Freeland tribune. (Freeland, Pa.) 1888-1921, 1892-07-25
THE SILVER QUESTION.
ITS POSITION DEFINED BY A WEs-
TERN EDITOR.
He Says "An Educational Campaign Is
ENeeded in the East''-AnthraciteC Com
pared with Silver-what VIII Occur Il
Free Coinage Fails.

them are supporting the Peoples candidates
because that party has declared for free coin
age. The many friends of Editor Fincher, for
merly of Hazeton, and now directing the
course of the Breckenridge Coli Journal viii
be sorry to hear thai he is wavering in his allie
glance to the Democratic faith. The free silver
advocates may be right, but none of the argu.
ments they use is producing any perceptible
effect upon the people of the east. The ques
ton here is regarded only a mere side issue
overshadowed on all sides by the tariff contro
versy, and the latter must be definitely settled
before free silver or any other subject is given
national attention.
The above from our valued contem.
porary, the FREELAND (Pa.) TRIBUNE,
shows that our eastern friends are not
up in the silver question and think our
course singular.
Now, friend TRIBUNE, let us suppose a
case. For three-quarters of century
the people of the east have used your
unequaled anthracite coal for fuel; the
demand for it has opened and developed
hundreds of mines, in which thousands
of men for three generations have earn
ed living for themselves and supported
their families, out of their savings erect
ed homes, built up among other towns
and cities, your lovely little Freeland,
your ambitious and riotous city of Halle
ton, and scores of other places of pleas
ant recollection to the writer. Your
mines are the
Representatives of Great Wealth
and the sole dependence of large, in
telligent and happy population. Now,
suppose the government should step in,
and without a single petition asking for
the act, or single complaint from pro-
ducer or consumer, should pass and en-
force law that would prohibit the use
of anthracite coal except for fuel on
farms. You readily can see that your
coal works would fall into utter worth
lessness, your pleasant towns would be
deserted, all property value in them
would be destroyed, and il your politi-
cal party would take sides with the des-
troyers Of the business of your section
and tell you that it was more
Important to the Nation
that the seals of Alaska should be pre-
served than that any attention should
be paid to your side issue of the coal
question. What would the TRIBUNE do
in such case?
Again, the TRIBUNE in the above clip
ping, says, eve are wavering in our al
legiance to Democracy" Oh no; but to
the man-worshipping and Wall street
serving gang that has abandoned the
landmarks honored by the counsel of
Jefferson and the practice of Jackson
and to whom we never acknowledged
allegiance; yes, thousand times yes,
not only wavering toward them but in
direct opposition to them and their shy
lock schemes from now until death.
intip,atinp
or south was ever made against the free
and
Unlimited Use of Silver
as money until after 1888 by any nation
al, state, county, city or town convention
or meeting. But since that time few
such interpretations have been engineer
ed into prominence, while national, state,
county and city conventions have in un-
mistakable terms asserted the right of
silver to stand as one of the two money
metals of the world.
Silver asks no protection further than
to be treated as it was for six thousand
years before 1873. From the earliest
dawn of civilization silver has ranked
with gold as money metal. Thousands
of millions of dollars have been invested
in its production. To-day in the state of
Colorado alone, the destruction of the
monetary quality of silver will cause the
Utter Abandonment
of fifty mining camps whose populations
range from one hundred to three thous-
and workingmen, scores of millions of
dollars invested in silver mines and at
least two hundred millions worth of city,
railroad and other property will be rem
dered practically worthless, if silver is
not restored
Thirty thousand miners and those con-
nected with business will be forced to
seek other employment in Colorado
alone. The grand market for eastern
Colorado and Kansas farms will be des-
troyed, and those grand plains can once
again be branded as in days of yore,
1.-The great American desert" While
Colorado abounds in gold, copper, lead
and zinc, all these metals are available
mainly because associated with silver in
paying quantities. Take away the profit
derived from silver and the production
of gold would alone remain diminutiye
affair and
Colorado Would Drop
from thirty millions of gold, silver and
lead to not to exceed five millions all
told.
These great mountain territories that
far exceed all the United States east of
the Alleghanys in extent, and for min
eral wealth are world in themselves,
and the gathering of that mineral wealth
forms the greatest and most remunera-
tive market for the farmer within a
thousand miles of them and consume
more of the manufactured goods of the
east than any like number of people on
the globe, would, in the main, be aban-
doned, the yield of their silver and gold
become vague tradition and where now
the overalled and booted miner wends
his way to and from work coyotes and
jack rabbits will only abound.
The people of the east may consider
the
Silver Question n Side Issue,
but let us merely add that if the whole
production of your anthracite coal field
were dumped year after year in the At.
! 1ontip opaon and auarx, lnl1o, no,,n, 4