Staunton spectator and vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1896-1916, 1898-10-13
Common Sense Applied to Politics.

The Richmond Times, a Palmer and
Buckner paper, has the following:
IF our free silver leaders in Virginia
had had the wisdom Of the New York
Democracy there would be little diff
Guilty in uniting the Democratic party
here"
In politics, as in other things, it is
well to apply common sense. The State
Of New York is supposed to, when
strict party lines are drawn, to be a
Democratic State. The gold element
in both parties there is very strong,
both with its own and borrowed
strength. 1t is as powerful there, in the
home of the money centre as it is weak
in some other States of the Union. III
the election of 1896. either by voting for
Palmer and Buckner, OF by voting di-
rectly for Mckinley, or by staying at
home, the Democratic gold element
managed to throw the State for the Re
publican ticket by over 200.o0a majority.
u brief ~ Democratic gold element
showed that in that State it was d
power.
On the other hand, 10 Virginia the
goId element ia toe Democratic party
though running with an ample equip
ment for campaign purposes, was un-
able, from its diminuatiye dimensions,
to deprive Mr.. Bryan Of the electoral
vote of the State, either by voting for
Palmer and Buckner, by voting for
Mckinley, or by staying at home. Tie
result was that the regular Democrats
the silver Democrats if you choose
carried the State by about twenty
thousand majority. The Palmer and
Buckner ticket only received about two
thousand votes in the whole State.
In New York the gold Democrats had
shown they were a power in Virginia
they had shown they were not a power,
and that the State could be carried for
the regular national ticket about as
easily without them as with them. New
York had proclaimed itself gold State,
Virginia had proclaimed itself Il free
coinage State. When the New York
Democrats came together in State con-
vention they wisely sought to represent
the party by silence on the coinage
question. In Virginia when the Demo-
Gratis met in 1897 they as wisely declared
for free coinage this being d free COIN
age State, in which they showed just as
much wisdom as their New York breth-
ren. In the New York convention
neither a gold nor a silver resolution
would have represented the party; in
Virginia silver resolution did repre-
sent it, it's power and its ability to carry
the State for any ticket it selected To
have passed by silver in the Virginia
would have been as unsat-
isfactory and impolitic an act dis the
of silver resolution in
the New York convention.
The Times is not altogether consis-
tent. It thinks that Mr.. O'Flaherty, of
Front Royal, whom it describes as
brilliant young lawyer" will do great
good as gold Democratic" candidate
against Mr.. Hay, the regular Democrat
ic nominee in the Seventh district, by
the principles Of the Indian
apolis platform"-the gold standard
and yet it takes exception to Mr.. Hay
the principles of the Chicago
platform, and whose election it assumes
would be turning over the Seventh dis
trict TO the ''ravages of the free silver
The Times takes the
narrow view that depends wholly on
whose bull is gored.
We should be as glad as the Times
could possibly be, to see a united De-
but we are quite sure that it
is not going about it in the right way to
accomplish it. 1t not only seems to
wholly misapprehend tie feeling of the
rank and file of the Virginia Democrats
on the matter of free coinage, but it |
its lack of knowledge by it's
references to the popular |
in it's behalf, and to those |
who are engaged in it, 1t does not |
seem able to comprehend that return |
to the long and successfully tried sys-
tenn of free coinage is not o particle |
more hazardous than a return to the !
tariff for revenue only" return to |
free ship, and a return to toe real Mon |!
roe doctrine. With its ability, tbs |
Times would make good teacher for |
the people, if its teachings were more
addressed to lifting the burdens from
their shoulders.