Birmingham state herald., 1896-04-26
WHAT CAUSED THE CHANCE
Governor AItgeId Answers Car
 liSle's Recent Speech
AND ASKS FOR MORE LIGHT
Were Mr. Carlisle and His Associates Scoun- drelS and LunaticS In 1878 ?-Ihe
 Bond Deal Referred to.

Springfield, H., April Ex-Governor Altgeld has written an open letter in re- ply to the speech on the money question recently delivered at Chicago by Secre- tary Carlisle. He begins by quoting from Mr. Carlisle's statement in 1878, in which the latter declared that the demonetiza tion of silver, which he characterized as conspiracy, would ultimately entail more misery upon the human race than all the wars, pestilence and famines that ever occurred. The absolute and in- stantaneous destruction of half the nov able property of the world, including horses, ships, railroads and all other ap- pliances for carrying commerce, while 1t would be felt more sensibly at the mo- ment, would not produce anything like the prolonged distress and disorganiza- ton of society that must inevitably re- suit from the permanent annhilation of one-half of the metallic money of the world"
 Comenting upon this, Governor Altgeld says: Tt would be seen that this lan- guage is clear and emphatic and has none of the sophistry and pettifogging about it that are found in his Chicago speech. His awful predictions made in 1878 came to pass. He not only saw his own prophecy fulfilled, bue he saw the misery of his country become even great
 
 his views had been correct, he continued to hold them until he entered MT. CleVe- lands cabinet, when in some mysterious way there was a change of heait, put for some reason he seems unwilling to talk about it. There are two other mem- bers of the cabinet Hoke Smith of Geor- gia and Herbert of Alabama who, like Carlisle, have made their voices heard for nearly a lifetime demanding the restoration of silver and denouncing the great conspiracy that struck it down, and, strange to say, when these two mer entered Clevelands cabinet they under went a change of heart, and, like Car lisle, they avoid talking about 1t. Why did not Carlisle throw a little light on this question?
 "All these men now denounce the peo- pie who are opposed to the single gold standard as scoundrels and lunat.es; yet they are only following the doctrines which Carlisle & Go. preached. Are we to infer that MT. Carlisle and his cabinet associates were scoundrels and iunatlcs until they got to be old men, and that the tinsel of cabinet position not only made them honest, but gave them brains? Carlisle should have told us
 Governor Altgeld then enumerates sev- eral questions which he says MT. Car lisle should have answered, among them this: "Why was it that for 200 years gold and silver held the market ratio of about 151h to 1, while the ratio fixed by law was 15 to 1 in some countries, l51a to 1 in most countries, and, for a while. It to 1 in our country; why it was that every country where silver was stricken down it was done by the arbitrary act of the government, and that neither com merce nor business had anything to do with it? As there cannot be a general rise in prices without an increase in the volume of the money, must not the pres ent parity system and stagnation con- tinue until the volume of money is again restored to what it was before silver was stricken down?'
 Referring to the recent bond issues Governor Altgeld charges that the pres ident enabled a friend and former client, in association with some fellow specula- tors to make $9, 900 000 to s10,000,0O0 out of the government in few weeks in small bond transaction under the pretext that the sharks of Wall street had agreed to protect the government against gold raids until the following November That is what the wealthiest. the most en- terprising, the most powerful, the most industrious and the most thrifty nation on the globe paid tribute to small band of speculators for protection.