The Portland daily press., 1892-09-28
A GERMAN MERCHANTS LETTER
Why He is Going to Vote for Benjamin
Harrison.

why h0 Is -oOlllS W fObC lol f'oijtsA-
Harrison,
New York Tribune)
New York August "a, 1892.
To Messrs. Carl Schurz, OSWALD Often
dorTer, William Steinway, Henry w
ard. Leoyis Windgmller and Gustdy I'll.
Schwd5.
Gentlemen: 1 have received from the
secretary of the ''Gerrnan-American
Cleveland union an appeal addressed to
the German-American voters (which ap-
peal I also find published over your name
in the public press), with an invitation
to append my signature, and coupled with
the inquiry whether will consent to be-
come one of the German-American ma
tional committee, to take the place of
the provisional committee you now tenn.
porially constitute.
have already informed your secretary
that, since I shall cast my vote for the
Nominees of the Republican party, I can
not well join your committee, but being,
like you, impressed with the unusual
'importanc e of the coming Presidential
election, regard it, like you, my duty to
give my reasons why the welfare of our
adopted country requires the election OF
Benjamin Harrison and Whitelaw Reid,
the Republican candidates, and why they
deserve the votes of the naturalized Ger
mans as we'll as the votes of intelligent
citizens in general. -
Above all, | should state that con-
= A,,+v +o.y 10 fe For
a Vice-President as well as for a Presi-
dent and I fail to discover in your ap-
peal any reference to the qualification of
the gentleman who appears upon the
same ticket with Grover Cleveland as
candidate for the second office.
Far be it from me to detract from the
high character of Mr.. Cleveland. But
you have made this one man your idol,
and if by any fatality he should become
ineapaeitated for his Office the candidate
who is the nominee of the Democratic
party for Vice-President is one over
Whose qualifications you have evidently
found it wiser to pass in silence. Nor
have you much to say in your appeal, ex-
cept in an apologetic way, i'll favor of the
party as whose banner-bearer Grover
Cleveland has again been chosen. Well do
/ understand your silence in this respect.
Better than many of those to whom your
appeal is directed do you understand
that the administration in the hands of
the Democratic party, with its present
vice presidential candidate, called by
accident to the presidency, would be a
standing menace to the country.
you, with every intelligent voter,
know that the paramount question of
the day is the silver question. You well
hot ho to1i &c Tho
settled by legislation, and that no matter
how unjust some may consider existing
laws, an attempt at this time to unsettle,
through new legislation on the tariff, the
basis TO which business affairs have only
just begun to adjust themselves would
be followed by the gravest consequences
to our commercial prosperity.
The struggle of necessity upon us is
upon the silver question, and during the
next four years, no doubt, it is to be
finally decided whether our currency
shall retain the qualities which are recog-
nized by practically the entire civilized
world, or whether our dollar is to be de-
graded to the standard of Mexico and
India, and our commerce and people to
be in consequence subjected to all the
depression and misery now prevailing in
those countries.
The attitude of the Republican party
and it's candidates, both for the Presi-
dency and vice-President, upon the
silver question is we'll known. IT has
alone been due to President Harrison's
repeated public assurances that any free
coinage bill would receive his veto; that
we were saved from the panic which,
without knowledge, would have been
upon us when free coinage became as
sured Of large Democratic nlajorities in
the late session Of Congress. Parties,
like men, must be judged by their deeds
and not by their professions. What
value can attach to the professions of the
Democratic party at Chicago, which,
within a week after they had been made,
and in spite of Grover Cleveland's nomi-
nation, were repudiated by. the party's
action in Congress, when with the vote
of the Democratic senator from the state
of New York. it passed free coinage
bill in the United States Senate, and
came within a few votes of securing its
passage in the House?
With this record before you, gentle
men, you have the courage to appeal to
constituency, known for its intelligence
and conservatism, to cast its vote in IA
vor Of party which would, had it the
power, food the country with unlimited
ooUdoCd clAfCl. NAOoO iloiHllCc lOI GilC
vice presidency is, to say the least, be-
lieved not to be safe on the currency
question. You are willing to stake the
veal of your country upon the one hu-
man life you have constituted your idol,
and for which, if, perchance. it should
be broken, you have no substitute whom
you find it even worth while to make
mention of in your appeal.
The German-American voter is accus-
toned to reflect. and, reading your APP
peal, the conclusion must force itself
upon him, both from what you-have said,
and more from what you have preferred
not to say, that the welfare of his adopt
ed country demands that he cast his vote
for Benjamin Harrison and Whitelaw
Reid, the nominees of the Republican
party. JACOB FL. ScHIFF.
The Suits Against the Normannia