Fort Worth gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1891-1898, 1891-09-03
THE SILVER QUESTION.
1T is AS MUCH A POLITICAL
QUESTION AS is THE TARIFF.
The Political Dodgers Trying to Eliminate
the silver Issue from the Next
Presidential Campaign.
STEPHENvILLE, TEX, Aug. Is, 1891
Editor Gazette

Editor Gazette.
| We are told by some of the oligarchy Of
| the Democratic party, that the silver CUES
| ton is not a political question, but queS-
| ton merely as to the regulation of the fiscal
| policy Of the government. All! that's Just
1t. Policy, is another word for politics.
The policy of the administration is the
politics OF the administration of the govern
ment The tariff is out a measure of policy,
fiscal policy if you please, prescribed for
| our government by the Republican party.
And bad measure we think it is at present.
We think the diagnosis of the case of the
body-politic of the nation was and is wrong,
and hence we think the prescription all
| wrong. 1t (the tariff pertains to revenue
obtained BY the government by taxation
and revenue is money, and silver is money,
or ought TO be, full legal tender for every
thing.
Then, politically speaking, the free and
unlimited coinage Of silver, and tariff for
revenue only, stand upon the same footing
one is as much political as the other, and
one is as much Democratic as the other.
The Democratic party wherever they have
spoken in every state convention south of
the Ohio river and west Of the Allegheny
mountains, have declared for the free and
unlimited coinage of silver. The people
everywhere demand it; the business in
tereSts CT the country demand 1t; trade and
commerce demand it, common-sense and
common justice demand it. 1t is idle TO ask
what good will it do to coin siiverl" We
might retort by asking what good will it do 10
coin gold, or to coin money at all, If YOU
please. Any tyre knows it will not put the
money in your pocket. But we find bust
ness men all over the country failing daily,
men who have property valued at low eS-
innate, worth more than double the amount
of their Indebtedness. Why all this! Be
cause there is not enough money in circula-
NF
We find farmers everywhere with abund
ant crops, fat cattle-plenty, plenty every
where, and not a dollar to buy. In fact,
in the midst OF plenty, we are in a Cearth,
and living, so to speak, at q starving rate.
Why all thisl Because there is no money
in the country.
Here in Texas, we have cheap lands, fat
cattle, fine sheep and excellent crops, AS
air PUSHES into vacuum, so money rusheS
where there is demand for it; provided
there is any TO rush. But, if you close up
the vacuum, there is nothing to FILL So, If
you stop the coinage of money, there is
none to rush. if so, it would come here
trooping even from the far North. But we
are told that silver is no good This re-
minds US very much of the man who had
two servants that had served him long aud
well-one white man, the other a red
man. The white man was the better
servant, but the liege lord was partial to
the red man, in fact, he wished TO make 4
pet of the red man and raise his wages over
that of the white man. and il order to do so
he attacked the white man and knocked
him down and beat him severely, and
thereby disabled him from official service
and then cried out against him No good
no good !" and placed the inferior servant
over him. So, few marplots, money gods
and gold bugs, in 1873, when silver had
served Us along with gold for nearly 100
pvlS+pnra = n
was at q premium over gold these mar
plots in the dark, struck down silver and
Immediately raised the cry, and continue to
cry, 'Unclean! uncleaur' No good! no
good!' Only worth so cents on the dollar.
You can use it as a commodity, like wheat,
corn or cotton, bat not as the money of the
constitution Of our fathers. Oh. no. IL
will come in competition again with our pet,
gold, and while it would be OF great benefit
to the common people to restore
silver equal with gold, 1t would be
against our interests (the oligarchy)
to do such thing. 1t is true,
we want no competition with England and
Germany on the tariff question; we can get
along without them when it comes TO trade
and commerce, but we will be controlled by
them when 1t comes to money. The cotn-
mon people shall not be allowed to have
their goods, and neither will we allow them
to have our money, though the bowels Of
ONI Col III Is 1uii Vi II, Tile HlOuSS Vi LLie
constitution and of our fathers; silver
should only be used as commodity
Again, whenever silver Is mentioned,
this oligarchy cries out: ''Oh, we cannot
displace or subordinate the tariff to any
other issue. The tariff is the issue" When
or where did any party ever build upon or
stand on a single issue2 Who in the Demo
cratic party is trying to make the tariff
subordinate issue} None. All, that's not
it. 1t IS the political dodgers on the silver
question trying to eliminate the silver issue
from the next presidential campaign. AYE,
there lies the rub" But il will not down.
Just as well undertake to play Hamlet with
Hamlet left out as TO try to run the Demo-
cratic party without embracing the whole
Democratic creed. Gold and silver are alike
the money of the constitution, and hence of
the Democratic party, and have always
been. Silver was money long before Christ
himself sanctioned it by miraculously tax
ing it from the tish'S mouth to pay the
tribute money. Why should there be a dis
tinction made between 1t and goldl De
Vattell in his great work on the law of ma
tons says: ''In the first age, after the in
PRODUCTION of property, people exchanged
their commodities and superfnous effects
for those they wanted, but afterward gold
and silver became the common standard of
the value of all things" France, the most
prosperous nation to-day on earth, uses
both gold and silver. The imperial demand
of the honest yeomanry of the Democratic
party call for it. The boys in the trenches
speak trumpet tongued" for it. The Dem
ocratic hosts are marching, and he that gets
in fhair will hp Ground into r1Oyy1ar