Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1896-07-24
LETTERS FROM THE PEOPLE,
" here VIII We CO..

mere Will you 90? Is asked 10y
the gold Republican press OF the silver
RepubiIcans. Against the enemy OF
course. No party standing for princi-
pies ever had any trouble to find q
place to 90. That question is as old
As civilization, and has been asked by
the tory element OF every age.
No doubt the tories OF 1915 said to
Washington and his army, "When you
defy Great Britain, where will you
go ," and Washington answered, if not
IN words, in actions, I" against the ene-
my" Our great and glorious country
is the result Of defying Shylock and his
greed.
We have too many reapers and har-
vesters in the field to be prosperous.
II had ten acres OF wheat and would
buy two sell binders and two thresh-
ing machines to harvest and thresh
it, You would say / was crazy, but that
is just our condition now. There are
too many trying to harvest and not
enough sowing seed. All the profits
of farming are gone and young men
do not now look to agriculture as a
pursuit that will pay to prepare for.
AS all wealth comes from the farms,
mines and forests, we as nation are
prosperous just in proportion as our
farmers, miners and lumbermen are
prosperous. If conditions are unfavor-
able to them, they are unfavorable TO
the entire class of laboring men.
We are low just at that period OF
our development, both physical and
mental, when we should be reaping a
golden harvest as the reward of our in
dnstry, frugality and patriotism. I'm
der the government OF the United
States more labor saving machinery for
the benefit of man. more devices to as
sist man in creating wealth have been
made than during the whole history
OF the human race. Where are they?
Corporations own them all, trusts and
combines reap the golden harvest.
There is not a necessary commodity
in use to-day which, if it can be, is not
corncred and controlled by a trust or
combination of some kind. Hundreds
of millions of dollars are annually
paid to the trusts by the toiling mil
lions, as extortion, simply because our
government has been run in the in
terest of money kings and not for the
people. These conditions have existed
for % years. Our attention is directed
to the prosperous period from 1878 to
1892 during which we made great
progress, enjoyed the fruits of labor
and piled up millions of wealth. We
find that during that period we coined
nearly all the silver now in use,
amounting to over $4OO,000,0G0, and
at the same time we were skimming
the cream OF the richest portion of the
world. Farms were present, and
every day recorded the discovery of
more gold, silver, lead or copper mines,
or coal or iron fields, while Uncle Sam
dropped - 100000 bright silver dollars
into the channel OF trade each month
Our downward march from progress to
poverty dates from the day we COM
menced to traduce our own money by
adverse silver legislation. The issue
Of 1892 was tariff and tariff reform, but
Cleveland had scarcely warmed the
presidential chair when he called an
extra session OF Congress to repeal all
silver laws and the Republicans fell in
line and helped him carry out his pol
icy, which has resulted in the gold
standard. am told to stay with the
grand old party. That is just what l
am doing. l am still with the &. O. p.
OF Fremont, Lincoln and Blaine, but
you who now support Mckinley are of
the new party OF Wall street, Hanna
& Co.
l have learned all l know about
finance and the silver question from
Republican statesmen, Republican pa.
pers and Republican periodicals and |
have been taught for twenty years
that the Republican party was in favor
of free coinage in America for Ameri-
cans; that we were able to dictate our
own laws and our own policy, and /
have been taught by the Republican
party to hate Great Britain. Now l
am told by this party of Wall street.
Hanna & Co. that we must bend the
knee before the Shylock of Lombard
street, and wait the sweet pleasure of
gang of foreign Jews.
l here quote from the language OF
the immortal Lincoln in his last words
to the people of the west, taken from
Redpath's article, 1.-THE Bond and the
Dollar" in January Arena. 1t was an
admonition to Mr.. Colfax, on the eve
OF his departure for the West, the day
previous to the assassination:
Mr.. Colfax, want you to take message from
me to the miners whom you visit. have very
large ideas Of the wealth of our nation. Now
that the rebellion Is overthrow. and We know
pretty nearly the amount of our national debt,
the more gold and silver we mine makes the
payment of that debt SO much the easier. Now
am going to encourage that in every possible
way. We shall have hundreds of thousands of
disbanded soldiers, and many have feared that
their return home in such numbers might par
alyze industry by furnishing suddenly greater
supply OF labor than there will be demand for.
am going TO try to attract them to the hidden
wealth OF our mountain ranges where there is
room enough for all. Immigration, which even
the war has not stopped. Will land upon our
from OvercrOwded Europe. l intend 10 point
them to the gold and silver that waits for them
In the West. Tell the miners from me that |
shall promote their interests to the best of my
ability, because their prosperity is the prosper
ity OF the nation; and We shall prove in very
few years that We are the treasury OF the world.
And also from that soldier and pa
triot John A. Logan:
]; for one, can see benefit only to the money
holder and those who receive interest and have
fixed incomes. l can see, as a result of this
our business operations crippled and
wages reduced to mere pittance can see the
beautiful prairies of my own State and of the
great west. which are blooming as gardens,
with cheerful homes rising like white towers
along the pathway OF improvement, again sink
ing back to idleness can see mortgage fiends
at their hellish work. L. can see the hopes of
the industrious farmers blasted as they burn
corn for fuel because its price will not nav the
cost OF transportation and dividend Oh millions
of dollars o. fictitious railroad stocks and bonds