THE GREENBACK INTERLUDE 95 



in Faneuil Hall at Boston and in the Cooper 

 Union at New York, but spending the greater 

 part of his time in the Southern States. He de- 

 clared that he traveled twenty thousand miles, 

 made fully one hundred speeches, shook the hands 

 of thirty thousand people, and was heard by half a 

 million. Weaver was the first presidential candi- 

 date to conduct a campaign of this sort, and the 

 results were not commensurate with his efforts. The 

 Greenback vote was only 308,578, about three per 

 cent of the total. One explanation of the small 

 vote would seem to be the usual disinclination of 

 people to vote for a man who has no chance of elec- 

 tion, however much they may approve of him and 

 his principles, when they have the opportunity to 

 make their votes count in deciding between two 

 other candidates. Then, too, the sun of prosperity 

 was beginning at last to dissipate the clouds of 

 depression. The crops of corn, wheat, and oats 

 raised in 1880 were the largest the country had ever 

 known; and the price of corn for once failed to de- 

 cline as production rose, so that the crop was worth 

 half as much again as that of 1878. When the 

 farmer had large crops to dispose of at remunera- 

 tive prices, he lost interest in the inflation of the 

 currency. 



