Mexico weekly ledger., 1895-04-25
WIN OR LOSE, FREE COINAGE.
Senator Vest Takes Up the Gauntlet
Thrown Down by Cleveland.

NEW YORK, April l1.-The Ord
has the following from SenatorGeorge
G. Vest of Missouri to its editor:
WASHINGTON, d. c., April 1.-THE
platform of the Democratic party for
the next presidential campaign was
made in the tariff act of 1894.
When we put the income tax i'll that
law we gave deadly offense to the
capitalists of the Northeastern States,
and especially 20 those of New York.
We were warned by the Democratic
leaders in those States that not q dol
lar would be subscribed for the next
presidential canvass if we insisted on
taxing the incomes.
The bitter and relentless war upon
this tax, including the struggle in the
Supreme Court of the United States,
has emphasized. the fact that the
Democratic party, by taxing incomes,
has committed an objectionable sin
with the wealthy classes.
The income tax cannot be kept hi
of the next canvass. Even if the SUI
preme Court had unanimously de-
cided against the law, it would still
have been a potent factor in causing
continued discussion of the injustice
and inequality of the present system
of federal taxation.
Nor is this tax the only source of
trouble. 1t has been evident for a long
time that the radical difference of
opinion on the tariff and the money
questions between the Democrats of
the Northeast and the West and the
South could not be compromised.
National conventions have equivoca-
ted and stradGledin order toget votes,
but the time las come when this is no
longer possible.
Many leading Democrats of the
Northwest advocate what they call
moderate tariff protection and the sim
gle gold standard. We of the West
and South believe in Il tariff for reye-
nue. only and the free coinage of sill
YER. We propose to frame a platform.
unequivocally declaring our opinions,
and to nominate for the Presidency a
candidate about whose loyalty to this
platform there car be no suspicion.
The letter Of the President to his adj
mirers in Chicago simply ~reiterates
his well known views on the silver
question, and widens the breach be-
tween him ard a majority of his party.
The President insults hat majority by
his lecture on sound money. His idea
seems to be that gold alone is sound
money, and that the value of every
thing is to be measured in gold. He
proposes to destroy one-half of the
primary money of the world and TO
sustain this outrage by the cry of I'M
sound money.
| agree with Mr.. Cleveland in his
position on the appointment of COM
missioners to an international none
tary congress. There never was any
thing practica al in the proposition, and
never will be. We must act for our
selves and give the world 10 under
stand that we are true bimetallists,
honestly in favor of both gold and sill
yer as primary money. This is the
great issue in the coming campaign,
and we intend to fight it out in the
national convention and in every State
in the Union. The struggle will be in
the Northwest instead ofin the North
east, as heretofore, and we must align
u forces with that certainty before
us.
The talk about nominating a South
ern Democrat for President in 1896 is
absurd. We must win or lose on free
coinage, a revenue tariff and the in
come tax, and it would be suicidal to
invite war prejudices and sectional
feeling unnecessarily.
f q WEcT