Belding banner. (Belding, Mich.) 1889-1918, 1895-06-06
THE BOOK OF THEDAY
SOMETHING ABOUT THE AUTHOR OF
"COlN'S FINANCIAL SCHOOL,"
Novel Method OF booming Free Silver
Coinage How Man With an Idea Start
ed To Teach Finance tn the Masses and
Ended by Amassing u Big Fortune.

Ended by Amassing "a Big Fortune.
BY all odds the most phenomenal popu-
lar craze of the century, always excepting
"Trilby' and "Uncle Toms Cabin" is
that which has followed the publication of
"Coin's Financial School. 4"
It's author is Mr.. William Hope Harvey
of Chicago. One day Mr.. Harvey said to
himself, 81 will write book that will rev.
olutionize the world on the money ques-
ton.
And this Mr. Harvey has done. 1t was
loaded with free silver from cover TO cover,
and its arguments were SO plausible that
converts came easy, and the first and sec
ond editions were speedily sold out.
The west and south absorbed the book
in great quantities and read it with the de-
light of young lady with new novel
1t circulated among the farmers and gave
new incentive to the hopes of the free sill
verites. Every newspaper editor noticed 1t
editorially, and the gratuitous booming 1t
gained helped TO roll up its circulation into
the hundreds of thousands. Already up
ward of 450, 900 copies have been sold. BY
October the author expects TO have reached
the |, 600, 600 mark.
1t was n book of mystery. Its obscure
origin helped its success, and the question
with everybody has been, What is the cause
of it all, and when will the craze cease?
Mr.. Harvey has written two other books
"A Tale of Two Nations" and "Coin Up
to Dat" which have brought the circu-
lation of all three up to 900, 900.
Hundreds of editorials are daily appear
ing in the leading papers of the country in
controversion or defense of the arguments
ia COINS Financial School, and one
Chicago paper has employed j. Laurence
Laughlin, professor of political economy
in the Chicago university, TO write edi-
torial replies to 1t.
The author of this remarkable book is
by birth q West Virginian. Buffalo, near
Charleston, w. Va, is his native place.
and he is a lineal descendant of the emf
nent anatomist William Harvey, the dis
coverer of the circulation of the blood He
is 43 years of age, married and has four
children, two boys and two girls.
BY profession he is a lawyer, having
been admitted To the bar when he was but
10 years of age His education was OBJ
tanned in country log schoolhouse and
In n West Virginian academy In n broad
Or sense he is educated by experience and
travel His favorite studies were arith
metic and history; he has passion for
statistics. The Congressional Record in
terests him more than novel.
In the early spring of 1898 Harvey was
living in Ogden, Utah. He had invested
in real estate in Denver, Pueblo and Salt
Lake and estimated the value of his prop
erty at 100000 The panic came and he
found that he could not realize one-half
that sum on his possessions. For some
years nc had been a student of financial
legislation, especially with reference to the
silver question, and being firmly convinced
that single standard was inimical TO the
interests of the people, he decided to go to
Chicago and start weekly paper for the
purpose of creating a sentiment favorable
to free silver coinage. He started such
paper and gave it the name of Coin.
"While knew it would be difficult for
such paper to get n circulation in the
east, said Mr. Harvey TO "a correspondent,
81 believed that the people in the west who
thought as l did on the question would
assist me to the extent of making the pa
per self sustaining. In this was mistaken
and the paper died, but out of it rose the
| spirit of Coins Financial School.
Harvey was good advertiser, and be-
fore his paper ceased publication he made
one bid for public favor which came near
capturing the town. He hired coach
drawn by four white horses and driven by
a coachman in resplendent livery to parade
the principal streets of Chicago, while n
small boy in the vehicle, dressed TO repre-
sent Coin" distributed copies Of his pa
per.
about this time" said Mr. Harvey II
made proposition to Joseph Medill, the
venerable editor of The Tribune, and if he
| ha1 Tod Il
never have been written. l proposed that
he should argue the gold side of the ques-
ton, and that i should argue the bimetal-
lie side the discussion to be carried on
through the columns of Mr.. Medill's pa
per over our respective signatures He nei-
ther accepted nor refused my proposition.
He never answered my letter, but since
Coins Financial School has become a
success The Tribune has devoted more than
100 columns of its space in answer.
"a representative of The Inter Ocean
then made me the same sort of proposition
/ had made Mr.. Medill, except that the pa
per was to employ man to argue the sim
| gle standard side. This proposition also
fell through, and was informed at the
time that Lyman J. Gage, president of the
First National bank and financier of in
ternational reputation, had gone to the
proprietor of the paper and protested
against such an arrangement. / have late
ly been assured that Mr.. Gage did not do
this, but / thought so at the time, and it
was one of the reasons why / made him
such prominent scholar in Coins Finan-
cial School.
"At this time the book had not been
written. clearly saw that my paper was
not going to be a success, and / attributed
its coming failure partly TO the fact that
the treatment of financial questions there
in was too diffuse, too scattering, 1t was
not sufficiently compact, and many of the
articles were written from scientific
standpoint, entirely over the peoples heads
i thought IL over and concluded that the
way TO get the middle classes and common
people to study the money question was
TO give IL to them all at once-in a lump
and written in such plain and simple Lam
guage that the least educated among them
could understand 1t.
with this idea uppermost / began to
write the book called Coins Financial
School. Most Of the work on IL was done
at night, while during the day / gave my
attention to the paper. / rarely left my
desk before midnight.