The Athena press. [volume] (Athena, Umatilla County, Or.) 18??-1942, 1896-07-17
TARIFF is SET ASIDE
The Currency Question Upper
most in New York.
SILVER THE SENTIMENT
Plain Facts as Told By the
New York Herald.

| In itB Issue OF recent date the New
York Herald, which is one Of the leading
| democratic journals of the United States
and which has baen in favor OF the single
gold standard, prints q long article on the
growth Of the silver sentiment in the
Empire state. Startling headlines were
used. The article was deemed 80 sensa-
tional that it was telegraphed in its en-
tirety to number of papers In the West
1t follows:
"Portentous aud menacing, q political
specter has risen in the rural counties OF
this state, threatening to overshadow
parties aud conditions and obliterate
partisan lines from the Pennsylvania
boundary to the st. Lawrence and from
Lake Erie to the Hudson. The farmers
are worshipping the silver calf. In many
of the counties there is no actual organi-
zation Of the friends of free eilver. An
organization and an active free silver
campaign would make many OF the
strongest republican counties in the
state doubtful in November"
Continuing the Herald says that even
without an organization the free silver
farmers knocked the sound money men
off their feet in many places in the state
in the recent democratic primaries, and
proceeds to enumerate localities where
this has been done, prominent among
them being such counties as Lew and
Genessee. The latter is the home OF
bob" Maxwell, leader OF the CleYeland
democracy in Western New York.
On test vote the silver men knocked
out the friends of P. Flower in the eecond
district OF Jefferson county, and would
have carried both districts had they
been :. ,arized. silver is likely TO con.
troll both part. organizations ia Lawrence
county, and the free silver democrats Of
Onondaga and Monroe counties we're in
control at the Saratoga convention.
Summing up the whole situation, the
Herald says that the reports Of its cor.
respondents show thet 1t is the republi.
cans rather than the democrats who
should be alarmed. The situation is like
mountain forest in August, ready for
the match. The republican leaders are
in ignorance of the actual state Of affairs
lit has all come about in three or four
weeks. The county democratic leaders,
having become acquainted with it in
| their caucuses, are secretly anxious for
free silver to triumph in Chicago. They
think they can shift the tariff issue and
carry the farmers almost solidly for free
| silver.
From St. Lawrence county the Her
AIDS correspondent telegraphs that that
rock ribbed Gibraltar of republicanism is
one enormous debating society, and the
only subject debated 10 free silver; the
tariff has been forgotten. The writer
| r,arkr q ,,a th a JapIoroh1o oonditi0r, of ihn
farmers Of that section OF the state, and
/ says that tremendous fall in the prices Of
=, farm produce has made the acarcity OF
: money in the rural districts almost gro
+; teeqne. Cheese sells at from to 61a
cents a pound; butter has been down as
low as 10 cents (; potatoes must be fed to
| the etock.
When the Wilson bill Was enacted
and Canadian hay began to come across
the line and undersell the New York
product the farmers were inclined to
blame the democratic party. Lately they
have been told that even If that be true
republicans will be powerless to give re-
lief within year or two, and that in the
meantime something must be done.
That something they are beginning to
believe is free silver, and this belief has,
the writer says, become so deep seated
that that section of the state has been
converted to free silver. Three free silver
leagues have been organized in St.
Lawrence county alone, and others are
being rapidly organized in various
counties of the state. Senator Malby Of
Ogdensburg is quoted as admitting that
the free silver element is unusually
strong.
From Watertown comes the word that
the spread OF the free silver sentiment is
astonishing, and bids fair to crystalze
unless something isdone to counteYact it.
The editor OF the Watertown Times,
w. D. McKestry, formerly one Of the civil
service commissioners, went over the
county and afterwards stated that what
he had learned about free silver in that
part OF the state aetounded him. II the