Daily inter mountain. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1881-1901, 1899-09-20

roads made in the silver cause by demo-
cratic state conventions which declare
in general terms for ~bimetallism but vote
down the free coinage ratio of 16 to I. it
refuses to take issue with the press of it's
party when they insist that the ratio of
values between gold and silver should be
regulated by the worlds exchanges-a
position absolutely destructive of free
coinage. Like the fence who receives
stolen goods. this %irtuous Helena sheet
keeps it's eyes closed and it's mouth shut,
when the enemies of the white metal
within it's party, and it's assulned friends.
are vieing with each other in an effort to
stamp the life on of the fundamental
principles of free coinage.
~
With an hypocrisy that would make a
raine Pharasee blush at his own in
competency. the Independent overlooks
the democratic gauntlet in which the free
coinage issue is being dubbed to death.
and attacks the honesty of the Inter
Mountain for making the exposure. In
an effort to divert this paper from it's
line of duty in showing the anti-free coin
age trend of the democracy, the Indepen-
dent says:
If the Inter Mountain wants a dec
laration of democratic doctrine, pure
and undefled. let it turn to it's own files
of the summer and fall of 1896.
The Inter Mountain has paid no atten-
ton to such paragraphs heretofore. for
they have no relevancy to the point in is
sue-namely, the present attitude Of the
democratic party on the silver question,
as indicated by the compromise move
ershlp. The position taken by this paper
on the silver issue in 1896 is we'll known.
and its present exposure of democratic
hypocrisy only emphasizes the sincerity
Of it's views.
After more than half a century of
tinkering with financial questions the
democratic party did not become the adj
vocate Of free coinage at a ratio Of 16 to
I, by the Independent action of this ma
ton, until 1896. Conditions were such
that year that it picked up the PROPOSE
ton as an experiment. and attracted to
it's support the honest free coinage men
in other political organizations, in the be-
lief that it's professions We're sincere.
But with the defeat of that year the DEM
ocratic leaders at once set in motion
plans to relegate that issue to the rear.
To the unfolding of these plans, which
step by step prove the moral weakness
and the political insincerity of the demo-
cratic party, the Inter Mountain has
from time to time directed it's attention.
The assumption of the independent,
however. that the Inter Mountain in
1896 declared in favor Of the pure and
undefled' doctrines of the democratic
party is not true. 1t declared for free
coinage, in line with the position taken
by silver republicans in the senate of the
United States, when financial questions
We're in issue, long before the Chicago
convention was held. 1t maintained it's
consistency by fighting for the triumph
of that cause-not because it was sub
seqnently championed by the democracy,
but in spite of it.
The Helena paper betrays gross ignor-
ance when it ssumes that free coinage
is primarily a democratic doctrine. 1t
was merely championed by the democrats
for the time being, in default of any other
question that gave promise of success
at the polls, and is now being discarded
in all it's essential features in order to re-
move from that party an in%terminable
bone of contention within it's own ranks.
So far as doctrines essentially demo-
cratic are concerned, the Inter Mountain
is not prepared to concede that there are
any which can be classified as pure and
undefled." This paper did not think so
in 1S96-it does not think SO now. DEM
ocratic treachery to the free coinage
cause does not create a new conviction in
the mind of the Inter Mountain-it mere
ly confirms an old one.
A CHANCE OF FRONT.