The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1898-01-28
Time TO Line Up
for The NeSt Fight
From the Philadelphia Bulletin.

From the Philadelphia Bulletin.
mn n HILE the passage of the Teller
NMII resolution by the senate will
lVNVl have no effect on the financial
WIZ policy of the government during
- ~ the present administration, 1t
will have an important result in another
direction. 1t raises the free silver issue
again from the grave where the ballots
of the people buried ii one year ago last
November it thrusts the question of main
tanning the public faith with the credit
ors of the government into the forefront
of this years general congressional elec-
tions; it shows that the leaders of the
silver forces are defiantly preparing to
keep up the fight on the lines of 1896.
o.
1t is obvious to all intelligent observers
that the contest for the election of con-
gressmen next fall is of unusual impor-
tance The senate is already a strong
hold of the free-coinage heresy; the
wrestle at the polls in November will de-
eide whether the house shall likewise fall
into their hands. With both branches of
the national legislature dominated by
Organism, the champions of debased
currency would have a marked advan-
tage in getting ready for the presidential
battle of 1900, and the merchants, manu-
facturers and investors of the country
would suffer through loss of public conf
dence. Can the adherents of the 16 to l
craze capture the next house? In the
first place, they have a distinct advan-
tage in the popular tendency toward a
reaction in the second year of each presi-
Dental term. This tendency is so well
established and generally acknowledged
that it needs no comment. Since the res
toration of the southern states to full
political rights, after the close of the war.
it has brought about the choice of q
it.
a Republican president has been in office.
Moreover, it must be remembered that
the majority for sound money in the
Fifty-tifth house, though sufficient TO
block all attempts to overthrow the finan-
cial declarations of the st. Louis plat
FORM is by no means monumental in its
proportions. In a house of 357 members
there are 202 Republicans, l30 Democrats
and % Populists--whO should be counted
with the Democracy in all contests in
VOlvng the soundness of the currency.
The Republican majority over all is only
forty-seven. If the advocates of cheap
and dishonest money can seize twenty
four seats in addition TO those they now
hold they will control more than one
half the total membership.
MANY sincere friends of honest dollars
are divided by differences of opinion as to
the advisabilty of attempting sweeping
schemes of monetary reform at the pres
ent session. The vote of the senate to
take up the Teller resolution was a notice
served on American business interests
that no plan To fortify the gold standard
would be permitted to pass that body.
This should convince the most ardent
champions of currency reform that eff
forts to carry out the plans of the IN
dianapolis convention are useless at this
iuncture. This being the case, with a
Republican house in existence, the con-
ditions will be made much worse if the
Democrats carry the popular branch of
congress. This is a danger which should
arouse not only Republicans, but sound
money Democrats, to the necessity of
united action against a common political
foe. Differences regarding plans Of re-
forming the currency are of infinitesimal
importance in comparison with the SUI
preme necessity of upholding the gold
standard and keeping the credit of the
United States mistaken. With stub
born fight for the control of the house,
only a few months away, it is folly for
the forces that elected Mckinley to waste
their strength in controversies among
themselves. Sound-money newspapers
should lose no time in impresslng upon
their readers the need of unity and ag-
gressiveness against the party of semi
population.