Staunton spectator and vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1896-1916, 1898-01-27
Juggling With the People.

Juggling Win Inc feOple.
There has not been a public question
so juggled with, and the people SO de-
ceived about, as free coinage. First,
the coinage of silver dollars was quiet
ly stopped with about as much general
knowledge by the people of its stop
page, as they have of the contents of
the general appropriation bill; for it
was passed under a false name. the
title being an act to regulate the
minis. When the people discovered
it and began to murmur, the sop OF the
Bland-Allison bill was thrown TO
them, and later another sop, the Sher-
man bill was thrown to them-any-
thing but the restoration of free coin
age. And now the last piece of trickery
has Just been closed. President Nc
Kinley appointed a commission TO
visit Europe, ostensibly to get the
interna tionel cooperation Of European
States in free coinage. The commits
sion had hardly landed on the other
side of the water, before they found
that Ere in the rear had been opened
on them from Washington. Secretary
Gage of the Treasury sent to Congress
bill for putting the country on gold
basis, and the silence Of the President
gave it his. approval. What could have
been the only inevitable effect of this?
Why the failure of the commission OF
course. Suppose Great Britain had
sent commission to this country to
procure international cooperation for
the single gold standard. And at the
same time her Chancellor of the Ex-
chequer had sent a bill to parliament
for the free coinage of both metals,
what would have been the result? 1t
would have been the same failure that
has overtaken our commission. we
would have believed that Great Brl-
tain WAS enacting a farce, and was not
to be seriously considered. And it was
with something of that feeling that
our commission was regarded IN
Europe.
This flank movement of Gage and
Nc Kinley was, as we are told in the
report Of Senator Wolcott, a member
of our Commission, reinforced by let
tiers from prominent bankers of this
country to their London correspon-
dents, assuring them that the Com
mission really meant nothing, and was
only sop thrown by Mr.. Mckinley to
the Western silver Republicans to
keep them in line; that the United
States were on a gold basis and were
we'll satisfied with it. And it was with
such a hopeless environment as this
that our Commission found itself sur
rounded when it reached London.
The London bankers who had previ-
ously been considering how to meet
what appeared to them inevitable free
coinage, and how England was to keep
in line and yet not surrender her local
gold standard, opened a furious attack
on the En- glish ministry by meetings
and petitions, and induced the British
government to withdraw its offer made
on the Seventeenth of March giving
aid to the movement.
The whole business of bi metallism
by the Mckinley administration has
been an unmitigated fraud and an
effort to pull the wool over the eyes of
the people at home. 1t has been alb
solutely subseryient to Great Britain
on the question, and will be as long as
it is in power. But there will be day
of reckoning for the Republican party
on this issue-a day in which deceit
and evasion will not help it. That day
was foreshadowed st the st. Louis
convention by the boiling of many
delegates. TIC serve the money power
in this country and still keep in with
the people thereof, is g hard task.
The Democratic party tried it for
years and at last st Chicago threw the
money power overheard and stood in
with the people. In 1900 the Rapubli
can party must elect which it will
serve. If it choose the money power
it will be wrecked. and the way will at
last be clear for the free coinage Of
gold and silver alike. The days OF
jugglery and evasion are over and the
people can no longer be made burden
bearers for the privileged classes.