Las Vegas daily optic. [volume] (Las Vegas, N.M.) 1880-1908, 1896-07-20
rHE RnpuRIICAN SITUATION,

- fHN $500
| Tribune a sqnib from q contemporary
to the effect that"Any man who says
he is a friend of free silv,r and finds
objections to voting for Bryan, Is
merely finding excuses for voting
against free silver and reasons for
voting for gold" and asks that paper
what 1t thinks of 1t. The reply comes
that it is a narrow and foolish remark.
There are plenty of republicans who
believe honestly that II silver Is re-
monetizs I'D, it will have to be done by
republicans; who do not believe that
the democratic party can be trusted to
bring forward and carry through any
great measure of relief to the people,
and are honest in their belief.
This cor. espondent further says that
he has been a lifelong republican, o
protective tariff believer, and still be-
lieves in silver, and asks II he must
now swallow free trade and vote the
democratic-populis ticket, or be forever
damned by his silver friends. He
asks why he should be compelled to
swallow democratic free-trade ideas,
and he asks II we have not for the past
four years been telling the people that
the republican tariff policy was the
only salvation and that now we say,
"Support the democratic -populist
ticket and throw to the dogs all your
other republican convictions" That
only shows that the correspondent Is
not fair, says the Tribune. II be has
carefully read that paper for the last
four or the last sixteen years, he cannot
have failed to see that it has been
sounding the alarm all the time that
unless silver was recognized, the time
would come when the tariff would not
help. Property has fallen SO low that
there is no reward for the producers OF
this country, and 10 tariff can be laid
that will help that matter in the least.
With free silver restored, the tariff will
be the most important question before
the people, because as the competition
of the world continues, a protective
tariff is an absolute necessity to this
country.
The first thing to do is to increase
the volume of primary money; after
that, to establish such legislation as
will retain that money at home, and
give protection to the w%orkingmen Of
this country who have to compete with
the half-starved workers Of Europe
and the naked workers of the Orient.
The Tribune does not say, "Support
the democratic populist ticket and
throw to the dogs all your other repub-
| can convictions" On the other hand,
it says maintain your organization ;
elect a republican congressman and
legislature, keep the majority in the
and the house republican, il
possible.
The republican party, up to the time
of its meeting in st. Louis, pretended
to be the friend Of bi-metallism as
much as to be the friend of q protec-
tive tariff. At st. Louis, they threw
down the gauntlet and virtually said,
"We are going to have a gold standard,
and if you of the west and of the south
do not like 1t, you may 60 your own
way" Suppose they had gone n
step further and declared that the pro-
tective tariff was a fallacy and insisted
on q tariff for revenue only, would the
correspondent still have chung to the
orgarizationP Just now, the currency
question is the vital one in this repub.
lie, and so much hangs upon it, that If
two more gold presidents could be
elected, and nothing done for the
masses of the people, the republic itself
would pass away in-the smoke of a
civil war, because the condition of the
producing millions of this country is
little less than desperate.