Lancaster daily intelligencer. [volume] (Lancaster, Pa.) 1864-1928, 1880-10-23
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Truth, amorning journal of New York
city, published in its issue on Friday, a
fac-simile of the letter of Mr.. Garfield
in which he declares that he is not pre-
pared to say that the existing treaty
with China, which allows the free i'm
portation of Chinese laborers, should be
abrogated " until our great manufacture
ing and corporate interests are conserved
in the matter of labor.'' This letter is
pronounced to be in Mr.. Garfield's hand
writing by Speaker Randall, Mr.. Hewitt
and other gentlemen of the highest repute
who have been in intimate association
with him, and have carefully compared
it with letters from him in their posses
sion. Still there exists possibility that
it might be forgery, and the general
impulse of fair men has been to suspend
their opinion until Mr.. Garfield had an
opportunity to make his denial or ex-
PLANTATION. A telegram did appear
which purported to come from him,
declaring the letter to be stupid
forgery. but it did not come in the au-
thentic form which the gravity of the
occasion demanded. A letter which men
of such eminence and repute for honor
as Mr.. Randall and Mr.. Hewitt pro-
nounced to be genuine certainly demand
ed from Mr.. Garfield an explicit dis
avowal and the fullest explanation he
could give over his own signature. This
he las not given. although as long ago
as Wednesday evening the New York
Herald says that it telegraphed to him
at Mentor asking rs to the genuineness of
the letter and offering to telegraph it to
him if he had not already seen it. No
answer has yet been received.
We are favored with a proclamation
from Marshall Jewell, declaring that he
is fully authorized to denounce it as a
bold forgery, both in its language and
sentiment. A denial from such a source
does not answer the purpose. Mr.. Jew
ell can know nothing of his own
knowledge as to the forgery which he
affirms Oh authority WHICH he does not
disclose. 1t would have been easy for
him to say that he had been authorized
by Mr.. Garfield to denounce the letter us
a forgery. This, it will he noticed, he
carefully abstains from doing, and SO
far as we know. his authority" may he
one of his clerks who knows no more of
the matter than he does. Another pecu-
liarity of his denial will be found in the
statement that the letter is forgery
s!both in language and sentiment. OBJ
viously if the letter is a forgery in its
language it is SO in its sentiment, since
the letter is published in full and it must
he altogether true or false. Mr.. Jewell
denies, by authority, somewhat wildly.
If Mr.. Garfield should himself declare
this letter forgery no doubt the mass of
Republicans would believe him and the
mass of men would call for all the pro-
durable evidence before making up their
minds about it. Unfortunately Mr.. Gar
field is believed by the majority of his
fellow-citizens to have deliberately COM
mitted perjury that offense having
been distinctly fastened upon him by
his own admissions and the testimony of
his friends in notable instances. His
word. therefore, cannot he taken i'm
plicitly by those who are not oyer-in-
clined by partisan feeling to believe him
a pure white lamb. His denial would
not prove the forgery he would aver, but
without his denial even his friends can
not believe him innocent. Only the
very faithful and the very stupid will
consent that the chairman of the national
committee shall step in to do Mr.. Gar
fields denying for him on dubious ''au-
thority."
The New York Herald pronOunces this
letter infamous in that it calmly pro-
poses to keep up Chinese importation to
aid the manufacturing and corporate in
terests in keeping down the wages Of la
Dor. Mr.. Garfield himself has declared
on an occasion when it seemed to he his
policy to present the anti-Chinese view
of the question, that the Chinese inva-
sion of this country was not an emigra-
GlOl VI llCC AIlCN. uut N<to AtChSh iihS tsA
importation of slaves. And SO it is. The
Chinese are imported 10y companies who
sell their labor at profit and this labor
is constant threat against the labor of
the American citizen offered as it can
be and is to the capitalist and manufac-
turer at price which is not living one
for our own workmen. 1t is this impor-
tation which Mr.. Garfield was not pre-
pared to say " should be abrogated until
our great manufacturing and corporate
interests are conserved in the matter of
labor What is the workman prepared
to say to Mr.. Garfield, if he believes
he wrote these werds9 Will they ''Coil-
serve" him?
Great Declaration.
We publish elsewhere a letter from
Mr. Frost q LAWYER of New York City