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About The Conservative (Nebraska City, Neb.) 1898-1902 | View Entire Issue (April 13, 1899)
8 Cbc Conservative. A VOICK FROM THE SOUTH. Virginia on JCfjK Samples anil Free Silver. Mr. Bryan gays that events have been vindicating the policies proposed by the democratic party in 1890. Wo would be much interested to hear Mr. Bryan's ex planation of that remarkable statement. Wo have been looking over the files of the newspapers of 1890 to refresh our memory as to what were the policies proposed by Mr.Bryan and his followers , and what were the predictions that they made. First of all , Mr. Bryan claimed that under the gold standard there was n contraction of the currency which would necessarily bo still further con tracted if free silver should bo defeated. In one of his speeches he called atten tion to the fact that there was a con traction of § 150,000,000 in the currency among the people during the previous two years , and ho declared that the gold standard people proposed to do nothing to increase it. In point of fact , the total money in circulation in the United States when Mr. Bryan was speaking in 1890 was § 1,500,484,906 , or § 21.10 per capita. In 1898 the total money in cir culation , according to the last report sent out from the department at Wash ington was § 1,887,859,895 , a per capita circulation of § 24.71 , an increase in two years of § 451,530,099 , or § 3.61 for every man , woman and child in the United States. Of this increase § 204,000,000 was in gold. Mr. Bryan told the farmers of the West that they would be poverty- stricken as long as the gold standard stood. Yet The New England Home stead , whoso editor has just returned from a trip through the West , says that industrial conditions in that section of the country are excellent ; that the agri cultural depression , which began in the East late in the seventies and in the West several years later , has passed away since 1896. That Western farmers have largely paid off their debts and quite generally have a surplus in cash , or improved homes that make their credit gilt-edged. Mr. Bryan told the laboring men that they could not hope to secure steady employment until silver should bo re stored , and that their wages would be cut down xinder the gold standard. Yet today every competent workingman in this country , who is willing to work , has got a job , and Brndstreot's tells us that within the past sixty days the wages of more than 500,000 laborers have boon increased. Mr. Bryan said that the industries of the country would be paralyzed under the gold standard , yet it was only a few days ago that ho was driven through the iron district of Birmingham and saw the iron-makers of that section bending then energy to supply the demand for their product. Mr. Bryan said that England was our enemy , and again that it was England's ' ' ; * t vtKJM > * " " " XI ! V"ffi * ' F- ' ' * < , ! [ ) olic3r to maintain the gold standard be cause she was a "creditor nation , " and : ho gold standard doubled her interest account. In point of fact , when wo were at war with Spain , England showed : hat she was our best and our only friend abroad. As for the other , America has now become a creditor nation , and as for ; herate of interest , everybody knows 'hat that has fallen to the lowest point over known. Mr. Bryan said that under the gold standard our industries must languish and die , and trade become stagnant , yet under the gold standard the railroads of ; ho country have increased their earn ings at an enormous rate , and are now earning more than ever before in their history , our export trade has broken all records and is growing continually , the bank clearings show the largest volume of business ever done , and the trade re views of yesterday report for the first quarter of 1899 failure liabilities of § 20- 080,330 against § 57,525,185 for the same period in 1890. Mr. Bryan said with reference to the anti-injunction plank of the Chicago platform : "Tho recent abiises which have grown out of injunction proceed ings have been so emphatically con demned by public opinion that the sen ate bill providing for trial by jury in certain contempt cases will meet with genuine approval. " Yet a similar bill to that introduced in the United States senate was introduced in the Virginia legislature and passed , and the Virginia court of appeals , com posed of democrats , declared that the act was unconstitutional and a menace to our courts of justice. With this record behind him , is it pos sible that the people of the United States regard Mr. Bryan as a true prophet ? Can ho find any vindication , any fulfill ment of his prophecy in these facts which we have cited ? The truth is that the people have discovered in Mr. Bryan n visionary enthusiast , and while the dreamers are still hurrahing over him , the thoughtful mm are shaking their heads and saying that he will not do. In one of his speeches in 1890 , by way of proving that the value of the silver dollar would not fall in case the government should open its mints to the free coinage of silver , ho used this illustration : "If any man in this com munity would offer to buy eggs at 25 cents a dozen and was able to make good his offer , nobody would sell eggs for less , and 25 cents a dozen would be the standard price of eggs. " That is the kind of logic upon which Mr. Bryan hns founded his theory , but it is about as substantial as the egg shells which ho has used in illustration. The people arc now asking themselves that if this egg theory of Mr. Bryan has any meat in it , why does not the government fix the price of eggs and make all the farmers' wives in the country happy ? And if il is able to fix the price of eggs and silver why not the price of wheat and corn and cotton , and all other products of the farm ? There has been no vindication in recent events of Mr. Bryan's egg policy , nor his wheat policy , nor his silver pol icy , nor hia injunction policy , so far as wo have seen. Richmond Times. THIS DECLINE IN FREIGHT RATES. William Jennings Bryan , in the cam paign of 1890 , declared in one of his pub ic speeches that there had been no re duction in railway rates commensurate with the decline in the prices of other commodities. The statement was im mediately challenged and shown to be untruthful. The United States govern ment ( department of agriculture ) has now issued an official and authoritative statement on the subject in the form of a very carefully compiled document by Mr. H. T. Newcomb of the division of statistics. The decline in rates per ton per mile is shown to have been as follows : The decline in thirty years therefore has been from about 2 cents to 8 mills or a fall of 58 per cent. Even this does not represent the whole of the actual de cline , because for the earlier years the records are incomplete and the roads on which the rates are not now ascertaiuable are those which with the least business had the highest rates. The real average for the country in those days was un doubtedly even higher than the figures indicate. Taking the figures as they are , however , the report says that the decrease "is probably not exceeded by that in the price of any important com modity amoug those largely shipped by rail. This is the exact opposite of Mr. Bryan's assertion , and while Mr. Bryan was only guessing for political effect , the other statement is official and backed by figures which are unchallengeable. b ° BIRD DAY. no endeavor to propagate the gull. Wall street is fur nishing the markets of the world with gulls. This bird is very prolific. The flocks of gulls hovering about the trust traps and industrial snares of Wall street are imminerablo. Every day they take the bait. Before loug there will be whole coveys of gulls entirely featherless - less they will have been plucked of every quill not oven a pin-feather will remain to help prevent the exposure of their nakedness and idiotic credulity. Gulls are too plentiful. Bird Day should not protect them.
