Daily inter mountain. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1881-1901, 1899-08-29
D THE SIZE OFT.

ABOUT the SIZE OF ".
The highest wisdom of the ancient phil
psophers was often expressed in the form
of parallels, While we do not mean to
simply that there is anything antique in
the methods of the Butte Miner it is
nevertheless true that ably edited expon-
ent of democracy often gets nearer to
the truth through a carefully constructed
Joke than when it labors under the pangs
OF political solemnity. This morning it
says:
The eastern portion of the republican
press is at great trouble to show that the
democratic party is sure to make silver
the one and only leading issue in next
years campaign. The western portion of
the press is at great pains to show that
the democratic party is going to side
track silver. Between the two the demo-
cratic party ought to be able to strike
some sort of an average and attend to
the matter so that it will be satisfactory
to the eastern and western ends of the
opposition.
The suggestion that ''the democratic
party ought to be able to strike some sort
of an average on the silver question con-
tains more truth than poetry. 1t is pre-
cisely what the leaders of that political
organization are figuring on at the pres
emit time. For local reasons the eastern
republican press would be delighted to
see the democracy reaffirm its position of
1896 on the question of free coinage,
knowing that such a course would again
antagonize a large element in that party
and to that extent assist in it's undoing.
lican candidates for state, county and
municipal offices in many of the eastern
states, We're the democracy to declare for
the free and unlimited coinage of silver
and gold at a ratio of is to l, by the
independent action of the United States.
Hence, a disposition on the part of the
newspapers in that section to encourag e
the democracy to be loyal to the princi-
pies to which it pledged it's sacred honor
In 1896. Such encouragement would not
be offered did not the conduct of the
iedueis inulcate d purpose to
place silver in the background, and there
by strengthen their party lines in the
anti-silver localities in the east. The
eastern republicans want to hold the de-
mocracy to its platform declarations of
1896 In order to profit locally from the
sentiment against free coinage.
The silver reD1lhlicans of tho r-oet Vs.
ognizing the d~iscreditable efforts of the
democratic leadership to subordinate the
silver issue and place it in the back
ground, deplore the fate that has over
taken the white metal through the
t~reeachery of it's assumed friends. They
realize that while the democracy may de-
clare forsbimetallism in general terms. as
it did in 1892, which would have no higher
meaning in a practical sense than to
bunco the we'll meaning voters of the
silver states, it has placed free coinage
in the background and through the dec
laration of it's leadership eliminated that
issue from the campaign of 1900.
Since the defeat of Bryan in 1896, plans
to Strike some sort of an average on
the silver question which would reunite
the democratic party have been under
consideration. This sort of an average"
has been struck. 1t was the striking of
that average" that brought Tammany
TO the support of Bryan, after having de-
clared that under no circumstances would
it tolerate a platform expression in favor
of 16 to 1; it was that average that has
reunited the gold and silver wings of the
democracy, until they are billing and
cooling like turtle doves after a feast of
fresh worms from a new dunghill. It was
that average that sounded the death
knell Of free coinage for many long years
to come. That average serves a dual
purpose-it is the tombstone which the
leaders of the so-called silver democracy
has erected over the grave of free COIN
age, and it is a monument to democracy's
everlasting and o~ver-powering appetite
for. office.
JUMPING SiDEWXSE.