The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1896-10-30
SILVER STILL THE PARAMOUNT
ISSUE

There are not wanting signs that
some Of the people OF Utah are begin
ming to lose sight OF what the para
mount issue in this campaign is There
are not wanting signs that the poison
of the single gold standard is abroad in
the state, and that it is coursing
through the. veins of the body polite.
Gradually and insidiously it is being
whispered about that there are other
interests to be regarded and looked
after than the mining interest, thereby
coverly conveying the idea that the
great and paramount question of free
silver is one and the same with the
mining interests. Great as is the min
ing interest it sinks into insignificance
when compared with the question of
free silver. That question touches the
very foundation OF national prosperity;
wrapt up with it are the peace and
progress of the people.
There are other and great interests in
the state, interests that are near and
dear to the people, all awaiting de-
velopment, but all languishing. And
why do they languish? They Ianguish
because the great moving impulse to
industry and prosperity is lacking.
That impulse is the right OF the
people to take their silver to the
minis and have it coined into dol
lars. the dollars of Washington, of JEFF
ferson, of Jackson, of Lincoln. Do but
turn on the silver stream and all the
Wheels of industry viii revolve. Want
and gaunt poverty will be banished
from the land. and in their place will
come prosperity and plenty
In the past the people of Utah have
the monetary system of the fathers be
restored; and that demand was made
by the whole people as people, and not
as partisans. The people of Utah were
in hopes that both of the great politi-
cal parties would declare for the free
and independent coinage of silver, for
that would have meant the certain en-
actment of legislation to restore free
silver. But it was not to be. The st.
Louis convention declared against free
silver; the Chicago convention de-
clared for it.
For years past the people of Utah
have desired and worked for free sill
YER Is it any less desirable today?
Will it bring any less blessings today
than it would have brought yesterday?
Will tariff policies that have been tried
and found wanting be more efficacious
to produce prosperity in tie near future
than they have in the near past? Do
the people of Utah believe that any
tariff policy can bring return of that
there be a restoration of free coinage?
Their experience in the past tells
them that it cannot. Have they any
reason, even the slightest. for believ-
ing that without free silver their ex-
perience in the future, so far as re-
CARDS their financial and commercial
welfare will be materially different
from what it has been in the past?
They must recognize the fact that like
conditions produce like results. And
without free coinage wherein will the
conditions of the future be different
from those of the past?
If the decentralization of silver
worked wrong to the American PEG
pie, when was it righted? The demon
etization of silver is a continuing
wrong; it exists today and is more
keenly felt than ever before.
This year the people of Utah, for the
first time in forty-nine years, have an
opportunity to participate in theselec-
ton of a president of the United
States. In exercising the elective fran
chise let them be true TO themselves,
TO their past professions; let them re-
member the wrongs which they have
suffered through the decentralization of
silver; let them remember the distress
that is in the land as the consequence
of that demonstration. And remem-
boring all this, let them not be de-
ceived. by false issues raised up for
the very purpose of deceiving them, but
let them cast their votes for William
J. Bryan; for the free and independ-
ent coinage of silver at the ratio of
is to 1; for prosperity and plenty; for
liberty, equality, and the rights of
American manhood.