The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1898-08-18
A BEFUDDLED CONTEMPORARY.

A BEFUDDLED CONTEMPORARY.
Our morning contemporary is like
poor old Spain-deserving of sym
patty because of its absolutely defense
| less position politically, but like Spain
it brought on it's own difficulties Be-
cause The Herald said the other day
that Cleveland. Whitney, Hill, Carlisle
and other goldbugs Were in control of
the Democratic party machinery just
previous to the Chicago convention. the
Tribune argues that The Herald could
not have been a Democratic paper
when. previous to that convention, it
argued for free silver.
No newspaper is Obliged to support
any political organization if it does
not agree with the principles of the
organization or its position or any i'm
portant question. The Tribune is not
inconsistent with it's past record when
it declaims for silver, but it is incon-
sistent now when it claims to be for
silver and a Republican paper at the
same time, for the Republican party,
in national convention, has declared
against free silver, free silver being a
natioral question.
It was not until 1896 that the financial
question was made the paramount is
sue in a national campaign. The Tri-
bune urged that the Republican ma
tional platform should declare for the
free, unlimited and independent coin
age of silver; with what success all
true friends of silver are respectfully
referred to the st. Louis platform.
No one can or does object to the Tri-
bune urging upon til = Republican party
the wisdom OF declaring for free silver
in its next national platform, but in
view Of past events and the present at
titude of the party, voters can with
good reason question the success of
the Tribune's efforts.
The Herald has always been a con-
sistent advocate Of the cause of silver,
and that, too. before the Chicago con-
vention and since the Tribune assumes
to say what the course of The Herald
would have been had the Chicago con-
vention declared for gold, but it did
not, and to make suggestions and then
proceed to argue on them, is simply
setting up a straw man to knock him
down. a favorite occupation with our
contemporary.
1t has been demonstrated beyond a
doubt that the free coinage of silver by
international agreement, as proposed
by the st. Louis platform, is delusion
and a snare, and although d commits
sion was appointed to secure that
agreement there was never any hope
of success, and so far as the Repub-
lican party leaders We're concerned,
they never intended that there should
be any success.
The Tribune has always had quar-
rel with The Herald because we said
that that commission was bound to
fail. Secretary Gage had no faith in
the commissions success, if he had it
would never have been appointed.
President Mckinley, judging from his
New York speech delivered last win
ter, did not believe in the commission.
The Herald saw and understood from
the first how things were, and, realiz-
ing that the Republican party man
ayers were Juggling with the silver
question merely for the purpose of
making it appear that they were striv
ing to carry out an ante-election
pledge, said the whole thing was a
fake, and subsequent events demon
strated that The Herald was right.
The Herald would gladly have well
coined the free coinage of silver as a
result of the efforts of the Wolcott
commission, and would have promptly
admitted that it was mistaken in its
charge of bad faith. The Herald is so
thoroughly imbued with the idea that
the free and unlimited coinage of sill
yer, at the ratio of 16 to 1, is for the
best good of all the people of the
United States, that if the Republican
administration will voluntarily change
it's policy and bring it about we will
willingly proclaim that the administra-
ton and the party behind it are justly
entitled to all the political benefits that
would naturally follow The Herald is
not so unreasonable or narrowly parti-
san that it would deny to the common
people of this country the emancipa-
ton from the gold power which would
at once follow in the wake of free coin
age, simply because the Omnipotent
in his wisdom chose the Republican
party as the instrument for the liberia
ton of the people. But The Herald
has no faith that the Republican party
will ever be chosen as that instrument.
The instrument has been chosen, and it
is the Democratic party.