St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1895-02-01
VEST AT THE FORKS.

Senator Vest announces that he
and the administration have come
to the parting of the ways; that he
can go no farther with it, and bids
it a sad and melancholy farewell.
The senator is another of those
Democrats who persist in asserting
that the country is in the rapacious
and merciless grasp of the money
power, and that the only thing that
will compel a release of that grasp
is the free coinage of silver
Even the awful lesson of Missouri
going Republican is lost upon him.
For years Mr.. Vest, in the senate,
and Mr.. Bland, in the house, have
been preaching the gospel of silver
fiatism, to the rejection of which
they have attributed most of the
financial woes of the country Cam
paign after campaign they have been
preaching to their people that the
falling prices of their products were
entirely due to the decentralization
of silver; that it's remonetizatio by
free coinage would restore prosper
ity. All political experience teaches
how powerful such arguments are
with the people in times of financial
! depression. Had they succeeded in
convincing the majority of their con-
stituents of the accuracy of their
opinions, it is incredible that they
would not have declared their con-
victions at the polls.
The lesson in Missouri is the same
as that taught everywhere outside
Of the silver states. AS the result of
the election of "a, the Democratic
majority of siXty-siX in the legis-
lature on joint ballot is turned into
a Republican majority of sixteen.
OF the fifteen congressional districts,
| thirteen Of them returned Demo-
| Gratis in 1892, and in 1894 but five
| Democrats are returned to congress.
| The Democratic plurality on the
state ticket in 1892 of il ,4S0 is turned
in 1894 into a Republican plurality
| Of 3,04. Nor is this the only object
! lesson that Senator Vest fails to
! comprehend. The vote upon the re-
|
act was made test of loyalty to the
! policy of free coinage. The free sill
yer men opposed it. Of the thirteen
| Missouri Democrats in the house, all
of them except Mr.. Cobb voted
against the repeal.
Of the twelve voting against the
| repeal, six were renominated and
defeated, and two were replaced by
| other Democrats in the convention,
and these were defeated. OF the
four who voted against the repeal
and We're elected, Mr.. De Almond
was returned by plurality Of 50, as
against 1894 in '92; Mr.. Dockery by
a plurality of $40, as against 3,461 in
'92; Mr.. Hall by 1861, as against
| 5,902, and Mr.. Tarsney by 744, as
| against 5,167. On the other hand,
Mr.. Cobb, who voted for the repeal,
had his plurality almost exactly
doubled, it having been 1882 in '92
and 1925 in "a. 1t appears, then,
that Senator Vest came to the part
ing Of the ways, not at the introduce
ton the other day of the admins
tration currency bill, but prior to
last November, and the ways did
not separate him from the admins
tration, but from a majority of the
voters Of the state of Missouri. 1t is
said that the only way to get joke
into the head Of Scotchman is by q
surgical operation. 1t evidently re-
quires something more than that
even to set comprehension Of the sit
uation into the head of Senator
Vest.
In another matter the doughty
senator from Missouri is equally at
fault. He opposes the adrninistra
ton bill because, he says, it com
mits the country irrevocabIy to the
gold standard, and to that he is
unalterably opposed. When the act
Of 1884 reduced the number of grains
in our gold coins it underyalued sill