San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1894-04-12
AUSTIN. April 10.

AUSTIN. April 10.
The anomalous and unprecedented con-
dition of the political affairs of the coun-
try induces me to invite the attention of
our people to some grave questions.
am impeIled to this course by the mo-
mentOuS character of the questions and
by my gratitude for the hOnOrS they have
so often conferred on me. and feel the
more free to do so, as | am not a candi-
date for any Office, and will not be- and
therefore have no personal or selfish pur
pose to subserve. And shall relieve my
self of the duties of the position | now
hold as soon as the public interests will
allow me to adopt that course. ! can,
therefore. speak as one private citizen
might speak TO another with reference TO
the public welfare.
There is at this time greater supply
OF all food and Manufactured products and
cheaper and more abundant tranSpOrta-
ton in the United States than at any
former time And there is at this time
greater restitution, hunger and Starva
tlOn and more men out OF employment,
more tTamps and beggaTs and more SOr-
row and wTetcLedneSS than was ever be-
fore known in this country in time Of
peace. With most abundant harVeStS and
bOuntiful supplies Of all articles of food
cheaper than such articles ever were be-
fore large masses of men cannot get work
to enable them to supply their families
And bands OF unemployed idle men are
marching through the country in search
of relief All products OF the field, the
factories and forests are so low in price as
to make their production unremuneraLive.
As further illustrative of the industrial
and business condition in the year
1898 the number Of cases OF
bankruptcy had increased more
than IN cont and tho a iDyynly--
ed had increased more than 20 per cent
over that of the year 1892. In the year
1898 nearly 10000 miles of railroad in the
United States, with capitalization oil
stocks and bonds amounting to nearly
two billions of dollars, went into the
hands OF receivers. II you will examine
the weekly reports OF bank ClearanCeS as
they appear in all the large daily news.
papers commencing with the first week in
Jau., you will see that each of these W. ekS
shows falling off of many millions Of
dollars a. compared with the CORES pond.
Ing week OF lNg2, thus eVidenCng the de-
cline Of business. In the year before sill,
yer was demonetized by Republican
congress, ~, the national debt of The
United States was, after deducting the
cash in the treasury $?,149, 1SO.53O. Thi>
debt in 1852 after deductlng the cash il
the treasury was SSil 526, 463. The
average price Of midOllng cot
ION IN 49,, IN currency, was
S22.l9 cents; in ISg3 it was about : cents
The average price OF wheat per bushel in
1872, in currency was Sl.47. In 1893 it wa,
less than GO cents. A like reduction has
taken place in the other staple products
So 1t happens that at this time it would
require as much of the staple products O
the country to pay the debt of SS41 .526
463, as 1t would have required to pa
the debt Of S2,l49,5SO $50 in the year O
1872
Take the statistical abstract published
annually by the United States Treasury
department, which gives the averag
price OF the leading staple commoditie
of the country year by year. and ais
gives the relative prices Of gold and sill
yer, and you will see that just as silver
has gone down. as compared with gold
the prices of all staple commodities have
gone dOwniwith it, or rather the price o
gold has gone up and left silver and tn
products of the country together far be
low gold prices.
The aggregate value of all of the prop
erty in the United States, after maxim