The Forrest City times., 1896-04-24

during the past decade about SoO,OO0OOQ Yet the aggregate wealth of Illinois during this de- cade has decreased s6s, 900 .o00 and during the single year from ss8 to 1894 it decreased up- ward of s24 0oo.OO0
 Upon whom has this loss fallen, MT. Cleve- land! Certainly not upon her cities, which have grown enormously. Not upon her manu- facturing interests, for they have increased in the city of Chicago alone s.Q7,0 900 900 during the past decade. while 71 per cent. of the families who reside in Chicago have no homes.
 It is the same old tale told in New England and the middle states 1t has fallen upon the great toiling masses who make their living py the sweat Of their fsces-the farmer and the laborer.
 In no part Of the world Is agriculture pros- pering except in silver-usng countries. These are prospering phenomenally and at the ex- pense of The farmers of gold-using countries
 These are not theories, MT. Cleveland still less are they predictions, but stern, unrelent- ing facts-stupendous facts that might well startie into remorseful reflection a fddlins Nero II not reckless bond-issuing president
 Mir. Cleveland, while you and your allies are so prolific of predictions (if there is a single argument in favor of the gold standard which IS not based upon predictions and predictions, not one Of which has ever yet been fulfilled it nas so Tar escaped my attention), has It ever occurred to you to cast your prophetic vision Tar enough in the future to predict what the result will be if this state of things continue until Japan and other silver-using countries shall have supplanted both our farmers and manufacturers in the markets of the world as they have already rapidly beguns
 Not single selfish prophecy of Sherman or Carlisle was ever as well founded as the prediction that, in this event, our masses who aoor, whether in factory or on farm. will be- come so impoverished that our public schools, our colleges and our churches will be decimated from sheer poverty and consequent inability to attend.
 Are not free institutions, nay even civilixa- tion itself at stake:
 Your excuse, Mir. Cleveland (for you and your class are as prolific of excuses you are of pre- dictions). for laying upon the property of the people these heavy mortgages in the shape of bonds, instead of restor ing silver to it's corruptly lost mone- tary functions is, know that Wall street, in- sists upon raiding the treasury. But your ex- cuse has by yourself been proven a sham. For during your first administration when you still indulged hopes of future preferment and there fore felt sense of res possibility to the people whose favor you courted. your secretary of the treasury very successfully and very summarily stopped this same sort of raid by threatening to obey the law and pay out silver instead of gold to these raiders of New York and London It could be done in ten minus again But now that no longer hope for future office and have possibly, if not prooably, become part owner In these same mortgages with which you so ruthlessly burden the people, who have hon. ored and trusted you, you turn upon your party, to whom you are so much indebted, and threaten to break it up, as in Kentucky and Nebraska, unless the people tamely submit to your unhallowed success.
 May not, Mir Cleveland, suggest that you pause and ponder results, lest your harm to- gether with that of John Sherman and of that other sherman who resigned federal judge ship to escape impeachment for corruption in on1ce, all go down in one common grave in in- fanny
 It is favorite part of the schemes of your self and allies to avold discussion of financial questions as usual, among intelligent men, upon history and experience, but boldly to pre- dict all sorts of calamities the better to hide the calamlties that already exist and to de- nounce those who are guided in their reason Ing by the experience of the past as "cranks |" "knaves, etc With lofty, supercillious seH-importance, too, born of the independence or unholy wealth, the advocates of your schemes, in the face of all experience in the face of the most cherished doctrines of demo- cratic institutions calmly tell the people that they are unfit to discuss their finances but should leave all such questions to experts"
 It would be anectation in me, MT. Cleveland
  Ing that you have will you point out single despotism that ever reared itself upon the necks Of an enslaved people which had not for It's foundation stone this very same doctrine that governmental affairs should be left to "experts" And is there anything in all his- tory to lead us to suppose that the character lstics of the breed are not the same everv- where, whether in Europe. the orient or the United States: True, they are called in mon- srchlcal countries king, clergy and nobility While here they are called hnanciers. True too you have not yet reached the stage which attaches to our experts" Divine right, but if this country could be cursed with another four years or your administration the rapidity with which your evolution has already progressed Justifies the belief that you would reach even this culmination
 Fortunately for the American people. we have already had ample proof that our "ex perts' are true ;o the instincts of the breed Let me cite few:
 There was not long since published in Chi cago the following certificate of the auditor of the state of Illinois,
 II, David Gore auditor of public accounts of the state of Illinois, do hereby certify that the statement of property assessed in Cook county Tor the year lss4, filed in tn is office in pursu- property assessed in said Cook county for the year A D. 1894, the following viz: ApricuI- tural tools, implements and machinery ss4 s92: money or bankers, brokers, etc, s43 e25: credits oi banks, bankers, brokers, etc.. s1O,OOO The aoove items show all the property assessed under headings herein set forth.
 witness my hand and official seal.
 DAVID GORE
 Auditor of Public Accounts
 Will you not admit Mir Cleveland, that these chicago experts" have shown the expert shrewdness natural to their class in their fore ing the farmers of Cook county to pay not only thelr own share of taxes but about nineteen twentieths of that of these "expertsY"
 And does IL not make you blush Mir Cleve- land. to learn that these experts. upon whose testimony you would have the people to so inn nlicltA- rely cnid Lr.r1.