People's party paper. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1891-1898, 1894-10-05
A Little Common Sense Talk.


S1.298 in 1878. From the very
moment of its demonstration COM
menced its rapid decline. In 1888
its bullion price was Sill and 1898
it had shrunk to rs cents. In 49, )
cotton was worth Is cents per pound,
in 1888 it had dropped to IL cent.
and in 1893 it was down to 6 cents.
Silver and cotton are still declining
in company and it requires no
prophets ken to 'foresee that ire
trieyable disaster and ruin will over
take our country if this condition is
not changed.
There are few men in the South
who do not admit that the apprecia-
ton in the price of silver would
bring with it a corresponding rise in
the price of cotton. The few south
ern men who combat this theory are
officeholders or men with fixed iu-
comes; the former class being
blinded with the glimmer of gold
which in some mysterious way
warps their judgment or at least
fixes their position, the latter because
it is to their interest to have dear
money. With these few exceptions
the South is a unit in its desire for
the appreciation of silver, and since
it cannot be doubted that the free
coinage of silver at our minis at its
established ratio, 16 to 1, would re-
store it to its former value, the peo-
pie of the South demand that the
minis shall again be opened to its
coinage.
1t having become apparent that no
reforms which were demanded in the
interest Of the people could Re Sc
cured through either Of the old par
ties, the formation of a new party
became necessity. This new party
was organized July 4, 1892, and one
of its demands is the free and uu-
limited coinage of silver at the ratio
Of 16 to 1. There are good men
who believed then, and few who
still think, that all needed reforms,
among them the restoration of the
free coinage of silver, can be secured |
through the democratic party.
The Augusta Chronicle, speak
ing for this class, in recent issue,
says:
The claim of the democratic press
and the democratic speakers has been
from the start that those democrats who |
went into the third party to contend |
for the reforms they deemed essential,
should have continued as democrats |
and fought for the reforms they desired
within the party lines, Now, 1orscoth, |
because many good democrats believe
in the free coinage of silver, the papers |
who believe differently are constantly i
intimating in impertinent paragraphs |
that democrats on the populist plat |
form had better get in the populist
. party" All we can say is that if being
IN favor of the free coinage of silver at
the ratio of is to l puts q man on the |
populist platform, and all those who
believe in it should follow the sugges-
ton of the gold standard papers, it
would be very cold day for the demo
cratic party in Georgia,
But no such course will be taken by
free silver democrats. They are demo
Gratis to the manner born. and will CON
tend for free silver until the next
national convention shall put il in the
party platform in plain and unmistaka-
bic language. The people were led to
believe that it was intended by the last
platform. The next will not be allowed |
to make use of words capable of two
constructions. The democratic party
either believes in the free and unlim-
tied coinage of silver at the racio of. IL |
to l.. or it does not, and the next
national platform will have to make
an explicit declaration one way or the
other
In the light of experience this APP
pears to be silly talk. "The next
(uational platform) will not be al
lowed to make use Of words capable
of two constructions" Was not the |
Georgia democracy pledged to free
silver in 1892? Was not the south
in favor of it? Were not the dele
cation from South Carolina posi-
lively instructed to demand it? Yet
what did it amount to? The am
biguous platform was adopted, and
the poor dupes sent home to deceive
their people with Elusive promises,
while the goldbugs chuckled at their
gullibility
But worse still. The Georgia
democrats, meeting in state conven-
jon in 1894, with the majority of
their party in favor of free silver
coinage, was unable to adopt a sill
yer platform plank which was ex-
pliclt in its demands, and was forced
TO adopt the same meaningless jar
gon which was formulated at Chicago
two years ago. Is it not then ride
ulOus nonsense to saw that Uthe |