The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1896-08-06
WHITE METAL
ENDORSED BY A REPUBLICAN
CANDIDATE FOR CONGRESS.
He will Not Support the Republican
Platform on the Money Question
The stinment Getting Danger
ousIy Near the Majors Home.

Wooster, Ohio, August 3.-(Special. -
One Of the original white metal men in
Ohio is the Hon. Addison s. Mcclure,
Wooster, the present Republican con-
gressman from the Seventeenth district,
and also the nominee of his party for
reelection.
Captain Mcclure, from 1879 up TO six
years ago, when he retired, was an ar.
dent champion of the cause Of silver. and
since then, in the halls Of congress, has
spoken for and voted for silver. He WAS
elected in 1894 in district that gave
Democratic majority Of 5000 because of
his pronunced and we'll known position
on the silver question. The convention
which nominated him indorsed his action
in congress. Since the St. Louis oonven-
tion Mr.. Mcclure has received many let
ters from his constituents asking him to
define his position. He has done 50 as
will be seen by the following letter. ad-
dressed to Messrs. George c. Harrison, s.
W. Harrison, 1. b. Williams, r. B. Har-
rison, d. d. Condit, T. A, Dickerson, ].
7. Mills, J.T Reynolds, b. Thompson,
Jersey, Ohio 1t is in part as follows:
you desire to know from me, as the
Republican nominee in the Seventeenth
Ohio district, whether, in the event of
my election. I will support the Repub-
lican platform, including, especially, the
gold plank You are entitled to q frank
and explicit answer to this pertinent
question shall so answer
"It is needless for me to dwell at length
on existing economic conditions
"At no time in our history, except,
perhaps, in the episode of the late civil
war, has the voter had more momen.
tous interest in knowing the precise
attitude of candidates for the National
House of Representatives, On public ques-
itons than in the pending campaign
II first learned, in June, 1875, that
silver had, by the legislation Of 1878,
been dropped as standard money. Ever
since l have been an avowed opponent
of the exclusive gold standard. 1 was
a candidate for the nomi nation for con.
gress in the Eighteenth district that year
tion Of silver as money metal. was
elected to congress from the same district
In 1880, and, as member Of the COM
mittee on coinage, weights and measures,
1 voted to favorably report a bill to restore
silver to the place it occupied in our
coinage system prior to 1873. When
was nominated for congress at Millers-
burg, In July, 1894, as the Republican
candidate from this district, explicitly
avowed my opposition to the gold stan
dard and my advocacy OF the full reha-
bilitation of silver. In every speech
made in that campaign reannounced
my position.
81 suppose l am expected to recant
these convictions cherished for nearly o
quarter of q century. This cannot do.
AS a member Of the House of Repre-
sentatives / shall, under no circum-
stances, vote to put the brand Of the out
law on silver, or to crown gold the sole
unit OF value in this country. But l
shall, to the very best of my ability, do
all l can to overthrow gold and to re-es-
tablish gold and silver as the standard
money of tho American people.
But it Is contended that the true So
luton of the silver question depends up
ON international action. No sincere
friend Of silver will controvert the desir-
ability Of international bimetallism. But
is it practicable or probableS Within the
last eighteen years there have been three
international monetary conferences to
solve the silver problem-in 1878, 1881
and 1899. These conferences have served
TO direct the economic attention of Eu-
rope and the United States to the positive
disadvantage of gold monometallism,
but they have been unproduotive of legal
results. We are no nearer international
bimetallism than we were in 1873, when
the first conference was held. There Is
an apprehension, and 1t is not entirely
groundless, that some Of the advocates
of international action, especially in the
East, are not actuated by entire good
faith but are simply seeking delay in
order that prices may settle and contracts
be adjusted on the bedrock of the gold
standard.
Exact justice demands return to
the bimetallic standard. This can only
be done by opening the mints to silver
as money metal. To discredit silver by
legislation infiames the divergence be-
tween the relative value of the two metals.
Parity cannot be restored by making sill
yer an outcast from the mints.
~ cast my first vote for Abraham Lin
coin in 1860. took part as a young
man in that mighty struggle for the
restriction of slavery in the territories. j
have taken part in many campaigns
since then. l have been under the Repub-
lican banner for thirty-six years and l
propose to stay there, unless my presence
is by reason of my principles, unwel-
come"
III You viii Use a Little Reasoning
and NOT ba inAuonoad NV tho clain, that