People's Pilot, Volume 6, Number 16, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 October 1896 — IS THE FARMER A’ FOOL? [ARTICLE]

IS THE FARMER A’ FOOL?

The Goldbug Press Is Disposed to Assume That He is. Under the caption “Bunkoing the Farmer,” the Chicago Times-Herald recently printed the following remarkable editorial: “Wheat will bring you twice what it brings now, says the free - silver bunkoer to the farmer. “Jut the purchasing power of our dollar will be half what it is now, answers the farmer to the free silver bunkoer. Go to. “I have to buy as well as to sell, says the farmer.” This is the gist of the goldbug argument. Do the farmers believe that dollar wheat is going to injure them? Will dollar wheat assist in paying mortgages and long-standing debts? For a generation the Republican orators have been talking “protection” to the farmers. They have alleged that protection raises the prices of manufactured goods, increases the wages of city workmen, and consequently increases the demand and raises the price of farm products. They admit that protection does not directly benefit the farmer; that there is no protective tariff on his wheat, corn, oats and other products, but say the farmer gets an “indirect benefit due to the increased price of manufactured goods and increased wages.” What has the farmer done with the money derived from this “indirect ben-, efit?” His farm is mortgaged. *lt hardly pays him to harvest the magnificent crops of wheat and corn that a bountiful nature has granted him. Now, the goldbug papers admit that the free coinage of silver will double the selling price of his products, and solemnly warn him against such a disaster. It might be pertinent to ask if there is any reason why dollar wheat would not double the purchasing power of the farmer and therefore stimulate manufacture and increase wages in the cities. The November election will settle one important question, and that is this: “Is the goldbug press justified in assuming that the American farmer is a natural born fool?” Our opponents try to divide the tolling mSKsnx and set the laboring men in opposition to the farmer. I warn the laborers not to desert the farmers, who have been the friends of labor in every struggle to better their condition. The very people Who today are attempting to use the laboring mon to defeat the farmers in their Just cause are the same people who have oppressed labor from the beginning of the world and will do so again the moment they have an opportunity. (Applause.)— Mr. Bryan at Charlotte, N. Friends of Mr. Bryan figure for him a majority as high as 35, )OO in Nebraska.