The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1900-07-12
NEW ISSUES IN KANSAS.
What q Former Free Silver Man
Thinks of the Situation.

For ten wears a majority of Kansas
voters have been outside the Republican
party That majority electing two state
| administrations, more than one-half the
been eom % largely o Of me n hs
wealth producing class Of the state. Very
few of this majority believe their position
existing condition. Hence, very few OF
them believe their action was detrimental
to the welfare of the state.
The conditions confronting agriculture
from 1883 to 1896 were such. that men
the raw products of the soil, took up the
study of causes and sought remedies as
a sick man seeks cure for his ailments.
Prices throughout decade had been
subjected to steady decline alike under
the Mckinley tariff law and the Wilson
law. the remedy more tariff have prov
en- Intellectual to relieve the situation
Kansas people, acting upon the PROPOSE
ton that all values are regulated by sup
ply and demand. standard money in
S Gl1Sded. voted for free coinage Of silver:
the advocates of the gold standard,
namely: THAT supply and demand regu
late value of all commodities ON earth.
except the yellow metal"
They believed further that the salvation
of agriculture, and hence the welfare of
the country, depended upon a growing
supply of standard money, commensurate
with growing demand for its use; and
prompted by the instinct of elf-preserva-
ton, and in view of the inadequate sup
ply OF the yeil9w metal Tor mometapy
of silver concurrently with gold for use
narfv with which they had affiiiatsd for for
a life time, because of Noncompliance
with this demand
forts of a hoard of superficial speakers
and writer's, who at that time persisted
money had nothing to do with prices
that supply and demand regulate value
that the sole remedy for low prices of
wheat, pork, beef and cotton and for the
mere tar and ths in Face of the
fact that the conditions of agriculture
were almost bad under Harrison'S adj
ministration as they were under the sue
ceeding Democratic administration
That this class of speakers and writer's
were ignorant or We're shallow dema-
gogues was the conclusion reached by a
majority of the voters of this state, and
when rejected these would-be political
leaders and expounderS turned with vile
abuse and ridfcule upon the wealth pro
ducers of the state. Under this leader
ship. and the then existing economic con-
ditions the Republican party having lost
a majority of the voters of the state has
not since regained them. Nor will these
be regained under the leadership and po-
htica1 mouthings of those who belittle and
traduce the wealth-producers, for the in
telligent and patriotic stand taken for
Self-preservatiOn.
Good crops at home, and short abroad,
with phenomenal increase in the world 5
volume of standard money having ar
rested the downward tendency of prices,
has removed the necessity, and hence the
demand for free coinage of silver as
agriculture in shape to tolerate even the
Inequalities of n Dingley tariff BILL while
revenue measure, promoter of
manufacturing industries, leads to uni
anything is better, that promises stabil-
ity and freedom from the crude expert
Since ct the ene campaiSn Of 1ss5 the whole
trend of thought in the realm of financial.
undergone transformation. Events, ma
Gonal and international in their scope
ment which not only present new ques-
lions of domestic nature, but also pre-
sent 70 the country tne proplen OF deter
Der of the family of nations Forces that
guide the course and shape the destiny of
nations have fmpelied us forward with a
rapidity staggering conception and bewil-
dering partisan council.
Carried by the resisuess force OF steam
and electricity, commerce has supplanted
the local with a new neighborhood of cos
mopolitan proportions from which the
crum bling walls of provincialism are dis
appearing. commerce and the power rep
telligent and higher civilization.
This dominant force. exenphfied in the |
triumpha1 march of the Anglo-Saxon race /
refusing to be fettered or checked in its |
the guarantees of protection throughout |
the length and breadth of the greater cos
mopolitan neighborhood, and local gov
ernments irrespective OF name, whether /
in the Philippines in Africa must con- |
form to this demand or give way to the /
greater power of the more enlightened |
cree, survival of the fittest-''
Filipino pretensions and mis,named |
mocraey of America and England, as the |
inhabitants of no country can long stand |
as barrier to commerce and civilization,
and. against this the inevitable, the expir I
ing walls Of departing provinctalism
MiIitarisrn and Imperialism, spectres to
frighten the timid' have no terrors in a
jority can become imperIalist.
With expanding commerce has come ex-
pansion of political and democratic ideas, |
and the political party to successfully con-
troll must keep abreast, handling new
problems as they arise: the party con-
trolling becoming the architect of the
new edihce the other the objector, with
nothing to offer but protests
But little credit is due the Republican
party for the mighty changes that have
occurred within the past four years These
changes have come without partisan aid
and IN spite of partisan protests. They
have come as the result Of the progress OF
civilization with its growing and expand
Ing commerce, extending and broadening
the horizon of trade and industry
ctia2 que 20 dnes npt tbTou pi4seyf
across the pathway of a forward moving
but keeping abreast with this
race work out its own destiny, permitting
business and commerce to develop along
struction and without menace from polit-
lcal interference. Credit Is due the Re
highest order of human wisdom, it Is
taking hold to mould and shape the des-
TIMES of mighty government as Il takes
Its place one of the foremost nations In
the charging domain Oh the world nelSH-
borhood. Credit is due the Republican
party because it is not hating to look
back upon the crumbling idols of the past
and expressing vain regrets at the dis
appearance of the last vistage of prov
incialisTn, and because 1t is not lament
Ing over the change OF civilization from
the stage coach to the electric car.
AS leading the advance guard of
is the birthright, and deal
ing with living question the practice of
Kansas her place upon present issues
Is not yet recorded, as not a single ques-
ion that divided political parties four
years ago is at issue this year, while
the questions of the present had no
Judgment in the mind of the most adj
vanced thinker in 1895. Four years ago