The herald-advance. (Milbank, S.D.) 1890-1922, 1898-12-02

lIICiA wa hSCS w lIC S'tt'l gu ltAN
to be used in buying voters in
1900.
In 1896 a vast amount Of mon.
ey was subscribed for this pur.
pose by the millionaire silver
miners of the west, who for
years previous maintained a sys-
tematic silver lobby in Washing
ton and spent thousands of dol
lars printing seductive literature
in favor Of free coinage, which
was circulated from Washington
by the literary burelu Of the
millionaire silver coterie in guam
titles of millions, to prepare the
ground for the last presidential
election. This cotcrie found the
business an expensive one.
Such men as General Warner,
president of the so-called Bi-me-
tallic League, were not to be
had for a song, and after the
Chicago convention Bryan had
to be kept in the field The army
of workers, the SPECIAL trains
necessary to convey the Bryan
boom from one end of the coun-
try to the other, and the extrava-
CANT disbursements Of the dem
ocratic campaign managers,
consumed untold sums.
The hackers of the free coin
age scheme have grown tired of
continuing to furnish all the
sineWs Of war after two success
sive knock downs, and the bur
den Of supplying the means to
keep up the fight is to be shifted
to the shoulders of the working
men, whose hard earned dollars
are to be spirited out of their
pockets into the strong box Of
the Democratic Committee in
order to enable the mine owners
to get 81 for 40 cents worth of
their product.
But the republican managers
are alive to the situation. They
have had one experience in deal
ing with measures to overcome
the false teachings of ten years
of propaganda for free coinage;
and the efforts Of Coin Harvey
and Chairman Jones, Of the
Democratic Committee, with his
colleagues will not be suffered to
reach their fruition without a
stalwart counter move to check
them. Chairman Hanna intends
to reopen the headquarters of
Of the Republican National Com
mittee as soon as Congress
The working men Of the
country will not be asked to
pledge their hard earned wages
to form a corruption fund for the
republicans; but the ground for
the campaign of 1900 will be care
fully surveyed and an extremely
watchful eye will be kept on the
movements Of the free silver
forces.
To the average political OBJ
server it would seem that the
free coinage issue is over and
done for. It has sustained one
serious defeat after another.
The House in the Fifty-second
Congress, which was overwhelm.
ingly democratic, struck it down
after memorable debate, and
the people Of Missouri in 1894
defeated Bland, who was respon
sible for the bill. In 1896 it went
squarely before the whole people
and was beaten, finally in the
congressional elections just pas
it was again ignominiously
trampled upon. But the prof
of free coinage for the owners O.
silver mines is SO enormous tha
the Democratic National Com
mittee apparently proposes t.
lend itself once more to tn
cause, in the hope of exhaustins
the vigilance of the people AM
forcing free coinage upon then
under a cloud of other issue
that may grow up between nov
and the campaign of of 1900.
To what extent this issue ha
fallen into disfavor is best shows
by analyzing the result OF tn
election in Bryan's own distric
in Nebraska. The total republ
can and fusion vote in this dis
trict- the First Nebrask ka-i
1896 for governor was "a, ,53e
and the fusion plurality was -.
The total republican and fusio
vote in 1897 for supreme judg
was 80, ,824, and the fusion plura
ity was only 206.
The republican and fusion vot
in 1898 for governor was 81,
but instead Of showing q fusio
n