The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1897-12-23
SENATOR WoLCoTT AND THE
PRESIDENT.

A special dispatch from Washington
to the Denver News says that Senator
Woicott, chairman of the bimetallic
commission, is calling on President
, Mckinley to stand by his declarations
in favor of international bimetallism
and head off Secretary Gage in his eff
forts to secure legislation on the lines
of the single gold standard as the only
salvation for the country and the party.
Senator Wolcott wants to know
whether Mr.. Gage speaks for the adj
ministration or merely for himself, says
this dispatch The fact that he is a
cabinet officer leads to the conclusion
that his words are weighted with adj
ministration authority. 1t is further
stated that Senator Wolcott believes
he has been trified with and looks on
the presidents action in appointing the
bimetallic commission as trick to re-
tain the temporary support of the five
silver Republican senator's for other
Republican legislation. Therefore the
Colorado senator is on the verge of
/ open revolt, and only waits an intima-
ton from the president that he will
stand by Gage to carry that revolt into
open warfare.
To anyone who has paid attention to
President McKinley's more recent ut
terances on the financial question-his
message to congress just before the
special session closed, and his annual
message-it has been plain that he was
playing a double game; that if he were
sincere with Wolcott he was not sin
cere with congress. AT last Senator
Wolcott has become almost convinced
that he has been trifled with, a convic-
ton borne in upon the minds of ma
jority of the people long ago. OF course
he has been and is being trifed with;
the sending of the bimetallic commits
sion to Europe was nothing more than
little pyrotechnic display to amuse
and divert silver Republicans.
Senator Wolcott, it is said, wants to
know whether Secretary Gage speaks
for the administration or merely for
himself. He has been in public life in
Washington long enough to know that
cabinet officers do very little speaking
for themselves when it comes to recon-
mending legislative action. For whom
did Secretary Gage speak when he sub
mitted his annual report, for the ad-
ministration or for himself? He spoke
for the administration in that no more
than he did when he appeared before
the committee on banking and currency
and urged his bill. When he said that
its first object was to strengthen the
gold standard, he spoke officially and
not in his private capacity. 1t is
strange that Senator Wolcott should
in any way question this patent fact.
And by whom will the president
stand, the secretary of the treasury or
the chairman of the bimetallic COM
mission? He will stand by his secre-
tary of the treasury, because he rep
resents the financial views of the forces
that placed him in the presidential
chair; to break with them would be
to break with the powers that created
him what he is. Mckinley is trying
the impossible task of riding two
horses, each going in the opposite di-
rectfon. The sooner the curtain drops
on the International bimetallic farce
the better it win be for everybody.
Senator Wolcott has done much to pro
long it. but even he begins to realize
that the thing is a farce and that he
has unconsciously been playing a con-
spicuous part in it.