The Dalles times-mountaineer. [volume] (The Dalles, Or.) 1882-1904, 1896-07-25
SILVER MEN IN CONTROL.


next March as they did during the
last session of congress. is almost be-
yond question, and even If Mckinley
is elected president, it will be as
utterly impossible to pass any tariff
of financial legislation through the
senate, that does not carry with it a
provision for the free coinage of silver,
as it was during the session recently
closed. Henceif the republicans shall
| gain the president, the treasury will
| continue to be embarrassed in the next
four years as it has been in the past,
| and bond issuing will have to be con.
tinued through another four years. A
Washington correspondent to the
Minneapolis Journal sums up the con.
conditions that existed during the last
session and those that will exist in the
senate of the fifty-ffth congress, show.
ing that the siiverites will have full
sway, as follows:
'Tne test vote on the silver question
was taken on January 30, when the
free coinage bill was adopted by vote
OF AZ to IS as an amendment to the
house bill providing for certificates OF
| Indebtedness, etc. In that vote twelve
democrats voted with the republicans.
and Brown, Cameron, Cannon, Carter.
Clark, Mantle, Mitchell, of Oregon,
Perkins, Pettigrew, Prichard, Shoup,
Squire. Teller, Warren and Wilson,
republicans, and Butler, Irby, Kyle,
Jones, of Nebraska, and Stewart, pop
ulists, voted for the free coinage.
Under the new condition of affairs,
Dubois, Teller, Pettigrew, Cannon,
Mantle and Carter may be counted on
to act with the democrats, not only to
secure free coinage, but in antagonism
to tariff legislation until after free
coinage has been established. Brown,
Mitchell. Of Oregon, Shoup, Walcott,
Squire, Warren, Clark, Wilson, re-
publicans, who voted for free coinage,
or were paired in favor of free coinage,
may be relied upon to act with the re-
publicans. except on the direct ques-
tion of the coinage of silver, when
most of them would, unless conditions
are greatly changed, be compelled to
vote for free coinage. The gain of a
republican senator in Maryland is not
gain for gold, the retiring democrat
being gold man. In Kentucky there
Is vacancy, the silver party losing
vote and the succession being in doubt.
"Gains which the republicans make
in the next senate beginning the 4th
of March, 1897, are generally of a
character not to increase the gold
strength. Brice, who is succeeded by
a republican, Is himself a gold man.
Hill, whose term expires, is gold man;
Palmer, gold democrat, is liable to
be succeeded by silver man; PETER,
II he does not succeed himself, will
probably be succeeded by silver man,
Squire OF Washington, who ranks as
silver man, will be apt to vote against
silver when party lines are drawn;
whoever succeeds Villas will be a gold
man, so that there will be no change
in that respect. The greatest uncer-
tainty for the silver men is in the
election Of q successor to Senator
voorhees,.
"Fhe next senate, until Senator
Blackburn's successor is elected, will
consist Of eighty-nine sen ators, ma
jority Of which will be forty-five. Sill
yer senators will number almost to q
certainty forty-three. This leaves in
doubt successors to. Palmer, Voorhees,
and Blackburn, and does not count
Squire, Wilson, Warren, Clark and
Mitchell Of Oregon, republicans, who
have heretofore voted for free coinage
and counts Caffery and Mills among
The gold democrats. Republicans and
gold democrats can count. with prac-
tical certainty upon thirty-nine votes
In the senate, and have not an equal
chance with the silver men of making
gains out OF the doubtful column of
seven. The anti-silver people, there
fore, cannot rely with any confidence
or even trust with fair hope upon the
defeat Of a free coinage bill through
the operations of the senate"
This correspondent takes it for
granted that Mitchell, of Oregon, will
succeed himself, or if not silver man
will be elected in his place, in which
he Is correct, for a majority
Of the next Oregon legislature are for
silver, and no one who is opposed to
free coinage can be elected q. s. sem
ator from this state.
If these conclusions are correct
there will be little gained in the way
Of settling the present disturbed finan-
cial conditions by the election Of Nc
Kinley. The silver men in the senate
are fixed in their purpose to prevent
any financial legislation that does not |
provide for the remonitizatiou of the
white metal, and 80 long as they hold
control of the senate, the admin istra-
tion Of any president who opposes
them will be q failure. He will be
hsmpered with an impoverished treas
ury, and If he maintains the parity of |
our currency on gold basis it will |
be done only by the issuance of bonds |