Daily inter mountain. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1881-1901, 1899-08-03
4 FIGHTING DEMOCRACY.

WV I IA 1SSSSI JUL IltllstiC HSIto VI
it's party-the Chicago Chronicle-makes
a candid admission that the democracy is
in a pretty hard row of stumps.' Be-
moaning the condition of it's political af.
fairs, it says:
1t is unfortunately true that the exist
ing fractional fight among the democrats
of Kentucky is typical of the condition
OF the party over all the country. A mid
summer madnesS-an insane lust for
f~ighting-seemS to pervade the organiZa-
ton. and the singular feature of this
warfare lies in the fact that the fighting
is done not against the traditional enc
mics of the democratic party, but among
democrats themselves. No parallel to the
situation can be found in the history of
American politics.
1t has been said that whom the gods
i would destroy they first make mad. and
! from the conclusion drawn by the Chi
cage oracle of the democracy the gods
have been kept very busy in Jeffersonian
| circles of late. In ascribing this INSANE
lust for fighting to all parts of the coun-
try the Chronicle does not make an ex-
| ception even of Montana. where it is gen.
orally understood the democrats get along
more tremendously than they do else
where. Party disturbances in Montana
do not grow out of any insane lust for
fighting" but to all appearances come
perfectly natural. A democratic party in
this state that didn't turn itself inside out
every two years and wear gaffs on its
leaders would not be considered worth
the price Of admission. But the Chron-
icle continues:
If the conflict were between the free
silver democrats on the one side and the
so-called gold" democrats on the other
the situation could be understood. though
it could not be justified. seeing that the
immediate need of the party is unity
rather than dissension. But hat is not
the situation. The free silver men are
fighting n another with quite as much
determination as they have attacked the
gold democrats or the republicans.
While the Chronicle recognizes the situ-
alton in its party, and knows that a row
is on among the so-called silver demo-
Gratis, it fails to comprehend the full i'm
port of the trouble The reason the fight
is not on between the silver democrats
Chronicle would seem perfectly natural,
is because the silver democrats are too
busy fighting among themselves for the
first nance to let the free coinage ques-
ton drop without permitting it to fall on
their toes. There appears to be a lively
rivalry among them as to which can get
in ahead on the ground floor in the work
Of making the gold men feel perfectly at
home in their front yard.
Here in Montana there is a neck and
neck race on at the present time. One
faction of the party got six months the
start of the other faction by declaring,
through it's accredited leadership, that the
16 to l ratio is immaterial and that the
ratio Of value between gold n silver
should be regulated by the worlds ex-
changes, and for a While it looked as if it
going to vim out and be the first to
fall on the neck of the gold democrats
and ask their forgiveness. But the other
faction has made a squirt, and by dousing
cold water over the proposition to renom-
mate Bryan and use free coinage as the
paramount issue next year, it has over
taken it's rival. 1t will now be a hot race
on the home stretch, and no man can
foresee the outcome. If neither side gets
INTO Jail before the next national con-
vention, it looks as if both sides might
land in the hospital before the campaign
of next year really gets under headwav.
But we digress. The Chronicle adds:
Leave the gold" democrats out of the
question:; what can be hoped from the
silver democrats, divided among them
selves? Nay, who can say who is and
Who"ls not a silver democrat? A mans
profession of faith does not suffice. He
must receive the consecrated approval of
some other man and that other man is
usually a boiler who assumes to pass
upon party orthodoxy!
The Chicago paper could not have hit
the situation better in Montana had it's
editor been educated politically on the
Anaconda Standard or the Butte Miner,
or sat under the d%rippings of the guber-
material sanctuary with Bob Smith work
ing the bellows. Well may it say, 'Who
is n who is not a silver democratic" To
identify one of them in this state it is
necessary to find a democrat who bolted
the democracy that elected a democrat To
the senate of the United States, or to
hnd a democrat who bolted the demo-