Iron County register., 1896-03-12

settled by the exercise Of their own
wisdom, and who. so believing. hold
that nothing relating to their welfare
and happiness in governmental mat
ters can safely be ignored by them, or
ought to be left to the arbitration of a
selfconstituted class claiming wisdom
superior to the intellect OF the ..com-
monn people. These are the people
who par excellence constitute the Dem
ocratic party; and to them must appeal
be finally made. If, by the manipula-
tlon of the machine, the platform OF
the party ignore or reverse their judg-
ment, or the men placed in position
betray them. they have the power and
always exercise the will to punish. In
this connection note the elections OF
1894 and 1895. Mr.. Cleveland and
the Cuckoos under him saw fit to vio-
late every pledge of moment given to
the people: the result is painfully ap-
parent. We appealed to Democrats in
1890 and 1892. and the verdict was al
most unanimously in our favor; In
1894, after two years of Mr.. Cleve-
lands administration, we again ap-
pealed to the same Democrats. but
with results how different! Yet. ac-
cording to our brother, since our plea
was made to Democrats, the nature of
that plea, or the grounds upon which
we solicited their suffrages, ought have
cut no figure whatever in the result
Let the Democratic party be true 20
itself, true to its traditions, true to the
welfare of the people, and there will
be millions of good Democrats all over
the land; but if it, through the men
entrusted with its leadership, prove
recreant to its principles and its aspir-
ations, those millions will dwindle to
the corporal's guard that shared our
mourning in the recent past.
There is something more than a
name in Democracy, and Democrats
demand more than platform merely
labeled, democratic"
*x*
But, alas! the Register declares, in
the most positive manner, that "the
money question is not a party ques-
tion;" that 'sthe tariff is the party
question" We suppose this settles it.
We have long labored under the
pleasing delusion that the Democratic
party had coherent body of political
principles. We had fondly believed
that there was no great question to
which these principles could ut be ap-
piled. They seemed, to our benighted
understanding, so simple, so clear,
that no Democrat need be in doubt at
any time as to his course or the policy
of his party. In this it seems we
were mistaken. After twenty-three
years of discussion we find, if the Reg
lister is right. the party at sea upon the
subject of bimetalism, without any
we'll defiied policy, and without any
principle to guide it.
We think there is excuse for the error
we have fallen into, for we find in the
National Democratic Platform of 1892
the following utterance: 1--WE hold to
the use of both gold and silver as the
standard money of the country, and to
the coinage of both gold and silver
without discrimination against either
metal or charge for mintage." When
we voted the Democratic ticket in 1892
we naturally concluded, from the
above paragraph, that if gold was to
be coined, silver was to be coined.
also, and upon the same terms; that
if silver coinage should be suspended
the coinage of gold would likewise be
suspended, for the platform declared
there was to be no discrimination
against either metal, but both were to
be treated exactly alike at the mints.
1t never occurred to us that this was
the work of the willy third party man,
neither did we suspect that the repre-
sentatives of a great party had delib
erately uttered falsehood in the de-
claration of principles they promulgat-
ed through the party's platform.
We honestly thought this plank
made the money question a party
question.
Other utterances of the party, and
other circumstances connected with its
action, have tended to fix this error
upon our mind. In the State platform
of 1894, the restoration of the bimetal-
ic standard was demanded as it had
existed for eighty years prior to 1873.
and the authority of Congress to dis
continue the coinage of either metal |
was denied. We were under the inn
preston that the declarations of that
platform would have some tendency |
to make the money question party
question.
We do not take the Pert1e Springs |
into the account, for the |
reason there was no railroad attorney, |