Huron, SD Speech, 1896-10-09

Speech by William Jennings Bryan.

Speech by William Jennings Bryan
Friday, October 9, 1896 at 8:30pm
Depot, Huron, SD

Source: TARIFF WILL NOT HELP, Mr. Bryan Quotes McKinley on the Farmers’ Needs., Omaha World-Herald (Morning Edition), Saturday, October 10, 1896

"Huron is dependent upon agriculture directly or indirectly. Mr. McKinley said in 1890, in the report which accompanied his tariff bill, that agriculture was depressed and that there would be no general prosperity in this country so long as the farmers were not prosperous. Remember that this was said after a period of thirty years of high tariff. The only remedy which the Republicans now propose to better the condition of the farmer is a tariff. If tariff fails for thirty years to present agricultural depression, what reason have farmers to hope that it will be more successful now? (Cheers.) This is a [[illegible]] which lies deeper than any sys-[[illegible]]. So long as the gold standard prevails there must be a general fall in prices of agricultural products, whether we have a high tariff or a low tariff, and so long as the farm products are falling in value there must be hard times among the farmers, and the farmers cannot suffer without bringing in suffering to the other classes, which are dependent indirectly upon the farmer for prosperity." (Cheers.)