Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1895-07-24
Silver Men Think It Too Big for His
Resources.
His PLAN LIKE THAT IN KENTUCKY
Belief That the Fight for Free
Coinage Will Continue.
SOME SUGGESTIONS MADE


in Ohio is revealed only after a careful
examination. The silver men regard 1t as
much too big for the Senator's resources.
The program, as outlined, follows closely
the Kentucky program. The democracy is
to meet in state convention, reaffirm the
financial plank of the Chicago national
platform of 1892, indofse the national ad-
ministration, nominate state ticket and
adjourn. Then the financial question is to
be dropped, or, If discussed at all on the
stump handled with scrupulous regard to
the Presidents attitude, and as if the con-
vention's deliverance had brought the party
In Ohio definitely and finally into line with
the President
The silver men smile at what they con-
ceive to be the incongruities contained in
this proposition. and they proceed to speci-
fy. Said one of them-a man of prominence
to representative of The Star today:
Pointers for Mr.. Brice.
''Mr. Brice should be instructed not by
what the Kentucky democracy recently did
at Louisville. but by the situation in the
state today as the result of that action.
What is that situation? 1t is infinitely
worse than it was before the convention
met. And why? Simply because it is
sought to put construction on the plat
form adopted not in accord. with common
sense. Friends of the administration in
sst that the reafirmation of the financial
meant an Endorsement of the Presidents
geld policy, and hence discussion Of the
subject on the stump by democratic speak
ers during the campaign must be in terms
Of approval of the Presidents course. That
went work. That can't work. That would
drive two-thirds of the democratic speak
ers in the state. with Mr. Blackburn at
their head. off the stump. The men who
,ar faa f,ae Si1 hafc
did so, in a measure, by authority Of the
construction they had been publicly putting
on the Chicago platform of 1S!c. The
financial plank of that platform has been
reafIirmed. and now the silver men are
stronger in their faith and purpose than
before. The talk of keeping silent on the
subject is nonsense. That policy would
make the men entering upon 1t ridiculous
The silver men could not keep silent II
they would. They are too prominently and
uneauivocally on the record. If they tried
them by force into discussion. Their
choice therefore, is between silence
which they could rot long preserve and
frank and manly declaration OF their non.
est opinions. Neither the suggestion that
in view of the Louisville convention's ac-
ton they should go on the stump ana re-
cant, nor considering themselves read out OF
the party by that action betake them
selves to obscurity, is to be. entertained
fer a moment
The silver Fight to BE Kept Up.
."rhen the fight for silver is to be kept up
during the campaign" was asked.
..Of course Why not? What authority
is produced for stopping it? No 'cowardly
makeshift' like that adopted at LOUISVILLE
can stop it. If the democratic party,
state or national, is to be committed 70 the
Presidents financial views, 1t must be py
an open, specific declaration. Inc language
used must be such that he who runs may
read not such that he who reads may run.
We have had enough of running around on
this silver question. Some OF our pupnc
men are not sprinters. Iney can .,a,,s ~ NJ
ire from side to side on public questions
with facility The democrats have been Sc,
yerely enough tried. Take that financial
plank of the Chicago platform Wnat We're
we made to say by that: Ing ina. .ae SuSt
man silver act was "a cowardly makeshift.
And vet in twelve months from that time
what did we See? Why, nine-tenths OF the
democratic members of the United States
Senate in an effort to save silver from
what they feared would be utter annihila-
tion holding on for three months to that
very act like grim death to oe1unct ATT
can! Never, since the world began, mas
there been another such spectacle. And II
was brought about by this very EFFORT TO
make the party blow hot and cold on the
same proposition.
You think, then, that Mr.: Brice must
bring forward something specific and have
it adopted, if the administration is TO re-
oeive any help or comfort at Springheid?'
Some Specific Declaration Needed.
1.-THE question answers itself: Mr.. Brice
is travelling in Mr.. Carlisle's wake. There
is the same sea ahead, and he'll have to
take it in the same way. He hopes to pass
through it as well as his convoy did. But
suppose he does. Is he not certain to be In
the same condition then? The silver men
have not been silenced in Kentucky. and
cannot be by the mere parading of an old
platform in public again. The same will
be true in Ohio The reafirmation of the
denunciation of a cowardly makeshift be-
comes, in the circumstances described, as
cowardly as the republican makeshift de-
nounced. The democracy is either for or
against silver. The silver men In the party,
believing it to be for silver, propose an in
dorsement Of free coinage at 1S to /. Let
Mr.. Brice propose in opposition to this the
resolution quoted in The Star of yesterday.
That would be fair way to test the sense
of the Ohio democracy on the subject. No
more makeshifts or shifty expedients. Both
the party and the country are tired of
them, and distrustful of the men who for
mulate them"
IN A DEPLORABLE CONDITION.