The times., 1898-11-21
MONDAY, NOVEMBER 2l, 1898.
Not n Dead Issue.

Not n Dead Issue.
Republican leaders and their press
and financial contributors are Just
now putting themselves 10 not
little trouble and loss Of breath, IN an
effort to convince themselves. if not the
country. that the silver issue is dead.
We need not waste ink and space to
explain the many reasons why it would
be highly convenient to the elements
mentioned 10 believe, and to have the
American people concede, that the bl-
metallic question in national politics IN
fact was dead and buried. If that were
really so. why then there would be the
smoothest kind of sailing for some time
to come. for all the political, financial,
and Industrial beneficiaries of the
Hanna Republican pawnbroking, mo-
nopoly and loot system so successfully
and expensively built up in 1896 One
can easily understand how pleasant 1t
would be fer the people who hold the
public purse strings, and pull them for
their own advantage, to think that their
lease of power was secure; and how
ndDDN IL MOulu HAM bHt u hot anu iAAN
nopoly magnates, and the bond syndi-
Gators. Ia feel that they would not be
called upon to bleed scores Of millions
in 1900. in order to allow Mr.. Hanna
again to educate the masses. But
that blessing will be denied them.
The silver issue, so-called, l. e, the
question of a national return to the
. under
which only has there ever been widely
diffused prosperity and progress among
the masses Of cur people, is by no means
dead II is as alive as it was during
the latest Presidential campaign. 1t
will never b. less so as long as it rep
resents q vital branch of the faith and
doctrine of the Democratic party.
Because the American people have ir-
revocably declared in favor of another
basic Democratic principle-that of
national expansion-it does not fol-
low that the six and a half mil
lion American citizens who fought
for bimetallism in 1896 will not do
the same in 1900. The sordid COM
binations whose corruption, bribery,
and coercive measures directed against
honest labor, two years ago, were suf-
ficient briefly to postpone day of GER
tain reckoning, need not hug themselves
in the belief that their victory then was
a final one. The struggle will go on
and on to the end of time, or until the
plain people of the Union have been so
thoroughly crushed and enslaved as to
rgecilala Nvniap n tho or
ganization or the administration of
their government.
One thing perhaps il is well to under
stand. in order that there may be no
popular misunderstanding on the mat
ter. and this is as good a time as any
for The Times to make the announce
ment. 1t does not follow, because the
bimetallic issue is not dead, that its ex-
istence or its future is wrapped up in
the personal fortunes of Col. William
Jennings Bryan. If the National De-
mocracy in 1900 were to borrow a leaf
from the days of 1868 when their op-
ponents seized victory by the horns. in
the nomination of Civil War hero, and
make the great chieftain and adminis-
traitor, Admiral Dewey, their standard
bearer, that action need not and would
not in the smallest degree detract from
the certainty that they would repro
claim the gospel of bimetallism for the
financial redemption of our farmers,
artisans and masses generally.
The spokesman, monopolist, or bond
shark is young who can reasonably
hope to dance at the wake of Ameri-
can bimetallism.