The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1897-11-02
The Messenger.
a CALM SURVEY OF PROBILI
TIES

$1,000
the Wolcott mission and the failure of
nis cause by action Of England. He is
swift to digown that the administra-
ton had any connection whatever
with or responsibility for the said BIZ
metallic commission. He says the only
ating done was to authorize the COM
mission ito go abroad and see if they
could make arrangements for an inter
national conference, but they were
given 10 authority to make any definite
propositions whatever regarding what
The conference might be expected to de-
1eTmine, or about ratio or the conduct
or the Ban of England Of anything
else, and all the programmes they nave
been discussing were of their own in
vention n without .t4thority." This
may be true. No good bimetallist
WHO was half informed ever put any
Gaith in an administration as being
friendly to bimetallism that nae in it
such men as Mckinley, Sherman and
Gage. 1t is plain enough that the Nc
KinIey crowd vas playing double. It
has been really attempting to satisfy
the silver wing Of the republican party
and at the same time placate the gold
men of all parties. 1t has been out
gGardly a straddler but in fact at heart
in sympathy with the enemies Of a BIZ
metallic currency.
The failure Of England to agree to
corporation in restoring silver gives
great satisfaction to the monOmetal-
FISTS Of this country. They are talking
la If that ended the contention for
osmetallists any longer, and took it M
sf practical politics as an issue in 1900.
We do not think we ever knew such
confident prophecy based on SUCH a
slender, shaky foundation. SO far from
this course of England being a set
back to the cause Of bimetallism it will
stimulate to greater activity and a
more determined fight on the part of
she bimetallists of the United States.
1t viii be remembered that the enemies
of silver last year said let us await in
ternatiOnal action, let q convention be
called of the leading natiors and have
the matter settled. The friends Of sill
yer insisted that it was useless to wait,
that England, the great credit nation
and gold standard nation would never
agree to any change Il that the
United States were entirely competent
40 manage their own currency and to
act INDEPENDENTLY of England or any
power. Now that England has taken
Nhe stand it has and has resolved to
ings for further delay as to action by
United States will be set aside, and
~t,iInetal1ists will insist more than ever
before upon immediate action by this
country. We do not stop to argue
about its advantages, but combining our
remarks to the probabilities as to the
course that over six ard a quarter mil
qson voters will pursue in the great ma
tional campaign ahead. The fight will
be pushed with more of vigor and
1]ierceness than in 1895. 1t is simply i'm
possible that a great minority COM
posed of more than six n a quarter
million voters shall for one moment lose
heart, or talk of abandoning the field.
So the newspapers and politicians that
indulge in such empty talk, SUCH mis-
cradle twaddle that the triumph of the
gold standard is complete and the pros
poet Of further trouble amounts tc
nothing is only another instance OF
stupidity and blindness. There is bui
one possible contingency, but one pos.
sib1e event hat can save the gOlt
sfandard-universal confidence, pros
Y,erity and peace. If in 1900 there shall
be wide spread contentment and gOCt
wages and remunerative and satisfac
tory prices and the waste places shall
blossom as the rose n the hearts o
men shall be glad, then the gold part.
may achieve an easy victory. Blu
nothing short of that a stay tn
fight or fasten longer upon the cOuntr,
The one standard that is believed by s.
many millions of electors to have work
ed so u~nfavorably to the country ana
fo disastrously to the great working
masses. This much can be said in al
candor. The purpose of this editoria
Is to simply expose the fallacy OF con
GLIDING that another bimetallic cam
paign is closed because of the selfish
calculating, shrewd action of the grea
credit nation of the world. The thou
sands of millions of dollars owing b!
this country and other countries t.
England are the seeming cause of it
aetion. Mr.. Gladstone a few years ag'
Sluntly stated this as a truth in (
speech in Parliament.
a recent London letter in the New
York Tribune, a gold organ, says tina
~oimetallism made some gain in forcing
England's hand and making her re
sponsible fer frustrating the plans o
Dimetallists, and England has a grea