Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1894-07-19
NUMBER 3.
Awakening from the Spell.

| The Washington Post now under the
exclusive control of Hon. Beriah VIII
kins. the brilliant Democratic ex-con-
gresham from Ohio, has become the
active and vigorous champion of the
rehabilitation of silver and of its res
toratlon to its unconstitutional position
of free coinage.
The influence of the Posi- is peculiarly
potent, in that it is the leading daily
published at the capital OF the nation,
and the friends of bimetallism every
| where will take renewed courage in its
determined stand for the peoples
money.
In a recent editorial on the silver
question and on the disastrous ami an
Initiating effect of the establishment
of the single gold standard. it says:
1t begins to appear that the country
| is not willing to rest upon the mere
| consciousness of having done a great
and glittering thing. Men are begin
ming to ask whether it pays to strike
attitudes and deliver high sounding
ing moral sentiments at the cost of
business stagnation and industrial
wreck. They are beginning to wonder
whether they can afford SO much alb
stract virtue. We were told, a year
ago. that the repeal of the silver pur-
chasing clause of the Sherman act
| would heal our woes; that. by follow
ing England and making the disgrace
and degradation of silver universal, We
would translate ourselves to the loft
lest realms of bliss. The cuckoos
came out of their boxes and called the
hour that ushered in our happiness.
The mugwumps and the otiice-holding
editors all twanged their Tyres OF
praise and roseate prophecy. Our
welfare was assured. Everything
would be lovely in a few minutes. The
air would blacken with the smoke of
re-established factories, commerce
would come to life again, the noise and
hum of quickened industry would make
music for the ear of man. A prophet
had come to Judgment, and 10! the
millennium and all its countless joys
awaited us around the corner. But as
we say. the manhood and the common
sense of the country are awakening
from the spell that was laid upon them.
and men are asking for something
more than reverberating rhetoric and
fatuous dogma. In Ohio, as else
where, it is question whether we
have helped ourselves or served any
~ hr- oorcnpfipr RI tho
elimation of silver from our scneme of
finance-whether events have vindi-
Gated or discredited the gospel OF the
single standard.
1t viii be well to watch the revela-
tions of public sentiment in this con-
nection as they occur. We are not alb
solutely sure, as yet, but the indica.
tons are that the day of the cuckoo
and the idolater is past.
This is what the Constitution has
been preaching for nearly year. One
after another the far-seeing newspap-
ers which have not been tied with the
halter of patronage obligations are
awakening to the seriousness of the
situation, and are demanding the full
fllment of the Democratic pledge for
the use of both gold and silver. leach
to be coined without discrimination
against the ether"
Under the assurance that the uncon-
ditional repeal of the Sherman law was |
the first step to the free coinage of sill
yer. the Post yielded to the pressure.
and during the late lamented extra
session urged unconditional repeal on
the assurance of those who were ad-
vocatirg it that it would be immedi-
ately followed by further legislation |
restoring silver to its constitutional
position. No wonder. therefore, that
it should now demand compliance with |
the obligations under which silver was
demonetized and the gold standard es-
tablished.
The truth of the matter is, the peo-
pie are now beginning to fully realize
the despe rate condition which has fol- |
lowed in the wake Of the single gold |
standard, and the popular demand for
restoration and reform will soon prove |
to be such that it can no longer be re-
sisted.
The danger now lies in the fact that !
a new congress is soon TO be elected, |
and that if something is not done in |
the meantime the failure may have a |
diastrous effect in the fall elections
atlanta Constitution.