The representative. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1893-1901, 1894-09-26

The situation is wholly changed when
the Republican party reverses the policy
which for Is years 1t had maintained and
by its official vote in both houses of con-
gress relegates the country to the single
gold standard with all that that implies
or industrial dry rot and compulsory idle
ness among the people. While it is true
that the Democratic party must share with
the Republican the responsibility for that
act, l am concerned only with the share
taken in it's passage by the party to the
success of whose policies l have devoted
the best years of my life. The Republican
representatives, in both houses of congress
constituted the strength of the repeating
party, both in number and in intellectual
force. Without a majority of the Repub-
iican votes to aid the Democratic admins
stration there was never one moment
wh5n the bill could have been passed.
For me. in my long maintained and solac-
ing political affiliations, the position thus
assumed by the Republican party is a
grievous change, and, so far as I am con-
cerned, brings us to the parting of the
ways To my profound regret, l can no
longer be of the household of the party
which brought freedom to the slave and
preserved the union of the states. The
great party which could unfiinchingly face
the slave power does not dare attack the
money power
After the fatal error of 1913 the Repub
lean party, by the passage of the act of
1873, took a step in the direction of repara-
ton for the wrong it had committed
against the producing masses of the coun-
try. In 1890 it took another step in the
same direction-a step which, owing to
the defective execution of the act of 1878,
was an advance upon that law. But by
the passage of the act of 1888 all the hopes
born of the two former acts have been
scattered to the winds.
Having always deemed the demonetiZing
law of 1873 to have been enacted in igno-
rance of the balefu effects which it would
have upon the prosperity of the country |
have been disposed rather to award to the
Republican party all proper credit for the
two successive attempts made in the direc
ton of undong the wrong than to mete
out censure for committing it. l cannot
secure the approval of my conscience for
similar degree of lenity with regard to
the enactment of the law of 1898.
On the demand of a Democratic presi-
dent the Republican party repealed the
most important-in fact, the only impor-
tant-feature of act passed by their
own votes exclusively and approved by
president of their own election. At the
dictation of administration adverse to
them we see them deliberately abandon
their silver record, undo and implicitly
condemn and repudiate all that they have
themselves done in this regard for many
years in the past, and at one bound set the
country back to the point at which it was
left by the act of 1873. So far as concerns
the interests of the American people, the
repeating act of 1893 was in my opinion
less justifiable and involved a greater de-
gree of moral and political turpitude than
that of 1873 In 1870 we had population
of but 3S000,000. We have now 7O,0GOOOO
nearly double
THE FALSE CRY BEHIND THE SPEC
IAI4 SESSION OF CONGRESS.
When, as in the emergency of last year.
al Mi IL,
Dor were falling in every direction and
Worknsmen were being DISCHARGED from
employment by hundreds of thousands it
seems extraordinary that lawmakers could
deliberately cut off from the people of the
United States all supplies of new money
That the emergency which called for the
extra session of congress was not caused
by too great all issue of silver money I'M
der the law of 1890 must have been palpa-
BILE to every impartial mind when it was
universally known that the crisis was not
confined to the United States, and that in
other countries no silver law existed to be-
come the convenient scapegoat for the GU
pidity of money lenders and their numerous
and influential agents.
That the difficulty could not have been
due to the want of confidence of our own
people in the silver money of the country
must have been equally clear when it was
observed that during the very fiercest days
of the panic silver dollars were selling and
We're eagerly bought up, even in Wall
street. at premium of per cent-that is
to say, they were paid for at the rate of
SOB in gold for 500 in silver. These facts
were Well known to Republican and Dem
ocrats alike, in congress and out, during
the extraordinary session of 1893.
There some silver Republicans who
still hope and perhaps believe that the Re-
publican party will take up the silver cause
in good faith and advocate the unrestrct-
no oil tiop
of l6 to l. l am sorry to differ with those
who entertain that opinion. In my judg-
ment, there is not the slightest founda ton
for it. Actions speak louder than words.
Among the entire Republican congressional
represen alton in both houses of congress
from states east of the Mississippi, on the
passage of the repeal bill in October last,
there were but six votes in the house and
one in the senate cast in favor of silver.
OF course conventions of both parties are
still presenting to the country resolutions
demanding a larger use of silver in the
currency its restoration to its former posi-
ton, etc. After the severe use to which
phrases of this character have for many
years been subjected one would suppose
they could now hardly be taken seriously.
They may best be characterized in the
slang of the day as 'chestnuts."
With one honorable exception among
states not distinctly recognized as silver
producing states-that of Calfornia-the
silver resolutions and "planks' of Repub
Ican conventions are in substance the same
resolutions that We're Frequently passed
al Republican state and national conven-
tons before the repeating act Of last year
DUST THROWN IN THE EYES OF SILL
YER REPUBLICANS AND SILL
YER DEMOCRATS.
All those resolutions and so-called silver
planks are the same sort of dust that for
many years has been thrown into the ewes
nd ell L.,
to blind them sufficiently long to permit
particular election to be held and to secure
their votes for that election. If those con-
ventions favored the free coinage of silver
by the United States at the ratio of 16 to /
without regard to the policies of foreign
governments, the English language is sufTi-
GENTLY copious to enable them to say So
The repeal of the act of 1S90-for the pur-
chase clause was all there was of it-dem-
onstrates more plainly the position of the
Republican as we'll of the Democra tic
party ON the silver question than any
plank ever inserted in platform
"And Joab said to Amasa Art thou in
health, my brother? and he smote him in
the fifth rib
Those Republicans who still entertain the
idea that their party may take up the silver
cause Go not fully understand the position
of its leaders. With the exceptions which
l have noted, all those leaders are proud to
be known not as national but as internal
tional bimetallists. No "pent-up Utica
contracts their powers. They propose to
enter into partnership with the governments
of jr%r to q which 10