Staunton spectator and vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1896-1916, 1898-10-06
The Lifetime of Great Economic
Question,

The Lifetime OF Great Economic
Question.
To our mind, the advocates of the
gold standard in their many errors, |
make no greater one than that OF at
tempting to treat the silver question as
political fad, a temporary craze, which
will soon pass away. leaving behind it
no more permanent settlement of the
question of finance than that now in
existence. 1t Is also an error to treat
it as a popular issue adopted by the
Democratic party, simply to carry the
country on. The Democratic party
was twenty-three years in making up its
mind to make free silver party issue;
it was fol ced on it in the end by the
feeling of the people themselves. La
that twenty-three years the old leaders
of the party had resorted to all sorts of
evasions. They had passed the Bland
Allison silver bill; they had favored the
Sherman silver bill, and, finally, finding
the pressure from the rank and file of
their party too great, took refuge In
i their national platform in 1892, behind
the Cleveland misunderstanding for the
free coinage of both silver and gold, but
with string tied to the declaration,
the string being international agree
lment." AT last the pressure became
overwhelming and in 1896 the rank and
file turned down the old leaders, and
ladopted platform declaring for free
coinage, whether foreign nations agreed
to it or not.
The history of all nations and espec
tally of English speaking nations, shows
that no economic question was ever set
tied until it was settled in the interest
of that majority of the people who are to
be benefited by its adoption. Defeated,
postponed, evaded, it may be often, but
never destroyed. This is true of the
history of England with her corn law
repeal, .her free trade, her extension of
! the franchise, her disestablishment of
the church in Ireland, and her enamel
patton of the Catholics, and her last
question, home rule in Ireland, which
= with many defeats, is slowly but surely
marching to accomplishment. About
all these questions the most direful pre-
dictions were made in case of their sue
cess, pretty much like those about free
coinage, and yet their success has al
ways brought more prosperity and
greater peace to England.
No one can read the history of the
4 corn law repeal in England, without De-
ing struck by its similarity to our free
coinage fight. 1t was fight of many
/ years, and it began in the ranks Of the
people led by John Bright,a Quaker, and
Richard Golden, son of a merchant. [.
u was opposed by the nobility, the judici
e airy, the clergy, the great landed pro-
: prietors and the wealth of England
S Those who advocated it were promptly
named Radicals, a name that in Eng
land, in that day, meant precisely what
g the name Anarchist now means in tht
United States-that is to say, people
Il who were assailing the rights Of proper
d ty and the very existence of law ant
! order. The only places it found friends
were the homes of the poor and humble
o the only city in which it was in thu
; majority was Manchester, city of The
working people. Its history shows many
: lulls in the fight owing to the poverty
v of its friends and the wealth of it's pow
/ erful enemies; but these lulls were al
: ways followed by renewed seasons O
e activity, and a gain of a member of par
g Lament here and there. The same SORT
Z of devices were employed against it az
: are now used against free coinage. Tit
S sliding scale of tariff was used to checl
l. it, just as the Bland Allison and Sher
L man bills were used to check free coin
e age in this country. At last it's triumph
:, came under the premiership of Sil
g Robert Peel. That statesman who ha6
watched the long fight, and had seer
L what the end must be. introduced thu
e bill and passed it. England from that
n time marched on the great road of pros
d perity, and soon became master of the
S manufactures and the money of the
n world.
This American nation stands to the
{ world, both in war and peace, as the
x England of that day stood to it's world
= 1t must settle its great questions in the
= interest of the many, and not for the
= benefit of the few. No great question
will remain settled without such an ad.
justment; it will burn and burn until
L its flame spreads over the whole fran.
chise Free coinage is such question.
e The Republican party, like the old
Tory party of England with the corn
law repeal, has coquetted with it fol
i twenty years, sometimes going appar-
emily to the very edge of acquieseence.
D The Democratic party also coquetted
l with it until the men in the ranks rose
and made it cross the river in 1896 But
a great economic question does not de-
pend on a party; it can settle itse If, the
; aid of a party only gives it quicker
: settlement. Free coinage will settle
J itself in this country, and the agitation
! will never disappear until it has tri-
l umphed.
Western Prosperity"
Every now and then we hear. through
= the Gold Standard Bureau of Informa-
tion pncoura DINO accaunte of tbe