The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1896-02-28
CHANGED CONDITIONS OF THE SILL
YER QUESTION.

The recent course of a few silver Sen
ators and the rule or ruin programme
which they have announced as their un-
alterable policy raises a question whether
the Republican party, in its next national
convention. ought not to take more adj
vanced and unequivocal ground on the
silver question than 1T has yet done. We
seem to have come to a point where 1t
is necessary for the party to take a de-
cided and outspoken stand on the ques-
ton; and as a few silver Senators have
laid down their ultimatum and declared
their intention to force the fight to a
finish, it becomes a question whether
the party will allow itself to be fright
ened or bulldozed into taking a wrong
or a cowardly and equivocal position on
a question of vital Importance.
The first impulse of many Republic
ans will be to say that the position taken
by the party on the silver question four
years ago was right. and why not re-
iterate it? The answer is because tina,
would not satisfy the advocates of free
silver nor the friends of sound money.
a.
have changed very materially since the
adoption of the Minneapolis platform
so materially that the silver resolution
in that platform would not now hold the
advocates of free silver in the Repub-
lican ranks and would not be approved
by the friends of sound money. The
Minneapolis declaration was as follows:
The American people. from tradition and
interest, favor bimetallism, and the Republic
an party demands the use of both gold and
silver as standard money, with such restric-
tions and under such provisions, 10 be deter
mined by legislation, as will secure the main
tenance of the parity OF values OF the two
metals, so that the purchasing and debt-pay-
ing power of the dollar, whether of silver.
gold or paper, shall be at all times equal.
The interests Of the producers of the coun-
try, it's farmers and its workingmen, demand
that every dollar, paper or coin, issued by
the government shall be as good as any other.
We commend the wise and patriotic steps
already taken by our government to secure
an international conference to adopt such
measures as will insure parity OF value be-
tween gold and silver for use as money
throughout the world.
Fairly interpreted, that was a salts
factory treatment of the question as it
then existed, but now ii is a very differ
ent question. Four years ago bar silver
in London was worth SO pence; now it is
worth 81 pence. Four years ago the
commercial ratio of silver to gold was
% to 1: now it is 80 to 1. Four years
ago there was strong reason to hope for
early international action on the silver
question, while now the prospect of such
action is very remote if it can be said to
exist at all. The Minneapolis resolution
was framed with distinctly implied
reference to that prospect, and there was
at that time little or no demand for the
free coinage of silver by the United
States independent of other nations, es-
pecially at the ratio of 16 to 1. impossible
then and far more impossible at present.
Now, the advocates of free silver scout
the necessity of international action and
demand the free and unlimited coinage
Of silver by the United States alone at a
ratio fixed when the commercial value
Of silver was about twice as great as it
is at present.
1t is plain. therefore. that the condi-
tons OF the silver question have ma
terially changed during the last four
years. This has been an educational
period on the silver question as we'll as
on the tariff and other questions In
telligent Americans who constitute the
bulk of the Republican party have had
their eyes opened to the dangers OF free
silver coinage under present conditions,
and especially TO the wild folly of the
United States alone adopting free COIN
age on ratio of 16 to 1. and they will
not be satisfied with a declaration that
can by any possibility or twisting of Ian
guage be construed as favoring that
policy. The Republican party cannot
afford to pander to Populism or make
any overtures to or compromises with a
movement that would Mexicanize our
currency and place the country i'm line
with India. China. Japan and the Central
American states. The declaration of
the ST. Louis convention on the silver
question should be the most pronounced
and unequivocal the Republican party
mas ever made. The course pursued by
the silver Senators and the shape which
the question has assumed before the
country make this political necessity.