The representative. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1893-1901, 1894-08-08
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CAPT. SMALLNOOD,
He Gives His Reasons for DESERVING
the Republican Party.

CAPT. SMALLWOOD.
He Gives His Reasons for DESERVING
| the Republican Party.
| To the Editor-I have been asked if
would object to giving the reasons why
propose to support Mr.. Owen for governor.
| My chief reason is because he is sound on
| the money question and stands On a
sound money platform. Gov. Nelson's
speech of acceptance vas IN open declara-
| ton for a single gold standard. while the
alleged money plank of the Republican
| pat torn, with it's shilly shaly, wishy
washy hash of ambiguous words and
phrases is downright insult to the ir telli-
gence of the average voter. The Republic
an candidate is frank; but the man who
wrote the money part of mis- platform
plainly presumed upon the ignorance and
stupidity of the people, and his produc ton
bears the ear marks of the small bore
demagogue.
To break away from the party ties of
lifetime, to ALLEVIATE old friends and give
up old political associations is painful in
deed, but this is no time to nince words or
to apologize for honest convictions The
grave duties of citizenship are paramount
to every personal or party considerations
Having cast my first ballot for Abraham
Lincoln and my last for Benjamin Harri-
son, I think 1 can justly claim to have
been quite as loyal to the declared prnci-
pies of the Republican party as those Min
nesota politicians who are now contendlng
for a financial theory which the party has
persistently disavowed for nearly 4O years,
and which has been condemned by it's
greatest leaders, the new doctrine of single
gold standard. 1t is a heresy which has
no place in financial system, and no
political party in this country has ever
dared to openly declare in favor of it TIL
now.
The Republicans of Minnesota and most
of the states have been gradually and I'M
consciously innoculated with it's poison. A
large majority of the leaders believe in it.
The Republican press advocates 1t. Party
candidates now promise 1t their support,
and party platforms either embrace 1t
openly or promise to return to bimetaliSm
only at some indefinite time or on some i'm
practicable basis or condition. l am also
in favor of independent action on the part
of this country for the restoration of silver
to it's former place in our coinage. If this
great silver producing country, this boosted
| land of protection. cannot take the lead in
| protecting of it's own precious metals by
| restoring it to its place, not only in cur
| coinage,
| how, in the name of common sense, can we
expect the gold boarding nations of Europe
| to come to our rescue. McGuffey's old sec
| ond reader gave the fable of the lark,
with her nest of young ones in the harvest
| field dreading that the reapers might come
| before the young birds were able to fly.
| The Young ones reported to the old mother
| the conversations between the farmer and
| his sons. On one day the old man ex-
pected his neighbors to come and cut his
! grain for him. They failed to come. On
| the next day he proposed to call in his rel
| atiyes They also disappointed him. These
different delays in expectation of outside
| help were Just what the wise old bird had
| predicted: but when at last the hedglings
| reported that the old farmer and his sons
| had resolved not to wait any longer for
| the help of others, but to cut the grain
| themselves, the old bird declared it was
| time to move. God, as we'll man, helps
| only them who help themselves.
When we declare our intention to act in
| this matter for ourselves the nations of
| Europe will also determine that it is time
| for them to move. There never was more
| senseless cry than that which bids us wait
| for Great Britain and the usurers of Eu-
| rope to come to our help in the great crisis
which now confronts u.s. There never was
| a greater bugaboo than this hue and cry
| about the necessity of international
agreement on the subject of b1met-
| talism. It IS but the rattle of parrots who
| continual contraction of our currency is
rapidly reducing once boosted trade to
| the mere barter of the savage.
The simple, childish fable of the lark is
! sufficient answer to the still more simple and
| childish fear of our lilliputian statesmen
| that this country dare not assert her indie
pendence of tory influences by exercising
| her sovereign power in declaring and en-
| forcing her own monetary system. This
| cowardice and slavish dependence on the
| of 10 exciting
| amaZement of the best thinkers of the old
| world. One of the greatest financial jour-
| nails in Europe, the London Financial News,
| has, within the last 80 days. given utter
| ance to the following:
There can be no doubt about it that if the
| United States were to adopt a silver basis
| tomorrow British trade would be ruined
| before the year was out. Every American
| industry would be protected not only at
| home. but at every other market. Of
| course the states would suffer to certain
| extent through having to pay their obliga-
| lions abroad in gold; but the loss on ex-
| change under this head would be mere
| drop in the bucket compared with the prof
| it's to be reaped from the markets of South
| America and Asia, to say nothing of Eu-
rope.
1.-The marvel is that the United States has
not long ago seized the opportunity, and
| but for the belief that the way of England
| is necessarily the way to commercial sue
| cess and prosperity, undoubtedly it would
| have been done long ago. Now, Americans
| are awakening to the fact that so long as
| they narrow their ambition to becoming
| larger than England they cannot beat us
| 1t has been piece of luck that it has
| never occurred to the Americans to scoop
us out of the worlds markets by going on
| a silver basis. and it serve us right, if
| irrtated by the contemptucus apathy of
| our government to the gravity of the silver
| problem, the Americans retalate by freez-
| ing out gold 1t could be easily done
| A prominent English banker says:
| I'm point of numbers the larger half of
| the world has silver for it's standard.
! THE world taken as a whole since 1873
| the time when American demonetized sill
ver), has been absolutely without common