The Waco evening news. [volume] (Waco, Tex.) 1891-1894, 1893-07-21

practice. Had the democr ,tic party
embodied a plank of this kind in its
platform at Chicago last year it
would have gone down in over.
whelming defeat at the polls
in November. If a policy Of this
sort is pursued by the incumbent
administration, it will invite and
insure defeat and disaster to the
parry in 1896.
The democratic party is commit
ted uneqnivocally to bi-metallism.
This was Judge Clark's view in
December, 1891, when he proclaim
ed to a Denton audience that "sil.
yer is the money Of the constitution
equal with gold"; that sit has been
deposed for the benefit of the m oney
power and for that reason | am for
silver; that it was "fraudulently
demonet;zed and we will never rest
until it is put back that "silver is
the money of the poor and is de-
spised by the rich'. But by some
occult system of "thauma,urgic
gymnastics" or by some sudden
and mysterious evolution of pollti-
cal polity, he now declares that
money "changes with each era in
progressive civil'zation"; that "the
world progresses in money as it does
in everything else'; that gold and
silver "have held their places of
supremacy undisputed until com.
paratively recent years.; that they
are now "almost obsolete as
money; that a demand for free
coinage sis demand that we step
backward in our civilization to the
realms of barbarism"; that "the
civilized portion of the world has
progressed beyond silver and doesn't
want it,; that we might as we'll
legislate against the Niagara cur
rent with the hope of diverting its
course "as to attempt to legislate
against the current of natural laws
of trade upon the silver question:;
that "the world is tired Of silver
because it no longer serves the pur-
poses of trade as a medium Of ex
change or as basis of value" ct Get
era, ad infnitum. In his opening
gun at Dallas, August 3lst, last
year, he said that the contempla
ton of the silver plank in the ma
tional platform was to "equalize the
ratio between the gold dollar and
the silver dollar and make then
equivalent. He also said that ad
verse speech to the national decla
ration was "mutinous and revolu
tionary." l contrast these contra
dictory utterances to show that thu
Judge condemns himself by his OWL
glaring inc constituencies and that hi
latest position is undemocratic ant
unworthy of serious consideration
The idea that gold and silver ar
becoming obsolete is absurd and IN
defensible. the logical conclusion
of such a statement would b.
"fatism," and that is somethin!
for which the judge used to enter
tain holy horror. All conslsten
democrats do yet. To be sure tn
ideal currency is paper currenc,
as a matter of convenience, bu
every dollar of it should represen
a dollar in coin on deposit for it
redemption on demand. The plal
outlined by Judge Clark is to us
silver only for sub.treasuly pun
poses; place gold on deposit ant
issue against it paper money in tn
proportion of three to one. IL
says cit would hardly lie in tn
mouths of democrats to question tn
principle" Let it be tried and h
will bs wonderfully disenchante'
and undeceived. Such a system
would b. infinitely worse than
monometallic silver basis. 1t woul'
place the masses of the people a
the calm and calculating mercy 0
the money manipulators, who woul'
have it in their power to corner tn
money market and create panic a
any time their cupidity might sug
gest by making a concerted run o
the treasury, depicting it of 1t
gold reserve. If all men wer
honest such a system might b
feasible, but as long as tn