Capital journal. (Salem, Or.) 1893-1895, 1893-09-28
AN OPEN LETTER
70 Mr. CIsvelzzd-Ths President
Urged 90 Reconsider his II
nancial Policy.


Mr.. President:
Upon your home within the pas
week q henedicsioa has dsseeuded.
Tue xuxiety and shgussh hAve been
followed b. a peace snd hsppiness
which no words can portray. TIE
greatest Of bSesssngs has come 20 you,
and the 10y ts do0bly ssDesi5~3 by the
kn0xIedge tha: sll the millions Of your
eyuntrymen shared your anxiety and
Tej0iee ia your joy. Surely. ifsDy msn
should be exuitaBt, aud at the saD'
time humble in tbaDkfulDess, it sho0lr
be you; IL any man should, ia all tn
depths Of his nature, desire 20 expEes-
bis gratitude to his eDUutrymeu for tn
geneTO2s sympathy they have give
you and yours, il should be your exec
ieDey.
Over million other hons - IN this land
the same anxi-ty j. brOOssing that bro'ad
ed over yours 8 week ago. But added to
it there is = fear IL each OF thoE-
homes for the future, and the expected
guest, which never haunted you. The
people, the great working hosts Of the
land, are very poor. The great middle
elsa-they who have q little capital
and their labor are able TO give to 9th
ers poorer than themselves employ
ment; they who cause the harvests b.
Fipen, the wheat to turn 10 gold and
the cotton TO snow-have msde no
money for ten years except in the one
year when q famine across the Sea gave
the farmers, despite the methods a.
home, q profitable foreign market for
fool. III they were in debt ten years
ago. they are more in dsOs DOW, and
they do not know which way 10 turn.
While the millions Of people in the
land have been swelling and doubling
they have seen q steady decline in the
values Of their products and in the land
which they till
They think this is monsirous in
great free land like this; they ascribe il
10 but one cause, and the instincts nf
great free people are meyer wrong.
You, Mr.. President, would he shocked
were proposition to be seriously made
to take half the money OF our country
and cast Il into the seas. You would
cry out, "Why, this is pure lunacy, it |
would destroy half the values in the 4
land, aud make the paying Of debts i'm.
possible by taking from the debtor the 4
ability to pay?7 Mr.. President, that
was precisely what was done by our
Law makers twenty years ago, and |
hence the congestion since.
You hAYe called congress in extraOrdi- 1
nary session and insisted upon their |
repealing the Sherman law, aseribing
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 I.
fifteen years = storm has Teen gather
ing. and that Ii was in this year that Il /
broke
Thirty years ago = man occupied the
exalted station which you now occupy
who was ever 10 close rapport with the
people. To his nearest adviser be once
said "GOd must love the poor, He
makes 90 many Of them" That man
was much derided in bis life time, bu,
bis image Is now encireled with gold
en- balo In the thought Of all who look
back along the years TO call up his
memory. IL Is because bis utmost
thought was to do that which was bssi
for ali his people, ESPECIALLY for all the
poor OF the baud.
Mr.. Pnesideut,you often In your state
papers speak Of the people aud their
will Ofeourse you feel ali that, Is Is
not merely form Of speech.
Bot Ia this crisis who have been your
chief eounselors2 Have they not al.
most invariably been national bankers
md their attorneys? Have they not .
M been Of the creditor class? Do t,
hose men lie awake nights to think ,
What they can do 70 smooth the rough /,
'Aths Of the poor?
Twenty years ago the silver mines In
he West began u yield largely. Itl
Vas clear that II left alone the people
'ould soon shake on the mighty bur
en- of debt then upon them. National !