Western Kansas world. [volume] (WaKeeney, Kan.) 1885-current, 1897-01-30
STAND BY THE GUNS.

| w hat idle and cOWardlY and suicidal
talk is this about Republican ''conses-
sions'' to the free silver deserters, and
about "conciliation" to the Populists?
| What have the 1000 men who voted
the Republican ticket in Kansas last
| fall got to concede? That they were
! ignorantly mistaken? That they were
1 yillfully wrong? That the deserters
we're partly or wholly right? That
| they were justified in deSerting and
5ushwhacking and keeping up fire
in the rear and out of the brush upon
tksir old fFieRdss '---s=7s= -7--'--
| We'll, hardlyt
The men who deserted the Repub-
| lican party in Kansas last fall, and
voted not only for the Democratic
| National ticket but also for the Popu-
| list State ticket, are PopuliStS. What
right have they to bear the name of
the party they helped to defeat?
Free silver Republicans" they call
themselves, and yet they voted for the
| Pop ticket from top to bottom Just
as much sense in Jerry Simpson call
ing himself a Sub-treaSury Republican.
Those who call themselves so adj
mitted this when they went outside
of the party to vote for free silver.
And they will have to keep on going
outside of the party as long as they
want to vote for free silver, for the
Republican party will never be for it.
That party was always for sound
money, and the free and unlimited
coinage of silver at Is to l is not sound
money; it is Populist fiat and repudia-
tion. And the Republican party will
always be against it.
So there will be no concessions. The
Republican party of Kansas is sorry
that some of its former members
thought more of free coinage than
they did of all the other party tenets.
1t is particularly sorry that some who
had been its members thought so
much of free silver that they even
voted to elect PopuliSt state ad-
ministration that cannot possibly do
anything whatever for free silver.
But it does not question any mans
right to his own opinion and to his
own vote. And when the men who
went off with the free silver wave see
their mistake, it will welcome them
back gladly; But the l6o, 600 men who
stood Loyalty by the old Republican
banner are mighty sure they are right,
and they propose to keep on marching
under it, .'eyes 'front.'" without apol-
ogy or explanation or excuse, and they
have no concessions to make.
And as to ''conciliating" the Popu-
lists by helping one faction or the
other of them to elect United States
senator or state printer, or by going
half way to help pass their measures
that is madness and folly and sui
eide. There are but fifty Republicans
in the legislature this year, but they
represent a party that is nationally
triumphant, and that even in Kansas
has many thousands more voters than
any other single party. The thing for
these fifty men to do is to hold their
caucuSes and nominate their candi-
dates for senator and printer and in
II oduce their measures as if they were
in the majority. That is the only
way to put the opposition on record.
to place the responsibility where it
belongs. and to maintain intact a
fighting organization The Repub-
Hcan party of Kansas has had enough
of concession and conciliatiOn. 1t has
conceded and conciliated itself nearly
off the face of the earth The thing
for it to do now is to fight 1t has
won many victories fighting; it never
won anything running away.
The Republican party is against free
silver; it is against free trade; it is
against free riot: it is against social
ism. under whatever guise it comes. !
There lies its line of battle, and there
it must win or lose the fight.
Stand by the guns lola Register. !