The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1896-07-21
RIVER AT 8 A. M.
YOUR MOUTHS ARE SHUT.

HE who will not speak when he
should speak shall not be heard to
speak when he would speak," is the
terse definition Of the law of estoppel
Republicans are estopped from de-
nunciation OF the platform adopted
at Chicago. That right rests solely with
those Democrats who have consistently
opposed, in their own and other par
ties, the policies there pronounced.
For every declaration in the platform
to which conservative Democrats OBJ
ject, precedent is found in the legisla-
ton Of Republican administrations
Rebuke now Of these declarations OF
policy comes with poor grace from the
mouths of Republicans. On the other
hand, the actions of those Republi-
cans who are leaving their party is
perfectly logical, however illogical the
Chicago platform may be held to be
by the conservatives among the Demo-
Gratis.
The silver plank is but the fruit of
the plant of which the greenback is
the root and the Allison and Sherman
acts of 1873 and 1890 were the flowers
1t reduces to a certainty the nebulous
policy embodied in the money plank
adopted at Minneapolis in 1892 1t
carries Republican policies, declared
and crystallized, but the one further
logical step. Aside from any money
function Of silver, regarded merely as
product of native industry, the ST.
Louis platform stultifies itself Elk
Lieut.. Gov. Barto was perfectly logi-
cal when he said to the convention
of silver Republicans in Minneapolis
Thursday, that there is a plank in
the st. Louis platform that just suits
me. 1t is the protection plank. But
when I read the plank In favor of
maintaining the present gold standard
asked: Where is the protection?"
A strange anomaly is thus presented
of Democratic national convention
favoring protection, and Republicans
leaving their party because it aban-
dons protection to one home industry.
Again, no Republican can play Ma
than, and, poining to the plank de-
claring for the issue of all credit paper
by the government, say, Thou art the
man. The greenback rises to rebuke
his hypocrisy. There is no logical mid
die ground between no issues of gov
eminent notes and issues limited only
by the unwisdom of congresses If
the issue of credit paper is proper
function of government, then the issue
OF all paper money by government is
incontrovertibly logical The declara-
ton of prominent Republicans for the
permanency Of the greenback is war
rant for a declaration for its exclu-
sive use. When the Republican con-
gress stopped its gradual retirement
in 1878 it turned and faced its expan-
sion as the right policy, restricted only
by expediency.
Nor does it lie in the mouths of Re
publicans to rebuke the Chicago con-
vention for its implied promise to re-
constitute the federal supreme court
so that-a majority of it's members may
be favorable to a reversal of the re-
Sersing decision of that court in the
income tax cases. Instantly there
rises to refute the accuser of TODAY
the memory of the action of a Repub-
1ican administration that deliberately
enlarged the supreme court of the
nation in order that a decision might be
obtained, impossible in the court as then
existing, that the issue Of greenbacks.
with their legal tender backing, was
legitimate and constitutional exer-
else Of congressional power. II a court
was packed to establish new doc
trine.the proposal to pack another one
TO restore line of decisions a century
old Is a more just;fiable act. Sc. not