The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1896-04-26

SPRINGFIELD, H., April 25.-Sec-
rotary Carlisle has been answered by
Governor Altgeld.
In pointed open letter made public
today the governor replies to the ad-
dress on the money question which the
secretary recently delivered in the Au-
ditorium in Chicago. Governor Alt
geld's letter is as follows:
"a teacher should be willing to an
swer questions. At the close of Mr..
Carlisle's speech a number of gentle
men arose and asked for further in
formation but he turned his back and
slipped off the stage. and by direction
of his managers the questioners were
hustled out by policemen. He could
have made himself very interesting on
number of points which he persist
emily ignored. In 1878, when discussing
the money question in congress, he
expressed his convictions in the fol-
lowing language:
Il shall not enter into an
EXPLANATION OF THE CAUSES
which have combined to depreciate
the relative value of silver and to ap-
preciate the value Ct gold since 1873,
but l am one of those who believe that
they are transient and temporary in
their nature, and that when they have
passed away or have been removed
by the separate or united actions of
the nations most deeply interested in
the subject, the old ratio of actual and
lIrn vol he ac+ q Ill ,a6
on firmer foundation than ever.
know that the worlds stock of precious
metals is none. too large, and l see no
reason to apprehend that it will ever
become so. Mankind will be fortunate,
indeed, if the annual production of
gold and silver shall keep pace with
the annual increase of population,
my view of this subject, the con-
spiracy which seems to have been
formed here and in Europe to destroy
by legislation and otherwise from
three-sevenths to one-half of the me-
tallic mines of the world is the
MOST GIGANTIC SCHEME
of this or any other age. The con-
summation of such a scheme would I'LL
tSmately entail more misery upon the
human race than all the wars, pestil-
ences and famines that ever occurred
in the history of the world. The alb
solute and instantaneous destruction of
half the movable property of the
world, including horses, ships, rail-
roads and all other appliances for car
rying on commerce, while it would be
felt more sensibly at the moment,
would not produce anything like the
threatened Distress and dlsorganiza-
ton of society khat must inevitably
result from the personal humiliation
of one-half the metal money of the
world JOHN G. CARLISLE.
February 81, 1S7S''
'It will be seen that this language
CLEAR AND EMPHATIC
and has none of the sophistry and
pettifogging about it that are found
in his Chicago speech. His awful pre-
dictions made in 1878 came to pass. He
not only saw his own prophecy full
filled, but he saw the misery of his
country become even greater than he
had predicted. Finding that his views
had been correct, he continued to hold
them until he entered Mr.. Cleveland's
cabinet, when in some mysterious
manner there was change of heart;
but for some reason he seems unwilling
to talk about it. There are two other
members Of the cabinet, Hoke Smith
who, like Carlisle, had made Their
voices heard for nearly lifetime in
demanding the restoration of silver
and in denouncing the great conspira-
cy that struck it down; and, strange
to say, when these two men entered
Cleveland's cabinet they
UNDERWENT A CHANGE OF
HEART,
and, like Carlisle, they avoided talk
irg about it, When Saul of Tarsas
saw a great light and changed his
views he was anxious to tell all the
world about it; but these three states
men seem to be ashamed to discuss
the manner OF their conversion. Why
did not Carlisle throw a little light on
this question?
"Second-All of these men now de-
nounce those people who are opposed
to the single g0ld standard as being
scoundrels and lunatics; yet they are
only following the. doctrines which
Carlisle e Co. preached. Are we, then,
to infer that Mr.. Carlisle and his two
cabinet associates were
SCOUNDRELS AND LUNATICS
until they got to be old men, and then
when the tinsel. of a cabinet position
not only made them honest, but gave
them brains! II not, then now are we
to know which end of their career
was honest, intelligent and patriotic?
For in the absence of any explanation
some of us might think that they were
honest and patriotic when in the vigor
of their manhood they were standing
by a wronged people, and that it is the
latter end of their career that is desti-
tute of honesty, intelligence or patriot
ism Carlisle should have told us.
planned how it vast that for two hun
dred years gold and silver held the
market ratio of about 151s to l. The
ratio fixed by law was 10 to 1 in some
countries, 151S to l in most countries,
and for awhile 16 to 1 in our country.
In other words, the market ratio as
shown by the tables remained practi-
cally the same as the statutory ratio
during all that time. If the two met
als cannot stand together how does it