The Butler weekly times. (Butler, Mo.) 1881-1918, 1899-12-28
A STRONG APPEAL
TO BIMETALLISTS.
Silver Republicans Issue Ad-
dress on Financial
Measures.

leaders in the city held meeting and
r adopted an address setting forth
t their views as to it's effect The adj
, dress is as follows:
TO the members OF the republican
, party who still believe in bimetal-
. lsm:
, The passage by the house of repre-
| sentatives to-day of the gold stand
ard and bank currency bill exactly as
agreed upon by the republican eau
Gus and without the opposition OF IA
. single republican vote. marks the
elimination of a policy long carefully
pursued by certain Influences i'll con-
troll OF the leadership of the republi-
can party and iustifies the action of
the man who III 1896 refused to re-
main i'll that organization after the
adoption OF the ST. Louis platform.
The republican national platforms
of l $50 and 1892 had been equivo-
callv in favor of bimetalIism and the
Use OF both gold and silver as stand
ard money Nevertheless, it was APP
parent several months before the as
sembling OF the national convention
OF 1896 that the machinery of the
republican party had passed wholly
into the hands of the banking and
] creditor interests, and that it was the
purpose of the latter to commit the
| party to the advocacy and achieve
ment of the gold standard. Against
| this danger the undersigned and
many other republican bimetallists
at that time vainly attempted to
| arouse the masses of the party. The
politicians and newspapers privy to
the scheme denounced our fears as
unfounded or simulated, and by
skillful use.of catch words and gener-
alities succeeded in forestalling any
widespread comprehension of their
designs. When the convention met,
similar ingenuity governed the
framing of the declaration on the
money question. Its essential part
was as follows:
eve are therefore opposed to the
free coinage OF silver, except by inter-
national agreement with the leading |
commercial nations of the world, |
which we pledge ourselves topromote
and until such agreement can be OBJ
tanned, the existing gold standard
must be preserved. All our silver and
paper currency must be maintained
at parity with gold, etc.
It is strange that so manifest an
incincerity should have deceived any
body. Clearly, if the gold standard
was desirable, the free coinage of
silver was undesirable, however Sc
cured. If the gold standard was right
free coinage of silver must be wrong
Nobody could intelligently and hon
eetly demand the International free
time express such emphatic satisfac
ton with the gold standard as an al
tentative. As a matter of fact, this
was intended as a def
mite assurance to the speculative {
banks and their allies. that the re-
publican party, if successful in the
election, would proceed with allpolit- {
ic speed to the establishment of the
single gold standard in all its rigor.
mo 1
The promise to promote the in
free coinage of silver was
never meant to be observed in good !
faith, Yet it proved good enough
until after the election Relying upon |
it, enforced as it was in the west and l
central portions of the country by II
editors and orators of the republican {
party, millions of voters We're held in
line for the ticket, for as stated in the I
campaign text book OF l
1892, the republican party was "a
party. No one whose po- s
litical Judgment has the slightest {
weight will deny that a frank pro-
nouncement for the gold standard in
that platform or a straightforward I
of it by the republican |
candidate for president as meaning I
the gold standard and nothing else I
would have elected Mr.. Bryan by an I
majority. To construe I
the election of 1896 as a mandate by i
the American people for the estab- i
ishment of the gold standard is to /
political goods under
fal~e pretenses. q
As soon as the election unS o1-or s