Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1899-06-29
IRONTON. Y %, 1890 NUNBEl
Richard Parks Bland.

The death of Richard Parks Bland
removes from the national House oil
Representative one of the mos: dis
tinguished members of that body.
Mr.. Bland entered Congress in 1872.
and with the exception of single
term has served in that body continu-
Gus ever since. He has been an able
and steadfast advocate of the remone-
tization of silver from the day that the
crime of 1873 was discovered until the
day OF his death. He held the chair
manship of the committee on coinage,
weights and measures whenever the
House has been under the control of
the Democrats since 1878. In 1876 he
was a member of the United States
monetary commission, of which Sena-
tor John P. Jones. of Nevada. was
chairman. Mr.. Bland was one of the
signers of the majority report of the
commission, which is recognized as the
most valuable official publication on
the money question that has ever been
published by any government.
With an evenness of temper only
equalled by his fidelity to the cause of
bimetallism Mr.. Bland permitted no
opportunity to pass to put his col
leagues on record on the one over
shadowing issue until his name became
household word in the nation asso-
ciated with the cause of silver winning
for him the sobriquet of "Silver Dick"
The death of Mr.. Bland is a national
loss. The record of his life is ma
tional legacy. After twenty-four years
service in Congress the verdict of his
countrymen is that his life was incor-
integrity of Mr.. Bland never even sug-
gested itself to the mind of friend or
enemy during his long public career.
He was a Democrat of the old school.
To him the public acts and teachings
of jefferson and jackson were the en-
bodiment of a political philosophy
level with the ends of justice and the
highest development of the nation.
In dealing with public questions his
grasp was comprehensive, his courage
dauntless, and his fidelity to convic-
tions unyielding. To him the ultimate
triumph of truth and right was So in
accord with inexorable law that no
amount of disaster constituted defeat
He possessed that Industrious perse-
verance and unruffled patience without
which no man is truly great.
He had an abiding faith in the Dem
Ocratic party and in the darkest hours |
in the history of the party when it lay |
at the feet of opportunists, |
traitors and assassins, his grief was
great, his resentment bitter but his |
faith in the masses of the party was
He was never discouraged |
DR. disheartened by the calamities that
oefell his party. His own honest heart |
never failed him and it ever furnished |
him abundant assurances that the peo-
pie were honest and bade him go
on, sublimely confident that
n the end right must prevail.
Mr.. Bland made his impress upon |
MS generation. He was the national |
of a great idea. His
name became the synonym of great
rational issue. He fought the battles
Of the people, contending against the
wealth of the world He blazed the
way through a wilderness of ignorance
and error, and after twenty years
battle dies in sight of the promised |
and. Every bimetallist, every true
Democrat, every lover of truth and
every defender of liberty has tear to
she'd upon the bier of the great COM
the typical American, Richard
Parks Bland. National Watchnaan.