Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1897-02-19
STATE OF WASHINGTON, J
EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENr,I
OLYMPIA, Feb. II, 1897. \

pal issue before the American people
The fortress which the people must
assault and capture is the icntrcnchcc
position occupied by the plutocracv
The outwork which at this time com
mands the entrance is the recent,
constructeB gold standard. The peo
pie are sufficiently educated to com
prehend this fact. For the assault
upon the gold standard we can com
nand a majority of the people and
shall inevitably be successful on the
next attempt. To abandon the attack
upon the enemy's most valuable posi-.
ton, upon which, too, we can con-
centrate our greatest force, would be
an example of criminal folly without
equal in modern political warfare
For the honest and misguided who urge
it l have sympathy and compassion
For the shrcwd and designing traitors
who are willing thus to imperil the
cause of human liberty l have moth
ing but opposition and hate.
Not that silver is all for which we
fight. 1t is not. 1t is but an outer
gate. But if multitudes are ready to
assist us in opening that gate-if
thousands upon thousands stand
ready and avow themselves anxious
to 60 with us part of the way toward
the attainment of better financial
system-why should we rudely repulse
them as unwoi thy co-workers? And
who can say that, having taken that
first step, those whom we now NAV be
disposed to consider as laggards in the
tight may not, when once fully en-.
listed, become more valiant soldiers
than any of lis who in the past have
borne the heat and burden of the
day? Was ever popular cause
strengthened by driving away those
who were disposed to be of assistance?
And are we not in all popular govern
ment afioat upon the open sea of pub
lie approval, necessitating for success
nearly unanimous confidence in
measures proposed? Is not public
opinion, in our day, the power behind
the throne, greater than the throne
itself? Can any abuses long continue
to stand against the combined thought
OF large majority of our people? Is
not this true OF all intelligent peoples?
Was not even the despotic German
Emperor, in full possession of Impair
tial powers, obliged to call halt when
it was seen that the German people,
or majority of them, opposed his
Will in the matter of socialist repres.
sion? And when it is perceived by
the enemy that our next assault.
made upen the same lines as the one
recently and barely repulsed, must
surely succeed, who that has the cause
at heart can sit idly by when crazy
egotists and black-hearted traitors are
endeavoring to divide our forces and
dlssipate our energies by leading us to
abandon the line of attack which in.
sures future success?
To look at the matter philosophi.
cally, is it not true that the forces
harmful to man in a political way are
Obliged from the nature of the case to
oppose their whole power to the
slightest inroad made or attempted to
be made upon their position? To
illustrate: When the Republican
party in 1860 carried the country upon
platform which declared on the
slavery question simply and only for
non-extension of slavery, it did not
propose to take away any right which
the slave propagandists had exercised
to any extent. 1t not only did not
attack slavery where it existed, but
tacitly agreed to protect and maintain
|, 1t In the slave States. But the slave
power saw clearly and intutively that
II the slightest step were taken in the
line of limiting their privileges, their
institution in its entirety was ut
stake. They then said among them
selves-and was then in the South
and often heard this from their speak.
ers-" we are stronger now to oppose
this first step against us then we ever
can be again if we allow this move.
ment to be successful" For this rea-
son, and not because they expected
immediate harm to come to them,
they resolved to fight. And they were
right in their judgement of the situa-
ton. The whole fight must inevitably
have been fought at that time or a
tame surrender made.
The situation to-day bears MANY
points of resemblance to that of 1860
Our ddle-of-the-roaders" are in
precisely the same attitude with re-
gard to the Bryan forces with that oc.
cupied by the abolitionists in their re-
lation to the then newly formed Re-
publican party. The aboiitionists
were very much dissatisfied with the
Republicans, and regarded them as
little better than traitors. They had
begun the agitation for the immediate
abolition of slavery. The Republicans
mad gradually given up this, and in
the eyes of the abolitionists were
guilty of trading away the reform
which they had championed for thirty
years. The slave was not to be liber-
ated; he was to remain a slave. and
even Lincoln had pronounced against
abolitlOnists. In short, nobody then
seemed to see that the South was to
be obliged to fight for the life of the
peculiar institution upon field where
its case was weakest and that of the
North set forth in the strongest pos
sible light. The issue was really, and
at bottom, the slavery question, but
to the North it was made to appear as
fight for national life. In no other
guise could the war have been sus-
tanned or successfully prosecuted.
To-day the real question before the
people OF this country is the demand
OF favored few to control the volume
OF money and by means of this little
understood but enormous power to ac.
quire a more than imperial mastery
over all exchange and all production.
The people at large do not compre.
bend this question and its overmaster.
ing and supreme Importance. They
cannot be made TO understand it in its
fuliness before il will no too Lotto R,,+