The Black Hills union. [volume] (Rapid City, Pennington County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1889-1904, 1895-07-12
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! base ~ the issuanceso1 paper prom
ises to pay--credit money only? Are
we prepared to commit ourselves III
favor Of convertible paper currency.
by uniting with the silver democrats
and republicans in the coming cam
paign? II sc a platform declaration for
scientific money, Or inconvertie ie mon
ey, will be misleading. IL wa Sdeclare
for inconvertible paper, what sYase will
there be in maintaining Separate
party organization? Convertible pa
per and free coinage of silver measure
the extent of reform as advocated by
Gen. Warner and his bimetallic league:
and, If our platform SHOULD go no far
Their, it would be foolish not to disband
organization and go en- masse into
the movement to elect Mr.. Sibley. In
deed, ii we fall below the demand for
scientific money, or at least inconvert-
IDLE paper, in our declaration for fnan-
clal reform, then, with land and trans
portatlon eliminated, our party will
have no excuse for it's existence. If we
must take the fag-end of financial re-
form, it will be cheaper to do so in the
so-called silver party. If, however,
we are no prepared to sacrifice our
views on the money question, there is
nothing to do but make an honest, COM
p~rehensiye financial declaration, leay-
ing the silver party to take it's own
course. But suppose we declare in ia
vor OF scientific money, or an incon-
Vert1ble paper currency, as I think we
ought to do, what then? Shall we
fuse with the silver party? Would
tnls not be to abandon our principles?
can the outcome of such a fusion, if
successful, be anything but the double
and convertible paper? If
SO, Wnat do we gain by thus saying one
thing n doing another? And will
not such juggling for success, lose us
the respect of all fair minded men?
we cannot afford thus to pattern after
ola party methods. But if we should
succeed in winning the fight with the
ala OF the silver party, in favor of con-
vertlble paper based on gold and silver,
what becomes Of the party? It must
either dlsband or .reorganize upon a
platform embodying other issues, and
e we undertake to reorganize, who
can predict the result? Will we sue
coed in uniting the scattered labor
FORCES? The elimination of every is
U but the financial one will practi-
cally release every populist from his
allegiance to the party, and if the men
VINO place greatest stress upon the land
and transportation questions find
themselves thus set aArift, who shall
say that they will ever return to the
fold?
But a convertible paper will not only
create a debt to be paid in coin, but
IL Will put into the hands of the band
ed money monopolists the W to
corner the country's primary money,
and deplete the national reserves at
pleasure. The banking combine will
still continue it's baleful existence, the
taxing power will still remain in the
hands of railroads and other corpora
tons controlling public functions, and
the speculative land monopolist will
still hold in his secure grasp the power
to dictate the terms upon which starry
ing labor shall have the right to live.
When the st. Louis conference, last
winter, refused to surrender to the
commands of the silver men, and prac-
tically give up the fight for labor.
forthwith they were told by certain
western senators, that the battle for
silver could not be fought within the
peoples party, because the Omaha
platform contained too many "vaga-
ries." The "~vagaries'' are the land
and transportation planks, and be-
cause the action of the conference
plainly showed the silver men that
these planks would not be abandoned.
we were CONTEMPORARY spurned by
Gen. Warner and his bimetallic league,
who have been unable to think on the
line of reform beyond the free coinage
question. It is too plain for a1o(sment.
that if we throw ourselves into tkS3 arms
OF these people, join their nj bment
and help them to open the Jantssto
silver, we will find in them 3rar mosrS
deadly enemies when we endeavor once
more to take up the land and tr%anspor-
tation issues.
It might as we'll be understood now.
that the democrats and republicans
who are engineering the silver party
movement, are not populists, and have
no sympathy with the peoples party
except in so far Is it may be made a
cats paw to pull the silver chestnut
out of the fire. Populists are all free