Delaware gazette and state journal. (Wilmington, Del.) 1883-1902, 1898-11-24
NOVEMBER a. 1898.
TEE VERDICT AS TO SILVER.


New York Evening Post.
The later returns Of this evening are
that the Republicans have secured the
House Of Representatives by ~ small
but sure majority. This result has
been brought about by a surprising
series of victories in the far West
which have emptied the seats of more
than score OF Democrats, Populistss,
and silverites, and filled them with
Republicans who made their fight on
the gold standard. Nebraska has
turned against the silver combine and
defeated Mr.. Hitchcock, the chief
bugle blower of Col. William j. Bryan.
II seems also to have dismissed Will
liam V. Allen, tho windiest silverite
in the United States Senate. These
results have been achieved by the Re-
pubicans on straight gold platform
without any equivocation or apology,
and they are all the more gratifying
since it Is Mr.. Bryan's State. Col.
Bryan, although in the military SER
vice, and thus debarred from active
campaigning, was present in Omaha
on election day, showing the interest he
took in the campaign of his friend and
partner Hitchcock and in the general
result. This vote in Nebraska will go
far to unhorse Mr.. Bryan in the next
national Democratic convention ID
months hence and enable the Demo-
cratic party to find some other issue
than the silver question for the next
Presidential campaign.
The result in Nebraska is only one
of the series of splendid victories over
| the silverites. Their camp has been
captured in Kansas, where the Popu-
| list State government has been turned
out and every one of their present Con-
gressmen, including the renowned
Jerry Simpson. The State of Wash
| ington has cast overheard James Ham
| iton Lewis, whose speeches at Wash
| ington have stamped him prince Of
blatherskites in Congress largely
| composed of that kind of raw material.
| Both Dakotas have been carried by
| the Republicans, and a senatorial seat
| now held by Democrat is secured in
| one of them. According to the latest
accounts, Mr.. CHARLES A. Towne, chair
man of the national Silver Republican
committee, has been defeated again for
Congress in Minnesota. This victory
is almost equal to carrying a State,
because Mr.. Towne stands second only
to Mr.. Bryan among the free silver
leaders of the country. Like Coin
| Harvey, he gives his whole time to
the organization of the silver forces
His leadership was recognized at the
| Omaha Currency Convention, where he
took charge of the silyerite forces and
made the principal speech on that
side. One of the minor victories OF
/ Wyoming, where one Representative is
| fr,i ,al be ,,f s,f,t11l mn
| What were the causes of this over
throw Of the silver men in their own
stronghold this year? According to all
the testimony received they were three
fold. First of all, the farmers are
prosperous and forehanded. They have
4 had good crops and good prices They
have seen wheat go up while silver was
going down. The predictions of the Pop
ulist Democratic Silver Republican
combine have been completely falsified.
They foretold ruin as consequence Of
the gold standard, and prosperity has
come instead. Moreover, the Populisi
i State governments have made very
bad exhibition of themselves and have
Disguised their own supporters, il
much the same way that Gov Waite 81
Colorado did few years earlier. An
other reason for the victory is that 4
Il preponderant number of the people il
that part of the country sustain TIL,
war policy of the administration. Prob
ably majority of the people Of tn,
trans Missouri States and Territories
are in favor of taking the Philippines
Probably this issue gave the Republi
cans some help The third reason VIII,
the Republicans won was that the.
followed the fine example of Oregon
and put themselves squarely ON thu
gold standard. The only place wher'
they paltered and lodged was in thu
State of Illinois, and there they have
Jared worse than anywhere else, having
lost two members of Congress.
Tho greatest question in home poll
tics now is whether the Democratic
party will have learned sufhcien
wisdom by this election to abandon
the silver issue. A powerful argumen
in favor of that policy is found in tn
Democrats in this State ignored tn
silver issue. and thus became ono
more united Such leaders as Roswell
P. Flower, Edward M. Shepard, Johl
Dewitt Warner, Perry Belmont an,
many others who openly supported Nc
Kinley two years ago went back t
, their party allegiance. So it came b
pass that the State which gave Gov
Black a plurality of over 100000 il
I 1896 now elects Col. Roosevelt by les
, than $4,000. Roosevelt's personal popu
/ larity, plus Croker's crime in punish
ing an honest Judge, were the tw
factors that saved the State to tn
Republicans. If Gov. Black had beel
renominated the Republicans woul'
: have lost the State, and probably tn
Legislature also. If Judge DAILY hal
been renominatedoby Tammany prob
, ably even Col Roosevelt would have fail
7 ed Of majority These facts show tina
, the State of New York, with its 3
, electoral votes, is not out of the reac
i of the Democratic party if it drops tn
! silver issue. But if it goes into tn
I next campaign on that issue it wi
lose the State by larger majorit
than that cast against Bryan. We as
sumo that this fact win have consider
!, able influence on Democratic poll
a ticians in the South and West durin
4 the next two years.
a The Great Paris Dressinsker