The Windham County reformer. (Battleboro, Vt.) 1876-1897, 1896-02-21
Not Ont of the Woods Yet.

substitute two weeks ago and tn
narrow margin by which the bill pre-
vailed afforded an instructive demon
stration of the way the free coinag
agitation is losing ground in thi
country; but the House vote thi
week makes il more emphatic sovera
times over. The scnatc's voice wa
weakened by the participation OF
; dozen members or moro from sag
bush states, but the Houso's voice i
that of tho people clearly and unmis
talSably The population represented
by the latter vote against FREQ silve
is l6, 602, 1913, the assessed valuation
slS, 9S5, $50, 467 and the electoral vot'
$50 against a population of %, i0S, IS,
n valuation of Sc, lSS, 679.0 I0 and al
electoral vote of l67 for it. In Other
words the people of the country ara
against free silver two to one, and it.
property three to one.
1t only needs a look back for a few
years to realize tho progress that right
opinion has made. as it may always
be trusted to do when entrusted to the
arena of popular intelligence and pop
ular discussion. When the original
Bland "A llison act was passed in 1875
the House was overwhelmingly on the
side of free coinage and passed Il bill
| 30 9l,t ,nI hn 10 thaY, hn
conservative body, before the Republi
can manufacture of new states, replaced
it with the limited silver purchase
act, which both houses passed over
Hayes veto. When the disastrous
Sherman act, inccasing the favor to
silver, was passed in 1890, the House
was quite evenly divided, had passed
a still worse act in the Window bill,
for which the senate substituted free
coinage, and though the House refused
five times to accept the substitute,
the margin was so narrow that, in view
of the doubt of what Harrison would
do, as Sherman explains, this danger
GUS compromise was adopted. In the
next congress, the 52d, a free coinage
bill was held from being laid on the
table by vote of l48 to l40, and
again by vote of l45 to l49, but
nothing further came of it. The last
congress showed a decided change in
the House, not only promptly repeating
the Sherman act-whlch only got
through the senate after long
struggle, but voting down lG to
free coinage amendment to the bill,
125 to 227--an anti silver majority of
100, which has now grown to l26 Ger.
tainly, and on full vote, probably, to
140. And there is very little doubt
that the senate in the next congress
will show Il majority the same way.
The danger of any such recklessncss
as free coinage may be said now to
have been safely passed incur political
development. But it is useless to deny |
that there is still danger and the stu
alton is one that invites Some compro.
Mise scheme, whore no compromise is
except one that is part of an
International action, without disastrous
'esults to our own interests and with
nut injury to the cause of genuine
itself, by postponing, as it
las done for dozen years past, action
IN the part of other nations, whose in
crest is even greater than ours in re-
ief from the pressure of the single
tandard, but which will hang Off as
ong as there is hope that we will ;
imp into silver monometalism-- which
8 what free coinage now means-and so 1
ase them under gold recommendation,
~ swapping our supply of gold for
heir silve".
While it is clear enough that the
uturo is not with the silverites, il
he present aspect of tho question, tho
is strong for the Republi
an party to conci!iate them fer this
There are half a dozen +,
tates in the extreme west whose cleo ,
oral votes will be absolutely ndis- {
ensablo to Republican success, pro- !
ided the Democrats can hold their +,
Id states or most of them, and there ,
:, in all probability, no way of holding !
hem out but TO cater to silver To J
IT them 90 is to risk the results of an :
lection that with them is as near a
as anything in the future
an be. No one imagincs that the
resent leadership of the party, with I
latt, Quey & Co., in the saddle, is II
ute equal to such sacrifice and /
SIX as this 1t is therefore pretty d
sfe to prophesy some sort of straddle P
! the platform, and as platform ID
romises are not very satisfactory to Z
liver men nowadays, the pressure is u
ow going to grow stronger every day .
reinforce it with measure of legis- u
ton that will do something for G.
lvcr.''
u,
The report Friday of DIR. Nansen's al
scovery OF the North Pole, though il N,