Iron County register., 1896-10-22
MurrayviiIe, Ills.

Ed. RegiSter-I take my pen on a
wet, dreary October Sunday afternoon
TO drop you few lines, hoping they
may find you all well, and a blamed
sight livelier than the writer. Every
thing here is damp and dull: even the
city papers are go full of campaign
slosh and bosh that the only interest
ing thing about them is the ingenuity
of the political lies. or half-truths, they
print. Prices of farm produce are so
low that our immediate future is as
dark and damp as the day. l have at
tended the meetings of both sides and
have begun to entertain doubts about
the boasted intelligence of the Ameri-
can people. The goldbugs tell so
many palpable falsehoods which are
swallowed dry by most of their parti-
sans; while, on the other side one
would think he had struck a nest of
greenbackers, or more money men in
good pinfeather. Again and again
one may protest that the free coinage
of silver, of itself alone, will not give
Us good times and prosperity, that
there is something beyond 16 to l that
we must do to abolish the system of
industrial slavery that now holds the
masses in thrall, but the 16 to gag is
in every mouth and on every occasion.
Not that l6 to is not right, but that
it will not more than slightly modify
the deplorable conditions that now ex-
ist. II it were panacea or anything
halfway to a panacea how comes It
that we have been twittering and pid-
ding along with the tariff while
Moneybags was getting in his beauti-
full tricks?
Its all right to remonetize silver;
for Congress transcribed its powers
when it demonetized it, and we had
better right this wrong now than new
err; but we have put it off so long that
any salutory effect will be nearly Off
set by the business disturbance of
such a change. By all means cling to
the abstract right of the question but
don't try to get votes on reckless prom
ises.
However, there is an undercurrent
not generally observed; and this cur
rent sets in the direction our silver
beetles are flying. Bryan is more
L
ly gold standard men who are going
to vote for him. Of course there are
men VINO consider the money question
as a secondary one, at best, and the
question of taxation as far more im-
portaut The most thoughtful men
have given up as hopeless any attempt
to reform Federal taxation until we
have something like, at least decent,
systems of State taxation: in the Dem
ocratic platform of this state we find
the entering wedge of such reform.
It was aot as clear nor as specific, with
regard TO local option in taxation, as
one could have wished; but that is
what it really means, and a majority
of the delegates to our convention at
Peoria were wearing local option
badges when the meeting adjourned.
One circumstance connected with the
issuance of the platform however has
had bad effect upon those who have
noticed it. The Republic and most of
our Democratic papers never printed
this plank, which, on the face. was an
evidence OF bad faith toward what is
looked upon as the radical or progress
sive wing OF the party. The Post-Dis-
patch published the platform without
emasculating il; but the Republic fail
cd 10 print the most Democratic plank
in the platform. Your writer asked
the editor to correct. or explain, but.
So far. no satisfaction has been given.
There is a very interesting cam
paign beiag carried on in the State OF
Delaware that has attracted but little
notice with the general public, in the
west at least. The men who oppose
all taxation of labor as wrong, on
moral. political, and economical
grounds, have been for a year or mora
carrying on a vigorous campaign IN
Delaware. as the constitution OF that
State is such that the legislature have
full powers to fx them and change the