Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1895-05-22
CARLISLE'S SPEECH
1t Was What Had Been Previously
Outlined in the Star.
FREE COINAGE CRITICISM OF IT
Questions Mr.. Blackburn VIII Ask
Him to answer.
WHAT HIS FRIENDS THINK

d
MONDAY night the speech his friends here
had previously outlined to a representative
OF The Star. He not ONLY declared nm
equlvocally against free coinage but ex-
plaiEed his record made while a member of
congress on the silver question. He de-
ihed, as II had been stated he would that
any speech or vote of his made or cast
"hiie ne was in Congress could be con-
strued by fair examination of il as COM
mitting him to the free and unlimited COIN
age of silver. He spoke to a very large
audience OF his old friends and neighbors,
and the reports of the meeting agree in
the statement that his remarks were well
received. He will arrive in Memphis to-
oay, VIII address the sound money conven-
tlon there tomorrow. and then returning to
Kentucky Will make two more speeches.
Ihe Covington speech, however, fur
n1shes all that is necessary to draw the
fire of Mr.. Carlisles free coinage opponents
at home The. big guns are all loading for
MIN. The boom of the Blackburn Coum-
bad will be heard in Owensboro' next
Monday night. and from that time on the
roar of the heavy artillery will be inces-
SAINT.
Free Coinage Criticism.
The criticism the free coinage men make
of Mr.. Carlisle's deliverance is that it does
not go far enough in one direction, and that
1t goes too far in another. They charge
| that he does not state the case with frank
| ness, either with regard to his present or
his past position. He is hedging on the
one hand and crowding the limit on the
other. He is a gold man pure and simple
they say, and ought to have the boldness
so to declare He ought to range himself
along with his colleague of the cabinet,
Mr.. Morton. at whose side on this money
question he properly belongs. Silver as
metal N
except as a subsidiary coin. He knocks
the spots out of the proposition for an in
ternational conference. Why take the in
tcrnational sense as to keeping silver
down? Isn't silver helpless enough al
ready? But, the silver men complain, this
attitude of the Secretary is left too much
to inference. He still claims to be bi-
metallist. and to be speaking for bimetal-
lism. They class him as gold monometal-
list, ana announce willingness almost to
forgive him his change of front If he win
come out in the true colors they think he
now ought to wear
Mr. Blackburn proclaims q purpose to
hold Mr.. Carlisle to the plain letter of the
la1ter's congressional record on silver The
his. For two years past the whole case
has been undergoing the most careful
study. 1t was charged at the special ses.
sitn OF the last Congress that MIR. Carlisle
had gone over to the gold men. and it was
then that the purpose was taken by the
fiee coinage champions to convict him out
OF his own mouth. They put men to work
at once on the congressional debates in
which Mr.. Carlisle had participated and
Trey have material on hand sufficient, they
claim. to easily dispose of any explana-
tors the Secretary may offer. They assert
their ability to convict him on one or the
other of two indictments. He was either
uncandid while in Congress, and kept COM
pany to which he knew he did not prop
erly belong, or else he is uncandid now in
his attempt to show that there is nothing
Il cons 81 ent between his attitude then and
his present attitude.
Some Questions to he Anawered
Mr.. Carlisle will have to meet something
like this at home: rs not Ii true that the
Kentucky democracy was for years practi-
cally unanimous on the question of the
free coinage of silver? Did not state and
district and county conventions all dis
tinctly and repeatedly declare for free
silver? Did not the last state convention
so declare, and did not the democratic
candidate for governor take the side of
silver on the stump? Did not you yourself
help to create this silver sentiment? Did
not your own congressional district take
-an advocate of free silver? Could you have
gone there at all If you had at any time
announced views antagonistic to free COIN
age? Could you even have been nominated
for such an office on a platform like that
upon which you now are standing? Haven't
you been conscious for years of the fact
that the friends of free coinage all over
the country were pointing to you as one
of the great leaders of the cause? And did
you ever, until You laid down your Ken
lucky commission and took up your
tional commission, say or do one single
thing to correct the Impression"
What He should Have Done.
These are the questions that Mr.. Black
burn will PROFOUND, and they will be taken
up and repeated from every free coinage
~ to4a Thaxy fn
the point, and even some of Mr.. Carlisle's
admirers concede that they contain ele-
ments of trouble for him. They are en-
barrassing only in the light of Mr.. Car
isles own explanation of his past record.
They would lose all Of their force and per-
tinency if the Secretary could see his way
to confession of a change of opinion. 1t
may be too late for this. But, as is sug-
gested, suppose he had said at the start:
Il did, when much younger man ana
fresh in the congressional harness, cham
pion free coinage. l both spoke and voted
for free silver. 1t seemed the policy then
that the country ought to adopt. / was In
mighty good company, too Beck. ana
Thurman, and Hendricks, and all the rest
of the party leaders from out my way.
We're at the head of the procession. fol-
lowed my leaders. That's recommended in
politics as well as on the play ground at
school. But things have changed, or, at
any rate, they don't look the same to me.
1 am not in favor of free coinage now.
Il think such policy would be prejudicial
to the interests of the country. l believe.
too. that my present views on the subject
are better than my past views. / am not
only an older man, but my opportunities
for studying silver have recently been ex-
ceptionaly good. AS Secretary of the
Treasury have been brought into intimate
contact with all of the leading financiers
of the country, and my views under this
contact have broadened. l am now oppos-
ed to free coinage, and shall exert myself
as much to defend that policy as l ever
did to advance it. 1t is always in order
for a man to change his mind, if good rea-
sons present themselves. 1 have done that
and / frankly tell you so.''
Had Mr.. Carlisle taken this course the
belief Is, even among some of his friends.
that his infiuehce in the present contest
would have counted for more than 1t will
as matters stand.