The herald., 1893-10-01
ADVICE TO THE PRESIDENT,
Cleveland Urged to Reconsider
His Financial Policy.
] he Poor and the Present Depression
in the Land.
A Strong Statement of Some OF the
Evils OF the Decentralization of
biIver-some Good ideas Put
in Interesting Shape.

have been followed by peace ana nap
piness which no words can portray. The
greatest of blessings has come to you,
and the joy is doubly sanctifed by the
knowledge that all the millions OF your
countrymen shared your anxiety and re-
joice in your Joy. Surely, il any man
should be exultant, and at the same
time humble in thankfulness, it should
be you; if any man should, in all the
depths OF his nature, dssire to express
his gratitude to his countrymen for the
generous sympathy they have given you
and you're, 1t should be your excellency.
Over a million other homes in this
land the same anxiety is brooding that
brooded over yours q week ago. But
added to it there is in each OF those
homes fear for the future, and the ex-
pected guest, which never haunted you.
The people, the great working hosts of
the land, are very poor. The great mid
die class-they who have little capital
and by their capital and their labor are
able to give to others poorer than
themselves employment; they who
cause the harvests to ripen, the wheat
to turn to gold and the cotton to
anow-have made no money Tor 10
years except in the one year when
q famine across the sea gave the farmers,
( despite the methods at home, a profita-
BILE foreign market for food. Ii they
were in debt ten years ago, they are
more in debt now, and they do not know
which way to turn. While the millions
OF people in the land have been swell
ing and doubling they have seen
steady decline in the value of their
products and in the land which they till.
They think this is monstrous in a
great free land like this; they ascribe it
to but one cause, and the instincts OF
great free people are never wrong.
You, Mr.. President, would be shocked
were proposition to be seriously made
to take half the money Of our country
and cast 1t into the sea. You would cry
out "Why, this is pure lunacy, it would
destroy hall the values in the land, and
make the paying of debts impossible by
taking from the debtor the ability to
pay !'' Mr.. President, that was pre-
cisely what was done by our law makers
20 years ago, and hence the congestion
since.
You have called congress in extraor-
dinary session and insisted upon their
repeating the Sherman law, ascribing to
that law the manifold troubles now
affecting this country.
Were you sure of your premises have
not subsequent events proved that you
were in error then? Does no glimmer-
ing OF the truth come to you that for Is
years a storm has been gathering, and
that IL was in this year that it broke?
Thirty years ago man occupied the
exalted station which you now occupy
who was ever in close rapport with the
people. To his nearest adviser he once
said "God must love the poor, He makes
go many of them." That man WAS
much derided in his lifetime, but his
image Ia now encircled with golden
halo in the thought of all who look
back along the years to call up his
memory. 1t is because his utmost
thought was to do that which was best
fer all his people, especially for all the
poor of the land.
Mr.. President, you often in your
state papers speak of the people and
their will. OF course, you feel all
that (; it is not merely form of speech.
But in this crisis who have been your
chief counselors? Have they not almost
invariably been national bankers and
their attorneys? Have they not all
been of the creditor class? Do those
men lie awake nights to think what they
can do to emooth the rough paths OF the
poor?
Twenty years ago the silver mines in
the west began to yield largely. 1t was
clear that if left alone the people would
soon shake off the mighty burden of
debt then upon them. National banks
cannot live unless nation is in debt.
What more natural then, that the de-
sire on their part to continue that debt?
What more natural than the covert
movement to destroy half the real money
of the country in order to reduce values,
give mightier purchasing power to in
terest when collected, and at the same
time take from the debtor 70 per cent OF
his capacity to pay? 1t was in the in
terest OF national banks and bondholders
that silver was demonetized. No other
reasonable or rational explanation of
that act can be given.
At that time silver was worth more
than gold.
The preeent movement is likewise in
the interest of the national banks, the
object being to utterly destroy silver as
money and to force the issue of more
bonds. Do you not see, Mr.. President,
b1ht LILO VI bAO dangerous
powers which would follow the establish
ment of national banks, which filed the
soul of President Jackson, by present
revelation establishes the supreme evil
dence of the justice of that immortal
mans claim to the possession of exalted
statesmanship
Suppose your present programme shall
be carried out--you must see the expected
relief will not come? The farmer will
get no more for his wheat; the planter
no more for his cotton. The unjust, un-
natural and senseless direct competition
between the naked slave of India and the
American wheat raiser and the American
cotton raiser and spinner will not be
taken away. The evil is much deeper.
What you will cure is not even symptom
of the real disease.
You may say: "The people and the
press demandlit." Send for the mem-
bers OF congress-, Mr.. President, who
voted for repeal in the house, and ask
them what response the real people are
making. judging by their letters. Let
me predict the answer. Outside of the
extreme east it will be ''All. save a
few bankers, deplore our work.
As for the press, when untrammeled,
it's power ia as benign as it is illimita-
BILE. When its policy ia dictated from
the business Office it loses its preroga-
tive of an impartial judge and descends
to the plane OF the plain advocate. The
management deals with the banke, just
now the editor is degraded and merely
echoes the cupidity OF the counting
room.
MA President, you are fighting g ris-