The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1892-03-30
AN ISSUE OF THE NEAR FUTURE.

The silver question is an issue of the
past, as far as the. House is concerned"
says an Associated Press dispatch from
Washington Rather is it an issue of the
future, for the meaning of the postpone
ment of its consideration. as we take it, is
that the preponderating political question of
the day is the tariff. Mr. BLAND, the
author OF the bill to remonetize silver, and
tue leading advocate of the measure in Con-
gress, has repeatedly stated that it is not
partisan In its scope or effect. but is an in
cldental economic and financial subject of
legislation. In a degree it is as yet sec
honal affair, though Mr.. BLAND's bill has
irlenos and supporters distributed through
out the country. That these friends are
mostly democrats, 1t is true, but in the
western states they comprise Republicans
as well, and in the region west of the Mis-
sissippi to the Pacific coast public senti-
ment is all but unanimous.
10 US OF the far west the silver coinage
question seems very simple one, and 1t is
dlmcuIt to understand the opposition, ex-
cept on the basis of It's coming from men
whose interest it is to keep money dear in
the market, as against the borrower and
debtor But certainly all the opposition is
not classed among these. Many are de-
celyed, and honestly SO, by the cry of de-
probation in silver coin and the difference
In the value of gold and silver as mere COM
modlties. They do not see in this that gold
is made to appear more than intrinsically
valuable, as silver is made to appear less
SO, and that at least large part of the diff
terence is fictitious premium. There is
eXtant very common fallacy that foreign
countries must regulate cur money stand
ards, as to large extent they regulate at
Liverpool the prices of American cotton
ana American grain. And so the foreign
element in the United States, notably the
Germans, who came from a money-lending
country, may be considered aim ost unani-
nous against free silver coinage in states
Like Ohio, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Wiscon-
sin, Indiana, Iowa, etc., whereas between
the two great national parties they hold
the balance of power.
Manifestly the injection of the silver
question into the Presidential election as
the predominant or ruling issue would
prematurely prejudice it. More education
IS required on the subject 1t must be
taken outside the domain of the mining in
terests, where 1t is made unjustly to pre-
sent selfish side, and allowed to be con-
sidered in a wholly national and nationally
financial aspect. This does not imply the
withdrawal Of the subject from public dis
cussion. On the contrary, it looks to g
wider range Of debate; the depsrtisanizing
so TO speak-of the silver issue, the
broadening of the lines on which the battle
is to be fought. The action of the House
Of Representatives in Congress doubtless
has this meaning-not to make free silver
coinage an exclusively Democratic issue,
but to gather to the Democratic nucleus all
the strength possible from every quarter
The silver question was not prominent in
the last Presidential campaign, and it has
been tabooed in political conventions since.
but that fact has not prevented an access
sion year by year to the ranks of the cham
pions of bimetallic currency. And so the
friends of a safe and solid money policy. re-
iecting the new Austrian monometaI
theory will continue to grow in numbers
as the campaign of education" progresses,
filling seat after seat in the halls of legis-
lation and finally triumphing without ap-
parent friction. AS it is, no statesman as
piring to the Democratic nomination for the
Presidency is willing to go before the
whole people on the silver question as pre-
scented nor no Republican either. So, dis
appointed as many western Democrats
must be at the turn matters has taken in
the House, it is their duty, in view of har-
mony and the best interests of the party,
to philosophically accept the decision and
let the question go over to the next session.
Meanwhile there is great work to be done
in the emancipation of the country from its
bondage to the trusts and protected inter
eets that sap its vitsls.