The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1896-06-30
B0lES' LETTER.
If the Financial Question Is to
Disrupt
The Democratic Party, Let 1t
Disrupt, Says BOies.
DISCUSSION USELESS.
No Need For Debate In the Chi
cago Convention.
The Rank and File Have Made
Up Their Minds.
DISCUSSION USELESS.

Omaha, Neb., June 30.-A special to
the Bee from Waterloo, Ia, says:
Ex-Governor Boies has made public
his letter replying to a message from
New York paper concerning the Whit
ney declaration.
Owing to my absence from home I
did not receive yours by wire until
this morning Mr.. Whitney is entirely
right in his conclusion that there is no
disposition on the part Of those who
will represent the silver element Of the
south and west IN the Chicago conven-
ton to further discuss the matter at
issue with the men whose views are
Numerically opposed to their own on
/ the currency question.
He is entirely correct in his conclu-
sion that it is now too late to accom-
plish any practical results by discus
sion of that character.
Throughout the south and west that
discussion has been extended and thor
ough and the views expressed by Mr..
/ Whitney have been put forward by
/ many people who entertain them, and
! they have been fully considered and
weighed, and after all of this the Judg-
ment of an overwhelming majority Of
the party in these sections is evidenced
by the class Of delegates who have been
chosen to represent it in the Chicago
convention.
Not one of these men can now disre-
gard the known sentiment Of those who
selected him without betraying the
/ trust conhded to him and not one Of
them, in my judgment, viii ever do 50.
Mr. Whitney is entirely wrong in as
Stunning that free silver Democrats are
I forsa king the fundamental principles Of
( Democracy or that what he terms
sound money Democrats are defending
! those principles in their endeavor to
commit their party to gold monOmetal-
lisn. Until the Republican party met
in ST. Louis few days since, there was
never q line written in a national plat
form Of either Of the great parties that
/ justif1es the claim that the one or the
other Of these parties was committed
TO that doctrine.
Over and over again the Democratic
party in national convention assembled
has put itself on record ia the clearest
and most comprehensive language
possible to use in favor Of bimetallism
in favor Of the restoration of silver to
its place in our financial system as
I standard money, and never for mo-
ment in the congress of the United
States has d majority or anything
ike a majority Of the representa- tives
of that party wavered in its devotion
to the principle so clearly enunciated
in the party platform. To assume now
that adherence to that principle is
abandonment Of an esta blished doc
trine Of the party is to defy history ana
/ ignore the most plainly written of all
its declarations Of policy.
1t is useless to claim that a tender of
the good Offices of the party to secure
an International agreement for the free
coinage Of silver is the fulfilment of its
pledges so often made in this respect
To sincere believers in bimetalIsm for
the United States an offer of this char
acter is little if anything less than I'M
qualified violation of a sacred pledge
by a great political organization. If
this is all that Mr. Whitney and those
who think with him can offer. it viii be
vastly better to offer nothing. When
Mr.. Whitney says the maintenance of
our present gold standard is essential
I to the preservation of our national
credit and redemption of our public
pledges. ne ignores a great truth of
which he cannot be ignorant. He
knows there is not a single obligation
of this government outstanding today
that by its terms is payable in gold
alone and he knows right upon the face
of the great bulk Of the bonds of the
government it is written in substance
that they are payable in coin of the
| United States of the standard weight
and fneness Of its coins before silver
was demonetfzed and that, therefore
by their own express terms they are
payable in our present silver dollars if
the government elects to so pay them.
1t is since the most of these obligations
were issued that silver has been de-
monetized, whereby, if they are to be
paid in gold alone, their value has been
doubled and the burden of the great
industrial classes who must provide for
their payment has been increased
two fold.
To talk about a violation of national
honor, when no party in the nation
has ever suggested its failure in the
least degree to meet every obligation it
has assumed according to the strict
letter of contract it made, has, to say
the least, q strange sound to those who
heard the universal cry of distress oc-
casioned. as they believe, by doubling
the purchasing power Of money and
cutting in twain the market price Of
the products Of labor. If to undo what
law has done to add to the burdens of
these tOiling millions of this nation and
double the fortunes of the rich within
it is to disrupt the Democratic party,
disruption must come.