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Show 4 AMERICAfOUK, ITAH, SATllKlMY, SKITKMUEIt 20. VOL III. 11 NO. WO. L. . THAT INSURANCE GA(J GREENE'S LETTER TO POLICY HOLDERS ANSWERED. If Sam fmj lannua Oooipaalaa la Cal anat Kobsrta It Attantloa ta Vaaa Cald facta. Won Id Coaid far Caat to Haitian Tktf Calls Policyholders in the Connecticut Mutual Lite insurance company recently received a letter from Col. Jacob L. Greene, president of the company, calling their attention to the probable effect the victory of free silver would have upon life Insurance policy hold-er- a. The letter begins with the assertion that it never was thought necessary to provide that either premiums or policies should be paid in any particular kind or quality of dollars, it being assumed that the American people were sufficiently honest to keep their dollars worth their face value. But now. Col. Greene says, comes a political party avowing its purpose to make a dollar mean three distinct and different things to wit: A gold dollar, worth as bullion 100 cents; a silver dollar, now worth as bullion only 52 cents; a paper promise of a dollar to be issued hereafter by the government, redeemable in 100-cegold dollars, (or less) silver dollars or in new promises to pay, at the option of the debtor or redeemer, The least valuable of these dollars would remain in use. We should be on the single dollar basis, and then the purchasing power of policies would be cut In two. The change to a silver basis, the letter continues, would stimulate the production of silver. The ores now are easily accessible in such vast quantities that under such changed conditions the price woud steadily decline. On a silver basis your policies would for the present be paid in dollars worth only about 50 cents, and the bulk of them probably would be paid in dollars worth from 25 to 33 cents. We therefore warn you that as it is your duty to make this provision for your families so it is your present duty to see that no part of that provision is lost' V J. C. Roberts of Chicago recently IV ' mailed the following reply to CoL ' Greene: Jacob L. Greene, Hartford, Conn.: , j Dear Sir A copy of your circular to your policy holders has been handed to me and I have examined it carefully, and In my opinion you are treading There is upon dangerous ground. an old adage which runs something like this: Folks that live in glass houses should not throw stones. However, you have thrown down the gauntlet, and as an advocate of free silver I accept the gauge of battle. "I have had some experience with life insurance companies, both as a victim and as an attorney. 1 have ben called upon live times to defend the widow and orphan against the acoun-drelisof life Insurance companies, and have won my suit in each case. have ever found that the weaker and mors defenceless the beneflclary the more arrogant and unscrupulous was the Insurance company, and from my knowledge of the companies generally I doubt if there is an insurance preal dent alive that would not sit up nights from now until the November election to study out some scheme to beat the policy holders out of ten cents on the dollar. As a business proposition your circular is a failure, for if there is anything the American people never will submit to it is coercion, especially upon their right to exercise their own judgment in voting. As a political proposition you have done more to help the cause of free silver than any other rich man in America. Life insurance is something that the public knows but little about These institutions have posed as eleemosynary concerns, when as a matter of fact they rank but little if any above the old Louisiana lottery. But you have declared war, and to the utmost extent of my power the public shall be fully Informed upon the methods and schemes of your clasa I shall make 150 speeches upon the stump between now and election, in all of which I shall advertise the life insurance business, and your company in particular. The war will not end with election. I shall carry the fight to the state legislature of Illinois and to the congress of the United States, and endeavor to secure the passage of laws to restrain the present companies from further power to continue their illicit nt nt 52-ce- nt 1 m gaina I am well versed In the statistics of life insurance, but shall leave no stone unturned nor spare any expense to secure all the evidence necessary to Show that your interest is not in your policy holders, but that as the largest money lenders in the world, you want to make money out of its scarcity. I will show that it does not cost 10 per cent of the money filched from the people to pay the death losses; 87 per cent of all the policies lapse. Of the other 13 per cent, 7 die and 6 live; th last 6 pay in more money than they recelva These facta together with one other, which is that the principal ex pense of life insurance is the salary of its officers. This will prove very interesting to the unfortunate victims of your scheme, and show how you have amassed ftl.000,000 in less than fifty years. "The impudence that you and a few other life insurance presidenta assisted by a few national bankers of the same stamp, have exhibited in issuing these circulars, surpasses my understanding and is only equaled by old Bob Toombs, who in 1859 threatened to call the roll of his slaves at the foot of Bunker Hill. And it is equally as impotent, but the spirit is the same. Please think this over. Remember this is your oountry and that we are Americans, that the spirit of 1776 still lingers in the veins of very many of our people, and what the American people believe to be right they will have in spite of life insurance presidents. Respectfully yours, J. C. Roberts " PROSPEROUS MEXICO. SUrer MMeseuillia I the GelS. Through correspondence with prominent men In Mexico, W. P. Allen, of this city, has, through the Penny Press, presented some very valuable information bearing on the silver question. Of eourse the mere statement of the question as the silver question la misleading, from the fact that Mexico is on a monometallic silver basis, whereas the bimetallic basis is what we expect for the United Stales, instead of the monometallic gold basis. Recently Mr. Allen received a printed letter from Mexico, some of which he referred to an eminent Mexican authority, Mr. A. V. Temple, who is manager of the bureau of information of the Mexican Central Railway, City of Mexico. Answering the same under date of 13th Inst., Mr. Temple writes: In the letter to Mr. Elder, to which you refer, certain data was given with the view of establishing the fact that the Institutions of this republic are in a prosperous condition. It is a fact that during the time of my residence in this country (26 years) the PURCHASING POWER OF THE MEXICAN DOLLARS HAS REMAINED ABOUT THE SAME. Although Mexican currency has fallen in value about 50 per cent as measured In the money of the gold standard countries, imported goods, woolens, etc., can now be purchased in this country at almost EXACTLY THE SAME PRICE IN MEXICAN MONEY AS WHEN GOLD WAS AT PAR. I believe that this fact implies THE APPRECIATION OF GOLD RATHER THAN THE DEPRECIATION OF 8ILVER. This is exactly the point, and is the nub of the whole discussion. Prices have fallen in this country almost exactly in the ratio that silver has fallen, or gold risen. What we want Is not a cor yet a 200-cedollar, but such a dollar as that it is the same which the farmer gives his products for, and pays for his taxes, interest and mortgages. He will get that with the rise that the restoration of silver will give. Further In a most interesting letter, Mr. Temple says: In reference to real estate values: The coffee plantations of this country have risen in value from $75 to $80 an acre, which was their price when gold was at par, to from $500 to $800 an aers. This, I believe, to be due to the fact that we have an ABUNDANT SUPPLY OF PRIMARY MONEY circulating among our people, and also that tha rate of exchange has influenced investors of gold standard countries to invest their money in this country. The rate of exchange has also had ths effect of keeping our money at home; avd has stimulated its investment in irrigation schemes, the cultivation of large tracts of land, ths establishment of manufactories and various other home industries. The foreign Investor nearly doubles his capital when bringing it hers, and, at the same time, has the advantage of our cheap. native labor and sails his products for gold on their exportation. The native manafacturer has prospered under silver at the expense of ths foreign merchant and Importer. Silver contracts Imports and stimulates ex50-ce- nt ports." All reports agree that Mexico prospers under silver, and we know that with both gold and silver as primary money we should prosper again. Wmh tha Wall Straat Collaiv Maj. McKinley tried very hard not to commit himself on the monetary issue in his speech accepting ths Republican nomination and came near succeeding. One statement, however, which he let slip removes all doubt as to his position. He said: The platform adopted by the Republican national convention has received my careful consideration and has my unThat means that qualified approval. the Ohio man is' unqualifiedly in favor of the gold standard' Lot us hear no more from the insincere fellows who are trying to let themselves down easy by misrepresenting McKinley's flnan- cial views. McKinley is a goldbug.! and they arc frauds. The Mail, 8tock-- : ton, Cal. f TO REPUBLICAN IDEA OF FINANCE. A aid must Tin: rUODLCKKS. MANUFACTURER TELLS WHY FACTORIES ARE CLOSING Ths WlrkMl tirood of ilis Slsasr lu r.slsud Lanai o! Sniirlt'an Labs In KafoalMg lowr ts ha worth whatever value our government will redeem It at In pay ment ef debts due them. They tell you that free coinage will enable men to buy bullion worth 53 rent and make you take It for a dollar in puy for your labor. This aaser-- t Em-plo- ra on U false. Free coinage will the value of sil ver bullion Jur-thsame us for any cause wheat would r'se in value. But whatever rise there will be in alive: bullion puts more actual mlue in every allver dollar in the United States and lessens the value of gold bull. on In a like amount It will make every silver dollar worth ths same when melted down aa it is in eoin. It will stop the need of keeping such a large quantity of gold lying Idle la the treasury, as no one will prefer gold when the silver dollar and the silver bullion are of the same value aa tho gold. The cause of the fall in price of silver bullion was because demand for it aa money was destroyed by stopping free coinage. Now restore free coinage and its value will rise again and so will tha price of labor and This country produees plenty goods. of everything to make ua prosper, but our laws prevent us from using part of our resources that part most vital to the prosperity of any nation its money supply. You laborers should protect your righto, should vote for free coinage and prosperity. M. If. Daley, Manufacturer. e Vstl Fbiui llaara. To the Laboring Man. You no doubt have read what Banker Williams has to It is true that you are about to j say. be called on to vole for your country's j toad, and it is to correct the fulse im- -l pivbaious of men whose interests are to in.vcase their wealth at your expense I list 1 write. It is necessary to have a yardstick to measure the length of a yard, but the slick is not the yard; the j is the distance between the two yard The man with 8MALL Income, who The man with GREAT income, who at the two ends of the stick. points taxes. and Interest BIO RECEIVES Interest and pays big pays small can be made of pine or it may The stick taxes. be made of sleel. A steel yardstick will OPPOSED TO INCOME TAX, BUT INTEREST MUST BE PAID IN GOLD. not measure any better than one of wood. Now, our government has stated be the value of our dollar, at and Acuity and high rates, piling IN CHAINS. higher that debt burden which becomes what shall this LABOR dollar was the value of Originally fine, more and more intolerable with each 4124 grains of allver, nine-tentFORCED TO COMPETE WITH THE fresh foil of prices. Everything wss bought and sold by ASIATIC PRODUCERS. Whatever the United States in rale- - ' lbu alanilar1 of val,,e: we made very 1,11 ver dol,ara' but- - ,,ke the ing the level of silver exchanges ac- - i tew yiJ a we made money the parts stick, Morstsa Fnwia, ths Gold Standard eompllahes tor her own benefit aho ac- dollar of dollar a and the multiples of Lsadan complishes equally for every white various Prophat af Lsada Tills we and we used gold things; farmer and white working man everyPapsr That Buglaid Xaad ts Taki where." used allver, nickel and copper to make Cl. quarter-dollar- s s, Waralig ftm money of. The and dimea are not full welghL CAN'T HIDE THE TRUTH. For years we have used only enough Moreton Frewen, writing in ths Lonto weigh 385.8 silver In two don Dally Chronicle, says: Thi Griitaat of Gold Studird Lhn Yet all this time those grains. Your request for a short statement Lit thi Cat Oat af thi Big. represented half of 4124 grains of ths causes which have forced the The Chicago Tribune is the leading silver. We made money of gold and It silver question to ths front in American politics is not very easily met In exponent of the gold standard lunacy. was changed at various times to try to As such it Is doing great service for keep It even with our unit of value writing for the Daily Chronicle I From a recent Issue of 4124 grains of silver. In the year 1873 should hare wished to deal particularly bimetallism. we that the following letter a bill was passed that changed this paper clip with the labor aspects of ths issue, and reply. Comment la entirely un- standard of value from 41 2 Vi grains of which, during the past four years, has necessary. The clipping waa brought silver to 25.8 grains of gold. The same proved a liberal education to the Amer- to this office by three Republicans who name was used for this new unit the ican workingmah; The interest of labor in the silver question has been have changed their views to Bryan word dollar. Prom that time until now ainco latter appeared in the Trib- j our measure of value has been 25.8 admirably summed up in the speech to une's the j columns. grains of golil. At same time this change his constituents in 1894 br'ths present was made silver was restricted to payTHE LETTER. speaker of the house of representatives, dolMr. Reed, of Maine. Referring to the Chicago, July 31. (Editor of the ments less than $5 and silver (half refused was and dimes) lars, ths quarters Tribune.) Will you please Inform me dlan mints by was demonetized? I am a free coinage. Whatever allver coinage ,dia and tbs great fall why ilver which followed, Republic a and expect to vote for Mc- has been done since that time the silver Kinley bijf It seems to meMhat nobead-- i bullion has been bought by the governJiure- way can bs made declaring 16 to 1" n ment for that purpose. Since 1873 miliutM Spool Bud. dishonest dollar until the present dol- lions of dollars of silver have been Wo have learned'from that object lar is coined by our government at the same honlesson that the yellow man using whits est justified. If 1$ tel was an dollar before demonetization It standard weight, every dollar repretow money holds at his mercy the Industry would again bo an honest dollar unless senting 25.8 grains of gold, and a of the white man using yellow money. you justify demonetization; if you can was made that silver dollars shall be This now historic sentence crystallises do that then the and dishonesty of 16 to 1 full legal tender for all debta.publlc the position admirably. The value of would be as made to the contract Is a unless private, on aa nose a the plain bis silver coin for the Chinese and Ja- man's face; but among the lay advo- contrary. Every time you receive a panese races is today as great as ever, cates of gold I have not found one man silver dollar In payment for labor it that is to say, while silver has fallen who could 25.8 grains give a single reason, either represented the value of one-hain gold value, yet its purof gold, because our government will or good for demonetization. It bad, chasing power at their homes is no seems surprisingly strange to me that take it in payment of debts due them whit diminished. The result is that the do not see the abso- such as taxes, revenue and duties on the fall in ths gold price of silver oc- lutegold advocates in value with gold doof necessity justifying that act imports equallegal-tendcasioned by the closing of the Indian law is what full llars The every day of the week as a premise to mints, the repeal of the Sherman act the charge of that statement The value. fixes their 16 and those other excesses of class legis- to L I knowdishonesty against in silver redeem will our government among the middle lation intended, in the stock phrase of classes with and that our government keeps gold, whom I this associate the day, to appreciate gold and en- baa got to be done or every mother's the value of silver dollars up In that rich bankers and other money lenders, son of them will bo converted to free way, is false. is today creating in the far east a silver. This question Involves just For years past money has been, getmushroom growth of Industrial enterone-ha- lf scarce and things which you proof and exactly the "silver ting prises in mine, in field, and in factory, gold controversy, and have been going down in price. duce are yet you the exports of which Oriental indus- silent on has Increased your ability to this no If there Machinery point tries oompete with products of white fair and and for that reason tho to reason for square the produce, labor in the .markets of Europe and crime of 73, the labor has not gone down as of are to price people going America on terms of great advantage know It In n very few weeks; and they much aa goods Had the price of goods because of the fall in the price of sil are remained where it bad been you would going to vote for allver. ver. now get twice as many dollars for J. W. Curry. Waatoro Labor Hark month's work. If money had increased THE TRIBUNE'S REPLY. Cheap silver in the east, silver In quantity equal with your productions The of allver waa coinage dollars cheapened by western legislation, inuniform. Mantopped In 1873 for the sole reaaon prices would have kept volves cheap men and women in the borrow money and employ ufacturers such that dollars coined at ths ratio west, and not merely cheap men and of 16 to 1 were more more of the prodvaluable than ths labor. When it takes women, but. Indeed, great messes of ucts of your labor to get the money to dollars and gold would consequently men and women who can get no em not circulate. They were melted down pay back tha debt we have less profit, ployment at all fast as they wore coined and and whenever profits are rut down so It is this which has now at last about as waa to be gained by coining we do business st a loss we are obliged awakened ths American nation, and nothing -our factories and you go unem more. congreee Increased th Jfo top this awakening to the most imminent amount (Had Tbat ,a ,be dtut,on P165of in inthe dollar gold gold race danger which has ever confrontwhen the banks of this 1893, Since of wiping out the silver dollar, ed western nations can be relied upon called in their loans and de-tthere would country have no been But crime. ere many days to educate also captains destruction of one-ha- lf of our pressed business, prices have been so of Industry in Great Britidn to ths w w manufacturers could make no was the car- was and money It design, murderous industrial competlon foson borrowed money. Therefore ' ried out profits this by act.) tered by cheap silver, by silver cheap you are out of employment half the 16 1 The to 1873 dollar of was too because its historic money demand has more. good. If the bullion value of silver time or been restricted or oven abolished. It is to your interest to Increase were today what It was in 1873 the silMeKliliv! Difist Pradlctad. ver dollar of 37114 grains would be prices and open up the mining indus-irle- s The political forces behind silver so of our western states that will good a dollar that no owner of bul- appear to me to presage the defeat of lion would have his sliver part of ,h! ,dle laborerB ,nd away !lake minted, for Major McKinley and his party of gold. It would be worth more number of men competing lha i lealM,n uncoined. The More than anything else free silver in f011, wb,c'1 keps ,be l,rlce of labf would be ao good It would not dollar America stands for agrarianism. There circulate. irton- - Free coinage will increase thu are some 7,000,000 farm voters in the have auch aFree ellveritea would not number of dollars, yet every silver dol- dollar on any terms. United States a vast, scattered host, e But silver 1. worth only about half ,'ar represent, the value of twenty-fivquite undisciplined, difficult to comns n much per ounce today aa In 1873. bine, and, therefore, impossible to buy. do not propose to change our standard I can imagine no more serious Therefore a free coinage dollar of 1896 af value or change the present ratio as financial catastrophe for English in- cannot be the honest silver dollar of those gold monoinetallists would have vestors than to be lulled Into a sense of 1873. The free coinage of 3714 grains you belleve false security by daily assurances of of silver now will not and can not re- 10 brl,,B down lbe val,,e their New York correspondents that suit in a dollar worth more than about nf RoldPr0',0K by RlvlnR 1,11 vw freo C0,nHR half as much as one coined out of the Mr. Bryans candidature is hopeless. same quantity of silver nearly a quar- ti ml Increasing the amount of redempBiiiBti if Fria SUnr. ter of a century ago. Sliver costa to tion money In Jhe nation. The reason Free silver win at ones the produce only about half what It did you are unemployed is because outrates between Europe and all then. hauke hold nearly all the money Asia, and also between Europe and ride the national treasury. Free coinComment to unnecessary. South America, thereby greatly stimage makes it so that you Idle laborers can go to work and dig money out of ulating our export trade to four-fiftTha Tralh of It, of the inhabited world, and will also the mountain side slid buy tho provisInsurance Director (to workman) at the same time secure expansion of ions from the farmer, the factory and the exports of the United States to Surely you do not want us to pay your the s'.ore. This puis more money u dollars, as would and employs more laborers, Europe. For lack of this expansion and policy In fifty-celie member that all our money Is consequent favorable trade balance. result In case of free silver coinage? Workman "If free coinage meant Mainped by our government Ini that great debtor and 1 nation li i las solvent, borrowing hs pap with dlf- - that you would be for free coln;e. Money because of the legal-tendI J IS hs WHAT WILL THEY DO? half-dollar- Aitt-MIvarl- Hava Kshooatod Sapplj of Kldhals half-dollu- rs half-dolla- rs . J lf er -- ed now-stea- d he i ia-lt- i I nt lo-d- er Heretofore tha advocates of the gold standard have attempted to settle the question by abusing and ridiculing everybody who believes In the free coinage of silver. The Issue has now reached a stage at which even the most extreme gold organs recognise the necessity of something more substantial, and more convincing. When three great national parties, representing the considerably more than one-ha- lf voting population of the United States, makes the free coinage of silver paramount to everything else, it should be apparent that It to something more than a "craze. And It to aparent. Epithets and Invective will not win 1b 1896. "Fifty-cesound dollar, money, "honest iboney, crazy tan' atlc," "anarchist, and all that array cf goldlte phrases with which we are so nt familiar are absolutely without meaning and prove nothing. The people want argument and will' have It If the gold men cannot furnish satisfactory argument on their side the-caus- to lost Some of the leading papers In thw country now clearly perceive the true situation. The action of the Chicago Record in throwing open Its columns for a discussion of the silver question Is a very suggestive circumstance. Not long ago a free silver paper In Chicago waa regarded almost as aa unclean thing, and business men were actually afraid to advertise In one lest. It might injure tbelr business. But things are changing. Now daily having the largest circulation of any paper in the city is actually engaged in giving its readers the silver side of the controversy. Nothing but discussion Is needed to decide the question for freo coinage. In view of the unsatisfactory conditions existing, for, lo! these many years under the gold standard, the plan of the allver men le surely worth a trial. No goldlte has shown or really attempted to show how It could do any harm. They simply shout "ruin! "disgrace! dishonor! but they prove nothing. Let us have argument. National BlmetalllaL the-Chic- ago Don't Vote for This. As soon as the gold standard shall bs fixed upon the people of this country the next move of the monopoly bosses will be to establish a property qualifica- tion for voting; then an educational one with the usefulness of our schools curtailed, and In time the people of this country will be entirely In the bands of a landed aristocracy. See how foreigners are already getting hold of millions of acres of our lands. With a continued gold basis, as we are now under, there will not be one farmer in ten who can pay the interest on the loan on his farm, and then those lands will go Into the hands of the landlord, and we will have a system of tenuntry, Instead of men's owning their own homes. It is going that way rapidly each day. Journal, Ord, Neb. Han't Vota far an ImpoMlbllltD A somewhat more remote effect o lr the silver bolt, even us the matter stands now. will be that, in the event of McKinley's being elected, there will be no Republican protective legislation passed next congress. For four senators, Teller, fetligrew, Dubois and' Cannon have left the party; and they are on record, as Senators Jones and Stewart, of Nevada, and Mantle and Carter, of Montana, are, that without free roinage no Republican tariff will be allowed to pas. Republican legislation will therefore be deadlocked In the and the Fifty-fift- h congress, even If the g. o. p. win an unexpected victory in November. New Orleans Times- - l.Vinocriil. |