The news & observer., 1897-11-24
M,KlNLEY'S SILVER HYPOCRISY.

tor of n century has been so encouraS-
ing to the friends of independent iree
coinage as the growing European sehll-
mont favorable to silver, coupled WIN
Tho unmistakable meaning OF recent
o,octions in the different States.
The proposition of our Commissioners
that the mints OF France, India ana the
limited States be simultaneously opeheu
+o tho free coinage of silver, Is all that
WAS necessary, if it had been accepted
nv England. for the restoration or SUI
xer. because these three countries alone
,,r,oticoav maintained the double stand
I'll ,r;or To 1873. and could as easily
do so now. particularly after the Lanh
Union shall have again fallen into me.
In the face of the proposal Of the Bank
of England TO hold one-6fth of its re-
serve in silver, and after the report or
the ten distinguished members of the
royal commission, appointed by the
Oueen three years ago, who recently rep
resented that English agriculture is be-
ing ruined by silver demonetlzauon'
II is interesting to study the probable
causes. motives and influences when
led Lord Salisbury to report unfavorably
on Mr.. Wolcott's proposal. 1T was not
because English commerce was IN
healthful condition, for on the fh III
stant. the London Board OF Trade re-
ported that "the decrease in the value
of English exports for ten months or
1897. is Soo,OO0,000, as compared with
the corresponding period of last year
In the present state of British popular
opinion. is it not probable that interna-
tional bimetallism would have won the
day, if President Mckinley had recent
" given one official, public, sincere, ut
terance-that could not be misunder-
stood-that the Executive stood ready
to promote the cooperative plan, TO
which the platform on which he was
elected committed him?
When the English Cabinet was divid-
ed; when the bond-holders and the bank
ers, whom they control, "trembled IN
their boots:" while the Queens cabinet
hesitated and wavered on the PROPOSE
(which alone can bring relief to that
famine threatened and oppressed people,
did Mr. Mckinley utter a word to en-
courage or uphold the hands of his COM
missioners, or that was calculated to
throw the weight of his administration
and party, and of this great country, in
to the scales on the side of the plain peo-I
pie, for cheaper money and higher prices !?
Did he utter a syllable intended or tend
ing to destroy or modify the law-created
advantages of the creditor, and COR
respondingly relieve the debtor classes?
Not one.
''And he opened not his mouth"
At this critical and epochal moment
the champion of protection, and lad
vance agent of prosperity" observed a.
silence that was literally ''golden," and
in the interest of the gold standard.
When Mr.. Mckinley failed to avail
himself Of this great opportunity TO,
prove his love for silver, it is neither diff
ficult, improbable nor uncharitable to-
conclude, that our Presidents secret
hostility to free coinage contributed tOI
England's decision against silver, or It'll
may be, determined it.
After confdentially assuring England
that his administration would not lend
itself to the restoration Of silver, it was
easy for the President, through his
"great and good friend Secretary Sher-
man, to request Lord Salisbury to sol
frame his answer to our Commissioners,
that there would be no necessity for MS
(McKinleys) public refusal to join the
international movement And could
there be found in all the world a man
better suited to/convey such a message,
from our President, than Secretary Sher-
man. grown old, and rich during his long
championship of the single standard!
If internal evidence is wanted of such
a disposition on the part of our Presl-
dent, it is at hand. The simply mention
of the names of the men by whom he has
surrounded himself and who dominated
him, furnishes proof almost las strong,
as proofs of holy writ
Senator Hanna! The representative
of arrogant, bull-dozing, brutal, vulgar,
bossism, and of monometallism run mad,
and to seed.
Secretary Sherman! The arch-enemy OF
the double standard, made Premier. aud
that, too, after (by his own vote) he
had succeeded, with the aid OF that
Prince Of Mugwumps, monometallistic
fanatic, and platitudinOus Pharisee'
Grover Cleveland, in wiping from the
statute books his own (Sherman's) law
the last vestige Of legislative friendship
| for c;Ivar-which Secretary Sherman