The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1899-09-28

~ oVERNoR ROOSEVELT may
" have and probably has some
good qualities, but fairness in
political debate is not one of them. In
his speech at Akron, Ohio. a few DAVIS
ago. he resorted to some of the worst
demogogy and downright misrepresen-
tation that have found their way into
print in very long time
He started out by declaring that in
its attitude upon expansion. upon
trusts and upon the silver question the
democracy bad presented nothing but
false issues. thus proving that it was
the enemy of the country and unfit to be
trusted. Then he went on to denounca
the democracy as being the same in
KIND and character as the copperheads
of the civil war, because of their atti-
fude upon the Philippine question, ap-
parently oblivious of the fact that there
are thousands, perhaps hundreds of
thousands of republicans in the coun-
Try who think just as Bryan and Will
Jams and Jones think concerning the
presidents foreign policy. As matter
of fact, it is Roosevelt and those who
think or at least act with him who
present the false issue upon this ques-
ton. 1t is not legitimate expansion"
at all that the democratic party with
Hoar, Mason and other republicans are
opposing, but it is expansion at the
point OF the bayonet, the trampling up
on the rights of weaker people, and the
absolute reputation of the principles
embodied in the immortal declaration
of Independence
The democracy il opposed to that kind
of expansion" which carries with it as
the first and immediate sequence an in
crease of the standing army from
twenty-five thousand men to a hundred
thousand at single jump; and they
find themselves wondering how long it
will be before two hundred thousand
or three hundred thousand or half
million will be demanded by these
champions of the nations honor"
Upon the silver question he is equally
at variance with the facts and more
schoolboyish in his references to it. He
says: Il shall not go over with you
the arguments against Ascent dollar
Our opponents, at the bottom of their
hearts, admit their overwhelming force
so entirely that they dare not try to
meet them, and trust to be able to avoid
them by clouding the issue and divert
ing the attention of the voters to other
matters"
In this declaration it is difficult to say
whether ignorance, falsehood or ego
tsm stands out the most conspicuously.
| The reference to a Ascent dollar be-
| tokens ignorance, but it may be some
thing worse, for there is not a student
of the money question in the world
who does not know that there is no
such thing as a Ascent dollar" in
volyed in the silver issue.
The statement that the silver men
admit the overwhelming force of the
| gold argument and fear to meet it, can
scarcely be fittingly characterized in
| polite language. If Governor Roose-
Welt thinks that he can make an argu-
ment in favor of the gold standard that
the silver men are afraid or unable to
meet, let him challenge some recognized
leader in the silver movement to joint
debate, and see not only how quickly
he will be accommodated, but have
some of the inordinate vanity taken out
of him.
And this reminds us of an episode
that occurred in Chicago during the
campaign of 1896. Mr.. Roosevelt was
making a speech in the Coliseum ana
in the course of it declared that the
silver dollar was at par with gold be-
cause it was redeemable in that metal