St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1893-11-21
INSANITY. NOT COURAGE.

that the silyeriteS are to renew their
fight for the free coinage of silver OH the
reassembling of congress. Mr.. Bland
is reported as having bill ready to in
troduce as soon as the session opens.
He bases his hopes of success OH the
demonstration he thinks he is able to
make that the repeal Of the Sherman
purchases of bullion has not accom-
plished what was claimed for it; that
depression continues in the financial
world, and that foreign capital is not
rushing in to absorb our securities.
Mr.. Bland bases his expectations on a
slight foundation. Except among few
spectators and others influenced by
them. men whose gains were dependent
on the fluctuations of stocks on which
almost entirely the effect of the pur-
chase act was spent, there were none
who attributed to that act more than a
minor part in the panic which struck
US last May. 1t was an influence, no
doubt, but only a minor one. 1t was
merely rlvuiet carrying down Its con-
tribution to help swell the flood in the
great river which was bursting its
NSAAAAS esHA o"NSPAhR lhN
But the fanaticiSm of the man whose
mind once becomes infected with the
failacies Of currency is of that blind and
needless character which takes no heed
of conditions, sees nothing but what is
in the scope of the narrow crevice
through which he looks, and ignores or
denies the existence of all that its walls
hide from his vision. The silverites, if
they really intend to renew their strug-
gle, dc it under greater difficulties, and
i'll defiance of fact which struck them
with such force that one would think
that even they must sense it and its
meaning.
When they made their fight in the
special session they had the advantage
of a general ignorance of how large an
element among the voters they repre-
scented. They were so vociferous in
their assertions that the great mass of
the people were behind them, and there
was such an imposSibility of ascertain
ing whether this was fact or bombast,
that no doubt great part of the
strength they got in congress was be-
cause of the impression they thus Gre
ated of strong popular backing. OF
this advantage, and it was great one
for the average congressman is a cow
ard-the elections have deprived the m.
Had there been strong feeling in the
public mind that great wrong had
been perpetrated in the stuppage of free
coinage, and in the repeal of the Bland
Sherman substitutes; were there an i'm
preston that the financial trouble was
in any degree due to these acts; were the
belief prevalent that distress would be
relieved by the free coinage of silver, it
would have shown itself strongly and
Enthusiastically i'll the elections.
This would not have been shown by
Increased majoritieS OF votes for the
Democratic or Republican tickets, be-
cause both of these parties were culpa-
bic. Free coinage could not be had
from either. There was but one party
seeking votes at the elections which did
stand pledged to free coinage, and that
was the Populist, which had tickets in
every state which held an election.
Here was the vent for the expression of
free coinage opinion. 1t is true that no
election had direct bearing ON con-
gresS, but large Populist gains would
have had but one meaning, and that
would have been so plain that a
blind man could read it. Instead OF
gains, the elections show general
losses. In Virginia, where they had
clear field against the Democrats, they
made no impression. In Kansas, their
stronghold, they lost. In Iowa their
gains were Insignificant of anything.
In the face OF such demonstration
as this of an almost total lack of popu-
lar support, the courage which returns
to the attack. proposing to renew the
struggle to commit this country to the
free coinage Of debased currency, is
not courage, but is rather that insanity
which drives men to follow the crea-
lions of their disordered imaginations
unchecked by the control of reason.