The Ravalli Republican., 1896-12-23


is impossible. The republican party
Ut Montana has dwindled down to a
pretty small potato and it can never
again regain respectable proportions.
Butte Miner.
That the breach is growing is q
q fact that the REPUBLICAN, will
scarcely yet admit, although it is
sorry to add that there is a possibility
OF it. Where to lay the blame is a
difficulty, and yet we cannot refrain
from giving it as our opinion that a
few Of the silver republican papers
will be responsible for a share Of it if
they do not switch from tile course
they have been pursuing ever since
the election. These papers, willie
still calling themselves republican,
seem to think their mission is to run
down the republican party and all
the republican principles they once
uphcld except.thc one Of free coinage,
which the republican party, we arc
sorry to say, has at least temporarily
laid aside. Papers that up to- the
present year were jealous in their
support of the principle Of protection
to American labor and industries.
which had always claimed that pro-
lection was one Of the most needed
and necessary means to the prosperity
Of America and Americans, now
f1ippantly declare that protection is
OF little momcnt> and have joined the
democratic and populst calamity
howlcrs, who gleefully point to the
fact that unboundcd and unlimited
prosperity has not yet come to the
country, that money: is noU jinylng
In the pockets Of every laboring man
and mechanic in America, that every
former idle man in the country is
not overloaded with applications for
his services, because Of the fact that
Mckinley, some seven short weeks
dent of these United States two
months and half from now. They
laugh and make merry and chuck]c
to themselves, but yet loud enough
SO the world may hear, because times
are still not as they were under re-
publican administrations, and glcc-
fully note tile fact that many Amcri-
Can business houses are staggering
and going to the wall under practi
.cany unchanged conditions Of the
nearly four Years of democratic
administration, conditions which, for
these four years, they have unccas
ingly charged the said democratic
administration with being response
bic for, but which now, forgetting
allthcir former reservations; they
nnl,esitatingly and in manner and
language bclicing all their previous
declarations, charge and assert arc
the result and outcome OF the recent
elections. Like toothlcss hags they
Sit and Groom over the smouldcring
cmbers of patriotism in their own
freplaces which it was once their
wont to fan and stir into a genial
warmth and glow; and croak out
murmurings and muttering OF yhoul-
ish delight because their country is
still suffering from the effect Of dem.
ocratic incompctcncy and misman.
agement-and do their little best tt
widen the breach among the republi
cans Of the state, that the banner
they once SO proudly fought under
should be trailcd in the dirt and the
mud OF democratic dcrision and con
tempt, and to justify the sncerin2
words of the most bitterly partisan
democratic paper in the west: that
"thc republican party of Montana
has dwindled to pretty small po
tato and it it can never again re-
gain respectable proportions.n
We do not make these charges IN
discriminatory against all the silver
republican papers Of Montana. Many
republican papers that conscientious
1y and consistently supported the
candidacy Of Mr.. Bryan, not because
he was the democratic candidate bu1
for the reason that he was the on],
one pledged by his platform to th<
free and unlimited coinage of silvc
at the ratio of 16 to !; many of these
papers still support the republican
platform with the exception of tlt
financial plank, and will uphold TIN
sjncoming president and the republi
can party in all the measures the,
may introduce and pass for the bcnc
fit of the whole country. But ther
are few papers which are stills il
vulgar but very expressive language
.::chewjng the rag'' over the verdic
Of the ballots, useless as this per
formancc ever is. And we ask thcs
few what they expect to accomplish
and what their object is in such con