Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1899-02-01
Issues i'm 1900.

Ne iot oS IOtulStS anu DomOcfdEa
are concerned the issues for the cam
paign of 1900 are somewhat mixed.
The Populist party will be dependant
on the action of the Democracy even
more than in 1896. and everything
seems to point to q fusion in Kansas
in 1900, which will give the Populists
the State officers and the Democrats
the national electors. This, of course,
unless the Croker wing of the Eastern
Democracy will secure such hold ola
the Democratic party that there will
be no room for the Bryan wing. In
this case Mr.. Bryan, ex- Governor Alt
geld, David Overmyer and the rest
will be forced to one of two alterna-
tlves; they must either come into the
Peoples party or else unite in the FORM
alton of an entirely new party.
Richard Croker has issued a state
ment representing the stand of his
faction In which he says that the free
coinage of silver at the ratio of Is to
is an entirely dead issue, and he d g
clares himself, and this means. of
course, his followers, too, an out-and-
out expansionist. He cites Jefferson
as an expansionist and claims that the
millions of dollars spent annually for
foreign missions can come back to us
il spent in our own possessions. "We
have," he says, "a population of 3d.
600 600 people; the country teens with
young men full of life, hope and an
ambition; why not give these young
men chance to develop our newly
acquired possessions and build up
country rivaling in grandeur aud pat
rlotism our own United States. say
by all means hold on to all the rights
that be,ong to u.s."
Ex-Governor Boise has also come out
with declaration that the cause of
free silver is hopeless. At a jackson
day banquet in Iowa last week he said:
I'VE already know that majority of
the electors of the United States are
opposed to the unqualified and free
coinage of silver at the exact ratio of
10 to / with gold. The first duty in
this hour of peril, as 1 view it, rests
largely, il not exclusively, upon the
friends of silver. The plan they have
heretofore presented for its restoration
to its rightful place in our financial
system has been repudiated by the
majority of the electors of the nation.
There Is not, in my Judgment, the.
slightest prospect that this popular
verdict will be changed in the future.
Ii we are to save anything for the sill.
yer cause its friends, in my mind, must
change their plans. They must yieIi
gracefully and willinglg to the judy
ment of the superior numbers"
On the other hand, Mr.. Bryan, SEN 8
ator Jones, "Coin" Harvey and others
who are known as strong silver men
reiterate that silver will .e the leading
issue of 1900. Regarding Croker.
senator Jones says emphatically:
'Mr. Croker's vision on such questions
does not extend beyond the limits of
New York city. Those gentlemen
who are pronouncing eulogies on the
Heath OF free silver may be disappoint-
90 when the next national Democrats
convention meets. happen to be in
position to know that free silver as
, Democratic issue is not dead neither
IS 1t sleeping, and am confident there
Will De reaffirmation of so much of
he Chicago platform as declares for
he free and unlimited CT image of sill
yer. There may be slight modiiica-
lion as to the ratio, but the Democrat
IS overwhelmingly loyal to the free
silver cause. The question of expan-
sion will hardly cut any figure in the
next national campaign, for, in my o.
pinion. fixed line of policy will have
been established in that direction be-
fore the next presidential campaign
opens"
William ]. Bryan has also said that
silver will be the issue in 1900. He Is
inclined to think, however, that the
expansion question will not be settled
by that time. and that the Democratic
party will be against the Mckinley
policy Of expansion and the increase
Of the army and navy.
AS far as Kansas Populists are con.
earned, it is very evident that the same
will be made in 1900 as
was carried out in 1896. The leaders
IN the Populist party seem to be con-
hdent that fusion will again exist in
next years campaign, ghowever dis
tasteful this may be to some PopuIists
and also to some of the Democrats.
What the issues will be will be decided
On later. The State platform will un-
doubtedly give more room to silver
than 1t did last year.-Aduocate and
NeUs.