The new North-west. [volume] (Deer Lodge, Mont.) 1869-1897, 1894-08-17
BETRAYED IT'S TRUST
THEN BOB SMITH PROMPTLY QUIT
THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY.

He Was a Democrat Until the Party Quit
and the Galvanized Tariff Bill More
Than He Could Consistently Stand
Hon. Bob Smith, the Populist candi-
date for congress, was present or the
occasion Of the meeting Of the Cascade
county Populist convention, at Great
Falls last week, and on being called on
for speech, gave an outline Of Populist
principles and his reasons for withdraw
ing allegiance to the Democratic party
that should, if common sense and reason
count for anything, forever silence those
who have taken occasion to question his
sincerity and honesty Of purpose. Fol
lowing is synopsis, in part, of his re
marks as reported by the Great Falls
Tribune:
The great fundamental principles that
he advocated today were inscribed upon
the banner Of the Peoples party and no
one should be ashamed to advocate them
There was nothing save the ties Of home
that bound men closer together than
political affiliation, yet men should learn
to distinguish between principle and a
name. There was no name dearer to his
heart than Democracy, for it meant gov
ernment by the people for the people,
but the party had departed from it's IDEAL
Two years ago the Democracy had met
in Chicago and declared that it believed
in the coinage Of gold and silver without
discrimination against either. Mr. Pat
terson, of Colorado, then asked that the
word sfree" be inserted in the resolution
but was told that the resolution '1he0nt
free coinage He (Smith) for one took
them at their word and advocated the
candidates of the party When con gress
met Mr.. Cleveland and his friends de-
clared that it did not mean what it said,
and Mr.. Bland, Mr.. Bryan and others de-
clared that it did He stood with the
latter and believed in the free coinage of
silver at ratio of 16 to 1, without the
assistance of any other nation under the
sun. Thus believing, and knowing that
both the old parties We're divided upon
the subject, he sought and found that the
Populist was the only party that was a
unit in favor Of free coinage and he had
cast his lot with them. In every couven-
tion in every section thus far held the
Populist party had in unmistakable terms
pronounced in favor Of free coinage. He
contrasted this with the meaningless
financial resolutions of the state conven-
tions Of both parties, including the Re-
publican club resolution at Denver which
lie read lie facetiously referred to the
platform, especially the word ''inte1con
vertible," and asked what it meant. Did
it mean changing silver into gold? If it
did, it meant something that the alchem-
lists had vainly tried for years. If it meant
to change a silver dollar for gold dol
simply declaring in favor Of free coinage
of silver at a ratio Of 1G to 1.
They had simply verified the saying Of
Talleyrand that language was made to
conceal ideas. That is what the plat
forms of both parties had done, and in SO
doing had fooled many into voting with
them. He declared that for years the
Democrats had abused the Republicans
for the decentralization Of silver, aud
promised, if they had the power, to undo
the evil. They got into power, and in
stead of redeeming their promise they
had driven the last nail into the coffin of
silver They had also promised tariff
reform, and after nearly two years they
had produced a bill that could truth fully
be called the Mckinley bill, junior. Il hey
had also denounced trusts, yet the Dc mo-
"a fol
under its wings the most infamous OF all
the trusts, the sugar trust. In advocating
silver they had declared against gold
standard or the contract to pay all debts
i'll gold yet they hardly got into power
before they issued fifty million do liars
worth Of gold bonds II that was the
way the Democracy meant to redeem its
promises, he never wished to be Il Demo
crat again.
A great many people say that the Pop
,llist is a fiat money party, said MIR. Smith.
They do not know what they are talking
about. The Populists advocate the use
of all the gold and silver in the land, and
as that is insufficient, they believe in the
use Of United States or treasury notes in
stead Of national bank notes, for the tea
son that the treasury note bears no inter
est, while the national bank note does,
the interest heing paid on the bonds de-
posted for their redemption. In explain
ing the word ''fiat," he said that gold and
silver as we'll as paper money could be
called fat, for their value was fixed by
Legislation, and but for that the intrinsic
value of the metals would be deterio-
rated. He illustrated this by saying that