The islander. [volume] (Friday Harbor, Wash.) 1891-1899, 1897-11-04
SILVER WAS DROPPED
DEMOCRATS ABANDON LEADING
ISSUE OF LAST YEAR.

Couldn.t Stand Wave Of Prosperity
Sweeping Over the Country-Bryan
and Towne snubbed by Democratic
Managers of Various States.
f. F. PARSONS, Special Correspondent.
Washington, D. C.--Further evidence
from Ohio corroborates the statements
that the silver question has been abso-
lutely eliminated from the discussions
there in the campaign. And silver was
practically the only plank OF the DEM
ocratic platform adopted only three
months ago. Mr.. Bryan proposed to
canvass the state Thoroughly in the in
terests of silver and speak from every
stump; Congressman Towne enter
ed the state with an idea Of speaking
for free silver many times, but for some
reason Mr.. Bryan has not kept faith
with his assertions, and Mr.. Towne has
been peremptorily ordered off the
stump by Allen O'Myers, McLean's
manager, and this action has been sus-
tanned by Mclean. Bryan, Towne and
others who have been for the past two
years laboring in the interests of the
silver trust, view this turning down"
with nothing less than dismay, be-
cause it means to them that the Demo-
cratic party is abandoning the free
coinage talk in every state where its
managers see any real hope of success
at the polls this fall. This general
programme has been adopted in all
states where there are campaigns, as
shown by various reports. When 1T
came to a direct clash, as was the case
the other day between Democracy and.
Bryan, Democracy won and Bryan was
snubbed. The New Workers were
about entering on their campaign and
Mr.. Bryan wrote urging them to keep
free silver to the front in their fight;
Chairman Jones, however, advised
them to eliminate free silver and his
advice was followed. Silver is practi-
cally tabooed in this fall's campaigns
and the free silver men are excluded
from participation in them. This
seems nothing short of wonderful In
view of the fact that only three months
have elapsed since the silver leaders
determined that free silver should be
the leading issue of this year, where
state and local campaigns were to be
fought. In Ohio, Iowa and Kentucky,
as we'll as in other states, it was made
the chief and in some cases practically
the only plank of the platforms. The
Mary landers, under Senator German g
shrewd leadership, managed to save
themselves from being obliged to later
run away from the platform by strad-
ding it at their convention, but in al
most every other case free coinage was
the watchword of the state and local
committees as much as it was of the
Democratic national committee of last
year. In Massachusetts, the George
Fred Williams element of the Democ-
racy adopted it, in New York seq
ment of the Democracy declared for it
and in Ohio, Virginia, Kentucky, To-
wa, Pennsylvania, Nebraska and other
states it was to be the leading issue of
the campaigns.
But all this happened within the
last three or four months, and all these
raticftions of free silver by various
conventions were before the passage of
the Dingley tariff law and the signing
of that measure by the president. This
occurred later, and what was the effect?
Immediately the wheels of industry be-
gan to revolve. 1t is useless to say
they did not or that prosperity has not
returned to thousands Of homes
throughout the land. Immediately
with the passage of that law, and in
some cases in anticipation of its pas
sage, factories began to resume and to
increase their number of employees and
thousands Of men who had been look
ing vainly for work suddenly found it
and at good wages, too. The hum of
industry was heard on all sides and the
factories smoke began to roll out in
black volumes. Employers began pay
ing out money to laborswhich they had
been previously boarding, afraid to en-
bark in business ventures and the en-
ployes began to demand the necessities
Of life from the farmers. Farm prod
ucts rose in price and laborers had the
money with which to buy them. Not
only wheat went up, in which there is
shortage abroad, but all other
farm products advanced likewise.
And, strange to say, simultaneously
with these advances the price of silver
steadily fell, reaching a low water
mark never dreamed of by the Demo-
Gratis, who were proposing last year to
supply the country with 53-cent dol
lars. Things reached such state; sill
yer down to nothing, and everything
else up and going up that there re-
manned nothing to do but to drop the
silver issue and forget it, although it
had been made the leading issue in
most of the platforms. And the adj
vices from all the states where there
are campaigns being fought show that
this plan has been adopted with singu-
lar unanimity. As stated, Messrs.
Bryan and Towne and others of that
school are rigidly excluded from all
the important campaigns and only al
lowed to educate the people in those
sections where they can't do any harm,
while the Democrats are casting about
for other issues, making their cam
paigns on a variety of misleading and
so-called issues, personal abuses and
the like. The outlook forthe Democ-
racy is not pleasant one.
Such principles" as the single tax,
the government by injunction" idea,
socialism and anarchism are substi-
tuted for the semi-fiat money scheme
which was the leading and almost only
issue three months ago. Last year the
Democracy had to abandon its old and