The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1897-12-19
TRYING TO SERVE TWO MAS
TIERS.

The Salt Lake Tribune is about the
only paper in the country that pre-
tends to be friend of silver which
also pretends to believe that the Nc
Kinley administration is friendly to sill
yer. The paper or person that can
make such pretensions must be
troubled with mental strabismus. Fri
day the Tribune said:
We believe the president meant some
thing significant when, in his message,
he said the American COMMISSIONS
We're not yet ready to report; we be-
lieve, if the matter had been cOnsid-
cred settled, that before now Mr..
Wolcott would have been heard from
in the senate. More, there are outside
causes at work. In the campaign OF
1896 the statement was repeatedly made
that the Wilson German tariff would
De ample to raise all needed revenue
( under normal conditions, but that even
a higher and perhaps better adjusted
| tariff would not avail, until the finan-
cial basis OF the country was broad
ened. Even the unexpected and nat
ural advance in the price of wheat
| this year has not broken the force O.
that statement. The president must
! see this, so must some, at least. OF
J his advisers. Again, the winter is upon
! the country, and notwithstanding the
shouting of good times in certain quar-
/ tiers, the calls for charity VIII be just
as loud and persistent during the next
/ few months as they were during the
! corresponding months of last year.
What the president said in his mes
sage about the American commission
ers not being ready to report was sig
nifcant, and it signifed an attempt
to pull the wool over the eyes of that
portion Of the people who still give
allegiance to the Republican party and
yet retain q belief in silver. It prob
ably signifies something else to the
Tribune, and it should give its read
ers the benefit of its interpretation
especially as it is engaged in the task
of holding up" the hands of the ad-
ministration in its efforts to do some
thing for silver.
Secretary Cage has laid his plan for
reforming the currency before the
house committee on banking and cur
rency, and he declares his first great
object is TO commit the country more
thoroughly to the gold standard" No
one viii contend for a moment that
NA-lo pan IL i4OI lllC PlCo4QE4Al lOClllS
his. what becomes of the belief of the
Tribune that 'the president meant
something significant when, in his mes
sage. he said the American commits
sioners were not ready to report?'' Isn't
the Gage bill considerably more sig
nificant ethan the phrases OF the mes
sage. And what was the Tribune's
comment on the Gage bill? Absolutely
nothing, though it had this to say of
his definition of bimetallism:
Secretary Cages definition of bimet-
allism as meaning the gold standard
puts US in mind of the old proposal
Of the white man to the Indian in di-
viding their hunting Spoils, which was,
TIL take the turkey and you take the
turkey buzzard; or, you take ,6he tur-
key buzzard and I'll take the turkey
Cages definition is new, but the prin-
ciple is old.
And whose definition of bimetallism
is this? 1t is the definition of the Nc
Kinley administration, promulgated by
its official financial spokesman. The
Mckinley administration, sending com
, missioners abroad to ascertain Euro
pean sentiment on the subject Of in
ternational bimetallism merely that ii
may say the pledges of the st. Louis
platform have been fulfilled and hold
ing out some false hopes in the presi-
dents annual message, is offering to
the silver men and bimetallists of the
country nothing but turkey buzzard
And still the Tribune is constantly
trying to make out that the Mckinley
administration is yet going TO serve
, out turkey to the bimetallists. Il
should reconcile its editorial page Of
one day to its editorial page of the
next: and likewise learn that it can
not serve two masters at the same
l time-the people of the silver produc-
ing west and the Mckinley administra-
ton