Daily inter mountain. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1881-1901, 1899-01-10
THE STANDARD UNMASKED,

~ 80 SSNN NAANt go '
Pluto rebelled in heaven and finally, as
the result of an antique and badly exc
cuted tumble, landed in the boiler-room
of hades. 1t is also said there were some
mourners when Jazabeel executed one Of
the most artistic tumbles of ancient
times.
But it has been reserved for the Ana
conda Standard to make a most remark-
able plunge from it's lofty pinnacle of
leadership and fall with the time-hon-
ored "~sickening thud' upon the cobbla-
stones of an uncertain future. The Inter
Mountain would deplore its descent, and
perhaps waste a few salty tears over it's
fate, had We not anticipated the course
which the Standard has seen fit to pur-
sue, and braced our nerves accordingly.
When We urged the democracy of this
state to take up arms against the efforts
of thu gold wing of that party to force
the 16 to l issue into the background. We
suspected that much of the Standards
devotion to silver was assumed, bit we
did not expect to extort from it a con-
fession Of disloyalty to the cause. Read
what that paper said yesterday in its edi-
torial columns:
The Standard is one of the newspapers
that have felt that an exact statement
of the ratio is not a vital factor in sill
ver's restoration. The ratio is a matter
of law; it has varied slightly in our own
currency; our ratio has also varied
slightly from the one that has ruled in
some other countries. The worlds ex-
changes practically fix the ratio.
There YOU have it in black and white
an absolute back-down from one of the
most ssentia points in the contention Of
the silver men. It is a shaping Of the
editorial course of that paper to fit the
conditions which the Inter Mountain has
outlined as threatening the democratic
party IN 13Q0-namely, a scheme to de-
stroy the free coinage issue by declaring
in general terms for "bimetallism,' with
out reference to a fixed ratio.
Instead of taking up arms against this
conspiracy to ruin the free coinage issue,
the Standard confesses itself in sympathy
with the movement in the foregoirg
paragraph, Without a fixed ratio of lf
to l the contention of the silver men as
to the injustice which the gold tandard
inflicts upon the debtor class falls to The
ground. Without a fixed ratio, Senate,
Allison and a host of leading gold mer
can take the Standard cordially by the
hand and say: I'm another" With tn,
exception of Colonel Sanders and Briga.
der General Knippenberg, whose fnan.
cial views do not accord with those of the
party to which they belong. there is no
a single-standard% republican in the stat,
of Montana who cannot indorse the fore
going utterances Of the Anaconda oracle
The ratio is a matter of law" saws III,
Standard. That is exactly what all tb,
goldbugs said in 1896, while the silver mer
commended that it was the scientific ad
Justment of the monetary relations of tn,
two metals, 16 to 1 being the true ratio an,
essential to the proper working of the fire.,
coinage system. But having decla rer
that the ratio is a matter of law. and con
sequently to be changed as often as tn,
congress might see fit to do so, the Stand
ard concludes it's paragraph by takin.
another shoot on the proposition as fol
lows: "The worlds exchanges practical
ly fix the ratio In other words. the con
tention of the gold men that our foreig,
relations must determine the value of sill
Yer meets the hearty endorsement-of tn,
Anaconda Standard.
Senator Allison, in one of the ablest ad
dresses in favor Of bimetallism ever writ
ten, concluded his arguments in favor O.