The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1900-06-21
SENATOR woLcorr ON SILVER.

The speech delivered by Senator Wolcott
v~ention was in the s~trictest sense a great
one. and will doubtless be widely circulated
as a campaign document There will be no
clearer statement of the issues made nor
any stronger defense in better form of the
policy and acts of the present administra-
ton. Such a speech could hardly be ex-
pected to receive proper recognition amid
the hurried and exciting scenes of a
national convention, but it will have mil
lions of readers who will be impressed by
its clear presentation of facts, its strong
arguments and its elegant diction.
On one point Senator Wolcott was par
t~icularly entitled to be heard and was es-
pecially clear. This was in regard to the
silver question, which the Democratic party
is trying to revive. When silver was a live
issue Senator Wolcott was a free-silver
man. After the election of Mr.. Mckinley
he introduced in the Senate a bill to pro-
vide for the representation of the United
States by commissioners at any inter-
iOHCtdi COuIcltICc tudt Liisul
be called, and subsequently he went to
Europe for the purpose, IL possible, Of
bringing about such a conference. In 1897
he was appointed one of three commission.
ers to visit European governments and
sound them on the subject of an inter-
national conference. The mission failed.
AS there was no longer any prospect OF
international action Senator Wolcott ceased
to pursue the matter and since the passage
of the currency bill he regards silver as a
dead issue. In his speech at Philadelphia,
after referring to the unsuccessful efforts
to bring about international action, he
said:
As We grow year by year more firmly
established as a creditor nation, the ques-
ton concerns us less and other countries
more. No impairment of national credit can
be contemplated by an honorable nation.
We have made advances enough; this
country can better afford than any other
TO enter upon the contest for commercial
supremacy with gold as its standard, and
for us the time has come to give fair no.
tice TO the world tnat we, too, make gold
our standard and redeem our obligations
in that metal. For twelve years the plat
forms of the party have declared In favor
of the use of gold and silver as money.
The logic of recent events, together with
the attempt of the Democracy to drag down
the question from it's international charac-
ter. to associate it with every vagary of
Populism and Socialism, and to drive this
country to ar alliance with Mexico and Chi
ma. as an exclusively silver-using country,
has impelled our people to this settlement
of this problem, and the recent action of
Congress has eliminated the danger which
its further agitation menaced.
He then proceeded to eulogize the curren-
cy bill and said the Republican party had
left the Populistic Democracy a dead is
sue they can never again galvanize into
life. and compelled them to seek to create
new issues growing out of the war which
they were most eager to precipitate." This
sis an admission by one Of the ablest Of
original silver men that it is now a dead
issue and that the Republican party has
done the wiseSt thing possible.