The Topeka state journal., 1897-11-23
THERE ARE OTHERS.

The Chicago Tribune has recently
experienced a change of heart regard
ing some features of the currency
problem and having expressed doubts
as to the wisdom of retiring the green
backs, it has been taken to task by
some of its Chicago contemporaries,
makes the following defense of its
course under the caption 'Restudyfng
the Question"
There are others who changed their
minds as the result of further study.
St Thomas would not believe at first
that the Savior had risen from the
tomb, but he investigated. and was
convinced, and proclaimed the fact.
St. Paul was a bitter enemy and per-
SecutOr of the early Christians. He
restudied the question, confessed his
previous error, and he became the
apostle to the gentiles.
The Emperor Constantine of the RO-
man empire was reared a heather. He
looked on the Christian religion with
contempt, if not with adherence. The
time came when he reStudied the ques-
ton. and, finding that he had been
wrong in regard to the Christians and
their creed, he became the protector of
that religion at the court and in the
empire. He gave offices to its adher-
ents. He changed his mind and turn
ed his back on the faith of his early
years.
Luther was a devout Roman Catholic
tiOn of its divine authority and prac-
tices more thoroughly than he had
done The result was that he changed
his views radically, and Professionalism
took possession of northern and west
ern Europe.
The political history of England is
made illustriOus by the names of men
who have restudied great questions
and, as a consequence, have changed
their views. The nOblest act in Sir
Robert Peel's life was the repeal of the
corn laws after Bright and Golden
had convinced him that tax duties on
imported breadstuffs were wrong to
the masses He went out of power. He
disrupted his party. But he was true
TO his convictions, and his changed
views, put into laws, have been of al
most inestimable value to the people
of Great Britain for half a century
past.
Mr.. Gladstone-the Grand Old Man"
was opposed. radically and sincerely,
to Irish home rule. He restudied that
question. His views were changed. He
had the courage to say SO openly But
the Tory house of lords prevented him
from carrying it out
The great political progress which
England has made during the last so
years is due largely to the fact that
her statesmen have not been ashamed
to be Inconsistent They have done
Unhesitatingly one year that which
they opposed the year before. because
they had ''restudied the question" and
President CleVeland's secretary of
state Mr. Carlisle, was a free silverite
advocate almost up to the time he be-
came secretary of the treasury. He
became afterwards an able advocate
of the gold standard Did he do wrong
by changing his mind on the currency
question?
In 1890 the Republican senators and
members of the house voted for the
silver purchase clause of the Sherman
law. In 1893 these same senators and
house members, still in congress- ex-
cept some from the mountain states,
voted for the repeal of the law. Were
they 'tJudaSeS'' or Benedict ArnOlds''2 ?
But they had ''restudied the question
in the light of new facts and changed
their minds.
President Mckinley, in 1890. as chair
man of the committee on ways and
means, put through a tariff bill. 1t
contained one great innovation and a
clause destructive of revenue. For the
first time in the history of the coun-
try sugar was put on the free list and
so or so millions of revenue were lost
to the treasury.
This year tariff bill was enacted in
the preparation of which the president
was closely consulted in every step.
That bill-the sO-called Dingley law
places a heavy duty on imported su-
gar. Evidently President Mckinley
had "restudied the free sugar ques-
ton" He had become convinced in
the light of the elections of 1890 and
1897, ana the 0GnClGucAGS OF revenue,
that the tariff bill of the former year
was not sound in all respects. Is he to
be accused of inconsistency because he
restudied the question, changed his
mind, and favors the present law which
heavily taxes imported sugar?
In 1873 President Mckinley, then a
member of the house, voted for the Al
lison-Bland silver law. If such a. meas
Ilre were to reach him now he would
veto it without the slightest doubt. He
has s-restudied the silver question and
changed his mind
The ex-confederates will admit now,
with hardly an exception, that they do
not want slavery restored, and do not
desire the Union divided. Yet they
fought for four years with singular