The record-union., 1896-10-14
there should be prosperity in some o

there should be prosperity in some Of
these employmentS and not in others,
or among one class Of people and not
among others, is impossible For they
all rest upon a common foundation, and
are affected by the same conditions.
Business is a generic term and COM
prehends all lawful industries. 1t rep
resents an entire and indivisible sys
tenn, inseparably linked together, and
which must prosper or languish as a
whole. When 1t is stimulated all profit;
when it is depressed, all suffer. No
part Of the body can escape the effect
of a general paralysis or fail to get
the benefit of general good health. And
the only difference, if there is any, be-
tween business and labor is that the
one Is the necessary and principal en-
ployer of the other. When business
1iouishes the laborer is in demand; ;
when 1t declines he stands idle in the
market place.
Business of whatever sort in a coun-
try like ours, rich in resources, full Of
energy and vitality, with all harvests
everywhere ready for the sickle, rests
chiefly upon two factors-public conf
dence and a sound and stable currency.
When either is, and much more when
Lr)l1 are lIiiftdlEGu OI even RTdNeIy
threatened, business suffers, general de-
preston comes, labor declines and the
wolf approaches many door.
Without confidence there can be no
credit. no enterprise; capital is boarded,
sent abroad or lies idle, and all indus
tries diminish or cease, and the surest
way the world has ever seen to destroy
confidence is to debase the currency and
IN a lye. ~toiV fro, dow 70 4
how much a dollar is worth, and how
much it is going to count for in the
near future; to take away, as is now
proposed, one-half its value to begin
with, and to set the other half to fluctu-
ating to an indefinite extent, with the
rising and the setting of the sun, and
the approach Of every storm. Through
such a medium of exchange it is i'm
possible to do legitimate business, since
sound money and stable values are its
life blood Without them it becomes
only an uncertain and hazardous spec
ulation.
There is, therefore, in my Judgment
no man more criminal or who is a
worse public enemy, than he who en-
cages in or countenances that infamous
and destructive attempt. And he is
tenfOld a criminal who seeks success
in it by playing upon the prejudices and
passions of the less intelligent, and
stimulating a warfare of classes, that
most desolating conflict that can come
upon any nation, we'll knowing for he
has all the experience Of the world to
teach him, that he is not comprising
the destruction Of one class, but Of
both, since those whom he dupes into
serving his purpose must inevitably be
the earliest and worst sufferers by it's
consequences.
Because the less man has, or the
less he earns. the more necessary it is
to him that the value of that little
should be maintained and made sure,
and that the few dollars in his pocket
should be as good dollars as there are
AS well might the steerage passengers
in a vessel in mid-ocean, weary of their
privations. be melted by some mischief
maker to scuttle the ship in order to
drown the inmates OF the more lux
urious cabins, unconscious that they
themselves must be equally the victims
of the common calamity.
Aside from the financial delusions of
the Chicago platform, its other features
are almost equally Objectionable 1t
proposes TO repudiate in great part the
| nations debt, to the distress of the
thousands whose small resources are
intrusted in the faith of the nation
and the diShonor Of our country in
the eyes of the world; to destroy the
protection we enjoy under the Supreme
Court Of the United States, the most
honored and in the last resort the most
necessary institution we have; to re-
strain the arm of the national execu-
tive from the repression of lawless vio-
lence, and even from the preservation
of the very agencies of the Govern
ment itself; to violate the obligation
and sanctity of existing contracts, and
to restrict the freedom of private con-
tracts in the future.
1t seeks, in short to break down the
dykes which the Constitution and the
law of the land have with long and
laborious assiduity raised for the de-
fcnse of the common interests and well
fare, and TO let in upon us the seeth-
ing and polluted flood of communism,
mob law. bankruptcy, repudiation and
anarchy, which 1t is the chief object Of
all civilized Governments to exclude.
Can sensible men contemplate these
proposals without perceiving the de-
struction they involve? Or without
asking themselves what must be the
character of the cause that needs to
make friends with the worst elements
OF mankind?
The only men who can profit by the
success of this crusade are the plu-
tocratic silver mine owners, already
rich almost beyond the dreams of av-
arice, who have set it on foot and dill