Rare Book Monthly
Book Catalogue Reviews - September - 2007 Issue
Western Books from Gene W. Baade
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Item 102 is a broadside that anticipates one of the major issues of the 1896 election. From 1893, it is headed To the Friends of Silver, published in Butte, Montana. The bimetallic standard, which backed currency with either gold or silver, was important to Montana's silver miners, as it required the government to purchase substantial amounts of the metal. However, the use of a bimetallic standard rather than gold tended to be inflationary, not popular with eastern business interests. This broadside calls on silver miners to organize to defend the bimetallic standard, and notes that Congressman Richard P. Bland (coauthor of the Bland-Allison Act of 1878 which required government purchases of silver) would attend. The metallic standard issue would come to a head in 1896 when silver advocate William Jennings Bryan would be trounced by gold standard supporter William McKinley. $75.
Item 4 is an obscure account of an ugly railroad strike from 1921-1922. This self-described "home-made product, compiled and printed under all the trying circumstances incident to inexperience and the lack of proper facilities" is entitled, An Industrial War. History of the Missouri and North Arkansas Railroad Strike... It was written by Walter F. Bradley and published in Harrison, Arkansas, seat of the strike, in 1923. When the railroad announced a cut in wages, the railroad workers, affiliated with the AFL, walked out. Initial local sympathy for the workers quickly disappeared as the strike went on. Local businesses were dependent on the railroad, which made it known they would not reopen the line unless residents could prevent sabotage by striking employees. The locals were successful, with the help of a lynching, in intimidating the workers and breaking the strike. Most strikers had to flee to Missouri. However, it was a Pyrrhic victory for the railroad, which suffered substantial losses, ending up in receivership a few years later and foreclosed and sold in 1935. $750.
Gene W. Baade may be reached at 425-271-6481 or bookwest@eskimo.com.
