Daily inter mountain. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1881-1901, 1899-11-20

MONDAY, NOVEMBE
M. B. Bownlee, Walter Mackey, William
M. Thornton, Francis E. Sergeant, E. D.
Mats and John r. Toole are men whose
departure is a distinct loss to the state.
The fact that they ave all be identified
with the same enterprise does not lessen
the regret with which their going away
is regarded by those who remain. The
Inter Mountain INDUCES the hope that
their places will be taken by men who
in time will enjoy as large "a share of
public respect as that accorded to those
who are gone.
1t is likely that MI. Joseph V. Long will
! soon re-enter Butte business circles in a
capacity which the Inter Mountain hopes
! will prove useful to the public and re-
munerative to himself. His popularity
and efficiency as cashier of the late firm
of Hoge, Brownlae & Co. have given him
a high place among the city's capable
and trustworthy financiers. In every
private and public position he has occu-
pied Mr.. Long has been faithful and in
dustrious beyond any reward he ever re-
ceived, and in any line of activity he
may enter he will find jealous friends
and generous patrons.
The Inter Mountain doesn't propose to
let John r. Toole of Anaconda leave this
state without some public acknowledge
ment of his ability and character. Cir
cumstances may have compelled Mr..
Toole to figure in the arena of politics
in a capacity repugnant to his natural
inclinations; partisan zeal may have in
duced him to take part in political ar
engagements in the interest of others
which he would never have sought to
accomplish in his own; fidelity to great
trusts may have led him to defend men
and measures with which he had no
personal sympathy and whose objects
he did not at all times approve; yet this
newspaper desires that Mr.. Toole shall
not leave the state misunderstood.
Whatever the acts of some of his politi-
cal associates may have been, the ad-
vice of Mr.. Toole was always in the line
of his conscientious convictions. He sub
mitted with mental reservations to a
good many political policies in the exc
ullo ~ ~ ~ Noon - n N $3.50
active part. He always wanted his
friends to do the right thing, and per-
severed through constant d%isappoint-
ment. He never was q believer in the
democratic theory that one wrong con
dones another and that might is right,
though a frequent and helpless witness
to acts of injustice and treachery by
his coadjutors. AS a reformer within
democratic fractional limitations he real
lied his awful lonesomeness, and often
got himself disliked for venturing to
suggest clean methods and the honest
treatment of political opponents. No
man can say that he profited through his
affiliations with the men who sway DEM
ocratic destiny in Montana, for he leaves
the state a poor man, with the respect
of all who comprehend the character of
his recent environment. When John r.
Toole in Anaconda in 1898 made his now
famous proposition for the fusion of the
three silver parties, which in effect was
that the populists should have the chief
justice, provided they would renominate
Pemberton, democrat: that the silver
republicans should have the congress-
man, provided they would nominate
Harlmd0, auOluGI uelllOCIdl, lldG llC
democrats should have the senator, to
be elected by the succeeding legislature,
and the associate justice, everybody
knew that Mr.. Toole was not in sympa-
thy with the proposition, but was over
ruled by the other members of the con
ference committee representing the domi-
nant faction and it's chief. Mr.. TOOle
himself says he was in favor of a just
and equitable basis for fusion, and must,
therefore, nave opposed the scheme Of
the committee and the democratic party
from the outset, and recognized it as the
deadliest blow to silver ever delivered in
this state. He knew that the scheme of
fusion which Mr.. DAILY had suggested to
the silver leaders at a famous Washing
ton dinner had been abandoned and that
the proposition of the committee to the
=, silver republican and populist party con-
, ventions at Anaconda was designedly of
+ such a character hat no s~elf-respecting
men could accept it. It was made ex-
pressly in order that it might be rejected.
! Mr.. Toole, who was a silver man, was
, Disguised with the perfidy of the alleged
, friends of silver in his own party. We
believe the his retirement from politics
and his departure from the state are the
natural results of the contempt which he
felt for men who, protesting to be sill
o ver's friends, rendered fusion hnpossi-
!, BILE by their double dealing. That he has
not exposed and denounced the plot and
the plotters is due entirely to his charita-
: BILE desire to shield the democratic party
1aalarc from, nnhlic ayacr9tinnt until