Kansas agitator. [volume] (Garnett, Kan.) 1890-1905, 1896-03-28
NOT FOR SILVER.
REPUBLICAN PARTY PLEDGED
AGAINST WHITE METAL.
A Declaration that 1t VIII Boar Defeat
Rather Than Surrender to the De-
mands of the Silver Element In tho
Party.

One OF the strangest thing in politics
is the apparent blindness in the adher-
ents of party to see it's defects, or to
determine its policy. 1t cannot be said
that all men who hold views opposite to
the well-established policy of the party
to which they belong are dishonest. II
is like color blindness, species OF de-
feet which, while It exists, cannot be ac-
counted for. good illustration Of
this idea presented itself in the senate
the other day when Carter, Dubois and
others took firm stand for silver, and
insisted that they represented the re-
publican idea on that question. AS
matter of fact the republican party has
made no pretensions to being free sill
yer party for over twenty years. Whiie
1t is true that it has declared for bi-
metallism in its national platforms,
and for the use of both gold and silver,
yet it insisted on impossible conditions
to obtain bimetallism. and only favored
the use of such silver as was already
coined.
1t knew that bimetallism through In
ternational agreement, which meant
England's consent. was impossible, and
growing more so every day. That dec
laration is only an artful evasion or the
real issue for want of courage to meet
it. The republican party demonetized
silver in 1873. 1t opposed its full res
toration in 1878. 1t is responsible Tor
the Sherman makeshift in 1890, and for
the decision that creditors of the gov
eminent could demand gold in payment
for coin obligations at their option. All
these things are matters Of record. In
telligent and well-informed men know
them to be so. Yet in the face OF all
this evidence, there are thousands OF
men who believing that relief from the
present condition of Frustrated indus
tries can only be had through free sill
yer are still hanging to the republican
party, hoping against hope, fighting
against fearful Odds with defeat star
ing them in the face. surrounded with
broken pledges, and blasted hopes.
weighed down with despair, knowing
full well..that they are engaged in
losing fight.
In addition to the record Of their
party every leading republican paper ts
against them and in favor Of the goll
standard. A recent issue of the Globe
Democrat contained an editorial along
these lines from which we clip the fol-
lowing: Even IL the entire mining
region were solidly arrayed in defense
OF the boilers the republican party
would make no surrender to silver.
On this question Of honest mOney-of
money which, in the language Of Jones,
of Nevada, in his best days. "can not
lie," and which keeps it's promises to
rich and poor alike"-the republican
party has taken it's position. To this
position it will stick despite the threats
Of fanatics and demagogues, and re-
gardless of the fortune which the i'm
mediate future may have in store for'it.
The position which the party took in
the conventions of 1888 and 1892 is the
position which it will take in the con-
vention of 1896. 1t would be easy, to
be sure, to make the silver utterance
. clearer, squarer and stronger than
those of the years named were. Prob
1t will mean a dollar which at all times,
in all places and under all conditions
will be worth 100 cents in the worlds
money, gold.
II there is to be any split in the two
great parties on the silver question 1896
is the time to have it. A square con-
test on this issue without any entan-
Cling alliances with. the tariff or any
other question, is the great need of this
country at the present time. One can
vass on the silver issue-one canvass in
which the 100000 voters Of this coun-
try could vote Eyes" or mo" on the
question of whether the national
finances were to be debased to the
Chinese level-would stamp out the sill
yer distemper and remove finally and
eternally this fiat money in peril. 1t is
we'll for the honest money men in both
parties to understand that silverism IS
as hollow and false physically, so to
speak, as it is morally. Outside of the
half dozen mining states it has no
standing among the people. The re-
suit in 1896 in Kentucky, in Nebraska
(where the democrats split into silver
lite and anti-silverite group and in the
eighteenth Illinois congressional dis
trict tells the story Of the feebleness of
the silver folly when it is resolutely at
tackled. But even II it were as power
full as its advocates pretend, the duty of
the republicans to assail 1t would still
be imperative. The party which ere
ated the national banking system,
which maintained, in the face Of power
full opposition, the governments faith
with its creditors of 1866 and which
brought every dollar of the country's
currency up to the gold level, could be.-
ter afford to be defeated in defending
the public credit than it could to win by
a surrender which would make 1t break
with it's record of third Of century's
glorious achievements in the policy OF
financial sanity and honesty"
It would be utterly impossible for the