St. Paul daily globe., 1895-07-03
A DRIFT OF PARTIES.

One of the most distinct and uneX-
pected changes in the attitude and
drift of political parties that we have
ever known has taken place within
the last month. Up to that time it
had been generally assumed that the
movement for the free coinage of sill
yer would find most encouragement
on the Democratic side, and that the
Republican party would aim to rep
resent the views of those who dis
believe in silver monometallism.
There was no good ground for such
an assumption. 1t sprang almost
wholly from the noisy assertions of
few prominent Democrats who had
been captured by the idea that the
free silver policy was a vote-getter,
and from the clamor of those Re-
puDlicanS who took it for granted,
without knowing why, that their
party would stand for honest money.
But the straWS that swim on the sur
face give no reliable indication of
the direction and force of the cur
rents that flow increasingly in the
deepS. We have dipped below the
froth and the scum of politics re-
Gently, and come nearer to the true
opinion Of the masses of the people
In the two parties themselves
than we were before The re-
suit is not surprising to those
who understand, admire and trust
the fidelity of Democracy to
Its ancient standards, but it has
1ostied rudely out of their compla-
cence the Republicans whose fate it
has been to believe that wisdom was
born and would die with them.
AS matters stand today, the drift
Dt the Democratic party is strongly
Toward honest money, and the Re-
publican organization is whirling
helplessly in the eddies of financial
folly The two great events which
stand as monuments Of these ten-
uencies are, of course, the Cleveland
and the Louisville conventions. We
nave already dwelt upon the relative
significance Of those GATHERINGS and
their issue. But it is often tho
lesser happenings that tell more
strongly in the fortunes of a peoDle
pr party than the incidents that
attract a wider notice. No reader of
Lhe news is ignorant that what we
stated to be the Inevitable result of
the Cleveland fiasco has already
partly come to pass. The hosts of
Tree Silver on the Republican side
are encouraged, alert, aggressive.
The alliance between the silver men
and the protectionists is as real
rs 1t is natural. There was a
compact entered into by which the
pennsylvania manufacturers, in ex-
ehange for the votes of the mountain
states in favor of their "robber far
III, were to assist in granting
TO them an equal measure of gov
ernment favor at the cost of the
people. That compact was signed
sealed and delivered. The silver men
carried out their part of it in good
faith. Although the Republicans
have thus far evaded compliance on
their part, they have not quieted the
demand for performance of their
promises. 1t is because the silver
Republicans in mining states feel
that there is broken pledge behind
fhem, that they threaten to leave
The party if it does not, in 1896. COM
ply with what they feel to be their
bust demands, and deliver to them
The goods whose purchase price thew
paid in 1880. When there is added to
Hhe influence of these men, and the
positive stand that they have taken
Rhe feeling engendered among the
rank and file by the practical sur-