New-York tribune., 1896-07-23
Tile ST. LOEIS CONTENTION.

The Convention at st. Louis made small prog
ress yesterday. as was to be expected. body
composed of 800 men, every one of whom has
his own peculiar form OF crankiness, and con-
sders himself a leader or political economist,
cannot get on very rapidly. The POpulist
party too. cultivatcS too much Oratory to the
square inch for much transaction of business.
The oratory yesterday was not new or brill
liant The struggle proposed over temporary
chairman was omitted on the pleasing ground
that if he said anything he could be answered
on the spot. The usual routine work was
transacted and a recess taken until evening.
In the evening the lights went out and instead
of appropriately transacting their business in
the dark the delegates went out also. Nor did
the incessant talking about the Convention cast
much light upor its action except that there
seemed to be shade more probability that
neither Bryan nor Sewall would get either NOM
ination or Endorsement, though the Bryan man
ayers still claim to be sure of n majority.
But the din OF contradictory claims does not
obscure the fact that ST. Louis is the scene Of
n great battle between the silver mining mill
ionaires and the sincere fanatics who want
cheap money. What all the dispatches state
is less important than what they disclose. The
host of agents to do their work They are the
same men who compose the National Bimetallic
League which for years has been printing and
circulating silver documents, starting and sup
porting silver papers, and hiring silver takers
to spend their whole time in filing the minds
of farmers with folly. Does anybody imagine
all this has cost nothing. or that the concentra-
ton of such a money power on Convention Of
ineS
The entire silver mining force has united on
Bryan. declaring with Ex-Governor Waite, Of
Colorado. that "the silver men from the West
are determined 10 have Bryan or walk out
If they walk out" who is to furnish money
for the expenses of the National campaign?
Therefore Jones' of Arkansas and the Demo
cratic National Committee of which he Is chair
man. work desperately for Bryan.
This Is the eminently practical side Of the
crank Convention. Free silver coinage would
mean 5O,OOOOOO ounces Of silver valued at
81 2914 per ounce in legal tenders, instead Of
GO cents per ounce, a difference of $50, ,125,OO0
q year But the crank side of the Conven-
tion, with all the sincerity Of intense fanat-
icism, fights for cheaper money still. If fifty
cent dollars would be good. twentyfive-cent
dollars would be better for the same purposes
anu people. al DOttoHi ~ 10 'hc oiu iLI,-hhOho!
craze, which begins to hate the silver bugs as
intensely as the gold bugs. There is at stake
for these men the future Of an organization to
which they have given years Of work, which
promises them control Of State and local gov
ernments, and the crushing Of their deadliest
enemies, the Democrats of the South. With
millions Of Democratic voters going over bodily
to Populism, these men are frantic at the
thought that their ideas and party and all their
hopes for the future may be snatched from
them by the same old Democracy which they
have been fighting.