Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1896-09-19
Alex. M,vElcn MILLER.
One Of the Most Prominent Democratic
Leaders Resigns.


cratic committee OF Greenbrier county.
He was elected member Of that COM
mittee in 1892 and was reelected this
year He is resident Of Anderson for
over 20 years, is native Of this state
and prosperous. enterprising business
man He can not stand Organism and
the New" Democracy and resigned his
! position in the following forceful letter,
worthy of being read and preserved:
ANDERSON, w. Va, Aug 81, 1896.
DR. ;. III. Austin, Chat. man, Lewis
burg, w. Wa.
| DEAR SIR-Please accept my resigna-
| ton as a membes Of the Democratic Exc
cutive Committee of Greenbrler county
| for the following reasons:
/ The Democratic platform. adopted at
| Chicago, is iii favor Of the free and M
limited coinage Of 50 cents worth of sill
yer into legal tender dollar / am OPP
posed to this. Ii the government has
4 the right to make 50 cents worth Of sill
yer dollar, it can make 10 cents worth
! dollar, and who knows how soon the
silver mining trust viii demand that 10
cents worth Of silver be made q legal
4 tender dollar? If the mine owners were
acting III good faith, they would ask to
i have their silver coined into honest dol
/ lars. containing a dollars worth Of sill
yer. Instead of this they have the gall
4 to ask the government TO double their
/ enormous wealth, by coming them, free
4 of charge, two dollars out Of every one
4 dollars worth Of silver they take TO the
/ mint. More than this they want the
/ government to say that every laborlng
man, who agrees to do days work for
a dollar, shall be compelled to take as
his pay this trust-created 53-cent dollar.
The laboring men alone viii defeat
this great swindle when they come to
realize that they are being used by the
silver trust TO perpetuate this great
fraud on them. / am opposed to free
coinage because no country on u silver
basis, has ever prospered as has ours on
a sound money basis. All the most en-
/ lightened countries of the world are on
sound money basis and in all OF them
wages are higher than III the silver
standard countries. Yet Ill the silver
countries the necessaries of life are al
most double. The free coinage of silver
viii benefit no one but the silver miners
of the west, who represent one Of the
most gigantic monopolies the world has
ever seen, the aggregate wealth being
$545, 900, 10000. In all silver countries
|
than in sound money countries. In
England money is only worth from 2
to 4 per cent, while in free silver ma
tions the rate is from 10 to 10 per cent.
l am opposed to free silver, because i'll
all silver standard countries gold does
not circulate. bat is driven out of the
country by silver.
Ii we adopt free silver, at the ratio Of
/ 16 to /, we drive out of circulation
$500, 100000 in gold, which is about one
third of all our money. This is the
opinion of our best financiers.
To replace this with even 53-cent dol
lars, it would require from six to ten
years of silver mining with the minis
running night and day; and long before
this gold could be replaced by cheap sill
yer every debtor in this broad land
would be financially ruined, for money
would be SO scarce it would be impossi-
bic to get enough to pay our debts.
All creditors would be trying to coll
lect at the same time, and no one will
ing to loan. There is no doubt that i'm.
mediately after the election of Mr. Bryan
! (if we should be so unfortunate as to
| elect him) there would commence the
worst financial panic the world has ever
seen, III which thousands of business
] Iltll NOuIN NC IuluGNl, stllu tic ldDOIiliS
man would have TO face privation and
want for himself and his family.
Factories would be closed and the
country flooded with unfortunate men
! begging bread In manufacturing and
mining districts. where thousands de-
/ pend upon their daily labor for a living,
/ there would be bread riots in which the
women and children would be the great
est sufferers
! If the wage earners and debtors of
this country could but see the mine of
ruin and disaster beneath their feet,
to which they are about TO apply the
match, they would flee from it Gree sill
ver) as they would from pestilence,
death or hell. Why should the people
of the East and South be anxious to
make millionaires of the Western silver
mine owners, when the West has al
ready ruined our markets with her
cheap grain and meats? Making mil
/ honaires of the mine owners will not
help us to compete with the cheap prod
ucts of the West.
| was told by a Democratic politician
of this county year ago that we must
have something besides tariff to catch
votes this fall and that free silver WAS
the best thing we could get. Is it pos
sible that our people can be hoodooed
into voting for Mr. Bryan by this cry of
cheap money, raised by the mime own
ers, and echoed by the place hunters
and otfice-seeling demagogues? Haven't
we already had four years Of hard times
in place of the great prosperity promised
us by the freewoo ritfrefonning
politicians, who now want to stop talk
ing tariff and free trade aud raise the
cry of free silver? The Philadelphia
Times, an able Democratic paper, has
the Chicago platform in q nutshell like
this; They propose free trade, free
silver, free not and free hell"
must, my dear sir, ask to be excused
from helping to bring this great calam-
ity ON our country. Very respect
fully, ALEX. MCVEIGH MILLER,
VERMONT HAS SPOKEN.
The Verdict Merely an Index of What Is
Coming.
The Republican victory in Vermont,
Sept. /, is unprecedented and on the
fullest vote on record exceeds the great
est Republican majority ever given by
10000 In a vote Of sixty odd thousand