The old Abe eagle. (White Oaks, Lincoln County, N.M.) 189?-189?, 1895-02-14
MOVE WITH CARE FOR RESULTS.

anciers and statesmen of small cal
iber who discuss the silver ques-
tion in a way that does the cause
harm rather than good. The way
it does this is by misleading those
who should make the laws into the
belief that the people are wild and
visionary in their views of the mat
ter, that they are taking extreme
and untenable grounds in refer
ence to it, and this belief leads to
hesitancy and consequent delay
of action. Congressman of either
house are generally men of good
abilities, and the majority of them
are mature men, of experience in
public life, and who have kept tab
on the events and changes of their
time more closely than the mass
of citizens in private life have
done. 1t is well known fact that
in every walk of life and in every
community the most experienced
men are the most conservative. 1t
should not be wondered at then
that the peremptory demands or
the withering or blistering ridi-
cule of the country editor, the
scathing rebuke of the politician
looking for a job or figures taken
from dime novels on silver, gotten
up to sell while the tide flows, do
not have the effect intended. The
fact is that a vast amount of folly
in proportion to wisdom is put for
ward in the discussion Of the sub
jsct as happens in the discussion
of every great issue. In the midst
of all the agitation the great bust
ness element of the country whose
advice is always listened to with
respect, while undoubtedly in the
main in favor of silver, is against
hasty or radical action. So far the
agitation has been much more of
the politicians than of the busi-
ness men-with what sincerity is
shown in the actions of Jones of
Nevada who left the Republican
camp with a blare of trumpets last
fall on the silver issue, and later,
when his presence alone was nee
essary to secure favorable action
by the Senate finance committee,
was not to be found; and of Pence
Of Colorado, a lip-service silver
man who when the last gold bond
proposition came before the house
did not vote on the question,
though present. Congressman
learned long ago the value of this
class as counsellors. And it is
equally hard for the silver story
writer to convince that he has in
his possession the whole secret of
the disturbed condition of things,
and that his sources of information,
even If used with fairness, are bet
ter than those accessible to the
lawmakers. 1t is difficult for con-
servative minds to see that the
anti silver legislation of 1873 is TO
be charged with all the demorali
zation of the present when the eff
fects were not felt for nearly twenty
years later; or that the simple en-
actment Of a law rehabilitating
silver would change conditions
as at the touch of a magician.
They also are willing TO concede
that the alarm of the "goldbugs,"
even though unreasonable, at the
rapid increase of silver over gold
production in this country in re-
cent years, was natural. For it is
shown by a standard writer on the
question from silver standpoint,
(R0thNeH: Unirersd Bi-metaiism, }
that while in 1880 the excess of sill.
yer production was three millions,
il had risen in '9l to thirty-six
Millions, with an average yearly in
crease OF excess Of fifteen millions