The Dalles daily chronicle. [volume] (The Dalles, Or.) 1890-1948, 1896-02-20
A BOOMERANG.


put their names to paper held by Mr..
Wharton Barker probably realized how
little sense they had when they saw the
insolent comments with which he pub
lished it. If they had meant all that he
said they meant, the Republican party
would promptly proceed to govern the
country without them. But it is not
the first time he has imagined himself
the center on which the universe re-
wolves. If the sixteen Republican sem
ators mean just what they say, they will
administer to Mr.. Barker as vigorous
moral kicking as they can, and take
care that he never gets a chance to mis-
represent them again. Stripped of ver-
biage, what they say is that they consci-
entiously believe that silver ought to be
coined without restraint, ana that all in
dustries ought to be protected. If there
is grain of honesty in the latter state.
ment, they can not refuse protection to
industries which they conscientiously
believe necessary, because they are not
yet able to get free coinage, which they
aleo believe necessary. Whether Mr..
Barker has falsely stated their inten-
tiOns, it is in order for them to explain,
and at the same time to explain whether
they correctly stated their own beliefs in
the paper they signed.
Mr.. Barker says these senators mean
that there shall be no Republican party
and no protection OF home industries
unless the free coinage people have their
way. In expressive vernacular, he has
t'bitten off more than he can chew" 1t
powers to say whether there shall be a
Republican party or not. Neither is it
in the power of the sixteen senators to
say whether the Republican party shall
govern the country. They may or may
not be able. to determine whether
this year any protective tariff shall be
enacted. IT they like to take that re-
sponsibility as assistant Democrats, that
is their affair, thoogh possibly also the
affair of their constituents. But they
have not title deed to the country as
yet, nor has Mr.. Barker. States east of
the Iowa and Nebraska line will elect a
majority of the presidential electors next
fall, and will have, in union with other
states, a settled and abiding majority in
the senate, as they have in the house.
The sixteen senators represent sixteen
electoral votes in Colorado, Utah, Mon
tana, Idaho and Wyoming, with s97, 1852
population, and half represent, though
not wholly, the states of California,
South Dakota, Oregon and North Da-
kota, whose senators are divided in
opinion. They represent absolutely
nothing in Pennsylvania, for Mr.. Bar
ker is a cipher and stands before Mr..
Cameron, who is going ont. They rep
resent in North Carolina temporary
fusion, but no party. If the Republican
party is in fact invited by these senators
to get along without them, they will
take care not to present themselves nor
to send their friends to its national con-
Vention. Those who desire to enter that
body or to be respected there will take
early occasion, as some have done al
ready, to make it plain that in declaring
conviction for free coinage and for pro-
lection they did not intend to be under
stood as ready to vote for gold monomet-
CHSy COuld S0L pIOI6CIlOQ,
or for free trade unless they could get
free coinage. Presumably Mr.. Barker is
responsible for any lack of good sense OF
taste in the paper they have signed. but
that paper, at least, does not undertake
to threaten or bully anybody, nor does
it impudently assert, as Mr.. Barker
does, that there shall be no Republican
party unless he can have mis- own way.
The belief of the sixteen senators
would have had several thousand times
as much weight fnot brought before the
country in the most indecent and often
sive form conceivable. Not one of these
gentlemen would so far [iiscredit him
self as to inform Republican conven-
ton that it ''must" obey the dictates oil
five or ten of the smallest and youngest
states, or ''there should be no Republi-
can party" The company they have
chosen is extremely unbecoming to these
senators, and will assuredly make il
harder for them to sustain themselves
at home. For there are in all the states
they represent many men of sense and
of large influence, who feel humiliated
when they are represented as attempt.
ing to browbeat and bully the people oi