The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1898-05-24
~"cuRslNa JOE LETTER.


tain "Eniightensdn Journals.
Washington Post: Two New York
newspapers-great metropolitan dailles,
OF %course-are now buslly engaged In
arousing the passions. Of the ignorant
and credulous people who compose their
constituencies against Mr.. Joseph Lei
ter OF Chicago. They speak OF "Joe
Letter cursed BY hungryitollers." and
paint dreadful pictures Of starving
families who have been reduced 10
want by Joe Letters manipulatlons OF
the wheat market. The old familiar cuts
which did such faithful service In pic
turing the famished Cuban concentra-
dos are now worked ave again for the
purpose OF illustrating Joe Letters CAL
lous cruelty to the toiiing masses.
1t is same old tdireful and vicious ac-
tlvity Of the! agitator who thrives by
tanning class hatred into flame. who
puts money In his purse by the base
device OF posing as the champion of the
poor, and It Is made especially sinister
In this case by the attempt to oncen
trate popular resentment upon single,
II representative individual. The mis-
guided thousands who read these infa-
nous publications are taught to regard
Mr.. Letter as their ruthless and vindlc-
tive prosecutor, and! the class to which
he belongs as deliberate and bitter en-
emles OF the poor. He Is held up to ex-
ecration as the cause OF ell their suffer-
ings. and Is portrayed as contemptuous-
ly gloating over the ruin he has
wrought. But for Joe Letter the noble,
honest, hlgh-minded toilers" would
now be sleek and well fed. and happy.
But for his detestable conspiracy, that
famlshed baby gasping, on It's mothers
breast would be a miracle OF health
and strength. Joe Letter, has done It all.
He hides in a luxurious and safe re-
treat, and there, protected against the
~despalring fuzzy Of the millions he has
trodden beneath his cruel heel, he
weaves the lendish web OF his designs.
To how many OF these poor, deluded
creatures will, II, occur that Mr.. Letter
Is no more responsible for the rise In
the price OF wheat than he was for the
latest .occultation OF the sun? To about
as many as will stop to. consider that
the added cost OF the bread they con-
sumo Is hardly perceptible to the indi-
vidual.-Mr. Letter did not make the ad-
vance. That advance was the result OF
causes over which he had no more con-
troll than he has over the forces OF ma
ture.y He. foresaw IL. and he used his
prescience TO Sadvantage. This Is all.
The rise would have occurred Just the
same II no such person as! Joe Letter
were In existence. Short crops abroad,
the prospects and emergencies OF war
a dozen factors which Mr.. Letter. could
no more control than he could change
the courses Of the stars-have brought
about the conditions we are discussing
here. Yet the Infamous misrepresenta-
ton Is employed by the prophets Of an
archy, and thousands of benlghted peo-
pie are racked with hatred and despair
In order, that two or three newspapers
mag prey upon their .scanty pennies by
appealing to their credulity and, preJu,
dice.
We say nothing in defense Of MI.
Letter. He needs no exculpatlon with
decent and honest and enlightened
men. He is one OF many who have pro-
flied by perfectly logical, not to say In
evitable commercial movement, and is
no more responsible for that movement
than he Is for the climatic. conditions in
Asia and Europe and South America
which cut short the foreign harvests.
But we have no fitting words OF con-
domination for incendiary newspapers
which are using this occasion 10 In
flame the working classes against an
innocent young man, and which have as
their ruling motive the fostering OF
class hatred and the destruction Of So.
ciety.