The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1896-04-26
GOV. ALTGELD DOWN ON GOLD.
lie Issues "a Letter In Reply 20 Car
IisIe's speech

isles speech.
Springfield. IL. April 25-Gov. Aligeld
has written an open letter In reply to
the speech on the money question recent
ly delivered at Chicago by Secretary Car
Isle. He begins by quoting from Mr..
Carlislo's statement In 1878. in which the
latter declared that the decentralization
OF silver. which he characterized as a
conspiracy, would ultimately entail more
misery upon the human race than all
the wars, pestilence and famine that ever
occurred. The absolute and instantaneous
destruction of half the movable property
of the world including horses. ships, rail-
roads and all other appliances for car
rying on commerce, while IL would be
felt more sensibly at the moment, would
not produce anything like the prolonged
distress and disorganization of society
that must inevitably result from the per-
manent annihilation Of one-half of the
metallic money Of the world"
Commenting upon this. Gov. Altgeld
says: 1T will be seen that this language
is clear and emphatic, and has none of
the sophistry and pettIfogging about it
that are found in his Chicago speech.
Has awful predictions made in 1878 came
to pass He not only saw his own proph-
ecy fulfilled but he saw the misery Of
his country become even greater than he
had predicted. Finding that his views
had been correct he continued to
hold them until no entered Mr.. Cleveland 5
cabinet, when, In some mysterious man
nCr, there was q change OF heart Dut
for some reason he seems unwilling TO
talk about It, There are two other MEM
bers of the cabinet, Hoke Smith OF Geor-
gia and Herbert OF Alabama, whor like
Carlisle. have made their voices heard
for nearly a lifetime demanding the res
toratiOn OF silver ana denounclng the
great conspiracy that struck II down and
strange to say, when these two men en-
tered Cleveland's cabinet, they underwent
a change OF heart, and, like Carlisle, they
avoid talking about II. Why did not Car
Isle throw a little light on this ques-
tion?"
'An these men now denounce the peo-
pie who are opposed to the single gold
standard as scoundrels ana lunatics; yet
they are only following the doctrines
which Carlisle a. Company preached.
Are we to infer that Mr.. Carlisle and
his two cabinet Associates were scoundrels
and lunatics until they got to be old
men, and that the tinsel of a cabinet po-
sition not only made them honest but gave
them brains? Carlisle should have told
Gov. AItgeld then enumerates several
questions which he says Mr.. Carlisle
should have answered, among them this
and silver Held the market ratio of about
l5la to |, while the ratio fixed by law was
10 TO in some countries, l01a to IN most
countries, and for a while, 16 to / In our
country; why Il was that In every country
where silver was stricken down, II was
done by the arbitrary act Of the govern
ment, and that neither commerce nor bus-
mess had anything TO do with it2 As
there cannot be a general rise In prices
without an increase in the volume OF
money, must not the present paralysis
and Rtagnation continue until the volume
Of money Is again restored to what 1t was
before silver was stricken DOWN.
Referring to the recent bond issues Gov.
Altgeld charged that the President en-
abled a friend and former client In asso-
citation with some fellow Spectators to
make 100000 TO $4,000, 600 out of the gov
eFnment In a few weeks In a small bond
transaction under the pretext that "the
sharks Of Wall street had agreed to pro-
tect the government against gold raids
until the following November. That Is,
the wealthiest, the most enterprising, the
most powerful, the most Industrious and
the most thrifty nation on the globe paid
tribute to a small band of speculstors for
protection "