The Portland daily press., 1896-11-13
IT WAS THEIR BEST CHANCE.

There were more conditions favorRDie
to the free silver propagandists in the
recent campaign than they can ever hope
for again. Business was depressed, in
dustries were a5 standstill, farm pro-
ducts wera very low and very many
laboring men were out of employment
All these things were exceedingly favora-
BILE to free coinage, because the effect OF
them was to engender dissatisfaction and
despondency in large part of our popu-
lation. 1t is notorious that in periods OF
depression men are ready to turn will
ing ear to any theory or scheme that
promises relief, and are much less ike
ly to give 1t careful examination. 1t 1t
is strongly recommended and great
claims are made for it that is enough to
induce despondent people to accept it.
Z hey are apt to reason that they can be
DO worse of, and that the remedy
offered them can do them no harm If 1T
does them no good. But this WAS not all
that rendered the recent campaign
exceptionally favorable to free
coinage. Quite as Important, and per
haps even more. was the fact that the
silver propagandists had got long start
of their opponents. They had been as
siduously cultivatine the field for many
years, while the other side was passive.
and 80 evident had been their success that
q great many Of the delegates to the st.
Louis convention looked with apprehen-
sion upon the gold plank that was inoor-
purated in the platform, fearing that the
headwaybthat the silver movement had
already attained was too great to be
checked, much less arrested and reversed
before election day. Furthermore when
the fight was on many of the leaders OF
the gold side found themselves handi-
capped and the force of their arguments
very much weakened by the soft words
with which they had once sought to turn
away the wrath of the silver men when
they were fondly hoping that the whole
thug would blow over. AS showing the
headway the silver movement had ac-
quired Mr.. Hanna's statement that the
first poll of the State of Iowa, state
that had always stood by the Republican
party in Presidential elections, showed a
majority of 600 for free coinage, is of
great Significance. The farmers of the
West and Northwest and a great many
workingmen had embraced the silver
doctrine when the.recenr campaign be-
gan; and the silver men had only to hold
what they had to carry enough states in
the West to give them a majority in the
electoral college. This was a tremendou g
advantage.
Thore may be times of depression in
the future as bad as those [ that we have
just passed through. That advantage
may possibly come to the silver men
again. But never will they again have
the other advantage of having got a
long lead in a campaign of education.
The escape of the business men of this
country was so peTilously narrow this
time that they will never rest quiet
themselves, or allow the political teachers
to rest quiet. when dangerous financial
heresies are being preached all over the
land, in the hope that it will all blow
over. The country will not forget for a
good many years that the time to strangle
false doctrines is when they first begin
to show themselves.
If Mr.. Bryan or the other free silver
propagandists undertake to lead another
free. silver crusade they are sure to have
fight on / their hands from the very
start. They will not be permitted to
| entIench themselves before an attack is
made upon them. they will not be al
lowed to carry on a campaign of mis-
education in the rural districts without
meeting a counter campaign of real
education. The country has learned d
lesson which it will not soon forget.