The Kootenai herald. [volume] (Kootenai, Idaho) 1891-1904, 1893-07-15
NO WESTERN EMPIRE
E. R. HoLDoN's Rash STATEMENT
The Denver Man who Wrote the Famous
Telegram Does Not Believe what He
Said Himself-A new Scheme.

When f. r. Holden sent his new cele-
brated telegram east, from Denver,
just after the drop in silver caused by
the action of the Indian council closing
the minis of that country to the coin
age of silver on private account, he did
not mean all he said. He made a rash
statement, especially when he predicted
that it would eventually result in the
establishment of a western empire.
That is the last thought in the mind of
any person in the west and Colorado
especially. That was a statement
which few, if any, can understand, and
one that no one believes.
OF course, there are a few fanatics
who took it up after Holden dropped it,
but the big smelter man wrote the tele-
gram when the vision of his disappear
ing wealth appeared, when he thought
he saw, in the action of few men sit
ting in a council chamber on the other
side of the world, the work of a life
time swept away, and, immense smelt-
ers standing idle, the mines closed and
the vast mining regions depopulated
This is what he saw when he read the
press dispatches, and it was while
laboring under excitement that he
wrote the message from New York city;
New YORK, JUNE %, 1898. To f. R. Ho1-
DEN, DENVER, Col: What is the feeling in
Colorado and mining outlook?
WATSON & GIBSON.
THE SENSATIONAL DISPATCH.
To the above dispatch he replied as
follows
DENNER, COL. JUNE, Is, 'S3. To WAT
son AND gibson, BROADWAY AND EXCHANGE,
New York, N. Y: Inside of sixty days $50,
600 men will be out of employment. Five
hundred thousand people will he entering the
verge Of starvation. We will repudiate all
our bonds and obligations due in the east
as we have no money to even Fay the inter
est. 1t will bring about a new declaration Of
independence and the establishment of a
western empire.
+. R. HOLDEN.
When the above was published many
citizens boiled with rage. The idea of
repudiating the bonds and obligations
had not occurred to anyone. 1t is safe
to say that it was never thought Of
And the moneyed men of the city told
Mr.. Holden so the next day when they
met in the Brown Palace Hotel, and in
ten minutes adopted a resolution clos
! ing the mines and smelters of the state.
Mr.. Holden answered that he meant
what he said, but that the people in
the city misconstrued his words-did
not look at it the way he did Further
. -, - Ia. -. 4 a
to keep his courage up in such an hour.
He meant to convey that inside of
sixty days 100000 men in the entire
west who are dependent upon the mines
would be out of work.
The new declaration of independence
and the establishment of a western
empire has been explained-it is this
rash statement that this exceptions are
taken to by all classes of citizens, for
in making the statement he spoke for
himself, and for no other person,
and as he is one amongst thousands
the statemnt does not count for much.
The new declaration of independence
is heard everywhere i'll the west, bnt by
no means in a revolutionary wav. A
declaration at the ballot box is advo-
Gated, and the silver leagues of the
state generally believe in printing and
distributing throughout the east and the
south literature on the silver question
by the ream, with facts and figures
calculated to make the people think,
and when next national election rolls
around to rise at the polls and sweep
away the existing political parties and
place in power men who will obey the
mandates of the people. This is what
the friends of e. r. Holden believe, and
is the belief of nearly every man in the
west.
MADE a RUSH FOR WHISKY