The herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1893-1900, 1898-06-01
OLD QUESTION UNsoLvED

The vitality of the silver question as an
issue in 1900 will largely depend upon the
results of the congressional elections of
the present year. The issues this fall,
to a greater extent than now indicated,
may turn upon questions growing out of
the war in which the country is now en-
gagged, and the future policy of the Amer
lean people. Should hostilities cease
within the next sixty or ninety days, and
before the nominating conventions of the
several parties shall have been held, it will
be impossible to keep these questions in
the background. 1t will be difficult, if not
impossible, to prevent them from being
treated as paramount. 1t will be to the
decided interest of one of the great par
ties to overshadow the otherwise inevi-
table silver issue with them. And We
use the word inevitable" because, before
war intruded itself the fact was univer-
sally conceded that the undecisive battle
of '96 would be resumed in '9S, and carried
over to the next presidential campaign.
no matter what the result of the congress
sional elections, since victory will not be
complete until there is placed in the ex-
ecutive chair man who will sign a free
gress.
1t was not only conceded that the con-
test would be waged with silver as tho
chief issue, but it was almost as certain
that it would result in the complete rout
of the single standard cohorts, disarm-
ing them as an offensive force and re-
ducing their dependence to the presi-
Dental veto prerogative, with the uncer-
tainty of that prevailing over a national
assembly chosen to carry out the will of
the nation.
Everything conspired to make popular
triumph certain. The dominant party
once it became installed in power, had
completely thrown off the mask success
fully worn in the preceding campaign by
the use of which it had decoyed hundreds
Of thousands of friends of free coinage
That party no longer pretended to dis
guise it's sympathy for that element of
the party which sought to force the gold
standard upon an unwilling and protest
ing people, for that element which-by
the employment of unlimited and I'M
measured funds, and by resort to the
most damnable methods known to Amer
lean politics-had made its success al the
polls possible. The administration had,
indeed, as it was in duty bound to do,
sent bimetallic commission abroad, but
had paralyzed it's arm at the height of its
success by assuming an attitude of hos
tility to an international agreement that
could not be misunderstood at foreign
courts. 1t had, in terms, demanded that
congress enact legislation directly in con-
fiict with the theory of return to the
double standard, in direct line with the
plan of the gold ring to reduce silver to
the level of subsidiary coin and keep it
there. The conspiracy to completely over
throw silver had indeed progressed almost
to the point of ultimate success before
the return of the Wolcott commission,
discredited and Inundated, from its boot
less mission. The bankers had met in
convention at indianapolis, and issued
their ultimatum to the administration it
had elected, and the terms of that de-
cree were being complied with as
rapidly and with as much fidelity
as circumstances would allow. The
country had seen the handwriting on the
wall and signs of discomfort were visible
on every hand.
A deficit in revenues, growing with each
passing month, pointed to the early re-
sort to another bond issue. Industrial
conditions throughout the country were
growing steadily worse. The promised re-
lief to follow revision of the tariff laws
along protection lines had failed to mate
rializs. The great textile fabric industry