Las Vegas daily optic. [volume] (Las Vegas, N.M.) 1880-1908, 1896-07-02
GONE TO MEET TELLER.
Hon. ID. T.. Carr Explains Why He
Has Turned His Back ON
the q. o. II.

manner In WHOM HE OPTlC noticcs
my withdrawal from the republican
party. with which l have been so long
identified. l did not believe that the
paper which had 80 often, In the last
eight years, accorded me space in its
columns, aud through which l have be-
come more widely known in the Terri
tory than through any other means,
and for which 1 have ever had the
most kindly feeling, would do me an
injustice, and / desire TO assure you
that THE CPTIo was never by me
classed as an organ Of the "%pie-coun-
ter" republicans. 1t is indeed a pleas
ure to find that men, who are friends,
may disagree and not impugn the mo-
tlves OF each other In the cause of such
disagreement.
I desire, however, to correct q mis-
apprehension OF THE Optic in regard
to the influences impplling me to the
course which l have taken. In the first
place, l have not produced an ounce OF
silver bullion, nor owned an interest ! n
any silver mining property, for nearly
five years. The only mining interest 1
have is in a gold mine, and as / ex-
planned 10 advocating the passage of
the silver memorial introduced by me
in the legislature, were | to consider
only my own interest l would favor
the maintenance of the gold standard,
because the gold bullion product of my
mine would purchase more of the COM
modities which / had to buy than it
would under the double standard. And
while l am not unmlndful of the inter-
ests Of the section in which l live,
which would be advanced by the policy
which l advocate, l have for years
commended that all the producers of the
country were injured by the mainten-
n c Of the gold standard-none Of
them less seriously than the producers
of silver bullion.
The senior senator from Ohio, John
Sherman, said that silver enters into
the measure OF value of the property OF
the people of Ohio, and he never made
a more truthful statement. John
Clark Ridpath, the eminent his
%torian, in giving bis reasons for
declining to longer affiliate with
the republican party. says, "The
uncoined silver IN the American stand
ard dollar will buy more of the aver
age of great staples and commod-
tues than the same amount would buy
in 1875" And yet, the producer of
those staples receives for them, with
which to pay his taxes and the inter-
est on the mortgage or his farm, but
little more than one-half as much in
lawful money as he did at that time.
At the same time, there has been no
reduction in the expenses of govern
ment, either national, state, county,
or municipal, and the party which has
declared for the continuance of the
gold standard makes no promise of re-
trenchment or equalization of the bur-
dens of its maintenance. The salary
of the president of the United States is
now $50, 900 a year, the same as it was
in 1879, while all will acknowledge
that $4,000 will buy as much Of the
products and property of the people as
$4,000 would in that year. I have in
my desk the copy of a letter written
by me, in May, to Senator-elect For
aker, of Ohio, who was chairman of
the committee on resolutions Of the
republican national convention, at St.
Louis, In which I suggested that, if the
gold standard was to be maintained,
there should be an equalization of its
onerous burdens through a reduction
of the expenses of the government,
and that the republican party should
declare in favor of reducing the sal.
airy of the president from $4,000 to
$50, 900; of members of the cabinet
from $4,000 to S., 900; of members of
congress from s., 900 to SO, 1000, and
that a universal cut Of 40 per cent,
be made in the emoluments of all
officials and employees of the govern
ment; that 1t should bs tie declared
policy of the party to so reduce the ex-
penses OF state, county and municipal
governments. through similar cuts in the
salaries of officials. Ia urging this l
said to him. "The seething hot iron of
contraction having burned away one
half of the earnings of the producer
and taxpayer, why should not the law
cut off one-half Of the luxuries of the
and tax-eaterP" Beyond a
acknowledgment of the re-
ceipt of my letter, no attention was
paid to it. The plutocrats now
in control of the republican party want
the prices of products fixed by the
gold standard and their incomes con-
tlnued without diminution.
The republican party promises a re.
turn of prosperity through the i'm
position OF higher protective tariff
l have asserted, and have no
fear of successful contradiction, that
tariff duties, however high, will add
one cent to the price of a bushel Of
wheat, corn or oats, nor one-sixteenth
of a cent to the price of a pound Of
while the gold standard is
THIS being true, the in-
Of imposing higher duties and
advancing the prices of the articles OF
which the producers of
these staples have to buy is manifest.
is. also, proposed to procure
sufficient revenu to meet the expenses
Of the government through a higher
protective tariff, while it is evident
hat. if the tariff ia high enough TO
afford any protection to American in
it will decrease the volume of
IMPORTS, and if there are reduced i'm