The Maryville times. (Maryville, Tenn.) 1884-1944, 1898-04-23
WANE OF THE SILVER ISSUE.
Farmers All Over the Country De-
sorting the Cause of Cheap
Money.


The embarrassment which Chairman
Jones and his populist-silver allies en-
counter in their efforts to make the free
silver cause the chief issue of the com
ing congressional campaign multiply as
they hear from the various parts of the
country. Besides the results of the OBJ
iect lesson given to farmers by the
steady rise in the value of consumptive
productions, the populists are receiving
the fusion proposition with GOODNESS,
and in many sections with absolute re-
lection.
In Minnesota the silver leaders who
visited that state to urge the populists
"to save the country" by helping elect
democrats to office found no encourage
ment.
On the Pacific coast the fusion propo-
sition was met with bitter opposition
and seems unlikely to be accepted.
In Indiana the populists, in their
state convention, not only rejected the
proposition, but went to the extent of
displacing from the national committee
one of the Indiana members who ia
vored fusion and electing nonfusionist
in his place.
This plan of removing fusionists from
| the national committee has been re-
ceived with so much favor by the popu
| lists in other sections of the country
that counter movement to prevent the
complete elimination of fusionists from
/ the national committee has begun by
the presentation OF a new rule, provid-
ing that members of the national com
mittee cannot be removed without the
approval of that committee itself.
Whether this plan will make it possible
to whip the populists into line for flu
sion in the interests of the silver cause
remains to be seen.
Another dificulty-and a more seri-
Gus one-with which the managers of
the proposed silver campaign find them
selves confronted is the loss of strength
OF the issue in all elements of the COM
munity, and especially among the farm
ers.
When wheat advanced some months
ago in the face of the steady decline of
silver the excuse was made that it was
due simply to a shortage abroad, and
that it did not affect the claim that the
low prices of farm products were due to
the low price of silver or the absence of
the class of currency which the free
coinage men had been urging upon the
country. But now that all classes OF
farm production have advanced ma
terially in price since the enactment OF
the Dingley law and the resumption OF
work in the factories, it is impossible
longer to assume that the advances are
a mere incident due to shortages abroad
or to further utilize the claim that the
price of silver in some mysterious way
governs the price Of farm products.
Even. in the case of cotton it has beer
shown that the low figure which it has
received is due to an enormous increase
in this country and in the world. while
in other articles of farm production
there has been a marked increase in
prices. These advances apply practical
ly to all articles produced by farmers
and as it was among the farmers that
the members of the free silver party
made the greatest gains in 1896, they
naturally view with anxiety the pros
pect of their being able to kold, through
fusion in support of silver, the vote
which they controlled ihthat election
Not only do the advices received thus
far show that they are not going to b,
able to hold the populist vote, but the,
also show that the power OF the silve1
issue has lost greatly among the farm
ers, who are not only 100 busy and TOT
prosperous again to consider it seri
ously, but who find inAthe general ad
vance in prices an alb! ute REPUTATION
of the claim that the Cow prices which
obtained during thef okistence Of tn
low tariff were due to the low price o
silver or the earlier discontinuauce o
its coinage.-Chicago Times-Berald.
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