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6 Conservative *
COllKY TO HOUTWEM. .
Hon. GKO. S. BOUTWELL ,
Washington , D. O.
I see by the public press that you have
broken with the republican administra
tion and consequently with the party ,
over McKinley's imperialistic policy.
To break with McKinley over any
question of political principle would in
deed be a most difficult performance ,
one which would have to be accom
plished between two days as he scarcely
ever was known to hold any one well-
defined policy or principle long enough
for anybody to make or break with him.
Mr. McKinley's imperialism or repub
licanism is simply how far and how well
it will conserve McKinleyism. I notice
that the Pittsburg Post , the only demo
cratic paper in our city , is elated over
your break with McKinley as likely to
contribute to the success of that other
political mountebank , Win. J. Bryan ,
whose itinerating campaign of the past
four years on that platform of crucify
ing the American people on a cross of
gold is on a par with some of Wm. Mo-
Kinley's apostrophes of criminal ag
gression , et al. , which is held up before
the common people as statesmanship par
excellence. There can be no possible
excuse on the part of the American
people ( other than incapacity of self
government ) of putting either of these
men at the head of their tickets for" the
high office of president of the United
States , or upon the principle of P. T.
Baraurn , on which he acquired his two
great fortunes , viz. : the bigger the
humbug the more money there is in it
with the American people. Neither of
these gentlemen has ever given evi
dence of possessing one single trait of
character you would expect to find in a
man upon whom devolves such great re
sponsibilities as that of president of the
United States. Just think for one mom
ent of the preposterous idea of selecting
men who have been notable failures in
the most ordinary business and profes
sional efforts in life. Is it not as pre
sumptuous on the part of the people as is
possible to conceive of , and yet both of
these candidates are as lacking in true
patriotism as they are in all the other
elements of statesmanship. These facts ,
along with the history of our national
government as they relate to the Ameri
can people , are strong presumptive proofs
against our capacity for self-govern
ment. Aside from the fact that our
first century's experiment of manhood
suffrage was a dismal failure ( for no one
will pretend it is the function of a good
government to destroy its own people ,
and yet the sacrifice of one million of
the flower of our land , six billions of
treasure , the devastation of the homes
of one-third of our own people , $150-
000,000 in pensions to widows , orphans ,
and maimed soldiers , all expended in the
American experiment of self-govern
ment , is our first century's showing ) the
first third of the second century is even
worse in this respect. The making of
serfs of the industrial classes to support
an official aristocracy of pot house poli
ticians , is even a greater scourge than
the evil consequences of a war upon the
destinies of a people. While the popu
lation of the country has not quite
doubled since I860 , when the corrupt
democratic party involved the nation in
civil war over the slavery question , our
national government cost 40,000,000
people $60,000,000 to pay its expenses.
Today 70,000,000 people cost over $700-
000,000 to tide them over from one con
gress to another , with every office from
the public school teacher to the presi
dent of the United States prostituted to
the avarice and greed of pot house poli
ticians. There is not much encourage
ment or inducement for any man to be
come exercised over the great danger of
imperialism. The boodlerism of the
American people which regards the
offices of their municipal , state and
national governments as legitimate
spoils , is ten fold more alarming to the
intelligent American citizen than
McKinley's imperialism. This degen
erate sentiment which originated with
Gen. Andrew Jackson , received its
greatest impetus under the republican
administration in which yon took a part.
When the real crime ( not the sham pre
tense on which Wm. J. Bryan rings the
changes the repeal of the silver grab act
of 1878) ) was consummated ; that in
famous act about which I wrote Presi
dent Grant and yourself , urging him to
veto and you to use your influence to
have him veto , was the greatest crime
of 1873 , in that it has converted the
American people into a nation of knaves
and political thieves , nine out of ten of
whom will plunder their municipal ,
state and national governments on the
slightest pretext and opportunity. There
is no use nor sense in becoming exercised
over the tendency of our pot house poli
ticians to become imperialistic , so long
as the people themselves look upon their
governments as legitimate spoils. No
one has ever brought a olean thing out
of an unclean , and that in itself pre
cludes all hope of redress from the old
corrupt disloyal democratic party. No
church or politician was ever known to
reform , much less a nation. The Pitts-
burg Post credits you with being one of
the founders of the republican party. I
was in the convention myself that was
held in this city in 185G , and which
started that party on the mission of
rescuing our national government from
the grasp of southern traitors at a ter
rible sacrifice of life and treasure. This
was accomplished only to have the gov
ernment handed over to an even more
degenerate foe that of avarice and
boodle pot house politicians. I wrote
you several letters , on the question of the
resumption of specie payments , etc. ,
at the time you was secretary of the
treasury. Hoping this long letter will
not exhaust your patience , but that you
will condescend to answer , giving both
letters to the public press for the people
to think about ,
Yours respectfully ,
J. B. COKEY.
Pittsburg , Pa. , May 29 , 1900.
KEEP COOt.
With the dogdays , the mosquitoes and
the nineties , come the regular visitations
of advice , in speech and print , how to
sustain the hect. Perhaps the very
wisest would take the least account of
the matter one way or another , but go
their gait through heat or cold as they
would through sun or cloud. But grant
ing that there may be something worth
considering in regard to comfort under
extremity of summer heat , some of these
counsels , and perhaps most of them ,
appear quite reasonable ; others make an
experienced and thinking reader very
tired. The former are such as go with
the course of Nature itself , with culti
vated human sense and inclination ; the
latter , such as are counter to these.
When we are advised to bathe frequently
in hot weather , we feel sure that this is
rational ; the cool water feels delightful
then , even if it do not at other times ,
and the reeking skin must surely be the
better for it. When thin dressing is
recommended , we need not doubt that
this is sound doctrine , if for no other
reason than that nature cries out for it ;
though we may often hear oracles to
the contrary , and declarations that we
will feel the heat less with more cloth
ing of one sort or another on.
Iced Drinks.
But along with the rest of the exhor
tations , we are sure to hear a most
impressive one , to beware of iced drinks.
In this there is as much sense as if we
were counselled various ways to keep
warm in winter , but not to go near a
fire. Human beings will not take the
advice , and the more sensible they are
the less they will take it. The voice of
Nature- the clearer the more educated ,
for doubtless nature at its rudest would
make little use of either ice or fire is as
plain in this case as the others , and the
result of experience as undoubted. Of
iced water , to begin with , it will
probably bo found whenever large
enough view is taken , that no single
agent ever devised by man has done so
much for health and temperance. We
hear of particular summer diseases that
had infested certain localities , disap
pearing upon the introduction of ice-
water. There are some who assert that
they like the water better without the
ice ; the charity that believeth all things
may accept the statement , but not find
reason for imposing the rule on others.
So with other cooling drinks : regard the
soda fountain and the refrigerator with
no unfavorable eye , and experiment
with scientific precision which beverage