The Coming Battle

"You shall not crucify mankind upon a cross of gold. "-William J. Bryan.

"It is to the property of the citizen, not to the demand of the creditor of the State, that the original faith of society is pledged. The claim of the citizen is prior in time, paramount in title, and superior in equality."- Edmund Burke.

The course of President Cleveland, in his continued and energetic efforts to revolutionize the principles of the Democracy and to commit that party to the espousal of the national banking money power was disastrous in the extreme.

As stated, the congressional elections Of 1894 went overwhelmingly in favor of the Republicans, and they carried the House of Representatives by a tremendous majority.

Notwithstanding this great reverse, he persevered in his financial policy to the last, and he boldly and unscrupulously prostituted the immense official patronage at his disposal, to force his views upon the millions of the rank and file of that party which he had practically disrupted. Strenuous efforts were put forth by the national banking, stock -gambling, gold standard, and office-holding element, to elect a sufficient number of delegates to the coming national convention, and thus dictate the platform, and align the party in compliance with the views of the administration.

While the administration and its satellites were bending their whole energies to accomplish this design, the associated batiks, particularly of the East, as here-

[461]ß

tofore, laid their plans to manipulate the conventions of both the leading political parties.

In the early part of 1896, a large number of bankers met at the Murray Hotel in New York City, and after adopting a series of resolutions denouncing the free coinage of silver, announced their plan in the following language:

"Resolved, That we urge upon the delegates to the national conventions of both of the political parties, the necessity of insisting on such action as will secure a plain and unequivocal declaration on the maintenance of the present gold standard."

On March 23d, the American Bankers' Association issued the following instructions to the bankers of the country:

"At a meeting of the Executive Council of the American Bankers' Association, held in this city, on March 11, 1896, the following declaration was made by a unanimous vote:-

"The Executive Council of the American Bankers' Association, declare unequivocally in favor of the maintenance of the existing gold standard of value, and recommend to all bankers, and to the customers of all banks, the exercise of all their influence as citizens in their various states, to select delegates to the political conventions of both great parties who will declare unequivocally in favor of the maintenance of the existing gold standard of value.

"Your influence is earnestly requested to give practical effect to this action.

Pursuant to these instructions, the associated banks actively began operations to secure a sufficient number of delegates who would embody the demands of the bankers in the platforms of both great political parties.

While the national bankers and their allied interests were thus actively engaged in manipulating the selection of delegates to the two great conventions, the Democratic rank and file were even more vigilant to checkmate these schemes, and they finally succeeded in defeating the machinations of this Hessian money power, which had hitherto thrown its strength to the party that gave them the greatest pecuniary benefits.

On the 16th of June, the Republican National Convention met in St. Louis to select its standard bearers.

Hon. C. W. Fairbanks, of Indiana, a very wealthy railroad lawyer, from which fact he received great consideration as a coming leader of his party, was chosen Temporary Chairman of the convention.

Hon. John M. Thurston, of Nebraska, was honored with the Permanent Chairmanship.

The significance of Mr. Thurston's selection to preside over this convention will be appreciated, from the fact, that he was the general legal counselor of the Union Pacific Railway Company-a corporation whose corrupt practices have done more to debauch Western court-, and legislatures than any other agency in the land.

Suffice it to say that this great corporation, built by the munificence of Congress, gave birth to that gigantic scandal of the age, the Credit Mobilier, which caught in its meshes a Vice-President of the United States, and many distinguished Senators and Representatives of Congress.

[463]ß

A great number of the Western Republicans, led by Senator Teller, made a desperate struggle to obtain recognition for the free coinage of silver. They were overwhelmingly defeated and therefore withdrew from the convention.

The financial plank of the platform declared against the free coinage of silver, unless it could be secured by an international agreement with the leading commercial nations of the world, and, in case of failure to obtain such agreement, the existing gold standard should be maintained.

This expression in favor of an international agreement, was the merest subterfuge on the part of the gold standard element, to obtain the votes of those Republicans who favored free coinage.

H. H. Kohlsaat, of the Chicago Times-Herald, was influential in securing the adoption of the money plank. In speaking of the language of this plank, the correspondent of that paper, who was present during the St. Louis convention, used the following language with reference to the labors of Mr. Kohlsaat in securing its adoption. He said:

"The qualifying words used by the committee, pledging the party to endeavor to promote an international agreement, are intended to strengthen the platform from the political point of view without in any way weakening it as a frank and fearless declaration for the gold standard. As it is and has been, the Republican policy to promote international bi-metallism, and as such bi-imetallism is earnestly desired by almost every one in the country of both parties, nothing is lost and something is gained by giving the Western Republicans a ray of hope in the future."

who had written the Republican platform, made the following editorial reference to international bimetallism. He said:

"Any reference to an international agreement is shifty and futile. It deceives nobody because everybody knows, first, that there is not the slightest possibility of an international agreement at any ratio; and, second, that if such an agreement were formally entered into, no Government could be bound to abide by it a day longer than its own industrial and commercial interests would appear to warrant."

It will be seen that Mr. Kohlsaat, on the 6th of June, declared an international agreement as "shifty and futile."

On the 16th of June he embodied this "shifty and futile" scheme into the form of a solemn declaration of party principles!

It was evident that Major McKinley, of Ohio, was the prime favorite of the majority of the Republican delegates for the Presidential nomination.

The chief manager of Mr. McKinley's canvass for the nomination of President before the Republican Convention, was the noted Marcus A. Hanna, of Cleveland, Ohio. Mr. Hanna was a multi-millionaire, and he displayed a marked interest in securing the financial and potitical success of Major McKinley. It was due to the organization effected by Mr. Hanna, that the candidacy of Major McKinley received that impetus that carried him successfully to the first place on the ticket as the standard bearer of the Republican party.

In fact, Mr. Hanna became the Warwick of American politics.

[465]ß

Major McKinley first attained political prominence as a member of the national House of Representatives, to which he was first elected in 1876. He voted for the free coinage measure as originally introduced by Mr. Bland, and gave his support to the Bland-Allison Silver Coinage Act of 1878. When President Hayes vetoed this bill, Mr. McKinley gave his vote to pass the bill over the veto.

In 1878, he supported the Matthews Resolution, which declared that United States bonds were legally payable in standard silver dollars.

In 1890, he voted for the so-called Sherman Silver Purchasing Law.

In a speech at Toledo, Ohio, in 1891, be severely censured President Cleveland for his antagonism to the saver dollar, and stated that, During all the years Mr. Cleveland was at the head of the Government, he was engaged in dishonoring silver. "

Mr. McKinley's chief fame however, grew out of his untiring advocacy of the benefits to be derived from a high protective tariff. The McKinley Tariff Act of 1890 has become history.

For Vice President, the convention selected Garrett A. Hobart, of New Jersey. Mr. Hobart had not been very prominent in politics until his nomination for this high office. he was a distinct representative of the Corporate interests of the East, and it was said he was a director and stockholder in forty-five different corporations, such as railways, street railways, national banks, and the like. he was also an arbiter in that gigantic trust, known as the joint Traffic Association, composed of thirty-three great railroads entering New York City. These railroads were mainly owned and operated by British capitalists.

The nomination of Mr. Hobart was supposedly designed with the view of attracting heavy contributions from the trusts, combines, and corporations of tile East to aid in carrying the elections.

Meanwhile, the Western and Southern Democracy broke away entirely from the leading strings of the East, and gave unequivocal notice to that section that its dominating influence had ceased, and that an adjustment of the party was needed to plant it on the time honored principles of Jefferson and Jackson.

The desperation of the administration element became greater than ever, which fact was abundantly evidenced by the high-handed methods of Don M. Dickinson in Michigan, who, with the aid of a host of federal officers, actually overrode the will of the Democracy in the selection of gold standard delegates.

His use of the federal patronage in that state, to overawe the free expression of the people, aroused the greatest indignation throughout the country.

In the state of Nebraska, the office-holding Cleveland element, led on by J. Sterling Morton, was extremely jealous of tile wonderful popularity of that splendid young tribune of the people-William Jennings Bryan.

In the early part of July, the party leaders gathered at Chicago, where the convention was to be held, to make a choice of its standard-bearers.

When the convention was called to order, July 7th, tile National Committee, a majority of whom were friendly to tile money power and the single standard of gold, presented the name of Senator David B. Hill, of New York, as its choice for Temporary Chairman of the convention

[467]ß

This action was strictly in harmony with party usage, but the stern and determined men who made up the vast majority of the delegates thereto, knew that this was the initial step of the gold standard element to obtain control of the convention.

The free coinage element refused to acquiesce in the selection of the committee, and Senator John W. Daniel, of Virginia, was brought forward as the choice of those delegates who were utterly opposed to national banks and the gold standard.

Upon a roll call of the convention, the candidacy of Senator Daniel was successful by a vote of 556 to 349 for the New York Senator.

Upon taking the chair, the Virginian Senator delivered one of the most eloquent and notable speeches ever heard in any body.

The seats of the regular delegation from Nebraska, headed by the eloquent Bryan, were contested by a contingent of federal office-holders. In the hearing of this contest before the National Committee, it did the bidding of the administration, and ousted the Bryan delegates and had seated the contestors.

This action of the Committee in unseating the regular delegates was carried before the convention on appeal, its decision was reversed by a decisive majority, and the regulars were admitted to their seats.

This effort to nullify the will of the people of Nebraska, came to an ignominious end,

The Michigan gold standard delegates, headed by that shrewd manipulator, Don M. Dickinson, were unseated, and the contestees were admitted to a voice in the deliberations of this convention. The great struggle arose upon the report of the Committee on

[468]ß

Resolutions, which had brought forward declarations in favor of the free and unlimited coinage of silver, without waiting for the aid or consent of any other' nation on earth. The ratio was fixed at 16 to 1.

Another plank of the platform criticized the Federal Supreme Court for its reversal of its late decision on the income tax law, one of the most just measures ever enacted by Congress.

Government by Federal Court injunction was severely denounced, on the ground that this system of jurisprudence was the means by which corporations wreaked their vengeance upon their striking employees.

Under this process of the courts, trial by jury was abrogated, and the Federal judge had unlimited power to try, convict, and execute his unrestrained will upon helpless men.

Moreover, the Federal judiciary was the mainstay that upheld the aggressions of corporations upon the rights of the people. The great majority of the Federal judges were, prior to their appointment to these responsible positions, corporation lawyers, and had secured their positions through the influence of railways and trusts.

In a celebrated case in one of the Eastern states, the United States District Attorney instituted a suit against a great railway trust, with a view of having its organization declared illegal tinder the provisions of that absurd so-called Sherman Anti-Trust law. He presented his bill to eight different United States District and Circuit Judges

Out of these eight suppose d infallible organs of the law, the district attorney discovered that seven of

[469]ß

these high functionaries 'held stock in the various railroads composing this gigantic trust.

Is it strange that the people had lost faith in the Federal judiciary?

A strong declaration was adopted, denouncing that Tory-Republican system of finance-the national banking system.

In the debate upon this report of the committee, Mr. Bryan had the closing speech, and his magical eloquence carried the convention by storm, and he easily became the most conspicuous figure in that body of great men.

Upon roll-call, the report of the committee was adopted by a decisive majority. As a concession, the administration element pleaded for an endorsement of President Cleveland, but it was voted down by a nearly two-thirds vote.

Thus, this gathering of distinguished leaders of Jeffersonian principles utterly repudiated the policy of President Cleveland, and vigorously rebuked his methods in attempting to handcuff the Democracy to the gold standard.

He, who was, in 1892, the chosen idol of that great historic party, was now given notice that it had no lot or part with him.

As a result of the deliberations of the convention, William J. Bryan was nominated for President, and Arthur Sewall, of Maine, for vice -president .

Mr. Bryan was a Democrat of the old school, and was a warm admirer of the principles and achievements of Jefferson and Jackson. He had served four years in the House of Representatives with distinguished ability, where be easily carried off the palm for

[470]ß

eloquence. His speeches in behalf of tariff reform, the free coinage of silver, and those opposing the single standard of gold, the issue of bonds -in time of peace, and the enlargement of national banking powers, were marvels of logic, argument, and noble oratory.

Mr. Sewall was a distinguished citizen of Maine, and had been a life-long advocate of the free coinage of silver.

The silver Republicans and the Populist party endorsed the candidacy of Mr. Bryan, and combined their patriotic efforts with those of the Democracy, to wrest the control of the country from the plutocracy of the East.

On September 2d, the Cleveland, or gold standard, national banking faction of the Democratic party, met at Indianapolis, ostensibly to place a Presidential ticket in the field. These bolters made no secret of their intention, to defeat the regular Democratic ticket at all hazards.

Foremost among these bolters was Ex-Governor Flower, of New York, who had served in Congress, and who had earned a fine political reputation for his admirable administration as the chief executive of New York. He, however, trained with the stock gamblers of Wall street, where he was recognized as one of the heaviest operators on the Stock Exchange, and where he had amassed a fortune of many millions in speculating in stocks and bonds. He was a firm believer in the gold standard and the national banking system.

In his speech before the Indianapolis convention composed, as it was to a very large extent, of Federal

[471]ß

Office-holders, national bankers, money lenders, promoters of trusts, stock gamblers, and would-be aristocrats-Mr. Flower referred to the principles of Jefferson and Jackson, of which he asserted that the body which he addressed were the true representatives, and denounced the Chicago platform as a departure from the traditions of Democracy!

The Indianapolis platform declared in favor of the gold standard and the national banking money power.

Gen. John M. Palmer, of Illinois, was nominated for President; and General Buckner, of Kentucky, was chosen as his colleague on the ticket.

The nomination of General Palmer was made with a view of attracting votes from the soldier element of the North that of General Buckner to obtain the support of the Ex-Confederate element in the South.

During the first - part of this memorable campaign, the tide was flowing mightily in favor of the regular Democratic nominees, and the success of the ticket seemed certain.

It was then that the strategy of Chairman Mark Hanna, of the Republican National Committee, came to the- rescue of McKinley, by calling into requisition, the moneyed assistance of the gigantic corporate interests of the nation.

The great railway corporations, controlled to a very large extent by British capital, organized their hundreds of thousands of employes into "sound money" clubs, who were plainly given to understand that further employment depended upon the success of the Republican candidates.

The loan and mortgage companies of the East, holding billions of dollars of mortgages on the farm lands

[472]ß

of the West and South, notified their debtors, that, in the event of the success of Mr. Bryan, they would close in on them and sell them out; but that if McKinley was elected, these mortgages would be renewed.

The immensely wealthy life insurance companies flooded the country with millions of letters, urging their policy holders to support McKinley and Hobart, and these philanthropic corporations stated, in these documents, that they did not wish to be compelled to pay their policies in "cheap dollars." This scheme was very effective.

The saving banks, and building and loan associations were also guilty of this deception. Thousands of banks notified their multitudes of borrowers, that it was necessary to elect the Republican ticket in order to obtain a continuation of banking favors.

This species of coercion reached hundreds of thousands of business men, and it was in turn communicated to their employees.

Individual lenders carried out the same policy, and, in many cases, legal process was brought to bear against those debtors who refused to surrender tip their manhood, at the behest of these minions of despotism.

Manufacturers fell in line at the command of Mark Hanna, and exhibited large orders for their manufactured products, calling the attention of their employees to a stipulation, common to these contracts, providing for their cancellation in case of the election of Bryan.

Millions of money were poured into the campaign fund to elect the Republican ticket.

In the meantime, the gold standard bolting Demo-

Such were the rascally, desperate, treacherous, and tyrannical schemes, hatched by the criminal minds at the head of the national banking money power to win this election as a means of perpetuating its reign.

As a necessary result of this campaign of fraud, lying, coercion, and intimidation, practiced upon the people, the Republican ticket was elected, receiving 271 electoral -votes, to 176 for Bryan and Sewall.

One remarkable feature of this election was the enormous increase in the vote in the states of Iowa, Michigan, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Ohio, and West Virginia, all of which were carried for McKinley and practically assured his election.

Immediately upon the results of the election becoming known, the national banking money power made known its demands through the press.

On the day succeeding the election, Lyman J. Gage, President of the First National Bank of Chicago, came out in an interview published in one of the leading Chicago papers, in the course of which be stated that sufficient bonds should be issued to take up all the silver dollars in circulation, and the bullion composing them should be thrown upon the market and sold as "junk"; that the greenbacks and treasury notes should likewise be taken up by an issue of bonds and destroyed; that a billion of bonds payable in gold, and running for one hundred years, and exempted from taxation, should be issued as a basis for national bank currency.

[474]ß

This is an example of that mad greed that rejoiced in the election of McKinley.

The appointments of Mr. Alger to the Secretaryship of War excited considerable criticism, as he had never displayed any unusual talents as a public administrator. His brief war record was inglorious, as the military reports of General Sheridan, Merritt, and Custer, prove. The methods by which he obtained his great wealth, can be ascertained by a perusal of the Supreme Court Reports of Michigan. In a celebrated case before this court, in which Mr. Alger was a leading party, the opinion of this tribunal, as announced by justice Sherwood, is a scathing arraignment of the business methods of the present Secretary of War.

The appointment of Mr. Sherman to the head of the State Department, was a clever piece of strategy to secure a vacancy in the United States Senate, to which Marcus A. Hanna was appointed. As United States Senator from Ohio, Mr. Hanna is recognized as all powerful with the administration.

Shortly after his induction into office, President McKinley called a special session of Congress, which

[475]ß

reformed the tariff by the passage of what is known as the "Dingley Bill."

This tariff bill raised the duties on imports higher than ever before known, with the result that this measure has received the nickname of "Dingley's Deficit," by reason of the enormous falling off of revenues.

In the meantime, President McKinley had appointed Senator Wolcott, of Colorado, Ex-Vice President Stevenson, and General Paine, of Boston, as an international commission to proceed to Europe, and obtain the consent of the Powers to enter into a treaty to secure that "shifty and futile" experiment-international bi-metallism.

While this commission was abroad, hobnobbing with foreign potentates, Secretary Gage incubated a scheme of banking which he laid before the special session of Congress, accompanied by a report in which he stated that his bill proposed "To commit the country more thoroughly to the gold standard. "

Upon a knowledge of this scheme of banking reaching London, the Wolcott Commission found itself in a dilemma, for, while it was endeavoring to secure international recognition of silver, the administration had come squarely out for the gold standard. It was a dastardly stab in the back on the part of the administration.

The British press greeted the efforts of the Wolcott Commission with gibes and sneers, and pointed to the Gage banking bill as evidence that its mission was a fake.

In addition to the Gage banking scheme, various other plans of currency reform(?) were brought forward,

[476]ß

all of which aimed at the elimination of the greenbacks and treasury notes from circulation, and the substitution of a bank currency in lieu thereof, the Government to be the guarantor and redeemer of these proposed bank notes. One of these schemes was concocted by a convention held at Indianapolis, composed of national bankers, gold Democrats, trust magnates, corporation lawyers, and men of that ilk. One Hugh H. Hanna, nephew of Mark Hanna, was the moving spirit who formed the plan that resulted in the calling of this self-constituted body of legislators.

As the Senate is strongly in favor of the free and unlimited coinage of silver, without waiting for the aid or consent of any other nation, it is now evident that none of these robber schemes of finance, can be passed by that body under the fraudulent and delusive cry of "currency reform." The upper House is now the safeguard of the nation.

In the latter part of 1897, after the passage of the Dingley Bill, heavy reductions of wages were made in the large cotton mills of the New England States, even the city where he of Dingley fame resides, did not escape from the general cut of rate of wages.

The same policy is being carried out in the iron manufacturing districts, and the railway corporations are engaged in the same process of restoring "prosperity.

On the 29th Of January, 1898, the millionaire aristocracy of the East, gave a costly and gorgeous banquet in the most fashionable hotel of New York City. President McKinley was the guest of honor at this gathering of the plutocratic element of New York City, and entertained his hosts with one of his usual homilies,

[477]ß

in which much was said about "prosperity, the "maintenance of the public faith," the "upholding of the nation's honor, and other stereotyped phrases.

He committed his administration to the maintenance of the gold standard and in favor of currency reform. By the latter phrase, he undoubtedly referred to some one of the various schemes of banking concocted by Secretary Gage, Hugh H. Hanna, Representative Fowler, and other would-be reformers of the currency.

The speech of President McKinley was highly gratifying to the Tory press of Great Britain.

On January 31, 1898, a leading gold standard paper of Chicago, published a cablegram from London, headed as follows:

"American stocks advance." "McKinley's speech pleases British speculators and investors."

The article goes on to show that American railway stocks led the market, and that Spanish bonds rose in value.

On the same page of the journal, from which we have quoted, is a special dispatch from New Castle, Delaware, exhibiting an awful state of affairs among the working people of that city.

This dispatch goes on to show that the families of six hundred idle iron workers were crying for food, and that fifty families had left the town in a single week to escape starvation.

Starvation for honest Americans, wealth for British stock gamblers and speculators.

President McKinley, who, during the campaign of 1896, struck an impressive attitude before the cheer- multitudes, and told them that the only means of restoring prosperity were to "open up the mills."

In the meantime, trusts and other illegal combinations of capital continued to multiply with alarming rapidity, having for their object the absolute monopoly of production and distribution.

Foremost was that colossal railway trust, the joint Traffic Association, with a capital of more than $2,ooo,ooo,ooo, and organized through the efforts of J. Pierpont Morgan, the American agent of British capitalists. To a very large extent, this association was formed out of the railways wrecked during the panic, and whose stocks were purchased by these foreign capitalists at a mere fraction of their. former values.

To place before the reader the immense possibilities for oppression that is within the power of a combination like the joint Traffic Association, the fact should be constantly kept before him, that single railways have been empowered, by unjust discriminations in freight charges between different localities, to blight the prosperity of towns, cities, and even whole sections of the country, and to build up more favored points on the ruins of the former; that these corporations have, by systems of secret rebates, bankrupted tens of thousands of enterprising citizens, while a few favored shippers have been enabled to create the most gigantic monopolies of any age, and to accumulate the wealth earned by the toil of millions. It is trite that this railway trust was declared illegal by a late decision of the Federal Supreme Court by a vote

[479]ß

of five to four of the judges composing that tribunal. The decision was scarcely announced, ere the pro-

moters of this combination publicly declared their intention to "move on Washington," and obtain the passage of a pooling law to avoid the effect of the ruling of the Court.

To give their avowed purpose the apparent sanction of public opinion, the managers of the railways composing this trust are now circulating petitions among their employes for their signatures, requesting Congress to enact a law to legalize trusts, and, as a consideration for these signatures so obtained, the railways agree not to oppose legislation demanded by their workingmen This is coercion patterned after that of I 896.

At the present time, there are hundreds of trusts in full operation, and they have become so menacing to the rights of the people, that the public press is demanding prompt action against these combinations by the Federal Government.

In almost every instance, the promoters and managers of these trusts are closely identified with the national banking money power.

The national banks of New York City, Boston, and other commercial centers are combining their assets, now aggregating more than $4,000,000,000, under single managements.

Flushed with political success in 1896, the privileged money power and the trusts are reaching out to control the influential colleges and universities of the land-seats of learning whose precincts should be sacred to the dissemination of knowledge-but which -ire now sought to be made instrumentalities to uphold the tenets of an aggressive plutocracy.

[480]ß

In the early part of 1897, occurred the most notable instance of this attempted perversion of these centers of learning, in which it was sought to humiliate tile learned and distinguished R. Benjamin Andrews, President of Brown University.

Be it remembered that this renowned institution was placed in the front rank of American colleges mainly through the ability of Professor Andrews.

The minions of corporate greed regarded this scholar and educator as a shining mark against which to direct their attacks, and incidentally to pattern this university after that of Oxford, England, which has always been the servile apologist of kingly tyranny.

This last mentioned institution was a school, which, for centuries, taught the infamous doctrine that kings rule by divine right, and that they can do no wrong.

To quote the language of Pope: "The divine right to govern wrong- was the special birthright of British kings according to the tenets of Oxford.

At the command of the dissolute Charles II., it had exiled its greatest ornament, John Locke; and had committed the. sublime works of Milton to the flames, because this great man advocated the rights of conscience, the liberty of thought, and the enlightenment of the masses.

We aver that no right-minded American citizen is desirous that Brown University, or any other American school, should degenerate into a mere organ of a privileged class.

President Andrews was a distinguished advocate of the free and unlimited coinage of silver, and Ids works in behalf of that principle were regarded as among the ablest ever written. As an author, he dealt the gold

[481]ß

monometallists some very hard blows, and it was determined to punish him for exercising the common rights of an American citizen.

President Andrews, in his official capacity, never sought to impress his financial views upon the students of the University.

During his absence in Europe, whence he had gone for a much needed rest, the son of John D. Rockefeller, the Standard Oil magnate, who is reputed to be the wealthiest man in America, graduated from the University.

By some means, it was caused to be rumored that Mr. Rockefeller, upon the graduation of his son, had proposed to bestow the munificent sum of $11000,000 upon the University, but, owing to the free coinage views of the President thereof, he had abandoned his alleged beneficent purpose.

This was merely affording a pretext to depose President Andrews from the head of this great institution.

At the first meeting of the Board of Trustees of the college, while President Andrews was still absent in Europe, Hon. Joseph H. Walker, a Representative in Congress from the Third District in Massachusetts, introduced a resolution demanding the resignation of the President, on the ground that his advocacy of free coinage had resulted in a loss of $1,000,000 to the University!

The action of Congressman Walker was vigorously supported by a multi-millionaire cotton manufacturer of Rhode Island, who, in his remarks supporting the resolution, spoke Indignantly of the conduct of President Andrews as undermining the morals of the stu-

31

[482]ß

dents, by advocating "cheap dollars" and attacking the "public honor!"

This disreputable scheme, by which it was sought to humiliate Professor Andrews by deposing him from the Presidency, aroused a storm of criticism within the United States, and these distinguished defenders of the "public faith" drew back appalled, from the tempest of popular wrath.

This wealthy manufacturer, who displayed such anxiety to "Maintain the public faith tin tarn ished,

who would be judge, jury, and executioner of the absent President, manifested his great humanity by reducing the wages of his thousands of employees sixteen per cent.

The only hope of the producing classes is a rise in prices, and the prospects are that, owing to a general failure of European crops in 1897, the demand for American farm products will be so extensive as to greatly enhance the value of our exports of bread stuffs.

Should this desirable condition occur, it will be only temporary relief, and it will afford the national banking, gold standard money power, an opportunity to point to the imports of gold, sent here for the purchase of our surplus farm products, as an argument that the volume of money is ample for the needs of business, although the rise in prices sweeps away the argument that gold is a stable money.

The Presidential election of 1900 is destined to be the most important in our history, inasmuch as the national banking system will expire by limitation of law in 1904, hence, the corporations composing this system will bend every energy to secure a renewal of

[483]ß

the law authorizing a continuation of this privileged class.

The coercive tactics of the money power, by which a victory was won in 1896, will not be a circumstance compared to the gigantic efforts that will be put forth to win a triumph in 1900.

It behooves every citizen of this great republic to verse himself in the principles of free government to watch diligently the trend of public opinion, to scan the proceedings of legislative bodies, to familiarize himself with the character of the public men who aspire to be the legislators of the people, that he may cast his vote in a manner becoming an American freeman.