The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1900-02-10
SEATTLE, SATURDAY, FEB. 10.
Tho Silver Republicans.

A Boise dispatch In the Spokane
Spokesman Review OF Wednesday an
nounced that the silver Republicans of
Fremont county. Idaho. had recently
held q meeting at Rexburg and formally
disbanded their organization. Nineteen
of the twenty-one precincts were repre-
sented and the delegates Of eighteen
stated that they had been instructed to
vote to disband. when the resolution to
disband was put to vote II was carried
unanimously. Two spoke against It..
but stated they were ready to 60 with
the majority. The Silver Republicans
OF Blaine county met the day before
and disbanded. II was resolved to dis
solve the county organization. The
straight Republicans met at the same
time. and II was agreed that both COM
mittees should be dropped and a new
committee organized to represent the
united branches Of the party.
The performance OF these last sad
rites II being recorded In all parts OF the
West. Disintegration has been going
on among silver Republican organize.
tons for several years and nowhere else
has the dissolution been more notice
able than IN those sections In which the
people were once almost wholly welded
to the cause Of silver as represented by
the sixteen to one idea. In Idaho es-
peciaily the silver forces developed UNI
usual strength. and inasmuch as that
state was heavy producer Of the white
metal perhaps there was reason for the
temporary prevalence OF the error. But
even there the time of disillusion has
come. and. one by one. former advo-
Gates OF what was once supposed to be
q live issue are now discardlng It as a
useless memory and are taking up the
more vital problems which press for
settlement.
The disbanding OF free silver organ
izations Is the inevitable sequence
which was bound 20 follow the death OF
the issue which brought them into be-
Ing The party has outiived It's useful
ness. n II ever had any. A raison
d'etre no longer exists. Identification
with doctrines other than that relating
20 the solution OF the financial problem
can he secured by tolning some one OF
the older parties, and TO maintain a
separate party organization for the sup
port OF tenet which has become OF sec
ondary importance. II II is not absolute
iy dead. is a task which all history tells
us cannot be performed. There may be
a semhlsnce OF organization but there
Is no real and vital force behind II. ana
collapse aud eventual oblitcration must
come at last. Just as IL has come TO
scores of insignificant movements that
have risen and deosyed during the past
century.
The silver Republicans originally
comprised those who were sincere be-
LEVERS In the theory OF sixteen 20 one:
those who had become dIsgruntied be-
cause their abilities or supposed inn
rortanee were not recognised: those
whose loyalty 10 party was never stall
wArt and who were not averse to re-
volt II personal aspirations might be
sattsned or a slender chance was Of
fered for a measer portion in the distri-
button Of the loaves and Ashes An
organization made up of such elements
necessarily could not long endure.
There was no permanent principle upon
which to build party OF independent
force. and when early in Its career u
was pleased 10 allow itself to be made
the mere tai OF a larger Political or
ganisathon. asking now and then q few
crumbs as a return fer It's allegiance.
the question OF decay ana decomposition
became a matter OF easy reckoning.
or the hcnest silver men. some are