The Roanoke daily times. (Roanoke, Va.) 1895-1897, 1896-09-12
A STARTLING STATEMENT.
1t Ought to Open the Eyes of the People
to Their Condition.


to Their Condition
Chnuncey NJ. Depew, of New York, has |
a national reputation as scholar, an ora |
tor and Republican politician. This great |
ability is universally recognized, and but !
for his identification with railroad in |
terests he would have been the formidable !
candidate of bis party for President of |
the United States.
He never speaks without knowing or
believing what he says to he true. In Il
recent Interview by the Inter Ocean, he
said:
"There are fifty men in New York who
can in p hours stop every wheel on all
railroads, close every door of ali our
mau7,factories. lock every switch Of all the
telegraph lines, and shut down every coal
and iron mine in the United States
They can do so because they control the
money which this country produces"
If this is true and we have no evidence
Shat the statement is false, asks the Gin
rcinnati Enquirer, how lamcntable and de-
plorable is the condition of 70, 100000
peoples There can be no doubt that who
ever controls a country's money controls
its Industries and commerce, whether che
number be so or as many millions. What
u travesty on the declaration that this is
a government of the people, by the people
and for the people, when 80 men in the
and slaves of 70000000 of people in
twenty-four hours. 1t is no marvel that
the patriotic .I4incoln, in anticipation of
the possibilities of such final result,
should have had greater anxiety for the
safety of his country than during the
darkest hour of the civil war. The En-
quirer asks withearnestness and sincerity,
if it is not time the people were more in
tereSted in the supreme issue OF the hour?
If mo m Ma al
mighty power there was more tru til than
poetry in the remark of Bryan when he
said or his journey to New York that he
was going into the "enemys country"
We have no roster of the names of the
| fifty New Workers who hold in their hands
the destiny of the millions, but we can
state with much assurance that there is
not silver money man in the hole list
This single fact ought to arouse the pa
triotissu of every voter
Every friend of a peoples Government
ought to realize that the question to be
| decided at the polls in November is not
whetherRRepublican or Democratic Presi-
dent and Congress shall enact and adj.
minister laws. The perpetuityo,th Gov
eminent is in peril. Are the masses of
the people capable of self government?
The control of the money, Depew truth
fully says, clothes its possessors with alb
Solute power over Il country's industries
There is something radically wrong in
the administration of any Government
when fifty men are permitted to exercise
control OYER the industries and commerce
of IO,OOD,Q0O of people.
The Enquirer has an abiding faith in
the honesty, ability and patriot ism of
enough men i'll all political parties in
every State in the Union to drive from
power the worshippers OF gold, and re-
store the financial system under which all
industries prospered.
The common voter is not anxious to
consult the wishes or ask the consent of
any foreign nation before determining
the financial status of his own country.
The demonstration of one half of the
constitutional money of the United States
was accomplished by a conspiracy COM
posed OF foreign syndicates and our na-
tional bankers. The conspiracy has been
sufficiently successful to clothe fifty men
with absolute power over the industries
Real estate owners, farmers, mechanics,
merchants manufacturers, wage earners,
skilled and unskilled labor, all producers
of wealth, have been the victims of that
conspiracy.
The scheme of the conspirators en-
braces the entire subjugation of the
masses to the money power. Never in the
history of the world has there been an
example of such rapid creation of wealth.
and such wonderful absorption in the
hands of the few.
The quotation from thei interview of Mr..
Depew ought to set men to thinking 1t
should decide the voter to enlist in the
ranks of the common people
This is not conflict between old polti
cal parties. The contestants are to decide
winch is the stronger in this republic
the rich mans money or the poor mans
vote? Bulldoziug, fat frying, intmida-
ton, bribery and lying are the weapons
of the fifty. The simple ballot in the
hands of men who can neither b., coaxed,
bought nor driven is the only weapon of
the millionl