The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1896-08-18
VOTEDFOR GROVER
Edward Wilder Tells a Denver
Reporter
That He Has Always Voted For
Cleveland.
IN STATE ELECTIONS
He Votes For the Best Man Re
gardless of Party.
What He Says About the Silver
Object Lesson.
IN STATE ELECTIONS

De Railway company. was at the
Brown Palace hotel yesterday. This
IS the railroad official who created a
political sensation according to the
press reports, on the 31st of last month
by causing the employees in his Office at
Topeka, Kan, to be paid their months
salaries IN silver, hoping thereby to give
them an 'object lesson in finance that
would cause them to vote the Mckinley
ticket.
Mr.. Wilder has been an official of the
santa Fe system for about % years,
and during great part of that time
has held his present Office. He whites
away his spare time writing sound
money articles for eastern magazines
and newspapers, the Arena being one
OF the publications which uses his con-
tributions.
rs it true, Mr.. Wilder, that you had
your employees at Topeka. paid off in
silver, by way Of giving them an anti
silver object lessOn?'' he was asked last
evening.
SIMPLY HAPPENED so.
Yes; we used silver more generally
in paying our office employees on July
81 than ever before he answered, but
not because Of any political reason. Ger
rafn1y not for an object lesson, as the
newspapers said, for there never have
been such things as the 50-cent dollars,
so commonly spoken of. Every dollar
OF our government money is on a par
with gold The fact was we receive
silver without question and in any
quantity, frequently getting $1,000 or
$4,000 in that coin from our Texas
treasurer; and We have always found
a difficulty in getting rid of it.
After paying all we could over the
counter we have been compelled every
two weeks to ship it to Chicago and
turn it into the United States sub
treasury there. But the sub-treasury
officials recently intimated to me that
they were full Of silver and would not
receive any more. They did not alb
solutely refuse to accept it, you know,
but simply suggested, in a courteous
way, that I should not send them any
more.
Then, one of our banks in the south
west has for FIVE or six months taken
$1,000 to $4,000 a month from me. AS
a result of previous correspondence
with our banks in the south and west
1 had told them they were inconsistent
in advocating free coinage, while at the
same time they refused to take our sill
yer But this banker I refer to wrote
me the other day that he had not been
able to dispose of the last two lots of
$4,000 each had sept him, and asked
me not to send any more. When the
silver was being refused from US in
that fashion we had 20 pay part of it
out in salaries to the efBce employees
MIGHT HAVE A PURPOSE.
It was suggested to Mr.. Wilder that
the refusal of the sub-treasury officials
and the banks to take Santa Fe silver,
coupled with his paying it out in I'M
usually large sums TO employees. might
look to some people like part of a con-
spiracy to make silver OdiOus.
NO, there is no conspiracy of which
am aware to make silver odiOus.'' he
said The thing was but result Of
the free coinage agitation. We have
$500. 100000 in silver lying in Washing
ton. idle and useless, because the silver
certificates issued against it are not
even as good or desirable as bank notes
ISSUED on government bonds. The bond
bears interest, the silver certificate does
not
IF any newspaper editor or other sill
advO0a q - T7rOeaa6ad Wilder
talking straight politics. believes that
silver is a convenient circulating uedi-
UNI with which to make and receive
payments. let him come to my counter
as railroad enploye to get. say. a sal
airy of 800. Suppose he finds subject to
his choice 100 silver dollars which il
has taken my cashier considerable time
to count: another pile Of five SO gold
pieces, which took only one-twentieth
Of the same time to count, and a third
pile of $50 in mixed bills and 10 silver
dollars: which pile will the silver advO-
cate take2 Now. I'm suggesting an OBJ
5ect lesson to the silver editor"
NOT ENTIRELY so.
When asked for the facts about the
statement that he had given his en-
ployes that kind Of an "object lesson"
Mr.. Wilder said;
1T is not true that we paid any of
the men entirely in silver. We paid
some of them partially in that kind of
money. The fact was that even count
ing out twenty silver dollars to each
man. in addition to paper money for
the balance, obliged the cashier in self
defense to abandon the payment of
silver The story that some of the |
clerks were obliged to store the silver
they had received as salary away in
their desks was a fabrication. I did
not hear that any of the clerks com
planned about the way they were paid.
but it is a notorious fact that nobody
cares to take more than s. or $40 in
silver.
Il am not q politician was Mr. VII
der's next assurance, and was not
working any political racket. But
when the cashier complained to me
that he had $4,000 or 500. 900 in silver
in the vault, I told him to work it off.
When he said he could not do it, in
structed him to telegraph to our
western and southern banks asking
them how much they would take The
answer Of the bankers almost fnvaria-
bly, was; We can't take any When
they did this wrote to them drawing
attention to their inconsistency in ad-
vocating the free coinage of silver when
they were refusing to receive silver
coin One Denver banker told me he
would take all the silver had provid-
ed left It on deposit with him
don't know whether he thought I was
an idiot or not. told him if I did as
he suggested I would be giving him
my surplus silver something I declined
to do
NOT BETTING ON TT
Concerning the possible outcome of
the election in this state, Mr.. Wilder
said: I am not betting anything, but
I think Kansas will go Republican.
cannot believe that the people Of kan