The times. (Owosso, Mich.) 1882-1897, 1893-12-15
TO THE PRESIDENT.
AN UNEMPLOYED WORKMAN WRITES
AN OPEN LETTER.

uies "uineu ana LABOR fauperized = Dire
Results Must Follow the Adoption of the
Un-Americnn Tariff Bill
To His Excellency Grover Cleveland.
President of the United States:
SrR-As your excsllency is an Amer
lean president. invested with the pow
erful influence Of your high office and
welding that influence to force legis-
lation antagonistic to the interests Of
your country. If 1t is not too late. it is
certainly not out of place to ask your
excellency whittier you are drifting; if
the varied interests Of that portion of
the worlds inhabitants living within
the territorial limits of the United
Staetes and owing allegiance thereto are
not large enough for your stewardship:
whether you are moving within the
lines of national Democracy and for the
interests of the nation that placed you
at its head. OF il you have switched
off to the line Of universal Democracy
and taken the nations Of the world un
der your consideration to the neglect
and material injury Of your own2
Whatever may be the object Of your
ambition, the one fact is established
that your policy is destructive to the
interests of your own country.
Within the first SIX months of your
administration what is the condition
of business under itr The money
that maintained business has been
withdrawn and is slowed away in
the banks. The industries that pros
pered before you came have withered at
your approach. The labor that was
happy and contented is becoming de-
mented from starvation, and yet while
your policy has been condemned by six
of the leading industrial states and the
people of every section which it is de-
signed to affect have protested against
it, while the voice of starving labor has
swelled the ominous sound of discon-
tent, you seem indifferent to condi-
ton that is increasing in danger that is
a menace to public tranquility and may
lead to necessity for measures that
would be abhorrent to civilization. You
yet pursue the course that Great Britain
has laid down as the chart of American
politics. You have found the tools in
the Wilson committee to shape your bill
Of destruction and seem impatient for
its completion to affix your signature
thereto.
Your zeal for this foreign measure
would be a mystery but for the fact that
you have the Endorsement and approval
Of foreign countries. What we will
lose in productive values they will gain.
The business which your tariff reform
policy will sheriff out of the country
will be transferred to your foreign al
lies; England. France and Germany
favored, if they did not materially aid
in your election. They are now increas-
ing their plants and oiling their spindles
in anticipation of a share in the pros
pective wreck of American industries.
Your minister (Bayard) at the Sheffield
dinner could look with an ungrudging
eye on the growing prosperity of Shelf
field artisans, while he could strike
with traitors hand at the law which
assured the prosperity of American
workmen. This in itself is trivial
incident and unworthy Of notice, but in
keeping with the foreign interest of your
administration.
This picture is not overdrawn. 1t is
a facsimile from an American point of
view, and from this point l again ask
your excellency whittier you are drift
ing? You are pursuing destructive
and dangerous course.
In view of the condition resulting
from your policy, the increasing distrust
and disturbing circumstances that are
sure to follow and the emphatic condem-
nation by those same people who one
year ago were mislead to support it, you
can no longer hide your purpose under
the Chicago platform. If judged on the
basis of intelligence, that platform was
never tenable. You are well aware of
the fact that large proportion of your
votes were csst by men who were reck-
less of consequences, Indifferent to the
public welfare and incapable of distin-
gushing in many cases between the
tariff and internal revenue. They GER
tainly did not represent an intelligence
on which to base justification for the
enactment Of ruinous and, to them, de-
structive law, although they represent
more than your majority multiplied by
10, and they did yell for Cleveland and
a cheap shirt. Yet it would i'll befit the
honor, the justice or the humanity of ar
enlightened and Christian government
to take advantage of their ignorance.
To err is human. acknowledge 1t is
noble, but opursue destructive course
where honorable retreat is open is worse
than criminal.
You are the elected trustee and Chief
custodian Of the people of the United
States. You have accepted the steward
ship over the interests of industry and
the millions Of people whom that indus
try maintain. Yet if the industries that
have been scattered, the homes that have
been wrecked and the labor that has
been pauperized by your foreign policy
and within the first six months of your
administration could be seen at one
- L.. Ill