The record-union., 1896-09-02
EARNEST WORDS.
Ez-Minister E. G. Phelps on the Chicago
Platform.
Vigorous Denunciation of Portions Of
It-Some Sledge Hammer Blows
at Its Policy.

BURLINGTON (Vt), Aug. 24.-The
Free Press" will print tomorrow the
following letter from Edward j. Phelps,
Minister to England to G. G. Bene-
dict:
Newport OR. ID, August 22, 1896.
Hon. G. G. Benedict-My Dear Sir:
You are right in supposing that under
existing conditions there are no ties of
party and no difference of opinion upon
question of mere policy that will deter
me for a moment from giving my vote
and my voice as effectually as l can in
opposition to the Chicago nomination
and platform. l cheerfully comply with
your suggestion that l should state my
view of the subject.
1 regard the pending Presidential
election as presenting the most danger
Gus crisis that this country has ever en-
countered. 1t does not, in my judgment
involve any political controversy nor
any question of the supremacy of party
for such considerations are lost sight of
in the far greater gravity of the situa-
ton. The real issue is one upon which
all patriotic men and all who are inter-
ested in the prosperity and welfare Of
the country should find themselves up
on one side and opposed to a common
enemy. The attack that we have to re-
sist is not upon the policy, but upon the
life of the Nation. For they would take
its life who destroy the means by which
it lves-the business of many thou
sands and the industry of millions. On
these we are all, whether rich or poor
high or low, alike dependent Those who
are Independently rich are very few in
proportion to the 10000, 900 of Ameri-
can people, the vast majority of whom
gain their living by some form or other
of useful employment. Even the rich
are dependent upon the business of the
country, for their wealth chiefly consists
in investments in it's various industries
and must speedily perish when they are
extinguished.
That 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 founda-
ton, and are affected by the same con-
sideratons. Business is a generic
term and comprehends all lawful in
dustries. 1t represents an entire and
indivisible system, inseparably linked
together, which must prosper or Ian
| 9
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 good health And the
only difference if there is any, between
business and labor is that the one is the
necessary and principal employer of the
other. When business f1ourishes the
laborer is in demand; when it declines
bo in, rx al n19cQ
Business of whatever sort in a coun-
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
both are impaired or even graveiy
threatened, business suffers, general
depression comes, labor declines and the
wolf approaches many door. With
out confidence there can be no credit,
no enterprise; capital is boarded, sent
abroad or lies idle, and all industries
diminish or cease, and the surest way
the world has ever seen to destroy con-
fidence is to debase the currency and to
make it uncertain from day to day how
much a dollar is worth and how mucn
1
ture to take away, as is now proposed,
one half it's value to begin with, and to
set the other half to fluctuating to an
indefinite extent with the rising and the
setting of the sun and the approach of
every storm. Through such medium
of exchange 1t is impossible to do legiti-
mate business, since sound money and
stable values are its life blood. With
10 10. n,,lxr an,-fa IN
and hazardous speculation.
There is, therefore, in my Judgment
no man more criminal or who is a worse
public enemy than he who engages In
OF countenances that Infamous and de-
structive attempt And he is tenfold a
criminal who seeks success in it by
playing upon the prejudices and the
passions of the less intelligent, and
stimulating a warfare of classes, that
most desolating conflict that comes up
on any nation. Well 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 ear
| liest and the worst sufferers by it's con-
sequences, because the less a man has
| or the less he earns, the more neces-
| sary 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 pas
| sengers in a vessel in midocean weary
| of their privations, be melted by some
mischief maker to scuttle the ship in or
| der to drown the inmates Of the more
| luxurious cabins, unconscious that they
themselves must be equally the victims
of the common calamity.
Aside from the financial delusions of
| the Chicago platform, it's other features
are almost equally Objectionable. 1t
| proposes to repudiate in great part the
National debt, to the distress of the
thousands whose small resources are
| intrusted to the faith of the Nation and
| 10 the dishonor of our country In the
eyes of the world; to destroy the protec-
| ton we enjoy under the Supreme Court
| of the United States, the most honored
and, in the last resort, the most neces-
sary institution we have; to restrain
the arm of the National Executive from
| the repression of lawless violence, and
! even from the preservation of the very
agencies of the Government itself; to
| violate the obligation and sanctity of
| existing contracts and to restrict the
| freedom Of private contracts in the