People's Pilot, Volume 4, Number 49, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 30 May 1895 — No Money Contributed for Silver. [ARTICLE]

No Money Contributed for Silver.

The report that the silver convention at Salt Lake proposed to raise $250,000 a month to push the silver campaign in the East has been the cause of much gossip and discussion. While Mr. W. H. Harvey sat chatting with a group of gentlemen in the Illinois Club Friday night after his debate with Professor Laughlin, this report was referred to and it was jokingly asked how much “Coin” expected to'get out of the silver fund. Said Mr. Harvev:

“Not a penny. That is a good story for my friend the professor to use, and it may be true the gentleman gathered at Salt Lake talked of raising $250,000 a month, but they could not raise one hundreth part of that sum foi a campaign. It is natural for men who have little to talk about the use of money in a campaign. They hear this talk and get the idea that money is the only power that will win. They feel that it is necessary to raise money, and they often plan to do it, but the great trouble is that they are not able to get it themselves, and those who are able are not with them and will not give. I do not believe that the men at the Salt Lake convention can raise SIO,OOO to push their propaganda, and it is not necessary. They have no need for money in such a campaign.” “But where are your rich silver miners of Colorado? They ought to subscribe liberally,” remarked one of the club men. “The silver miners are like the gold miners. They are bullion men and bankers. Their banking interests outweigh their silver interests, and they are with my friend the professor, on the other side, when it comes to giving money. Here is a letter received by a gentleman in Chi cago today from Mr. C. F. Thomas, of Denver. It was handed to me this afternoon to look at. Mr. Thomas is chairman of the Democratic State committee. In reference to just such a scheme as that proposed at Salt Lake Mr. Thomas says.” said Mr. Harvey reading from the letter:

HARD TO RAISE MONEY. “So far as your plan is concerned, it is a most excellent one, but there is no probability that S2OO per month or any other sum will be raised or paid for that purpose among our people. Indeed, I have resolved to ask for no more contributions for the cause, since the most of those who can give bluntly and almost rudely refuse to do so, while those who cannot give need not be troubled with needless importunities. I endeavored last fall to raise some money for the Ohio campaign, and succeeded in getting somewhere. about SSOQ. This was'the best that I could do. The Chamber of Commerce is spending some money in the circulation of Harvey’s books, and that is certainly well spent” (about *IOO a month, said Mr. Harvey, parenthetically). “It proposes to continue this during the summer, and a few democrats here have quietly resolved to do something for the party in Illinois in the event its convention of June 5 comes ont equivocally for free coinage. It is needless, however, to look for any financial aid from Colorado at present. I do not believe that SSOO could be raised among our people, if Bland and Bryan, coupled with Teller and Wolcott, were to make a personal appeal to mine owners for that amount.”

“Now. that will show you how difficult it is to raise money in the silver cause in what is called by. the gold men the center of the Slliefr Se'iitiment.” “How do you account for such iack of interest?” “It is very simple. As I said, the bullion men are bankers, and they are in reality with the bankers of the East on this question. They may talk silver at home to be with the people, but they are not putting up any money for the cause They are today buying up Denver, and they have already gathered in a good share of it since the hard times began. They are prospering by this depressisn. “But it is reported they have : subscribed liberally to Coin and helped to circulate your books.” TRIED TO BORROW MONEY. I “Not the silver miners and bullion men. I can give you my ;own experience in an effort to .secure money in Denver. A 'year ago. when I was bringing out ’Coin’s Financial School,’ I needed money, and went to Den-

ver to borrow 110,000. had) 640 acres of land in the suburbs of Pueblo and had bankers’ certificates that it had a cash value of 120,000. I had paid $37,000 cash for it, and there was not a dollar’s incumbrance on thd property, and I wanted to borrow SIO,OOO on it. I thought it would be an easy matter, especially in Denver, where the rich silver bullion-owners and bankers lived, and I went to Dennis Sheedy, president of thq Globe Smelter and vice-president of the Colorado National Bank. I presented my proposition to him and offered to give a first mortgage on my property and pay whatever interest he should fix on the money. I proposed to leave it all to him and put up $20,000 worth of property for SIO,OOO in money. But my property had no rental value, and Mr. Sheedy declined to loan me any tnoney on any property that did not have a rental value equivalent to the interest. I took my proposition to other smelters and bankers, with the same result. They all knew that I needed the money in my business, which was publishing silver literature. Now, after such an experience it is ridiculous to talk about these men subscribing hundreds of thousands of dollars for a silver campaign. As Mr. Thomas says in his letter: ‘Those who can give, bluntly and almost rudely refuse to do so, while those who cannot give need not be troubled with needless importunities.’ The silver campaign is not pushed by money. It is the cause of the people, and it has a sentiment behind it that is stronger than any created by money.” “Well, I see that Don Cameron is with you, and has ordered 10,000 books for circulation in Pennsylvania.” “Another canard, pure and simple. Senator Cameron has done nothing of the kind. He did send a list of the members of the Pennsylvania Legislature and an order for one copy of ‘Coin’s Financial School’ to be sent to each of them. That called for about three hundred and fifty copies, I think.”

NOT 73OOMED BY RICH MEN. “My friends, the good men are too generous in their efforts to boom ‘Coin.’ Nobody and no organization is buying the books by thousands for circulation. The news companies and book dealers are handling it in every state in the union, and thousands of people are sending us letters every day ordering single copies, while a good many are ordering one Or two or perhaps a dozen copies sent to their friends. ‘Coin’ is under no necessity for any rich man like Senator Cameron to purchase 10,000 copies for the people. The Pennsylvanians are doing their own buying and paying for their own books. It. interests and amuses me to see the gold monometallists circulating these reports and abusing rich men-for using their money in such a dangerous manner. But they are unjust to their own friends and supporters. They slander the rich men and ought to be more charitable at home in their own circles. ‘Coin’ will circulate just as,well without any family quarrels or false accusations among the millionaires who seem to be suspicious of each other. The books go to New England on New England orders; to the South on orders from that, section, and to New York upon orders from every city in that state. We have no need for a big campaign fund for silver to send this literature out to the people. They are eager to get it and are buying’t for the ms elves.

NO FUND IN EXISTANCE. “And. gentlemen, if any of you are able to run down and corner that $250,000 si’ver fund I should like to be informed. 1 should like to see it. I have never found such a fund behind silver, and when I wanted to Fublish ’Coin’s Financial School’ made pretty diligent search for the backers of silver who had the money to push such a campaign and help to arouse the people. I could not find them in Colorado or any silver state. I had a written contract with an Ogden (Utah)- banker to whom I had loaned money time and again, in which he agreed to loan me $5,000 on safe securities worth four times that amount. I was never to draw more-than *2.000 ata time. I got *I.OOO of that money and he went back on his contract and left me in the lurch. I have no faith in any man who has money subscribing to a fund for a silver campaign, and these report* are used by the gold men to creaie the impression that it is not a sincere conviction' with

the people but a fictitious boom created by paid agents.” Mr. C. S. Collins, of Little Rock, Ark., was in the circle about Mr. Harvey, and be gave some experiences in trying to raise the money for the bimetallic club of that city, which were' very similar to those of Mr. Harvey. He had thought it necessary to send out paid agents to arouse public sentiment ip the cause he represented and he had canvassed the city for money to do this work. He failed absolutely; could not raise S2OO. and after his failure made the discovery that he needed no campaign fund, -for the people were with him and were buying “.Coin's books by the thousands.