Daily inter mountain. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1881-1901, 1899-07-10
VINO IS ~RESPONSiBLE?

the democratic press in the silver states.
conscious of the fact that free coinage
at a ratio of Is to l will not be made the
paramount issue by their party leaders
in 1900, and realizing that they will not
again be able to delude the public into
the belief that their party is loyal to the
true interests of the white metal, they are
doing a great deal of ground and lofty
tumbling to divert attention from the eX-
posture of their political hypocrisy.
This is notably the case in Montana.
where the democratic party already feels
the ground slipping out from under it.
The recognized leader of the democratic
press in this state, and the most influen-
tial m%outhpiece of the democracy-the
Anaconda Standard-wears the situation
with a gravity of demeanor and a dignity
of action that is intended to give it a
good stage presence, but which becomes
very funny under the glare of the side
lights. 1t ~steadfastly refuses to recede
from the position it took some six months
since relative to the immateriality Of the
ratio of Is to 1, and the necessity Of rec
ognizing that the ratio of values must be
determined by the worlds exchanges,
permitting the public to understand hat
it is willing to accept the silver issue
as interpreted by the Cleveland demo-
cracy of 1892 rather than by the Bryan
democracy Of 1896, namely. bimetallism
with the free coinage ratio left out. The
Standard was far-sighted enough to know
a long time ago that things were COM
ing that way insofar as the democracy
was concerned, and will be correspond
ingly influential in the political affairs Of
its party when the jewels are made up.
The Butte Miner evades the proposition
as if it was the bubonic plague. 1t is
like the boy whose Notwithstanding
duplex suspenders failed to work--it has
nothing TO say. Not a line has been pub
lished in it's columns to show that the
position taken by the Standard is wrong,
or that it does not meet the full approval
of the democracy of this state. 1t has
permitted the Standards idea to go to the
world unchallenged as good silver demo-
cratic doctrine, thus encouraging the
compromise movement which will retire
free coinage to the background in the
campaign of 1900.
-
b-+ - ,roo ro,or,-l ron H. 1Yota.. T.
dependent to essay a defense when the
Inter Mountain published indubitable
proofs of democratic jugglery with the
free coinage question. Instead of at
tempting to disprove any statement made
in these columns, however, or taking up
the proposition in an argumentative way,
it accuses the Inter Mountain of trying to
relegate the silver question to the rear.
The following from Sundays Independ-
ent is a sample of that papers daily out
put of democratic logic:
The Inter Mountain is the only agency
in Montana ~endeavoring to relegate the
silver question to the rear; is the only
mOuthpiece of those who would make the
silver issue less prominent in 1900 than it
was in the Chicago platform.
1t is hardly necessary for the Inter
Mountain to deny that it is the mouth
piece of the eminent silver democratic
leaders who met in ST. Louis and made
the silver question 'less prominent" by
displacing it as a paramount issue to
make room for another campaign slogan,
or that we represent the many silver
democrats who have of late declared that
silver must take it's place in the back
ground in 1900 to make room for what
they deem to be more important ques-
tons. In showing the willingness Of
those who made silver the is
sue in 1896 to make something else the
paramount issue in 1900, the Inter Noun
tain has rendered the cause of free coin
age q service. 1t has made 1t clear to
movement tina the time servers of the
democratic party canno be trusted with
the custodianship of such an important
issue-that the ark of the covenant is
desecrated in the hands of political Ish-
maelites.
Unfortunately for the Independent,