The Dalles daily chronicle. [volume] (The Dalles, Or.) 1890-1948, 1895-01-16
WEDNESDAY. JANUARY IS, 1898
ENOUGH OF ExPERIMENTS.


ness has commenced. The election of a
United States senator to succeed Senator
Dolph over shadows in Importance all
other matters at present because it
reaches in its effects beyond the state,
and is of national Importance. Until
that question is settled no business of
importance will be transacted by the leg
islature. Under common circumstances
it would not matter SO much what par
ticular man represented Oregon in the
senate. Mr.. Fulton is a man in the
prime of life, of large abilities, talented, |
strong in body and mind, and would be
an honor to his party and the state.
The same might be said, (though in our
opinion in lesser degree) of Thomas
Tongue, and of dozens of other of Ore
CONS bright and brainy men. II it were
question of men it is freely conceded
that the retirement of Senator Dolph,
which must take place some time would
not be a severe blow to the state or the
party, for ''theBe were wise men after
Agamemnon." But it is not question
of men. It is a question of measures.
Behind the candidates are the principles
they represent, and 1t is for the legisla-
ture to choose not men but principles.
Senator Dolph has stood at all times for
a sound national financial system, for a
system that has maintained the parity
of money no matter what it's kind, SO
that every dollar in circulation, whether
of gold, silver or paper, has been as good
as every other dollar. This system, Mr..
Fulton, and those who believe as he
does are determined to change. They
tell us that with silver given free coinage
at the ratio of 16 to 1, the country will
be more prosperous, money will be more
plentiful, the financial conditions will be
greatly improved, values will be in
creased, and in fact, that the free coin
age of silver will prove the great panacea
for all the ills the country has been
suffering. They tell US all these things,
but however honest they may be in that
belief, can we believe them? As far as
this country is concerned the matter
would be an Notwithstanding more.
The country has been trying one expert
ment, one that we were told would bring
unequa1ed prosperity, that would set the
wheels of industry whirling, the factory
chimneys smoking; "the tin bucket
brigade" was to be happy, employed and
contented, the farmer was to receive
larger prices and condition of affairs
was to be brought about that would be
little short of the millennium. We were
told that all these things would follow
the change of the tariff laws, and we
ko1J ~, L. !,
sincere, just as brainy, and just as GER
tain, as those who make such positive
assertions concerning the incalculable
benefits that are to follow the change OF
the coinage laws. We know how that
experiment worked. The wheels of in
dustry somehow did not whirl, the
factory chimneys did not smoke, ''the
tin bucket brigade" was not employed,
and in fact the tariff experiment worked
in an exactly opposite manner from that
marked out for it. That experiment,
and its results we have still with us.
Do we require another just now2
Then there is another side to the mat
ter. Grant, for the sake of argument,
that Mr.. Fulton is the peer of Senator
Dolph in every way, which think you
can best serve the interest of the state
just now? Senator Dolph as chairman
of the river and harbor committee, a
position Mr.. Fulton could not hope to
obtain next term if elected, is in a posi-
tion to accomplish great good for the
state. The opening of the Columbia, a
matter of vital Importance to Eastern
Oregon, Washington and Idaho, will re-
ceive a setback that will require years
to regain if Oregon's senator no longer
holds position on that committee. To
us it seems that the state will receive a
deadly blow if Senator Dolph is retired
We care not whether Mr.. Dolph is an
iceberg or glacier, for we look beyond
the man to the principle he represents
and we feel certain that a political ice
berg is as safe as a political volcano
especially when that volcano is in al
active state of eruption as it seems tc
be at Salem just now.