Daily inter mountain., 1899-07-24
STRANGE SPEcTAcLES.

George p. Keeney, to the effect that the
democracy would in all likelihood
retire the silver issue to the back
ground in 1900 by belittling the per-
sonal standing and influence of that gen
tleman, the Anaconda Standard Incl
dentally upbraids the Inter Mountain for
commenting on that phase of the political
situation. This morning it says:
1t is a strange spectacle to s4a-Saews-
papers which profess to place the silver
issue above all others labOring with might
and main to prove that the democratic
party has abandoned silver. When they
claim that the democratic party has
thrown or will tnrow it aside, that is
equivalent to declaring that the cause is
dead for it is as plain as light that silver
has no substantial strength anywhere
else. -
No doubt it strikes the Standard as q
strange spectacle to see the truth, the
whole truth and nothing but the truth
told about the political organization Of
which it is the accredited newspaper head
in this state But it would be a still
stranger spectacle were the Inter Noun
tain, as the consistent friend of the silver
cause, to endorse free coinage move
ment that dspenses with the ratio of 16
to 1 and leaves the question of relative
values between gold and silver to be set
tied by the worlds exchanges. Nothing
will SO effectually kill off the silver ques-
ton for all time to come as advocating
such a farce as free coinage with the ratio
left out. There can, in fact. be no such
thing as free coinage of gold and silver
the worlds exchanges, and vet this is
the doctrine propounded by the Ana
conda Standard and tactly approved by
the smaller newspapers of that party in
this state. 1t is the doctrine to which
the leaders of the national democracy
are giving assent in their efforts to bring
the gold and silver wings of the party
together on a compromise financial
plank.
IT, in pointing out these facts, the Inter
Mountain is ia boring with might and
has abandoned silver" so much the worse
for the democracy. No democrat need
Z! feel that he can deceive the public into
| the belief that he is the friend of silver,
when lie repudiates the free coinage ratio
i of 16 to 1 and talks about permitting the
worlds exchanges to regulate the ques-
ton of values between the precious
metals. No democrat can pose as the
friend Of silver, when he is willing to
make some other issue than free coinage
| the paramount issue in 1900.
*.*
Leading democrats now freely claim
that temporarily" the silver cause must
be laid aside, or placed in the background
that other questions are pressing to
| the front as of more innportance! This is
| equivalent to saying that they regard the
question as of lesser Importance than in
! 1896, and not as worthy the best energies
of their party. In other words, they look
upon the question of free coinage as in
a dying condition and refuse to treat it
as a live question by insisting upon it's
campaign. Not a single leader of the
national democracy has declared that the
question of free coinage at the ratio OF
16 to 1, by the independent action of this
country, shall be the paramount issue
next year-not one of them. Without
exception they recognize that the free
coinage issue has been so invalided
through democratic treatment that il
must be reegated to the hospital in the
forthcoming battle. They are anxious
that it shall do garrison duty in silver
localities-in the house of it's friends
but they will not permit it to lead the
democratic party in the field, as in 1885,
1t necessarily follows that the friends
of the silver cause must look for relief
to some other source than the democratic
party. They must look for strength, not
to an organization that treated the
issue so treacherously in 1898 that it dare
not push it to the front in 1900, but tc
conditions that will in time bring about
: an industrial demand for the joint use
of the precious metals in the money OF
the world. The hope of silver lies in the
era of commercial and Industrial expan.
sion into which our country is now hap
PLY entering, and which will develop a
demand for the white metal all along the
line. Obeying the scientific laws OF