Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1891-06-11

! democratic party. After 1ull ana
free discussion all around, the Demo-
cratic platform will be made, and it
will enunciate the principles for which
the party is prepared to contend. Mr.
Cleveland, like all other good Demo
Gratis, must abide b. the judgment OF
his party or step oside 1t is to be re-
GREETED that he was born in the shad-
ow of Wall Street.
Now is the time for discussion
Every Democratic paper in the land
should open its columns to the discus
sion of this question, in order that
| when the national convention meets
next year it may know the sentiment
of the party, and be enabled to act in
accordance with that sentiment. We
can't afford to place the Democratic
party in the position of the Prairie
Belle that
went tearing along that night,
The oldest boat on the line;
With niger squat on her safety valve,
And her furnace crammed-rosin and
pine"
We don't want any niger on the
safety valve, and the safety valve is
the press, and particularly the coun-
try press. Every day brings new
evidence that it will not do to shut
the safety valves. Murmurs come
from North Carolina, from South Car
DINA, from Mississippi, in fact from
all over the South and West. We are
warned by prominent men who are
close to the people of their respective
States that it will not do to ignore the
silver question. Wherever there is a
Farmers Alliance it will be fond
solidly in favcr of free silver, no mat
ter what local politicians may think,
and that is the case where trade as.
sociations of any kind are strong.
Have you gentlemen who are so zeal
ously aiding the money barons and
their ally, the Republican party, in
side-tracking this question ever
thought that there might be danger
of blowing up the boat?
The Democratic party, as has al
ready been said, has hitherto favored
silver. Through it's aid the Bland act
ly a unit in favor of free coinage as
the Republican party was nearly a
unit against it. If free coinage is to
be stricken from lis body of doctrine,
most onvincing reasons should be
presented for so doing. What are the
reasons that have been so far adduced
against free coinage by its opponents?
LIST. That the 4l2I grains silver dollar
is only 80 or So cents of actual value
They seem not to be we'll agreed among
themselves about this Cd. That with
free coinage of silver, gold will disap-
pear. When asked if it is not fact
that gold is constantly increasing in
value, and that instead of the silver
dollar being a deprecated dollar, the
gold dollar is an appreciated dollar,
and whether that fact, if it be one, is
not a hardship upon the debtor classes,
they have nothing to reply but keep
steadily on with their talk about the
evils of the SIS cent dollar and the dis
appearance of gold. When asked
whether the decentralization of silver
did not of itself cause silver to depre-
ciate, just as the disuse ofpine lumber
for building purposes would cause the
value of pine lumber to depreciate,
they make, scarcely an attempt at re-
ply. When asked if the act Of 1873
demonetizing silver did not add to the
Indebtedness of every man in debt at
least twenty or thirty per cent, they
have no denial to make. Neither can
they deny that John Sherman predict
ed that gold would begin to disappear
when coinage of silver reached the
seventy-five million mark under the
of the public have been deafened with
the cry that gold was about to disap-
pear. Yet to-day there is more gold
in the country than there was in 1873.
1t won't do to say ''let us settle the
tariff question first, and then we will
attend to silver" The issue is not
complicated. 1t is simply a question
as to whether silver shall continue to
be used as money or not. There is no
protection, free trade, tariff for rev.
enue only, incidental protection, slid
ing scale complication about it. 1t is
a question of whether we shall con-
tinue to use the money that the faith
ers of this country established, or
whether we shall su bstitute something
else. Now, you weakened brother
Democrats, who are fearful we can't
win on the silver question, draw your
chairs up close and let us have con-
fidential talk. Didn't we run away
from the tariff question up until 1888,
when we were forced to do battle on
that issue? True, we were defeated
in that inning by a mere scratch, be-
cause we went into that fight not
properly prepared, but didn't we bat
the ball out of shape and over the