The weekly tribune. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1891-1894, 1891-10-03
REPUBLICAN CLAP A

silver would tend to boarding gold ant
force the use of cheap money in paymen'
of wages in every workshop, mill, factory
store and farm, and tend to the scaling
o down of the wages of toilers already de
9 pressed and weakening the purchasing
: power of the dollar.-Nebraska republic
can platform.
When Senator Teller's free silver coin.
a age bill was being debated in the senate
= last winter and every indication pointed
1 to its passage through that body, old
Edmunds of Vermont, who had been
: fighting the measure inch by inch and
. foot by foot, arose in his wrath and de-
clared he would wash his hands of the
matter and turn it over to the democrats
where it belonged. This little incident
is recalled to mind by the denunciation
in the Nebraska republican platform Of
the democratic doctrine Of free and un-
limited coinage of silver" Democrats do
not deny the soft impeachment. They
are proud to say they favor free and In
limited coinage Of the royal white metal.
They are willing to be called its cham
pions.
But how is it with our republican o n
temporaries in Montana? In the face Of
the denunciations heaped upon the metal
by the leaders of their party; in the face
of the declaration of every republican
state platform which has been adopted
during the year declaring opposition to
free coinage, do they break away from
their party and espouse the cause of sill
yer? Not one of them. They dare not.
They occupy the position Of armed neu-
trality, ready to flop upon the side which
will be taken by the national convention
of their party. Occasionally they break
out in a white glare and then relapse
into offensive silence. In the language
of Randolph in his famous reply to Clay,
they 'stink and shine and shine and
stink like a rotten mackerel by moon
light"
The second paragraph in the above
excerpt from the platform is republican
clap trap of the most transparent kind.
1t has neither the merit Of originality
nor the flavor of sincerity. 1t has been
iteratcd and reiterated by the republican
party in the east since 1873 when it
fraudulently demonetized the silver dol
lar. When in 1876 a democratic house
of representatives enacted a free silver
coinage bill, it went to its grave in a re-
publican senate to the solemn music
sang by the Nebraska republican con-
v%ention. When in 1877 Representative
Bland forced a free coinage bill through
the house, a republican senate iterated
the same old, old story about "cheap
money" and the boarding of gold, and
the scaling down of wages, etc, reiter-
ated by the republicans of Nebraska, and
by such clap trap succeeded in emascu-
lating the bill by striking out free coin
age where it occurred and inserting lin
tied coinage. In this condition the bill
went back to the house where the
amendment was %concurred in in the
spring of 1878 and we had the Bland sill
yer law.
In 1886 another ~free-coinage bill was
introduced in the house which the re-
publicans defeated by the same clap-trap
Incorporated in the Nebraska republican
platform. 1t is their stock in trade. The
Bland coinage act did not drive a dollar
of gold out Of the country, MOI was a
dollar of gold boarded; nor was the pur-
chasing power of silver weakened. 1t
was the salvation of the country. 1t
saved the nation from a disastrous panic
and rendered the resumption of silver
payment in 1879 possible. Last winter
when a republican house repealed the
Bland law and the senate passed a free
coinage bill as a substitute we heard
that same old story about cheap money
and the driving of gold out of the coun-
try. Through the treachery of Carter
and the party whip the senate bill was
defeated in the house and now we have
the present silver law, which enables a
syndicate of spectators to make a foot
ball of the metal that is kicked from one
70 another to the enrichment of each
and the robbing of the people.
Here are the evidences of republican
love for silver as manifested by the Sher-
mans, the Edmunds and the McKinleys
Of the party during the past eighteen
years. The TRIBUNE believes that the
laboring men Of the republican party are
not unfriendly to the metal, but the
leaders, who get their orders from Wall
street gold bugs, wealthy bond holders,
and great corporations and trusts that
a gold standard, oppose silver.
These and the professional strikers and
lenchmen who work under them for
make the platforms, and the re-
w%orkingmen through party
pride or prejudice shut their eyes to the
consequences involved in their votes and
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