People's Pilot, Volume 6, Number 27, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 December 1896 — Sovereign Writes to McKinley [ARTICLE]

Sovereign Writes to McKinley

The Great Labor Leader Asks the Presi-dent-Elect Some Pertinent Questions as to That Promised Prosperity. * SAYS THE UNEMPLOYED WANT EMPLOYMENT Desires to Know If Confidence Is to Be Restored Only In States Which Cast Their Electoral Vote for the Candidate of the Republican Party.

Sulphur Springs, Ark., Dec. 4, 1896.—H0n. Wm. McKinley, President-elect, Canton, Ohio— Dear Sir: During the late campaign I made every honorable effort within my humble ability to defeat your election to the high office of president of these United States. I was actuated by sincere motives, believing that labor in this country could never prosper under a single gold standard. But in several speeches you made to delegations visiting Canton you promised a return of confidence, revival of business and ample employment at good wages for labor if the ticket which you headed was successful at the polls. Your campaign managers, the press favorable to your election and the associated banks promised a return of prosperity for alj working people in this country immediately, if you were elected. Manufacturers in every part of this country called their employes together and showed them large orders for goods which were to be filled if you were elected and countermanded if you were defeated. “Sound money and prosperity” composed the slogan of your campaign. Those words were displayed in large letters everywhere, from the streets of Canton to the cross roads of the most remote rural districts in the nation. These promises, together with other forces and the great many million dollars your national committee spent explaining the tidal wave of prosperity that would sweep over this country the very next day after your election, induced hundreds of thousands of anxious working people to vote for you.

You were elected and the victory w%s announced with searchlights, fire works and tin horns. The republican press congratulated the country on”* the fact that legislation was not needed to bring prosperity to labor, that we already live under a single gold standard, and all the country needed, to make good times, was the assurance that the blessed system would not be disturbed by the.election of Bryan. Then it was announced that you had pressed an electric button which turned on the power to the machinery of a factory, and which was the signal to the industrial world that prosperity had actually come, and there was great rejoicing. The banks said they were ready to pay gold to their creditors, and Mr. Hanna gave a banquet in New York city, where he was made the recipient of great honor, and at which he proclaimed to the world the glad tidings that prosperity had returned. It is not with intention to criticise you or your principles, or to express a doubt, that I remind you of these promises and events, -but to emphasize my motive for asking a favor at your hand. Since it was so generally proclaimed by so many men of much money and signalized by the electric button which you pressed that confidence and prosperity had returned, and that industry was again Reckoning labor into the lap of plenty, I have received scores of letters from every quarter of the country from poor but honest and deserving working people asking me t<? find them a job. They are not hobos nor tramps, but sober and industrious working people out of employment. Will you please inform me in what section of this great Union

they can find work? I ask this little favor, for if I inform them that I do not know where they can find employment they will become angry at my ignorance and ask me if I have not yet heard of the glorious return of prosperity consequent upon your election.

Sunday, Nov. 22, I passed through Cleveland, Ohio, the home of Marcus Aurelius Hanna, and only two hours ride on the cars from where you pressed the prosperity button and started the machinery that was to summon labor into activity and happiness. The Cleveland morning papers came on the train, and one of them contained a two column report of the charitable societies of that city, showing that dependent families in. Cleveland have increased 30 per cent since the same date last year. Then the report contained a long appeal to the city to provide work for the unemployed. In Cleveland there is a large District Assembly of the Knights of Labor and many honorable trade unions, and for them I emplore you to tell me in just what mill, shop or factory or mine the poor, starving unemployed of Cleveland can find work.

Coming on to Chicago, the city in which, a few weeks before, W. T. Lewis, who served under you as labor commissioner of Ohio, managed a labor campaign in your interest, making prom ises of immediate employment and good wages if you were elected. I found the relief societies straming every possible resource to provide an opportunity to ob6y the Divine»injunction? The coal miners of Ohio, Indiana and Illinois inform me that they are in distress, from the low wages and enforced idleness. You will confer a great favor on suffering humanity if you will inform me where those courageous black diamond diggers can meet the golden chariot of your “sound money” prosperity, A few days ago I was reelected to the position of general master workman of the Knights of Labor, and some of the great daily newspapers which supported you were very angry because of my re-election, and said I was a base deceiver of labor. There is another reason why I ask you to tell me where the unemployed working people can find employment. The good people of this country deserve to know the truth, and if I deceived the working people when I told them that a single gold standard could not increase their opportunities to work nor their wages, the world should have proof of my deception, and, inasmuch as the millions of promises of prosperity and employment, made during the late campaign by your supporters, were conditioned on your election, you are the one person who should direct me to that particular spot on earth where those promises are being fulfilled. Do not think you or your friends will give me any offense by proving that I am a deceiver of labor, for the good Lord knows that all I am in body, mind and soul, is but a flash of a feeble ray compared with the great sun of human kindness which will illuminate the'hearts of tRe world if you announce the places where 3,000,000 poor, wretched unemployed working people in America can find an opportunity to earn food, clothing and shelter.

You and your friends promised these blessings in consideration for enough votes to elect you president. The fact that you are not yet inaugurated is wot a valid excuse, for the working poople were promised employment and good times as soon as your election was known, and confidence, you know, has no fixed date for inauguration; besides, you did not wait until after the 4th of next March to press the electric button that was to produce the ground swell of prosperity. Before I overtax your patience with long reading I desire to ask you one more question. At 6 p. m. Monday, Nov. 23, I boarded a Santa Fe train at Chicago for Kansas City, and on opposite side of the smoking compartment ot the coach from where I sat was a gentleman of middle age, whose personal appearance savored of affluence and luxury. A short distance out of Chicago another gentleman entered the compartment, and the first gentleman said, “Hello, Bailey.” They passed a few compliments and began talking about railroads and matters in general. Finally the conversation drifted into politics. The first gentleman said, “Bailey, I say to you candiflly that I have 10,000 acres of land in Kansas that cost me a round SIOO,OOO, and I would sell it all today for $20,000. I never want it known that I ever invested a dollar in that state or lived there a single day. I tell you it is a disgrace to live in the state of Kansas. The populists have elected the entire state ticket.”

Then he gave utterance to a long string of profanity. “Bailey, do you know that these free silver cranks will never submit nntil they are starved to it? I would just like to see them starve. It would cost me a million dollars, but in the long run it would have been well if Bryan had been elected so we could have starved the cranks into submission. Why, the free silver fools are going right on with their accursed agitation/ and we will have to starve them into submission sooner or later. I think after they starve for awhile they will be submissive enough. I was down on Wall street a few days ago, and they say down there that they have plenty of money, but not a dollar for Kansas. Starve the —— cranks is the policy of Wall street.” / :V ; €>

A few minutes later he stepped out of the compartment and I asked Mr. Bailey to please give me the name of the gentleman he had just been conversing with. “Why,” said he, “that gentleman is Joe Hampson, a money king, and a great railroad contractor. He owns 10,000 acres of land in Chaise county, Kansas.” Now, I desire you to inform me if the prosperity of the working people is to be confined to the states that cast their electoral vote for you for president? I would also like to* know if a combination of money loaners down on Wall street, who contributed millions to elect you, intend to retaliate against the states which elected Bryan electors and people’s party or free silver democrats to state and local offices? This information would give me a general idea of where the nucleus of your prosperity boom will not be found, and I will not make the sad mistake of advising working people to seek employment in states boycotted and blacklisted by your friends on Wall street. I would like to ask you some questions about farmers and country merchants, who were overloaded with promises by your campaign managers, but will ask., them in another letter at a later day. Respectfully yours, J. R. SOVEREIGN, General Master Workman, Knights of Labor.