The Philipsburg mail. [volume] (Philipsburg, Mont.) 1887-current, 1896-06-11
GROVER AND CARLISLE
Letter Exposing the Folly of the Ad.
ministration S Financial Policy.
ASEX-GOvERNOR TALKS
He Shows How the Secretary of the
Treasury Abandoned the People for
the President-A Monetary Sys-
tenn that Makes the Rich
Richer and Poor Poorer.

| hlCn0f ana fOOr FOOrer.
On the 7th of last month The Mail
published an open letter written by ex-
Governor w. M. Fishback, of Arkansas,
to President Cleveland, which was
generally read, and it caused a great
deal of discussion. Following will be
found another able letter written by
that same gentleman on the financial
question and published in the st. Louis
Post Dispatch. Mr.. Fishback says
I have received great many COM
munications concerning my open letter
to Mr.. Cleveland from all portions of
the West and South, most of them in
commendation, but very few in con-
demnatiOn.
From st. Louis came two letters from
men who are evidently business
men, men of affairs and educated
men, but who just as evidently, like
too many others, allow Messrs. Cleve-
land and Carlisle to do both their in
vestigating and their thinking for them
on this financial question.
True, Mr. Carlisle was for about
twenty years a member of Congress,
was for several years Speaker OF the
House, was by every obligation, as
well of interest as of honor bound to
investigate this important question
thoroughly that he might safely coun-
sci his constituents and his country,
and during all these years of his ripe
manhood and assumed investigation
and study, he constantly advised both
his constituents and his country that
the destruction of one half of the
metallic money by the conspiracy of
1878 was the ''most gigantic crime Of
this or any other age''-the new light
never breaking in upon his mind until
he ceased to represent his constituents
and began to represent Mr.. Cleveland,
and after he had a position where he
could issue millions of bonds.
True, too, we are bound to assume
one of two things, either that during
all these ripper years Of his life he was
an utterly unfit and unsafe counsel or
that he is a false counselor now.
True, too, that the only prediction
| (fOr he and his class revel in predic-
tiOns-the sealed future Offering such
a fine field for false controversy that
he has ever made concerning this ques-
tion, which has been fulfilled, is the
prediction he made that the destruc-
tiOn Of One-half of the metallic stan
dard would "entail a greater loss of
property than all the wars, pestilences
and famines the world ever saw. -
This the census reports Of assessed
values, referred to in my open letter,
ling precision.
| Vot p,Ofxui + hSf o,,1i oil -, ..,
these 'business men, one of whom
suspect to be banker, like young
| bird which opens its mouth and takes
in with absolute confidence whatever
kind of worm it's mother drops, open
their minds and take in whatever
| Messrs. Carlisle and Cleveland tell them
with All unquestioning and childlike
simplicity which is only equaled by
| the childish logic with which they I'M
| dertake to reason in defense of their
position.
For an illustration, one of these men,
whom l rather think to be banker,
exclaims: "What, four hundred mil
lions of silver in the various treasures
Of the world the banks full of it and
yet it ISM enough for you? There is
loss by depreciation Of 40 per cent.
on that silver now. Is there any on
gold?"
Here is evidently an educated man,
and one who, l have no doubt, man.
ages his private affairs with sense and
success, yet who has not given this
great burning question enough investi-
cation and thought to know that this
very Gloss by depreciation on silver
and the corresponding rise of gold con-
stitute the very essence of the crime
of which right minded patriotic
people complain and which Mr.. Car
Isle so vehemently denounced during
all the years he represented his con-
stituents instead of Mr. Cleveland.
And so completely has he been hyp-
Noticed by Messrs. Cleveland and Car
Isle he conscientiously believes every
man fool who does not accept his i'll
digested, uninformed reasoning as
complete and conclusive proof.
Nor has he any more conception of
! why this Gloss by depreciation on sill
ver' and rise OF gold, as is evident
from another sentence in his letter in
which he asks: "When silver is pro-
duced to much larger extent than is
required, how are you going to make it
worth more? Can you make cotton
worth more by law?'
IL WO OOASCuC Ulllo DtlhcI > llOuGStN,
as we must Of course, what must we
think of his good sense or rather his
information upon any aspect of this
subject about which he talks with all
the confidence Of profound ignorance?
AS he has done me the honor to read
my open letter, hope, for his own
sake, he will read this, and if he have
10-year-old son, will undertake to
make il So n1ain that even he IL NOT
his hypnotized father, can understand
not only how silver has been made
worth less by law and how it can be
made worth more by law. but how also
cotton, corn, wheat or any other ar
ticle of commerce could be made worth
more or less by law.
once heard jolly Jew say that
Moses got up the first corner on beef
of which history gives an account. He
bought up all the beef cattle and then
passed law forbidding the people to