St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1895-04-02

dilo Tie rentals Oh the water power
company be maintained in all their
integrity. In it we recognize again
that spirit that Randolph charac-
terized as looking on all government
as job, and which lis never so
true to itself as when it is false to
the country"
Being in favor of free trade, we are
logical enough to be in favor of free
silver. Opposing protection in any
form, we oppose protection to silver.
One of the oddities of mental proc
esses is that by which so many good
Democrats all over the country are
in favor of free trade and protected
silver How they reach this, how
they reconcile their view of silver
with their basic Democratic prin-
ciples; how they manage to dove
tail the one into the other is a mys-
terry whose solution by any process
OF deductive reasoning we abandon
as hopeless.
We might account for it if we
could admit that these good fellows
do not see that the free silver de-
manded by the silverites is not that
at all, but the worst form of protec-
ton, and that our Democrats, low
ing freedom, are caught by the mis-
use of the word free" but that adj
mission compromises their intelli-
gence, and we have too much conSid-
GRAFTON for their sensitive feelings
may be mere thoughtleSSnesS on
their part; an acceptance of policy
because of the label it wears, the re-
ceptiOn Of a stranger as a friend
merely because he gives the counter
sign, without further or closer ques-
tioning. If there are those who
think themselves Democrats who
know that free silver in the
mouths of the silverphobists is pro-
tected silver, we must give them
over to the Populists as hopelessly
lost to Democracy.
The coinage of silver at ratio of
16 to l is not giving freedom to that
metal, we say, but is giving to it
the same protection, only greater
measure, that was given to the
sugar producers of Louisiana under
the bountiful reign of McKinleyism
and the manufacturers of textiles,
iron, steel and other articles of the
tariff schedules. Any Democrat who
puts on his thinking cap for five
minutes and clears his brains of
the cobwebs of sophistry will see
this. What is the aim of protection
by tariffs? To obstruct competition.
making the competing article more
costly. For what purpose? So that
the domestic maker may get more
for his product than he could If
subject to the competition of the
foreign article under conditions of
given to compensate the planter for
the loss supposed to be the result of
freeing raw sugar from import tax,
thus giving him more for his product
than he could get under free trade
conditions.
Of the earth yielded up to labor,
just as wheat or iron or lumber or
any other object is; a commodity
capable of several uses, among which
is that of making exchanges Of the
other products of labor. 1t goes into
tableware, jewelry, ornaments and
money. 1t is a commodity and
nothing else, and as money it is
commodity money. 1t is an article
of commerce, seeking, with every
other product of labor, the best mar
ket it can find. That is, that mar
ditions, will yield it the largest re-
turn. If it finds the better price in
the markets of trade than at the
mints, as was the case after 1884,
it goes to the markets abjuring will
ingly what some consider it's divine
mission to serve as money.
Silver bullion is quoted today at Ga
cents an ounce. If it had access to
the minis on the terms demanded
by the Sibleyites it would be worth
at the minis $1.29 per ounce. That is
to say, it could there be converted
into dollars which the government
of the United States, by it's arbitrary
edict alone, would compel every man
to whom another owned money to
take these dollars at par. That
would be giving the silver producers
protection of the rankest kind. and
)Rnnnraf ri 10
moment. That is not free silver as
wheat, seeking the best market it
can find where competition is open.
is free. 1t is sugar protection and tex
tile protection and silk protection
and glass protection doubled UP and
extended to silver, and as a Demo-
crat the GLOBE is inf1eXibly "agin"
it.
But it is in favor of real free sill
yer, as it has been saying since 1891.
1t wants silver used as money, and
it wants it to go to the trade mark eft
or the mint market, and in either
get the value free competition fixes.
just as wheat goes to the mill or to
the feed box, as either the one or
the other would give the best re-
turn to the producer. We have 10
tear of deluge of silver dollars
obtained under such conditions. anv
more than we have fear of a DEL
uge of wheat or of boots or of cloth
Ing. That would be free silver, and
we protest against the good word
free" being applied to cover a pro-
lection that out-Herods the Penn
sylvania article.
PAY THE FIDDLER.
We are glad to see the recent