Birmingham state herald., 1896-07-18
FROM MASSACHUSETTS.
Mr. J. L. ChaIifoux Gives Reasons for the Faith That Is in Him-Indorses Bryan,
 SeWaII and the Platform.

MT. Oliver Chalifoux kindly furnished
 the State Herald with the following in-
 terview with J. l.. Chalfoux, taken from
 the Lowell (Mass) Daily Sun. MT. Chal-
 ifoux is the senior member of the firm
 of J. L. Chalifoux & Go. of this city:
 "The public utterances of no man in
 the city of Lowell carry with them no
 more weight than the words of J. L.
 Chalifoux, one of our leading business
 men. He considers well before he ven
 lures an opinion, and his words, never of
 an idle nature, have always appealed
 strongly to the plain people.
 MT. Chalifoux has for some time been
 rated as free silver man. and though he
 has advocated the cause at every oppor-
 tunity, not until the present time has he
 given expression to his views in the
 press.
 Tt is common talk that MT. Chalifoux devoted at least three years to the study of this particular phase of the money
 question, and his conversion from gold
 standard ideas to a pronounced free Sil-
 yer belief is no sudden impulse.
 When MT. Chalifoux talked to a Sun
 reporter last evening he said he felt cer-
 tain of Bryan's election. Should it hap
 pen,' he continued, that Mckinley is elected and congress fails to enact free V witness an uprising of the people and the democratic candidates will be swept into
 office. I believe that protection and free silver go together, as do free trade and gold, and If you stop to consider you will readily see that the men who are desert ing the democracy because of its plat form utterances are all free traders. I believe different tariff schedule should be provided, but that cannot be obtained until the farmers of the west have first ernf fPnn CiI ota6 xxrffJ rafat <,f prosperity. The west Is the purchasing center for this section, and without pros- perity there we can scarcely hope for prosperity here. I do not believe inter- national blmetallism can ever be ob- tained, for England will never agree to it. And why should she? Her interests are directly opposed to ours. It Is policy for her to insist upon a gold standard "Mr. Chalifoux went on to say that the countries under a silver standard are prosperous. He admitted that the adop- tion of free silver might cause a little dis turbance; might ruin 1000 men; but he argued. the welfare of 70000000 people is paramount to their interests Mir. Chal- ifoux claimed that under such a law as is proposed silver will appreciate till it ob- tains the standard of gold; business in- terests all over the country will be ben efited, and a prosperous era will be upon us.
 "Mr. Chalifoux, in accounting for the acton or the BOlu auVOcateS, Salu. 'Ine trouble is, business men do not give fair play to their intelligence, for if they did they would see that the country will be
 ultimately benefited by the success of this free silver movement. They fear that some of their holdings may depre- ciate in value and this numbs their intel- | ligence and prevents them from listening l to the arguments-the uncontestable ar guments- of the free silverites. The gold standard people deal only in generalities. They tell us the country will be ruined. but they give us no proof of it. They say it will bring boom and that even- tually a great crisis will follow But they do not give any proof of it. beoause they cannot. Business panics occur reg ularly, once so often, because of the un- fitness of men in business. Statistics show that only per cent of the men In business succeed, and consequently the day of reckoning comes for the unsuc-
 cessful ones and usually results in pam ic' Y"
 z.t.A