The weekly intelligencer. [volume] (Lexington, Mo.) 1891-1901, 1896-05-09
From the St. Louis Post-Dispatch,

From the st. Louis Post-Dspatch.
have received a great many COM
munications concerning my open letter
to Mr.. Cleveland from all portions of
the west and south, most of them in
commentator, but very few in con-
demnation.
From St. Louis came two letters
from men who are evidently s'business
men, men of affairs and educated
men, but who just as evidently, like
too many others, allow Messrs. Cleve-
land and Carlisle to do both their
investigating and their thinking for
them on this financial question.
True, Mr.. Carlisle was for about
twenty years a member of congress,
was for several years speaker of the
house, was by every obligation, as well
of interest as of honor, bound to inves-
tigate this important question thor
oughly that he might safely counsel his
constituents in his country, and during
all these years of his ripe manhood
and assumed investigation and study
he constantly advised both his consti-
tuents and his country that the
destruction of one-half of the metallic
money by the conspiracy of 1873 was
the ''most gigantic crime of this or
any other age'-the new light never
breaking in upon his mind until he
ceased to represent his constituents
and began to represent Mr.. Cleveland,
and after he had a position where he
could issue millions of bonds.
True, too, we are boHnd to assume
one of two things. either that during
all these ripper years of his life he was
an utterly unfit and unsafe counselor or
that he is false counselor now.
True, too, that the only prediction
(for he and his class revel in predic-
tions-the sealed future offering such a
inc field for false controversy that he
has ever made concerning this ques-
ton, which has been fulfilled, is the
prediction he made that the destruction
of one-half of the metallic standard
would Genital a greater loss OF prop
erty than all the wars, pestilences and
famines the world ever saw" This
the census reports of assessed values,
referred to In my open letter, show to
| E.,lH mil 70 RI M
precision.
Yet, Notwithstanding all this is true,
these "business men," one whom ]
suspect to be a banker, like a young
bird which opens its mouth and takes
in with absolute confidence whatever
kind of worm its mother drops, open
their minds and take in whatever
Messrs Carlisle and Cleveland tell
them with an unquestioning and child
like simplicity which is only equaled
by the childish logic with which they
undertake to reason in defense of theiI
position.
| For an illustration, one of these men,
whom / rather think to be banker,
exclaims: "What, four hundred mil
lions of silver in the various treasures
of the world, the banks full of it and
yet it isn't enough for you? There is
loss by depreciation of 40 per cent on
that silver now. Is there any on gold P'
Here is evidently an educated man,
and one who, have no doubt, manages
his private affairs with sense and
success, yet who has not given this
great burning question enough investi-
CATION and thought to know that this
very "loss by depreciation on silver
and the corresponding rise of gold
constitute the very essence of the crime
of which right minded, patriotic people
complain and which Mr.. Carlisle SC
vehemently denounced during all the
years he represented his constituents
instead of Mr.. Cleveland. And sc
completely has he been hypnotIzed by
Messrs. Cleveland and Carlisle he
conscientiously believes every man 6
fool who does not except his ill-digested
uninformed reasoning as complete and
conclusive proof.
Nor has he any more conception o.
why this sloss by depreciation oil
silver'' and rise of gold, as is evident
from another sentence in his letter il
which he asks: ssWhen silver is pro
duced to a much larger extent than Il
required, how are you going to make il
worth more? Can you make cottol
worth more by lawP'
If we concede this bankers honesty
as we must of course, what must W.
think of his good sense or rather hi
information upon any aspect of thi
: subject about which he talks with al
the confidence of profound ignorance
As he has done me the honor to reat
my open letter, | hope, for his owl
sake, he will read this, and if he hav'
lO-year-old son, | will undertake Il
make it so plain that even he, if no
hypnotized father, can understand no
only how silver has been made wortt
less by law and how it can be made
worth more by law, bnt how also
cotton, corn wheat or any other article
of commerce could be made worth
more or less by law.
/ once heard jolly jew say thai
Moses got up the first corner on beef o
which history gives an account. HI
bought up all the beet cattle and theI
passed law forbidding the people te
use swine's flesh and made millions
ont of the rise in beef.
Whatever we may think OF thi