Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1896-08-08


To the Editor of The Evening Star:
am impelled by the sound, conservative
and enlightened course adopted by the edi-
tcrial page of your paper In this campaign
to express to you the qualification that one
citizen, at least, feels in having with us
so able an exponent of what every WELL
thinking man ought to declare to be right
I refer more cspecially-for all The Stars
editorial sentiments are good-to the new
and highly dangerous arguments free silver
agitators are making that 1t Is little short
of a criminal offense to be guilty Of pos
sessing more than a mere competence. and
that every rich man or large employer of
labor and every corporation IS ipso facto
a target at which may be leveled the abuse
Of these agitators, as though, instead Of
legitimately existing and having a legal
and moral right to live, extend their BUSH
ness as far as possible and to employ as
many men as such business may demand.
they are a menace to the body polite in
which they thrive, and are not spokes in
the great wheel Of mercantile industry that
keeps this or any other country from stag
nation and. ruin.
This assault upon the established business
interests of our country is new and start
ling; In fact, 1t would appear to the sober
minded to be scarcely susceptible Of belief.
But the constant iteration Of the infiam-
mable language of these people establishes
the existence Of this feeling. Until this
year. the leading business men of COM
munity could convene and take such ac-
ton as their party affiliations prompted.
without being characterized as a pack of
grinding monopolists and scoundrels gen.
orally intent only upon their fiendfsh
schemes of self-aggrandizement, and their
efforts to stamp the life out of the laborer
and the farmer" Is everything on earth to
be subordinated to individual interests of
two classes only of our people? Have not
the insurance agent the liveryman, the
storekeeper. the clerk, the banker and. in
short the followers of any calling as much
right to thrive and to live as the two
classes first mentioned? Yet the whole
country is being terroriZed into a condition
OF fear and stupefaction because of the
cry: Give the farmer more money-cheap
debased, fiat money-that he may scale his
debts one-half, and at the same time store
Up his products. Down with people who
nave made or are making more than
living" In fine, existing conditions are to
be overturned. The great self-regulating
laws of compensation and of supply and de-
mand are 10 be set aside. What is to be-
come of US?
What are we all Iaboring in our respec-
tive fields for. If 1t is not fo- financial indie
pendence and its attending comforts? What
does the clerk or mechanic lay aside a
portion Of his income for each year. if it is
not to go toward the establishing of a
home? And If the man whose inherent
capabilities are such that he outstrips his
neighbor and acquires wealth did not
spend large portion of 1t in building his
fine house and buying his fine horses, but
instead lived in q howell and buried his gold
in the back garden in an iron pot, wouldn't
the builder and the mechanic and the
farmer all howl in unison most dsmally?
The law of compensation would cut only
one way then.
During the past month I have heard
dozen men who work for their living say:
We'll, free silver will help the farmer, SO
1 am for it," These men were mainly so
situated that their interests and those of
the agriculturist are antipodal. All exist
on salaries or days pay, and the least in
crease in the cost of the staple products
would be felt by them almost immedia tely.
to their detriment, for their salaries and
pay would not be raised; the motorman
would still get his two dollars day, and
the 81, go clerk his regular number of dol
lars" but their purchasing power would
have decreased. Yet it is from this very
class of people that the heaviest silver vote
will be recruited, paradoxical as 1t is.
Z. j. JACKSON