The daily morning Astorian. [volume] (Astoria, Oregon) 1883-1899, 1895-09-06
THE FREE SILVER OUTLOOK.

The free silver politicians who have
been luxuriating In the soothing dream
that their particular form of neurosi.
was to spread till the earth was filled
with lunaticS must be by this time pretty
we'd disgusted with the outlook All the
.eading Northern states which have spok-
en- at all have declared against free
silver, and have made that declaration
unanimous by the concurrent voice OF
both parties Even those whlch have
been affected by the craze give 1nmis-
taxable signs of returning sanity. Ken
lucky, at least, on its Democratic side,
was supposed to i've irretrievably welded
to the white idol of the Rocky mountain
miners. But Kentucky has renOunced the
the fetish, the Republican party even
more emphatically than the Democratic.
1t is true that Hardin, the Democratic
candidate, has renounced the sound
money PLATFORM on which he was nom
mated, and Is preaching free silver on
the stump. But the probability is that
his heresy will cost him the support of
thousands Of Democrats, and it has made
possible the election of a Republican
sound money governor even in a state
so overwhelmingly Democratic and i'm
penetraTbly Bourbon as Kentucky.
The Democrats of Ohio were supposed
to be so widely infected with the Rocky
mountain idea that they could be counted
on for q pronouncement for free silver.
But they, too, have cast Thurman and
his coterie into outer darkness, where
there is wailing and gnashing of teeth.
They have buried free silver in the same
grave with its advocates. The Repub-
llcans had already performed the same
.Ntaaa.
ploughed and narrowed and sown with
the free silver foolishness for years. Yet
In their late conventions 1t was put under
the ban OF party condemnation by both
Republicans and Democrats. Senator
Cameron OF Pennsylvania is not heavy
weight in the senate; but he has been
an influential politician in his state, and
his open committal to free silver, par
TALLY seconded until recently, by the
cloudy utterancCs of his colleague Quay,
had inspired a great deal of apprehension
that the Republicans of Pennsylvania
had been widely inoculated with the dis
ease. But in their recent convention
they took especial pains to stamp with
their emphatic dlsapproval the position
of Senator Cameron and to declare in
explicit terms against the free coinage
of silver. The Democrats in that state
do not count, but there is no question
that their position on the money issue
Is In harmony with that of the admins,
tratlon, Maryland has spoken through
both parties in the same way The Demo-
Gratis of Nebraska, under the lead of
Bryan, alone among the Northern states,
have declared for free silver. The Re-
publlcans of that state have also here
tofore been suffering from the same sick
ness. But they are rapidly recovering,
and II not entirely convalescent this year,
they may be expected to show a complete
restoration to health by the time the next
national convention shall meet. The Mis-
souri, Democrats are divided on the ques-
tion, and Band, the free silver apostle,
managed to secure the triumph OF his
faction In the convention and an express
sion in favor of free silver. When you
get out of the latitude of industry ana
business and go down to the zone OF
Darharic unthrift, where the people ex,
pect the government to do for them what
prolific nature has left undone, you strike
a general sentiment for free silver. So
that there is no political force in the
stand of Mississippi for free silver. 1t
has no popular Intelligence behind 1t.
SO that the outlook is not cheering
for the free silver politician who has been
counting on tidal wave of rasca,lty in
the pubic sentiment OF the American peo,
pie to hoat him into place and power
amidst the wreck of all honest invest
ments and al business enterprise. Since
the people of the Northern and Central
states have come to understand Just what
Is meant by free silver they have made
short work of It, There is no Northern
state except on the extreme western from
tier where 1t has any foothold-and 1t il
safe to say THAT by next year there win
not be single Northern state, not even
ON the western frontier-exceptlon made
of the silver mining states-whlch viii
send a free silver delegation to the Re,
publican or Democratic national conven-
tions,