The Roanoke daily times. (Roanoke, Va.) 1895-1897, 1896-09-11
A Union Soldier
TO His Old Comrades.
he TELLS HIS OLD OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES WHY ALTHOUGH
LIFELONG REPUBLICAN,, HE CANNOT
VOTE FOR MCKINLEY.
Washington, D. c., August as, 1896.

received from the soldier comrades of my
State the highest honor in their gift, can
think of voting for any candidate for Pres
idcnt except the Republican candidate,
liam Mckinley.
l will tell you. comrade how it is
You cannot realize more than l the gray
ity of present conditions You cannot
have your heartstrings pulled more than
1, by the ties of old beliefs, associations,
affections, and fraternal feeling
Give me credit, comradc, for the same
devotion to country which you feel that
same devotion we manifested by acts, not
words, third of n century ago,and hear
my reasons for the faith that is in me.
Take no mans statement on trust
Hear--and read both sides. Consider;
weigh; balance; find the truth; prove it,
if you can; and when you know your duty,
do it as fearlessly us you did in 'the days
that tried mems SOULS
Why is our country in distress? We
have had rich soil, fair skies, good crops,
stout hearts and willing hands, and peace
for thirty years, and yet our country is
almost as sad as in the bloody days of war
What is the cause?
Our rcomrade, the Major, ascribes it
mainly to bad legislation on the tariff.
l think we have had bad tariff legislation,
feet. The present tariff is higher than the
Morrill, tariff, under which we prospered
many years; it is Il little lower than the
Mckinley tariff, which l think deserved
II longer trial. But sixty cents more per
year per head would help the Treasury
all it needs. / do not believe we are suf-
fering all these ills because of sixty cents
per head. 1t is the suffering of the people,
not the Treasury, we must provide for.
The common people suffer in other lands
also, and it is not tariff that troubles
them. ~
Where is the cause great enough to
throw this peoble and other poodle from
prosperity to the depths of desolation?
There is one cause great enough. The
destruction of half the worlds money,
which changes the ownership. of half the
worlds property. That cause, which has
driven the comfortable to poverty, the
weil-to-do to anxiety, and the rich to ar
rogance, is great enough to answer for
all our ills.
Thousands of years both gold and sill
yer had been freely used as money. For
eighty years ouI country used both met
ais. No one has ever heard of the citizen
who had too much of either gold or silver.
Every nation looked upon its store of gold
and silver as blessing. How then can
one of them be curse? How has it be-
come "debaseds" Why dishonesty
Our government is like great medi-
cine shop. Money is the steam power.
1t was planned for two connected boilers,
one of gold and one of silver. No mat
ter which boiler we drew from, we had
the power of both, and the shop ran we'll
until '61. Then we needed more power,
and Father Abraham contrived green
back boiler, which when the others partly
failed us, gave lis steam to drive the
wheels and save the nation. But until
1873 no one thought we had too much
power or thought 1t would be wise to
take from the people the money power
they had enjoyed from the beginning.
With gold and silver we are like fam
lily with two wells. 1t matters but little
from which we'll they use water from.day
TO day. But destroy one we'll and let Il
neighbor. control the other and our family
is i'll bad fix if the neighbor is disoblig-
ing or the house catches fire
sG' 1t has been preached us that silver was
little used prior to 1878. This is partly
false and partly true. Always both met
ais were free to come to the mint. AL
ways the cheaper metal came
- 1he slight fluctuations of two or three
cents caused sometimes silver and Some
times gold to be a little above the other,
but we always used the cheaper, and had
the higher priced metal to fall back on.
Now we are using the dearer money only
as full money Silver is not sound"
unless backed by gold.
The act of 1878 made full legal tender
silver impossible. 1t struck down one
half our ability to pay our debt 1t has
been disputed that this so-called ''crime
of '73'' was struggled through Congress.
Whether it was or not it was none the less
II crime of usurpation. No great part,
had asked for such law. Nc political
platform had suggested il. No discus
sion in the public prints and at the hust-
ings preceded it, No great emergency
demanded it, Yet this most important
piece of legislation from the foundation
of the government was enacted, somehow.
without the knowledge of the people.
Is it government 'of the people, by the
people and for the people,, when such
things can be done without. submission to
the people?
BY this usurpation of the peoples power
one half the peoples full power money was
destroyed. Have the people grown wealthy
because of such destructions
1t is strange belief that to destroy one
half of anything will make the other half
no dearer We know that for each dollar
now we must give twice rs much of the
products of our toll as when dollcrs were
more plentiful. And one of these dollars
goes no further in paying our vast debt
abroad than one of the old dollars. Does
not the change of standard enrich those
of many dollars who are lenders, at the
expense of those debtors, who by their
toll produce the things they must ex-
change for dollars?
The destruction of silver made gold
more valuable Increase the demand for
anything and you increase the price.
We all admire silken raiment. Shall
we, because "silk is not too good for the