The representative. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1893-1901, 1894-10-17
REPUBLICAN, PARTY.
WHAT 1T WAS AND WHAT 1T IS.
Its Relations to LabOr.-Its Plat.
form on Silver.

1.-THE Republican party took labor
from the auction block and made it
honorable"-so says the Republican
platform adopted In Minnesota. Elk
change.
Very prettily expressed and very
true. The Republican party did all
that. 1t heard the lamentations Of
the black slaves and it made them,-
four millions Of them,-freemen. But
that was 80 years ago. If it was still
filled with the same divine passion for
liberty we should all be Republicans;
and the party would not be, today out
of power in every department Of the
government, and seeking to regain its
Did place through the blunder5 Of
Democratic administration. which has
turned its people away from the path
marked out by Jefferson and Jackson,
into following in the steps of Carnegie,
Pullman, John Sherman and other
Republican leaders.
1.-THE Republican party took (col-
oredD labor from the auction block
and made it honorable" Truc;-but
it is now laboring to place labor (of
all comploxions,) in q worse estate
than the slave on the auction block.
In great battle between the mass Of
humanity and $4,000 millonaires its
Bympathies are all against the people,
and for tie capitalists. 1t has joined
with the banking class Of Europe and
America to cut off one-half the metal
lie money of the world and throw it
away; SO as to double the power Of
gold and halve the price of property.
The result is the farmers are on the
verge Of bankruptcy and millions Of
workmen are starving or living on
charity; while the nation trembleS on
the very verge of ruin. And then the
Republican party comes up, in this
state and in its state convention points
backward to it's noble record Of thirty
years ago; it declares that bimetal-
lism is absolutely essential to the
prosperity of the people; and then re-
fuses to demand it in unequivocal
terms, but matches an enigma Of
platform. that can be read a dozen
ways.
Here it is. Consider it closely. We
quote it all line by line.
1.-The Republican party believes in
the use OF both gold and silver as
money"
OF course. So does everybody; be-
cause no one objects to the use of sill
yer dimes, quarter and half dollars.
Maintaining the substantial parity
of value of every dollar in circulation
with that Of every other dollar"
AS we said before,-how can that be
done if gold is allowed free coinage
and silver is not? The principal de-
mand for silver is thus destroyed, and
the price falls. This is inevitable.
If the price of silver falls, and gold
does not, how can there be ''parity
of value" between the dollars, unless
more silver is put into the dollar?
And how will that help trade Or COM
merce? We have tlsen a gold single
standard, the equivalent Of twice as
much silver, wheat, meat and work.
This doubles the mortgage and halves
the farm.
"It," CONTINUES the Republican
platform). "believes in bimetallism."
What kind of bimetdtlisn,? That
which we have now,-of gold, and sill
yer small change? Or on the basis of
16 TO L. Or 20 to 1; or % to i; or 50 to l.
or 100 to 1? Speak, oh speak!
ct believes that the restoration of
silver, as ultimate money, to the cur
rency Of the world, is absolutely neces-
fary for business prosperity. proper
rates Of wages and the welfare of the
people"
Observe the dodge:-it demands the
restoration of silver to the currency
not of the United States-but 'of the
sCorld." That means another inter
national conference, with England
controlling it: and England will con-
tinue to demand that the interest due
by all the world, to her, on her capital
Invested, among the nations (see
Gladstone's candid speech), shall be
paid in the scarcest and dearest mon
by possible.-to wit:-gold alone and
not gold and silver.
And mark the concluding words of
the silver plank in that platform:
Holding these views, we believe it
shonld be the policy of the United
States to do everything in it's power
to promote the restoration Of silver to
The ;corld's currency"
There you have it again! One would
think that that convention, instead
Of being a gathering of Republicans
residing in the state of Minnesota,
was an assemblage of delegates from
the whole known world. But one can
see the game clearly. They are for
bimetallism-of course they are.-but
they refuse to specify on what terms:
md they want ''the acorld" and not the
United States, to settle the question
for the United States, so that England
Fan have controlling voice in the de-
termination Of the matter.
Now in contrast with all this knav-
cry and trickcry, this "beating the
devil around the bush," this "palter.
ing in double sense;" this appearing
to say one thing and really saying a
very different thing, read the short,
clear, emphatic declaration of the
Peoples party platforms:
I'VE demand the free and unlimited
coinage Of silver and gold, at the pres.
ent legal ratio of sixteen to one"
There you have it in two lines No
lodging there; no equivocation; you
can't make anything out of this but
what it says. And it demands not