in the parts of the country familiar to me
displayed such disregard for truth and such
stubborn obtuseness to the most obvious
considerations as it does at present on the
silver question. This means that the
‘money power seated in London, but with
representatives in New York, Philadelphia
and Chicago, is determined to continue the
appreciation of gold, and determined there-
fore that the facts shall not be known.
The bankers and the press are almost en-
tirely under its influence. I think the
money question at the present time the
greatest question of civilization.
“Yours, with kindest regards,
EBEN J. ANDREWS.”
Grangers for Bryan.
What Worthy Master Rhone Says on the Silver
Question.
At Harrisburg on Tuesday Hon. Leon-
ard Rhone, worthy master of the state
grange, was enterviewed by a Patriot re-
porter on the money question. He says
the grangers of Pennsylvania almost to a
man will vote for the Chicago nominees.
He received a letter a few days ago from
William Hall, of Pawnee City, worthy
master of the Nebraska state grange, in
which he says the east will wake up to a
surprise on the morning after the election.
Mr. Hall asserts that the farmers and la-
boring men all through the west will vote
the Democratic ticket this fall on the silver
issue. -
He says Bryan and Sewall will car-
ry every western state, with the possible
exception of Ohio. He thinks home pride
and McKinley’s personal popularity may
prevent the Democrats , winning there.
Mr. Rhone claims there is a strong senti-
ment in the Buckeye state for free sil-
ver coinage and he would not be sur-
prised if it went Democratic. He says
the farmers are not 80 much interested in
good roads as they are to secure a change
in the financial system of the government.
“The farmers have become tired of be-
ing the white niggers of the North,” con-
tinued Mr. Rhone, ‘‘and they will vote for
Bryan and Sewall with the belief that if
elected their condition will improve.
With free silver the farmer -will get larger
prices for his products. Under existing
conditions he is not able to make ten cents
a day above his actual living expenses.
Prices of his products are so low that he
cannot buy fertilizers, agricultural imple-
ments and other machinery to enable him
to grow large crops. When the farmer is
prosperous everybody is prosperous. Give
us free silver and we will see better times
than this country has ever known.’
Mr. Rhone says Bryan,s speech last Wed-
nesday in Madison Square garden was a
masterly argument in favor of the free
coinage of silver. He thinks it covers the
ground so thoroughly that the advocates of
the gold standard cannot refute it.: Mr.
Rhone has a personal acquaintance with
Mr. Bryan and is well pleased with his
bright prospects of success.
No Wonder They Want a Change.
A prominent treasury official related to-
day an episode in a western state. A
friend of his bought a fine farm in 1889 on
which was a $5,000 mortgage bearing 8 per
cent interest, or $400 a year. ago
the farmer began to haul cats to town to
pay his interest. It took 4,000 bushels
of oats at 10 cents a bushel to settle the
bill. Eighty acres of crops, one half the
entire farm, went to keep even with the
mortgage,
The corn on the other 80 acres will not
begin to pay taxes and farm expenses.
That farmer is $400 poorer this year than
he was a year ago, counting his work and
that of his family for nothing. He has
been a Republican. This year he is for sil-
ver and Bryan, and he is in the center of a
farming country extending hundreds of
miles in every direction where identical
conditions prevail. To say that the Re-
publicans of that section will vote for Mec-
Kinlgy and gold is an insult to their intel-
ligence and a lie on the face of the fact.—
Washington Letter.