“The voluntary advance in wages by the Fall River manufacturers is another suggestive indication. The South has had three years of steadily increasing cotton crops. The country has not only exported more than ever, but it has consumed more, and out of this great crop the proportion spun and woven in the United States has advanced even more rapidly. The figures will show that domestic consumption has increased proportionately faster than the crops. “There is no better proof of prosperity than the ability of the people to buy clothes. Food they must have, but they can wear old clothes. Now, the woolen factories are full of work, and yet, thus late in the season, the orders are so large that the cotton manufacturers make a second advance in wages within three months. There is no idleness in the boot and shoe factories, and the rubber mills are as fully occupied. “The country never was more prosperous on the eve of election.” It is impossible for a truthful man, who is not talking for the benefit of “the galleries,” or as a political demagogue, to dispute the facts recited in the above article in the _Mail and Express_. That argument and the facts therein recited, ought to have had great weight; but did they? No! And the reason? The _Mail and Express_ is owned by Colonel Shepard--doubtless a most worthy gentleman--but, unfortunately for any effect that might be created by the utterances of Colonel Shepard; unfortunately for the influence looked for by articles published in the _Mail and Express_ upon this occasion, it is well and thoroughly understood that Colonel Shepard is a very wealthy man, a son-in-law of the Vanderbilts; that he represents the money power of the Vanderbilt family. The people of New York City (and Colonel Shepard and the _Mail and Express_ is but an example) said to Colonel Shepard, to the _Mail and Express_, in no hesitating manner, November 8th, We will not dispute the facts that you publish concerning our prosperity and the advantages that we enjoy under the Protective policy. You appeal forcibly to our pocketbooks. But it is now the turn of the people to say to Colonel Shepard, the _Mail and Express_, and all the representatives of capital--The truth of your argument, so far as our pocketbooks are concerned, to the contrary notwithstanding, you, Colonel Shepard, representing that _class_ of which your father-in-law was a prominent member, and to quote from his magnificent rhetoric--you, Colonel Shepard, _Mail and Express_, and representatives of “caste” and sham aristocracy, now in turn we say it, “You be damned!” as Vanderbilt a few years ago said “The public be damned.”