Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1896-01-01
OLD-PARTY HARMONY.
\ DEMOCRATIC PAPER ROASTS
THE GOLDBUGS.
l Vigorous Kick Against Being Read
Out of the Party Because of AIIegi-
ance to the Cause of FREQ Silver
Party Lines Rest Loosely.

allegiance to the cause of free silver
and beg pardon of the gold-bugs in
order to promote harmony in the party.
Among. those who earnestly, and we
might say almost vehemently, protest
against. such humiliation is the Mem
PMS Commercial Appeal. In a recent
issue 1t takes occasion to- make the fol-
lowing vigorous kick:
We should be very glad to know
what some of our esteemed gold stand
ard contemporaries really mean by
their profession of desire for harmonic
Ing the democratic party. Their whole
course and line of conduct has been
that OF people who earnestly desire to
make democratic success impossible
They have from the first adopted pol
Icy OF treating democrats who believe
In the free coinage of silver with ri
baldry, insult and often with the most
scurrilous abuse. Editors and polite
ians who little more than two years
ago were bowling for the free coinage of
silver and who changed their opinions
between the setting and the rising of
the sun have not hesitated to order
his duds and get out of the democratic
party. The editors who are also post
masters and whisky .gaugers are par
ticularly foul-mouthed and offensive.
During the last presidential cam
paign Harris and Patterson in Tennes-
see, Carlisle and Blackburn in Ken
lucky, Catchings and George in Missis-
sippi Clark and Morgan III Alabama,
Hoke Smith and Crisp in Georgia were
equally strong for the free and unlim-
tied coinage of silver at the ratio of 16
to /. Now Harris, Blackburn, George,
Morgan and Crisp have ceased to be
democrats because they have not
changed their opinions, and every lit
tie editor OF third-class postoffice and
a fourth-class newspaper feels privi-
lodged to bawl 'Populist' at them. Up
to the year 1898 the democrats in con-
gress had always cast a practically
solid vote for the free coinage of silver.
Now If man is not gold monometal-
list he is not a democrat! To prove his
democracy he must not only revile the
beliefs of at least a large body of his
fellow democrats; he must not only
heap insult on men who have grown
gray in the party service, but he must
hold up to scorn the unbroken record of
the democratic party for twenty years
and eXtol in terms of extravagant ad-
miration the contrary policy of it's
great adversary! There is yet another
test of democracy-that is TO support a
force-bill republican for governor or
I, = :
r democratic nominee whose mind has
not undergone a revolution on this
money question. Under such circum-
stances the man who votes for the re-
publican is democrat The man
who votes for the democrat is 'Popu-
lite
There are many democrats who can't
stand these new tests. They cannot
pronounce the new shibboleth of de-
mocracy or understand why they must
be slaughtered at the passages of the
democratic Jordan.
rs it in this way that our gold stand
ard friends hope to promote 'har-
mony'? A few days ago number of
prominent democrats gathered in Nash
Vile to take steps for the organization
of the free silver element in the demo
cratic party with a view to having the
democracy of this state properly repre-
seated in the next national convention
Their action has provoked a storm OF
wild and Incorporate denunciation;
they have been accused of plotting the
disruption of the democratic party and
strangely enough, of introducing a dis
turbing element into the politics of the
state. So far as we can understand
some of these criticisms they are to the
effect that the money question should
be let alone. By this they evidently
mean only that the himetallists must
let it alone. The gold men are continu-
ally telling us that the next national
democratic convention must declare fol
gold monometallism. Mr.. Carlisle has
repeated this declaration again and
again. He has even asserted that John
Sherman is not strong enough on the
gold side, and that the democratic
party in convention must out-Shermar
Sherman. The Tennessee delegation
must vote on that proposition. Do oul
friends who raise the belated cry fol
harmony mean that the complexion Of
the delegation with reference to thi:
question shall be left to chance or ac
cident? Or do they simply mean thai
the bimetallists shall promote char
mony" by standing aside and allowins
the gold men to run the concern ac
cording to their own sweet will? VIZ
should be glad to have light on thi!
branch of the question.
The question of state issues can GU
no figure in the choice of delegates tt
the national convention. These dele
gates will not be CHOSEN with referenc,
20 their opinion of the fee system, o
double-taxation and of criminal-cour
costs. We believe as strongly as an,
one can in giving prominence to stat,
Issues in our state campaign. But Ten
nessee must take hand in the nationa
convention and must cast her vote TO
or against the policy of gold monomet
allism. We are very firmly of tn
opinion that the democratic party cal
not undergo such a sudden change o
atmosphere as our gold friends woul,
subject it to without deadly peril to it
constitution. We believe that as be
tween two gold monometallic parties
the party which has always been staucl
for mqncmstallism viii be chosen il