Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1897-03-11
Currency Hiatus IN the G. o. 2.

Only that part of William E. Chan
dler's speech delivered in the Senate
the other day which dealt with bimet-
allism merits more than passing men
ton. The significance of what he said
or this point lies chiefly and almost en-
tirely in it's bearing on the political
future and fortunes of the Republican
party under the leadership of the man
whom it has succeeded in electing
| President.
! Senator Chandler is not made OF the
| stuff that causes a man to face death,
endure torture, suffer contumely, or
sacrifice position for a principle. He
is professional politician, pure and
simple. and the springs and incentives
| for all his public actions and utteran-
ces are moved solely by the demands
of political exigency. No matter what
may be his personal convictions on the
subject, the Senator from New Hamp-
shire would deny them expression ii
| he believed their publicity were cal
! culated to injure his political fortunes
or seriously cripple the machinery OF
| his party. What he said, therefore,
is significant of tendency on the part
of considerable and Influential con-
tingent of Republican leaders, who
seem inclined to use all their efforts to
bring about change of front on the
financial question.
Many Of the arguments used by Chan
dler in his speech are as pro-silver in
reasoning and illustration as if they
had been taken from the campaign de-
| liverances of Democratic orators made
during the last campaign. They were,
in effect, an arraignment of the finan-
cial plank of the ST. Louis convention.
| The good sound Democratic doctrines,
| arrayed in the vocabulary of one of the
blackest radical Republicans that ever
withered vegetation by casting his
shadow on it, were paraded before his
party associates and made to do duty
| in confoundiDg and cOndemning the
men in control of the Republican or
ganization for the disastrous financial
| policy they forced into their platform
and upon the candidate they placed
upon it, How familiar and yet how
grotesque those strains singing the
praises OF bimetallism must have
| sounded 10 the ears of the silver Sena-
tors coming from Chandler's lips. 1t
| was as strange as if a raven had opened
| his bill and poured from his throat the
| tuneful melody of nightingale.
Mr. Chandler proved that he has
studied and mastered thoroughly the
logic of the Democratic party on the
currency question. He pictured graph
ically the gradual demonetization of
silver, told of the closing of the mints
in 1873, recounted the efforts to restore
silver, and described the serious blow
| England struck at silver when she
closed the mints of India. Mr.. Bryan,
in his most impassioDed fights of elo-
quence, never said severer things of
John G. Carlisle's assault upon the
white metal during his management OF
the Treasury department than did this
! dyed-in-the-wool Republican from the
New Hampshire hills. Senator Chan
dler traced the fall of prices for farm
products and declared that silver de-
monetizatiOn has caused a shrinkage
in the values of property in tn United
States since 1890 aggregating sixteen
billions of dollars. This startling ad-
admission was intensified by the New
Hampshire Senator when he declared
that ''prices have not yet touched bot
TOM" He appealed in his closing SEN
tences to the incoming President and
his advisers to pay heed to the de-
mands of the people, particularly in
| currency matters, and warned him and
them that neglect to do so would be
certain to bring further disaster upon
the country and defeat upon the party
responsible for it.
Before the election Chandler was
one of the few Republicans of promi-
nence in the East who were outspoken
for bimetallism. Representing hide
bound Republican constituency makes
this persistence of his in the express
sion of his currency views all the more
significant and emphasizes the pres
ence in strong force of the pro-silver
sentiment in New Eugland. That he
has reiterated his views so publicly
and forcibly is a sure indication that
his constituents are almost a unit in
indorsing his attitude and approving
his utterauces.
| Mckinley, in his feeble, yacillating
way, has trid to make terms with his
own conscience, and to placate the con-
flicting factions in his party on the cur