Kansas agitator. [volume] (Garnett, Kan.) 1890-1905, 1896-03-28

preached nearer a crisis fraught with
more Importance than the present. Let,
men weigh we'll their duty as patriots
against their allegiance to their party
The republicans apparently have
been having pretty smooth sailing, but
recently a large sized skeleton mas
shown itself In the family closet. What
ever may be said of the sincerity of the,
senator's representing the silver min
ing states, there is constituency be-
hind them that don't propose to take
stone for bread, and between their al
legiance to the grand old party and the
frantic appeals, not to say demands, OF
their constituency, the aforesaid Sena-
tors are between the devil and the deep
blue sea, with the chances that the
party will have devil Of a row before
the thing is settled. If there is any
thing that the people in Colorado, Ne
vada, Idaho, Montana and other silver
states want more than anything else 1t
is free silver, and they are not at all
backward about declaring their inten-
ton of having it or free fight. When
the tariff measure came up in the SEN
ate the other day. five of these silver
senators voted to block any further
progress along those lines, unless we
were to have free silver. This proceed
ing was so extraordinary in the republic
can family that it excited much COM
ment, and no little criticism against the
aforesaid five senator's. Senator Car
ter, who also happens to be the Chair
man of the National Republican Com
mittee, smarting under these criti-
cisms, dropped his robe of senatorial
courtesy, borrowed brother Tillman's
pitchfork and proceeded to probe the
old republican dung-hill in the follow
ing refreshing style:
ut is high time that republicans who
claim to be within the party should take
their cues from the party platform,
rather than from the White House. II
it shall occur that this senseless crusade
against republicans who believed in
good faith in the Minneapolis platform,
when it declared for bimetallism as
we'll as protection. shall be carried to
such an extent as MAJ result in the
adoption Of President Cleyeland's
scheme by the st. Louis Convention, l
submit that republican success will be
rendered utterly impossible. II the
platform Of 1896 announces to the coun-
try, In conjunction with the action OF
republicans between the two conven-
tions, that the plank on bimetallism
adopted at Minneapolis was delusion,
fraud and snare, 1t would be just as
well for the republican party not to
make nomination at st. Louis at all.
Such platform as that, which will be
the logical outcome Of the republican
following of President Cleveland's
scheme, would leave the republican
party in this chamber with scarcely
enough members to second a demand
for the yeas and nays. In plain view
Of these facts, the drift of the republic
can party in the eastern section of the
country toward Clevelandism and the
gold standard is to me an appalling
spectacle. In the name of all the re-
publican party means to human civili-
cation, let republicans in and out of con-
gress take counsel Of their own party
platform and traditions and cease blind
devotion to the false god who deals in
mysterious phrases"
Senator Carter said much more than
this, but it is enough to show that he
knows how to handle pitchfork and
that there may be more trouble ahead
for the republican party than it is will
ing to admit. One thing, however Car
ter and his associates ought to know,
that is they are making hopeless fight
against fearful odds in their own party,
and that their action only serves to
keep the free silver forces divided and
thereby assists the goldbugs
w. S. MORGAN.