Hutchinson gazette. [volume] (Hutchinson, Kan.) 1895-1902, 1896-06-04
WHERE SILVER IS KING.

the silver men have claimed all along
but which gold men have stOutly denied
concerning the interest of the money
changers in the gold standard and
their resOrting to intimidation to main
tain it. He says;
"There are too many people in this
country who are hiding their eyes to
great facts They place themselves in
the position of the ostrich pursued by
an enemy. They do not wish to gaze
upon what they term the spectre of sill
yer. So they hold their hands over
their faces and cry out: / can't see II
comingl'
The speaker was an especially dis
tinguished senator who expressed him.
self privately to the writer on the finan-
cial question. There is enough said In
private here in Washington at the pres
emit time on the silver question to cause
a chill to pass over those whose con-
victiOns are wrapped in the single gold
standard side of the controversy.
IF the private utterances OF public
men on the silver question could be
published as formal interviews, pOr
ton Of the country would receive a
tremendous shock. l have cOnversed
with numerous persons whose names,
il were at liberty to give them, would
be we'll known to every reader. The
burden of what was said was that the
silver movement is gaining hand over
fist throughout the country; that while
there are diversified views as to the eX-
tent or conditions under which silver is
favored, there is determination on the
part of the majority of the politicians
of the South and West to make silver
and not gold the dominant element in
the national currency. A leading re-
publican senator who is we'll known as
an advocate of gold, declared his belief
to me that il the question OF gold YER
sus silver we're to be submitted pure
and simple to the people of the United
States an overwhelming majority
would be rolled up for the white money.
This senator would not dare to ex'
press such an opinion for publication.
Nothing would tempt me- he said. 1T
would be ruinOus for me to do sO.'
And this same fear of consequences
deters many public men from even
whispering what they think.
Gen. Charles GrOsYenOr, a McKin-
ley manager, recently informed an ac'
Quaintance that the silver movement
was gaining in Ohio. lie was merely
narrating fact and not using it as an
argument.
1.-The president of one Of Chicago's
great national banks recently stated
that he had been studying the views of
the 400 or more of his bank correspond
ents, and he has concluded that silver
has got to come. This bank president
is very wealthy. He has begun tC draw
gold contracts and leases and will put
all his affairs on a gold basis, There
is no more ardent gold man in the
country than he. A democratic sound
money senator, not Senator BriCe, told
me today that Ohio and Kentucky
would be carried for silver.
1.-The convention at Chicago will be
in the hands of the silver men," he
said. II do not believe in silver ex-
cept as a subsidiary coinage, but my
political future is uncertain unless my
constituents change their views
L am assured by Pennsylvanians who
know the situation thoroughly in that
StaLe, that if the silver question were
presented fairly and squarely to the
people without being mixed with pol
itics, and rid Of interference by capital
or manufacturers, it would receive an
enormous vote.
"a New Hampshire public man
stated in this city that he feared to
think what would occur if the question
of free silver were to be submitted on
its merits to the people of that State.
II believe that it would command
heavy VOTE" he said: although the
banks would threaten everyone with a
on his home and the great
would intimidate their
help, and would probably prevent any
radical expression. OF course am
gold man."
talked with a New England manu-
facturer today who employs many hun
dred operatives and who has been a
partisan of the single standard. He
informed me that he has been shocked
to hear of manufacturers ABOUT Bos-
ton who were willing 10 try silver in a
greatly enlarged relation with gold.
Few men would dare to come out
openly 10 this way he said. "They
would hear from their bank if they
did,"
A Rhode Island manufacturer in
formed me that he would welcome sill
YER to see IL il would not do somethin0