St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1895-04-07
TIE SILVER GRAYS.

So we have in all the parties tur-
MOL and tribulation. We saw in the
closing days of congress the asso-
citation of a few politicians of both
parties constructing and launching
a new party, putting it in COM
mission, With a captain on the quar-
ter deck before a crew had been en-
listed. We see some Democrats in
Illinois, thinking they see the direc-
ton in which the popular breeze is
setting, squaring their sails to catch
it. We see a Republican candidate
for the presidency masquerading,
while prominent Republican papers
are insisting that their party must
espouse the cause of the pretender
And we have the volatile Donnelly,
like hen whose ducklings are TAX
ing to the water, declaring that the
Populists are the only true silver
Allah, and Populism is its prophet
In our own state the ferment is
working and leavening the mass.
Politicians, big and little, are watch
ing it with eager and anxious eyes.
Democrats and Republicans are alike
infected. The contagion infects
each party with equal force and
effect. With a politicians natural
and controlling desire to discover
which way the procession is moving,
and to get into it near or at the
head, these gentry in both parties
are impressed that the flux is operat-
ing, the parties are disintegrating,
a new sun is rising, and for some
time they have been arranging mat
ters so that they will be in the fore
front Of the procession and seated
On the band wagon.
Elsewhere We give the first pub
Lefty to this movement that has been
for some time going quietly on under
the surface. The movement is a
shreWdly designed and conducted
one 1t is to be non-partisan, but
blending of Republicans and Demo-
Gratis. The Populists are to be ex-
Guided. Their pre-emptive rights
to the free coinage idea are to be ig-
hored. Donnelly, the versatile, is to
be barred out from all participation.
NO schemes of land loans and SUBJ
treasures are to be allowed to dilute
and weaken the single element of
the new party. The "Silyer Gravs,
Will bestride but one plank, and that
VIII be free coinage of silver at a
10 10 L ratio. The standard dollar,
free and unlimited, will be their
standard. Under it they will gather
the rag-tag and bob-tail of the other
parties, muster the Falstaffian Pom
ulists in as recruits merely. and
open the campaign which they an
t1c1pate will give them the leaves
and fishes of the state patronage in
go.
ON the whole, we rather approve
or the movement. Not that we sym-
pathize with it or wish if suc-
cess, or expect that it will achieve
1t, but because we believe that some
lux is needed to detach from their
former or present parties the men
who hold those radically opposing
conceptions Of government, the indi-
vidualistfc, represented by Democ-
racy, and the paternalistic or social
1stic, represented by Republicanism,
Populism and the "Silver Grays."
Free coinage at a false ratio being
essentially a paternalistic measure
to give protection" to one unsheI-
tered product, the "Silver Grays'
will draw to themselves those Demo-
Gratis who have been unconscious
protectionists, relieving the Demo-
cratic party Of their paralyzing
presence, while the Democrats re-
naming true to the fundamental
principles of their party will draw
to them from all the other parties
those who, seeing the tendency
toward state socialism of their par
ties, are repealed by it, and refuse
to move with it.
Out of it all will come a purifica-
ton of Democracy by the elimina-
ton of its present impurities that
prevent it's being true to itself. and
with it will come the advocacy of a
sound currency and free trade, the
two landmarks of commerce. The
two are natural allies, for the cur
rency of trade must be as universal
as the trade. 1t may not be next year
that the Democracy will rise to it's
opportunity, but, if it is to live it
must, and the sooner it does the
sooner will it regain the confidence
its representatives forfeited.