The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1896-06-07
me siIverite. WuI ControI.

+ ticket The two-thirds rule viii not be
! repealed. but the sound money element Of
/ the convention viii not insist upon a can
I didate for President whose views on the
silver question are not in harmony with
/ the financial plank Of the platform. II
would be a mistake 10 do so. There will
be no great difficulty therefore in nomi-
mating a candidate.
The platform viii be for silver There
can be no doubt about that But how will
the financial plank be expressed? VIII it
be a clean cut declaration for unlimited
and independent silver coinage at the
ratio OF Is 10 I? We do not think It will
We doubt IL any mention IS made Of the
ratio. There are several reasons for this
view. one Of them is that recently there
has been a disposition among the silver
tie leaders to ignore the ratio. Having
won the convention they want 10 win the
election. There viii be a good many
silverites in the convention who have
grave doubts as to whether 1t would be
advisable to open the minis to silver at
the 16 to / ratio. and there will be others
who viii be more anxious TO hold the
party together, and 10 bring out as fully
as possible its voting strength. than to
have any declaration in respect to the
ratio. 1t is reasonable to expect there
fore that the silver declaration viii be
so worded as to permit the opponents Of
silver to remain in the party. but it would
be construed to mean all that the most
extreme silverites have contended for
should the democrats win the election.
1t is freely predicted that the sound
money delegates will bolt the convention
If a radical free silver platform is adopt
ed. That opinion is not expressed by
leading northern democrats. on the con-
trary. Chairman Harrity is against any
bolt. He and other sound money leaders
have declared their purpose to abide by
the will of the convention.
II is possible that sound money demo-
Gratis, after the convention is over, may
call a convention and nominate ticket.
but whether they viii or not will depend
upon the sentiment that crops out
throughout the country some weeks after
the Chicago convention adjourns.
Many democrats became adherents of
silver recently because they thought the
silver side was the winning one 1t has
proved the winning one in the democratic
party. but will it win in the election? We
don't see how it can. 1t IL to the interest
Of vastly more people that the existing
monetary standard should be maintained
than it is that the country should have
a deprecated silver currency, and that
fact will be made apparent before the
campaign is ended. Like the greenback
craze. the silver craze will subside. The,
gold standard is the standard of civiliza-
ton. 1t is the standard of all the great
nations. To abandon It is to take step
backward We don't believe that this
country, the greatest of all countries, is
going to take a step backward.
The Friend of Inventors.
The seeker after the secret Of perpetual
motion has always failed because he
lacked money and long enough life. Cen
orally speaking, the inventor of the fly
ing machine has been hampered by the
same lack. It comes about in these clos
ing days of the century that the invan-
tor has got a friend at court who win
do what he can to make good the de-
ficiency in one particular; that is, pro-
vide all of the money that may be needed
The friend in question, as may he sus-
pected, is the Hon. W. A. PETER, senator
from Kansas. That great man is ever
ready and willing to appropriate money
from the federal treasury for any pur-
pose that may be suggested, provided
there seems to be no great likelihood that
the purpose Will ever amount to anything
practicable. Only few days ago Sena,
tor PETER gave the weight of his infu-
ence to a proposition to build a high
stone wall from the Rocky mountains to
the great lakes for the purpose of shut
ting out cold waves from Manitoba. The
wall was to be half a mile high, and TO
cost some billions of dollars. But the size
of the wall or of the pile of money it would
take to build it never for a moment
"phased" PETER Why should it? Are
there not thousands of printing presses
in the country, only waiting to stamp the
governments seal on pieces of paper and
thus transform them into money?
Having done what he could for the
wall inventor, the great and good Sena-
tor PETER turned to see who next he
could serve, and found awaiting his ear a
flying machine man. The result of their
interview appeared in the Senate a little
later in the shape of a bill to appro-
pirate $4,000 to be used by the inventor
in perfecting his air ship. The inventor.
it seems, was somewhere near when Prof.
Langley of the Smithsonian Institution
tried his flying machine at Fairfax. Va.
not long ago, and at once saw where
Langley was wrong. The true theory
of navigating the air, he told Senator
PETER, was on the principle of live fish
swimming in the water. rather than upon