The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, October 12, 1896, Page 1

VOLUE MLXXX.—NO. 134, SAN FRANCISCO, = DAY MORNING, OCTOBER 12, 1896. PRICE FIVE CENTS. RELAND DECLARES T BEVOLUTIONARY Vigorous Denunciation of the Chicago Piatform by the Archbishop. At No Time Since the Civil War Has the Nation Been So Threatened. SOCIAL ORDER 18 IN DANGER. Most Sacred of Federal Institutions Is the Supreme Court Which Silverites Assail. ST. PAUL, MIxn., Oct. 11.—In reply to a letter of business men of the Catholic chu rches of this city, Archbishop Ireland to-night gave out a letter iu which he gives his reasons why he is opposed to the Chicago platform. The letter of his con- | stitnents is an appeal for light upon the duties of the hour and asks for the Arch- bishop’s calm and honest convictions on the issues of the day. The following is the reply: . Gordon, Dawson, Werner, Etc.—GEN- TL I am not unwilling, in the crisis through which the country is now passing, to speak for the integrity of the Nation, for the prosperity of the people, for the honor of America and the permanency of free institu- tions. Iema citizen of the country, concerned in sll the interests of the n, subject to all the responsibilities of citizenship. To be silent when words of mine may be of some profit to the people would be cowardice, would be crime. Iam not unmindful of the objection made against the churchman speaking at any time on matters which have eutered the arena of politics, lest his influence as a teacher of r8. TRYING TO RIDE INTO OFFICE | | | i religion seem to be used to promote the in- terests of a political party. Imight reply that | there are occasions when a political platform | means disaster to the couniry, when politics | are closely connected with morals and religion, | and that on those occasions the churchman | ust be the patriot, without allowing a mo- | ment’s thought to considerations of expe- diency, and must take in hand the moral or religious issus, even if it be vested in the gar- ment of politics. But, in the present instance, Iseek no ex- cuse of this kind; I speak entirely as the citi- zen without werrant from my ecelesiastical position. Deep as my convictions are; L hold in all due respect my fellow-citizens who .hold convictions at variance with my own. I ime peach neither their good faith, nor their honor. I am dealing not with men, but with pyineiples and movements. This justice which I render to those whose ideas I am ready to combat, 1 am sure they will'render to me. 1 stend by the platform and the present can- didate of the Republican gonvention of St Louis. Iam opposed to the platform and the Presidential candidate of the Democratic con- vention at Chicago. The days of eivil war ex- | cepted, at no time did so great a periX threaten the ecountry as that which is involved in the political campaign of to-day. The guestion of free and unlimited coinage | of silver is put in the foreground. 7The ques- tion hasits importance, but it is of a minor | importance in the presence of other questions, which are brought into the movement, which bad iis expression in the Chicago convention | and which now secks, by means of popular sufirage, to enthrone itself in the capital of tion; it js in its right logical effects, olution against the United States; | secession—the secession of 1861 which our soldiers believed they had con- signed to eternal death at Appomattox, but which demands again recognition from the | American people. The declaration in the | Chicago platform has, and can have, no other | mesaning: “We d ce arbitrary interfer- | ence by Federal guthorities in local affairs as | a violation of Constitution of the United | States and a crime against free institutions.” The words point to the act of Grover Cleve- land sending United States troops to protect National property and enforce National laws during the Chicago riots in 1894. In those words there is the 0ld secession doctrine that States are independent of the National Gov- ernment at Washington. There is the annil- ment of the Union; there is notice served upon the flaz of Amorica tnat outs de-the District | of Colum hout power of self-asser- tion or se The President of the United Sta: d that to enforce National 1aws and protect National property he cannot march his troops into eny State without the n of the Governor of that State. hief speakers at the convention at o understood the significance of the vention and voiced its spirit. I came from & State which wes the home of ,” said Senator Tillmen of Sonth Carolina. “I say,” he continued, *itis a sec- tional issue and it wiil prevail”” And fitting was it that the speaxer, voicing the spirit of The Kind of Support the Cateagoconvention, should be the repre- sentative of South Carolins. Thrice has South Carolina spoken for secession—when it passed in 1832 the nullification ordinance, when in 1861 it fired on Fort Sumter, when in 1896 it | cries out: ““A sectional issue, and it will'pre- | vail” The platform of the Chicago convention | threatens to end with destruction of social order, with lawlessness and anarchy. The per- sonification of law and of social order in | America is in our courts and the promise of | ovedience to those courts, and. now the courts | | are to be shorn of their power and shorn oi it | in favor of mobs benton rioting and the de- | struction of property. | ‘‘We especially object,” says the Chicago | platform, “to government by injunction as a | new and highly dangerous form of oppres- sion.” Here reference is medeto the action of | the courts during the Chicago riots, without | whicn action there is no calenlating how much ruin should have come to the eity. The palla- dium of American liberties is the Supreme Court at Washington, the counterpart of which in majesty and in power to enforce absolute | justice does not exist among the nations of | Christendom. Butas far as it is possible to hu- | man ingenuity, outside of partisan politics, | independent of all politicalinfluences through | their life tenure of office, the Judges of this court rule Congress' and President, State and Nation, and expound the law in all its inflexi- bility, no matter who must yield to it. And now s convention speaks of the Su- preme Court “as it may be hereafter consti- tuted,” intimating unmistakably the inten- tion, if the party representea in that conven- tion come to power, the intention to constitute the courts by the popalar election of the Judges, by the shortening of their term of | office, or otherwise, 50 as to make it insensible | to the stern voice of law and responsible to the passing whims of political parties. Worse to my mind than all this js the spirit of social- ism that permeates the whole movement which has issued from the convention at Chi- cago. It is the “Internationale” of Europe, now taking body in America. Of thisone cannot but b2 convinced when the movement is closely observed, the shibooleth of itsadher- euts listened to, the discoursesof itsorators carefully examined. The war of class against | ARCHBISHOP TRELAND, Who as a Citizen, and Without Warrant class 16 upon s, Wi Wir of ‘tné proletarist | against the property-holder. No other meauing than this can be given to the “common people,” to the “laborer,” to the “poor and downtrodden,” and to the de- nunciations agdinst “‘platocrats” and “corpo- rations” and “money-grabbers” and ‘“bank” ers.” Many adherents of the movement do not per- | ceive its full meening. But let them beware; they are lighting torches which, borne in the hands of reckiess men, may light upin this | safety to our free institutions is the prompt | countiry the lurid fires of a Commune. Amer- ica heretofore has been free from sccialistic hatred and warfare; it has been a country of opporiunities for all men, and it has given to the laborers a livelihood higher and better than is afforded him in any other country in the world. Is this all to be changed? Is social chaos, gloating over ruins, to be a method of the social elevation of the masses ? There may be room in some things for peaceful ameliora- Zon through well-informed public opinion and orderly legizlation; but class hatred and #ug.; Jassion neverled to anything but gen- eral misery and suffering. 2 The people of America must to-day look warily around, guard against catch worcds and misleading wer eries, avoid giving any comun- tenance to socialistic or anarchistic tenden- cies and know that the first condition of pros- perity to any and all classes of the people is a peaceful commonwealth and assurea social or der. The monetary question, indeed, is only a secondary issue in the cempaign. I have, however, my convictions in this matter. The free ana unlimited coinage of silver dollars at aratioof 16 to 1 by the United States,inde- pendently of other great commercial nations, into dollars which shall be made legal tender, will disturb the whole business of the coun- try and bring upon it a financial depression far beyond anything which we are now expe- riencing. Iam coufronted with the pamphlet of Archbishop Walsh of Dublin on “Bimetal- lism,” as a reply to my cbjection to the silver resolution of the Chicego convention. The pamphiet of Archbishop Walsh has no bearing whatever on the situation in America, The Archbishop. discusses bimetallism ver- sus monometallism, and that only from one point. of view—the effect of monometallism upon the farmers’ contracts under the land purchase acts in Ireland. He expresses no opinion as to the ratio at which silver is to be coined and he manifestly presupposes that bi- metallism would' be brought about by an in- ternational agreement. He alleges that India was unable to keep a silver currency inde- pendently of European nations. “It was im- possible for India €o obtain the loans that are absolutely necessary for the develcpment of the country” and the reason was “the fluctua- tions in the relative value of the rupee.’” “It is the silver currency of China,” he adas, “that stops the making of railways in taat country.” Walsh’s pamphlet is throughout a solid argument against the Chicago platform, To what he says hie might add that France and all the countries of the Latin Union to-day were ultimateiy compelled togive up bimet- From His Ecclesiastical Position, Denounces the Chicago Platform and Declares the Docf ard a Menace to the Nation. trine of Bryan Revolutionary allism, so long as other countries of Europe would not.co-operate with them. The question Lefore the people of America to-day is the coinege of silver by this country, independently of great commercial nations of the world, at the ratio of 16 to 1. This ratio is the double of the present commercial value of silver. The consequences of unlimited coinage in these circumstances are easily proved. The only hope of the Silver party is “that under free coinage we will raise the value of silver to $1 29 an ounce, measured in gold.” On what authority is this said? On that of the mere word of the men that make the as- servon. The experience of our own country contradicts the assertion. The purthasing of $50,000,000 worth of bullion (under the Sher- man act) was not able to prevent the fall in the value of silver from over a dollar an ounce to its present low value. The experience ‘of France contradicts the assertion. France, with all the countries of the Latin Union, had to give up the coinage of silver. lest, over- loaded with the silver of the world, it should lose ali its gold. Common-sense 1s against the assertion. < Silver is now produced in such guantities at such small expense of production that its vaiue cannot be kept up to its former stand- ard. And is the whole business of America to be imperiled by & lgap into an experiment ‘which those very men who advocate it confess to be only an experiment, and which experi- ence and common-sense condemn?* ‘Phe boast that the United States is able all alone to whip England and the restof the world fnto the coinage of silver ni 16 to 1, or to foree the value of silver up to $1 29 an ounce, is mere nonsense. We are a great peo- ple indeed, but we have not yet grown to that commercial strength that our country means the ' commercial world. Our National pride may give us extraordinary dréams of our im- portance, bat it will not do to build the busi- ness of the country upon those dreams. Would all the commercial nations together, cotning silver at 16 to 1, bring up the value of sitver bullion to $1 29 per ounce? Perbaps. Strong commercial reasons suggest -the con- trary. Would America ‘alone bring silver to $1 297 'Assurediy not; although, of course, the new demand for sflver from the mints would give some increase to ite velue, which incresse, however, might again be offset by an increase of production. Some imagine that the ratio of silver to gold ‘was always 16 to 1, or thereabouts. The ratio 'was constantly changing throughout historic times, At one ume silver was more valuable than gold; at another time, since the discov- ery of America, silver was ten times less valu- able than gold. The ratio is constantly chang- ing, and the question for us to-day is not what | the ratio was at a preceding date, but what it should be in our time. ) But has not Herr® Blsmarck counseled the United States to go ahead and make the ex- periment all alone? Yes; and some Ameri- cans quote his words as authority. Thesly old fox would, indeed, be pleased to see Amer- ica make the experiment and go to the bottom of the sea. Free conage then will give us money worth in the commercial market of the ‘world a little over half its nominal vaiue. No one imagines that the stampof the Govern- ment gives value 10 a piece of metal; it merely certifies to the quality and quantity. Other- wise the Gevernment stamp might as well be affixed to copper or mere paper. If the Gov- ernment stamp gave value thedebased coin issued in the past by impecunious sovereigns it would not have ruined the subjects of those sovereigus, and the assignats of France and the paper issued by Ferdinand of Naples a cen- tury ago would not have sold in the market a! most as Government rags. Legal tender, compelling men to accepr against their will money above its commer- cial value in the markets of the world, is rank injustice. The early financial statesmen of America—Jefferson, Morris, Hamilton—never thought of making the legal value of coin higher than the commercinl value of the metal out of which the coins were made. Therefore, with the passege of free coinage, we shall have a currency rejected at its nom- inal value in:the commercial markets of the world, unstable and fluctuating in real value. Business cannot prosper with such a currency. The first condition of life of business is sta- bility of currency. No one will invest money of a certain value to-day in commerce and industry if by the time the raw material has been turned into marketable wares the cur- rency is likely to bave changed in value. Business in all branches would become & speculation—a gamble—and conservative capi- tal would keep out of sight. No loans would be made. It is nonsense to say that capital must put itself into the American market ‘whether the capital be American or Europeun. We should not be deluded by words. We may clamor in vain for capital. It will not come 1o us unless there be security for it. It will remain in the vaults of safety or go to other parts of the world where reward is small but certain. And without capital there would be no enterprises and no work for the people. Iam absolutely convinced that the laboring classes will suffer the most of all from free silver coinage. Ana yet the laboring ciasses are those that are the most urgently appealed to in this {ree silver movement. A man who talks against iree silver is put down at once as an enemy of the ‘‘common people.” Well, for my part, I am willing to be called an enemy of the working classes, of “the com- ‘mon people,” if I am in reality advising them for. their good and serving their -true:inte: ests. ‘Those above® all othersin the land.who should to-day be on their guard againstthe silver movement are the laborers of America. But wiil not the farmers be benefited ? Will they not receive a higher price for their prod- ucts? Maybe a higher price, but not'higher value. -Of what use is it:to have a dollar, in- stead of a half dollar, if the doliar can pur- J _— “That Fusion Brings to Cator. ENGLAND'S PRIMATE | CALLED 70 REST Sudden Death of the Noted Archbishop Benson of Canterbury. Stricken With Apoplexy During Divine Service in the Church of Hawarden. OVERCOME IN GLADSTONE'S PEW Career of the Scholar Who Became the Head of the Church of England, LONDON, Exe., Oct. 11.—The Arch- bishop of Canterbury, Primate of all Eng- land ard Metropolitan, the Right Hon. and Most Rev. Edward White Benson, D.D. and Privy ‘Councilor, died suddenly to-day while attending divine service in the church at Hawarden. The Archbishop was the guest of Mr. Gledstone, through whom he was ap- pointed to the Archbishopric of Canter- bury, and, in company With the Gladstone family, went to the Hawarden Church this morning. After the service bad com- menced a commotion was noiiced in the Gladstone pew, and immediately there- afier church attendants were seen remov- ing the Aichbishop, who, it was sup- posed, was suffering from a fit. He was 1aken to the rectory and medical assist- ance was hastily summoned. The doctors worked over him in vain, and at 11:45 o’clock he died. The physicians state that death was caused by apoplexy. Arch- bishop Benson was 67 years of age. The Archbishop and his wife arrived at Hawarden Castle, Mr. Gladstone’s resi- dence, Saturday evening, from the north of Ireland, where they had been visiting. The Archbishop appeared to be in the best of health. He attended communion at the Hawarden church at 8 o’clock this morn- ing, and then breakfasted with Mr. Glad- stone and family. Lator he attended the morning service. The confession was pro- ceeding when he fell forward, The church attendants removed the Archbishop to the rectory as quickly as possible. The Rev. Stephen Gladstone, the rector of the church, continued the service until he re- ceived a message that the Archbishop was dead. He then closed with the prayer for the dead from the burial service. . As the congregation left the church the organist played a dead march and a muf- fied peal was rung on the bells. Mr. Gladstone was not at the church, the weather preventing. He was | tly distressed at the death of the Archbishop. They had been close friends for a long time.’, - i " Archbishop Benson was esteemed by all sects for his moderation and broad-mind- edness. His death was announced at St. Paul’s, London, at the afternoon service. The news quickly.spread, and this even- ing there was a great assemblage at the’ cathedral. The preacher highly eulogized the dead Archbishop for his cervices to the church, his personal uprightness of character and lovable disposition. After the service the organist played the ““Dead March,” the congregation standing as the solemn strains filled the edifice, the great beil of the cathedral meanwhile being tolled in memory of the dead. Dean Farrar paid an impressive tribute to the deceased Archbisuop in Canterbury Cathedral. The Right Hon. and Most Rev. Edward White Benson D.D., primate of all Eng- land and Metropolitan, was born near Birmingham in 1829. He was educated at King Edward’s School, Birmingham, and at Trinity College, Cambridge, of which he was successively scholar and fellow, and where he graduated B.A. in 1852, He was graduated M.A. in 1855, B.D. in 1862 and D.D. in 1867, Hon. D.C.u. (Oxford) 1884. He was for some years one of the mas- ters in Rugby School and had the head mastership of Wellington College from its first opening down to 1872. Among many dignities he attained were honorable chap- lain to the Queen, 1873, and chaplain in or- dinary, 1875-77. In December, 1876, he was nominated to the newly restored bish- opric of Truro and was consecratea in St. Paul’s Cathedral April 25, 1877. Dauring his occupation of the see he began the building of a new cathedral at Truro, of which the outward sheli has cost over £100,000, much of that sum having been gathered through “$he energy of the Bishop. In December. 1882, Dr. Benson was ap- pointed by the crown, on Mr. Gladstone’s recommendation, to the Archbishopric of Canterbury, in succession to Dr. Tait. Dr. Benson has published sermons and other works. ° Dr. Benson married, in 1859, Mary, daughter of the late Rev. William Sidg- wick of Skipton, Yorkshire. The annual value of the see ot Canterbury is $75.000, and the Archbishop is the patron of 195 livings: In addition to his archiepiscopal residence at Lambeth Palace he had a seat at Addington Park, Croyden, Surrey. MURDER OF A VETERAW. Alfred Cummings, a Member o the Leavenworth Home, Slain With a Hatchet. Lived the Life of a Rec'use and Was Sitting With His Back to the Door ‘When Assassinated. LEAVENWORTH, Kans., Oct. 1L—Al- fred Cummings, a member of the Soldiers’ Home and a veteran of both the Mexican ana Civil wars, and late of Company H, Thirty-ninth Iowa Volunteer Infantry, was found murdered in a hovel near the Soldiers’ Home last eveninz. Cummings, while a member of the home for four years, lived a recluse most of the time, his pension sustaining him. The murder was committed Friday night, and there is no clew to the murderer. Cnm- ‘mings was struck down unawares with a hatchet while he sat at the supper table with his back to the door. The blade of the hatchet was sunk deep into the hrain, cleaving his skull above the right ear. Nothing about the hut was disturbed and robbery was not the motive. A tramp who had been staying with the veteran has disappeared. KILLED BY HIS ARTIST FRIEND Count von Ballestrem Shqt by Charles Abiger of »— San Francisco. The Siayer Claims His Gun Was Acc.dentally Discharged in a Scu fle. POINT LOBOS PARK TRAGEDY. The Two Men Had Sought the Sea. shore to Ply Their Brushes in Company. MONTEREY, Caxn, Oct. 11.—Count Woligang von Ballestrem was shot and kilied late last night at Pomnt Lobos Park, about six miles south of Monterey. Charles Abiger of San Francisco, his intimate friend and bosom companion, is in the Monterey jail pending the Coroner’s investigation at 10 o’clock to-morrow and will doubtless be held to answer for the Count’s death. News of the tragedy was received by Justice Michaelis by telephone last night. He summoned Constable Hernandez and they hurried to the campers’ hut occupied by the two artists. In the outerroom of the shack they found the body of the Count lying in a pool of blood near the door to the inner apartment. Abiger was just enter- ing the house, lantern in hand, when they arrived. He was pldced under arrest and brought by Constable Hernandez to Mon- terey. The San Franciscan had just re- turned to the hut after notilying people living in the vicinity that Von Ballestrem had been killed. He declared that the shooting was accidental, bis shotgun hav- ing been dischargea during a friendly scuffle. Undertaker Thomas Olson was sum- moned from Monterey, and brought the body of the dead nobleman to this city. Von Ballestrem’s hands are smeared with clay, and on the stock of the shotgun with which he was shot are clay finger prints, which bear out Abiger's contention that they were scuffling for possession of the weapon when the fatal shot was fired. A Coroner’s jury will be impaneled {o-day and an inquest held 1n this city. Count von Ballestrem and Abiger have been camping near this city for some months, pursuing for pleasure the voca- vion of artists, They have seemingly been the best of iriends,/and were rarely out of each other’s company. When seen this afternoon by a CArLn correspondent, Abiger was very willing to give his version of the affair. ‘“Yes,” he said, “it is horrible. It was purely an accident, however. I will teil you all about it. Yesterday afternoon about sunset I was going out hunting for rabbits, as was my usual custom every afternoon just before supper. Ballestrem was making a mold of clay at the time for his artist’s work the next day, and his hands were covered with the stuff. . [ said: ‘Well,old fellow, I am going out to get a few rabbits,” and calling my dog, I was about 1o gointo the next room to get my gun when Ballestrem said, ‘No, you must not £20; we don’t need any of your rabbits to- night. You just stay right here, and I will cook supper pretty soon.” I said: ‘No, I am going out now,” and then went into the adjoining room, got my gun and was walking through the rear room again, when Ballestrem stepped up, seized the gun by the stock, telling me I must not go out. Irepiied thatI would go anyway, and tried to get the gun away from him. “We had quite a friendly little scuffle, when all of a sudden the trigger must have caught in my coat sleeve and the weapon was discharged. Baillestrem fell against the wall, and all he said was: * ‘Well, it was not your fauls, Carlos.’ ‘‘He theu: dropped to the floor dead. I ‘was overcome and—something I never did before—I fell down on my knees and cried like a baby for about ten minutes, 1 then realized that I must do something if pos- sible, for perhaps my friend was not dead. I thereupon rushed out of the house and over the fields to a Portuguese fisherman’s house, about a quarter of a mile away. I asked one of the family to come with me, saying that I had killed my partner. The Portuguese are naturally very supersti- tious, and instead of assisting me he slammed the door in my face. Receiving no aid here I wentas fast as possible to John FKieitas’ house and saloon, located just at the Carmelito gate. It wasa long distance, but I ran every step of the way, and when I reached the saloon I was all out of breath, to say nothing of being ex- cited over the affair. “When I reached Freitas’ place I found it closed. Iknocked, and theowier came to the door, but would not open it, although it was then only a little after 6:30. He asked me what I wanted, and I to!d him to open the door, but he refused, saying that I could tell him from where [ was, I then informed him that I had shot Ballestrem and wanted a horse and buggy to go to Monterey to tell the author- ities, ana, if not too late, 1o procure a doctor. He told me that he would not go; that he did not have any horse in the barn, but for me to go to Brazil, another rancher on Point Lobos reservation, and may be Brazil would go. “ was on my way to Brazil’s place when the first party I wentto see met me and said they were on their way to town then and would tell. I went back home, but could not summon courage to enter the room where poor Ballestrem lay. So I lit my lantern and walked around and around the house with my faithfu! dog as a com- panion. You see, he is still with me. Hav- ing lost my other Bohemian friend, my dog is all that is left, and, as you see, he is bere with me, too.” To numerous questions put to Abiger as to the wine found in the room where the tragedy occurred, he said: *Ne; I never getintoxicated. All Ger- mans drink, of course, but neitber Bal- lestrem nor I ever gotdrunk, and we-most certainly were far from it last night. It was only a friendly scuffle, as I said be- fore, but the outcome was horrible, never theless. “I have known Count Ballestrem for