The Caucasian. (Clinton, N.C.) 188?-1913, 1896-10-01
A REPLY TO
INGALLS,
Circular By an Employee-He
Takes The Railroad President
To Task.
LABORER VS.. CAPITALIST.

Not Follow The Dictates of The Money
Power-The People VIII Assert Their
American Citizenship at The Polls Next
November.
since the campaign of education"
has begun among the railway EN-
pioyees, the following from one OF
Them may not prove uniBteresting or
urtimely. IL comes tn the Cincinnati
Enquirer with every mark OF gem
uIneness, and the writer must be cred
tied with considerable moral courage
lie has evidently studied the ques-
ton, as many others have done and
are doing, though it is apparent his
information was not acquired in Il
compulsory school. 1t is IN the form
OF an open letter to Mr.. Ingalls,:
MIR. NJ. T.. INGALLS,, President of the
G. Z. ~ st. J.. Railway and &. 81 0.
Railway, Cincinnati, OhiO-Dear Sir
A section hand upon section 40. II
Of the Peoria division of the Big Four
route, | beg to acknowledge receipt
through the railway mail OF a circu-
lar containing your Interview with
the Cincinnati Commercial Tribune,
| upon the 18th day Of July, 1896. which
Is now beng sent to all employees
| upon this division OF the Big Four.
Having known heretofore that you
were a Democrat, ] bave read your
circular with unusua, interest, and
| have tried TO follow, a3 best | could,
your effort to explain why Mr.. McKin-
| ley should be elected.
| ~ our interview, sent as it is. in the
| form of a circular, must command the
attention of every employee upon the
| line, for two reasons:
Il. That it embodies the views, en-
tertained by the executive officer of
two great railway systems.
z. 1t comes to us bearing upon its
face Il direction as to how we shall
vote at the coming election.
"a careful reading of this circular
this. railway servants guide-leaves
me far from satisfied upon the propo-
| sitiOn sought to be maintained by you.
y You will, Of course, pardon my re-
fusal TO accept your peculiar views
upon so grave question as now con-
fronts US, unless such views at least
appear to be based upon facts and sus-
tanned by reason.
"T0 begin with, you announce that
the result Of the Chicago convention
is disappointment to Democrats and
a shock to all good citizens in the
country.
This statement is substantially
false. OF course, the Chicago conven-
tion must have been a disappointment
to a small minority OF Democrats, who
are directly interested in contractin &
currency, in purchasing United
States bonds and IN maintaining the
present United States banking sys-
TEN, but you surely cannot believe
that the convention or the platform is
disappointment to the great body of
the Democratic party, which controll-
ed the convention and formulated the
platform.
at may be that the corporate inter
ests of the East, the moneyed institu-
tions, including, perhaps, railway mag
, mates, were somewhat shocked that
the people had come to "bat," and in
sisted upon playing their inning un-
der fair umpire, but any sane man
must now feel humiliated to think
that less than one month ago, he an
nounced in public interview that
all good people were shocked at the
result OF the conyentiOn.' You allege
, that the position taken by the Demo
Gratis this year is revolutionary and
POpulistic.' It must be admitted that
: the sentiment now is in favor Of 9
change, and that it is very popular
: but the position occupied by the Dem
} ocrats is not a novel one. In 1873, the
= Indiana State Democratic platform
declared for free coinage of silver anC
0 gold, and but few public men can b.
o found who have not declared for sill
:. yer and gold as standard-pri mary
! money.
"Y0u stand aghast at the criticism
Il 1c lI
: holy horror Of criticism that gave
n birth to the Infamous and despises
t alien and sedition laws which live,
b only long enough to illustrate" th
proposition that free people must D.
: permitted to exercise the right Of fre
,. speech. 1t might be both interestin,
= and profitable for you 10 ask your Re
q publican friends, whom you hav
q joined, and to whom you are endeavOr
It ing, by system of coercion, to delive
n the railroad vote, what it was tina
8 they remarked in their platform con
! cerning a certain Chief Justice TaneJ
"IOu next argue that to be in favO
! of adopting a system that will put tn
" nation out Of debt instead of increas
). ing its liabilities is reputation. YO
IS may congratulate yourself upon th
l. fact that no one of your associates ha
exhibited more courage when attempt
ing to justify the bond sale in time {
peace than you; or, rather, l shoul
say, that you have not been more COW
RS ardly than they.
It "Tbe claim that the success Of fire
n silver will put us on par with Mex
;, leo is absurd. For more than eight
-. years we had free silver, and if MexiC
o ever became possessed of the silly an
q foolish idea that we were on ps
T. with her, she changed her mind aftt
o. the discussions held at PalO Alt
of Resaca, Buena Vista, Cerro Gordo an
st Mexico.
zone would be led to believe by tt
,d earnest and eloquent manner in whic
you talk of the wage-earner bein
80 robbed that the whole Big Four sy
y , tenn was a gigantic bureau, manage
ly and conducted solely and simply
is alleviate the suffering and provide Fl
b. the wants of the wage-earner. But
IT. me, trying to support family on ST..
ue per day in summer, and SO cents p
nd day in winter, it sounds like the ran
~ est ind of hypocrisy.
- But you point to the fact that f
We the past year the worlds producti'
lte of gold was over 100000, 900, and r
e. mark shat amount excels the produ
,e- of both gold and silver in any o.
on year prior to 1884. You neglect
it's state that during the past year, t
an produetiOn of silver was 1926, ,O
~. and that under your view we are
Ier add none of this silver to our stock
money. You do not explain to us til
on the output OF gold from the mines
re- the United States has averaged Il
of for the last ten years than is requir
he to pay the interest on the public de
40 Perhaps in subsequent circular y
all will make it plain as to how we are
;se secure sufficient gold to transact
,Js business of this great nation when Q
en-, interest,". and when st the same til
ssy you favor frequent bond sales.
e.YOur Snlanafic rauaorES about s