Conservative *
Hon. John Mat-
GOLD STANDARD. .
ft
standard democrat , has been elected
mayor of Nebraska City. His friends
put him on the ticket by petition. Ho
will make a most excellent officer if , as
mayor , ho carries his business methods
and capabilities into the service of the
city.
"Four of a
FOUR OF A KIND ,
nocent game of drawpoker make a good
betting hand. Modesty and inanity of
expression are meekly assumed by the
fortunate mortal who in that game
holds that hand.
Col. Bryan in a mammoth deliverance
at Philadelphia , in 189G , which may be
found on the 477th page of the Colonel's
"First Battle , " said :
One of the papers said that 1 "lacked
dignity. " I have been looking into the
matter , and have decided that I would
rather have it said that I lacked dignity
than to have it said that I lack backbone
to meet the enemies of the Government
[ that was before he threw up his mili
tary commission ] who work against its
welfare in Wall Street. What other
Presidential candidates did they ever
charge with lack of dignity ( a voice ,
Lincoln ) yes , my friends , they said it of
Lincoln , ( a voice , Jackson ) yes , they
said it of Jackson , ( a voice , and Jeffer
son , ) yes , and of Jefferson ; he was lack
ing in dignity , too.
The small boys and heelers who had
been coached and planted in the audi
ence , to make responses on dignity ,
halted as soon as with the gallant Colonel
nel they had four of a kind. With the
quartet of dignity-less Statesmen , Jef
ferson , Jackson , Lincoln and Bryan , a
winning hand was formed.
We
OBSTACLES TO fWe
other column
TRADE. a
table of compara
tive prices furnished by Mr. Henry W.
Lamb , president of the New England
Free Trade League. It presents the
United States prices on about a score of
articles produced by "trusts" under the
protection of tariff duties , and compares
them with the corresponding but much
lower prices in England.
The articles in this table are of great
importance to countless American in
dustries , into which they enter , either
incidentally , or as the chief materials.
The effect of the trust prices is to put
all production which these articles are
required upon an unsound , because
artificially high , basis. We are develop
ing an export trade in many lines of
American manufacture that is becoming
the wonder and admiration of the whole
world. Americans are not only proud
of what has already been accomplished ,
but look forward with eagerness to
every promised increase in our exports.
This eagerness is the more iuteuso
because we have reached such a stage in
our industrial development that the
prosperity and even the maintenance of
thousands of our people absolutely de
pend upon selling their products abroad.
And yet , at the outset , at the very
foundation of manufacturing enterprise ,
the tariff enables the trusts which it has
created to extort for materials of iudus-
; ry a price twenty-five , fifty , sometimes
one hundred per cent above what a
foreign competitor pays for the same
materials.
Every handicap , every disadvantage
of this sort must be removed if Ameri
can producers are to continue to win in
; he sharp competition of foreign com
merce. Every trust extortion , then ,
should be resented for two reasons : It
makes our consumers pay more and our
producers sell less. And every tariff
duty that protects a trust in its extor
tions should be abolished.
DRONES. .
heart to heart
talks with farmers at Dover , Delaware ,
during his migratory campaign in 1896 ,
Mr. Bryan delivered himself of the fol
lowing :
"Let me tell you what Prince Bismarck
said about classes on the question which
concerns agricultural depression. A lit
tle more than a year ago he was quoted
as saying before a farmer audience in
Germany that the farmers must stand
together and protect themselves from
the drones of society who produce noth
ing but laws. Remember the signifi
cance of those words that the farmers
must stand together and protect them
selves from the drones of society who
produce nothing but laws. "
What a severe self-condemnation !
What has this self-appointed protector
of bucolic industry ever accomplished
but produce or attempt to produce laws ?
What law of substantial benefit to the
"farmers" can he point to and call his
own ? The CONSERVATIVE adopts the
language of Bismarck , and urges the
farmers , "to stand together and protect
themselves from the drones of society ,
who produce nothing but laws. "
A gentleman
STARVATION IN
PORTO Rico. who recently re
turned from Porto
Rico , in writing to the editor of THE
CONSERVATIVE , says :
"I note your reference to Porto Rico.
I have just returned from there. I have
seen people starving in the streets and
in their homes. In one town the doctor
told me there were five times as many
deaths as births during the past year ,
and most of the deaths were from this
cause. Business is absolutely at a stand
still , and until some definite action is
taken by our'dilatory congress , ' people
must continue to starve because no one
will do any more business than is abso
lutely necessary without definite action
on the part of our legislators.
"Tho island is an extremely rich one
coffee , tobacco and sugar are the prin
cipal crops. Fruit will be important in
; ho future , and probably market garden
ing can be carried on successfully. I
was impressed with the cleanliness ,
general intelligence and anxiety to learn
among the children in the schools. Only
a small per cent are given school
facilities , howevQr. Personally , I be
lieve that the Porto Ricans who can
read and write and who have property
are quite able to govern themselves.
They would make the shrewdest kind of
politicians , however. "
CONSISTENCY. Without ques-
tiou , nearly every
sane man believes the silver question is
not a vital issue in this campaign and
recognizes that another question has
arisen completely overshadowing it.
Notwithstanding this fact the leaders of
the political organization opposed to the
republicans seem to be determined to
weigh the platform down with an un
popular and discredited scheme of
finance simply because it was incor
porated in the platform in 1896. The
platform then declared that the gold
standard resulted in an "appreciation of
gold , a fall in the price of commodities ,
the prostration of industry and the im
poverishment of the people. "
A continued experience of four more
years under the gold standard shows
that there has not been any appre
ciation in gold , that there has not been
a fall in the price of commodities , that
industry has not been prostrated and
that the people have not been im
poverished , thereby disproving most
effectually and completely the theories
entertained in 1896 relative to the gold
standard and the predictions of disaster
because of a continuation of that stand
ard. Will the democrats this year be
consistent with error and reaffirm the
financial fallacies of four years ago or
will they be consistent with economic
truth , since clearly demonstrated , and
omit such an affirmation ? Will they
endanger the triumph of vital principles
of government by making their success
dependent upon the endorsement of false
ideas of finance and unsound theories
of economics ?
CHAUNCEY TALKS.
. .
most eloquently
and forcefully recounted the benefits to
Porto Rico of the removal of tariff duties
upon food products imported from the
United States. He said :
"This bill is the people's law. It re
stricts , as far as can be done , the power
of trusts or combinations or concentra
tion of industries. It puts upon the
free list these products going from the
United States into Porto Rico the food
products from the American farmer so
that the American farmer has this mar
ket free as against the agriculture of
other countries , whose imports must pay
Dingloy tariff rates. It gives to the
Porto Ricaus the fullest opportunity for
