Daily inter mountain. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1881-1901, 1900-03-09
THE BETRAYAL OF I YER.

THE BETRAYAL or SILVER.
Silver has had more powerful enemies
than the Anaconda Standard, because 1t
has had enemies who exercised a wide IN
fauence in a political way, but it has had
no worse enemy thar that sheet mas
proved itself to be. When the campaign
of 1896 ended in the defeat of Mr.. Bryan
the necessity for a strong. united move
ment on the part of the silver men to keep
the free coinage issue to the front was
apparent. The tendency of defeat was TO
place it in the background, and II COOP |
GRAFTON among silver men was necessary
during the campaign to sustain the cause,
it became all the more necessary to pre- .
serve it from the recoil of the disaster ex-
perienced at the polls.
1t became the immediate duty OF the
silver press to rally their forces from the
shock and again align them for the pros
pective battles of the future. Upon none
did this responsibility rest to a greater
degree than upon the free coinage news
papers of the silver states. To them be-
longed the initiative in the work of main
tanning the cohesion which the issue OF
the campaign had inspired. and giving
notice to the world that the silver ques-
ton would remain the paramount issue
"until settled and settled right"
But did they accept hat responsibility?
Did they Immediately set at work re-
pairing their broken lines for a future
onslaught on the contending forces? Did
they seek a continuation Of the union
which had been effected among the silver
parties, and nail the free coinage banner
to their masthead? Did they fight for the
cause in season and out of season. for the
creation of a public sentiment that would
again make bimetallism the paramount
issue before the people? They did not.
Right here in Montana the democratic
press dropped the silver question after
the defeat of 1896 as if it were a red hot
poker, and maintained a frigid silence on
the merits of free coinage, while they
smiled approval upon the schemes of their
party leaders to bring the gold and sill
yer wings of their party into harmony on
issues that would retire the white metal
to the rear. These political plots were
seconded by the democratic press of this
further cooperation of the several silver
parties. The cooperative policy which
was advocated in 1896, as an absolute es-
sentialxto the success of the silver move
ment, was ~repudiated and ignored two
years later by the democracy of this
state; and the silver republicans and the
populists, who had rendered efficient politi-
cal service to the cause, were treated with
ridicule and contempt. That was a part
of the programme which contemplated
the reunion of the gold and silver ele'
ments of theedemocracy for the campaign
of 1900, and, 1t was successfully carried
out. #@a
After the campaign of 1898 was over, ant
Doodle had placed the control of the loca
u III l11lS al AS Civ - IA
democracy-as has been verified to tn
shame of the commonwealth by the evi
dence brought out in the senatorial inves
tigation-the Anaconda Standard, tn
self-confessed leader of the Democrat
press in Montana, editorially announce
its conversion to the theory that the rati
of 16 to l was immaterial to the restora
ton Of silver and that the relative value
of silver and gold were fixed by tn
worlds exchanges. These declaration
We're made right on the threshold of til
senatorial election, in which it's followin
supported a gold democrat for the sena1
of the United States in the person of NJ
Conrad, a prominent and infiuenti
banker.
Since that time the Standard, with oil
er democratic papers following alor
humbly in it's wake, has pursued II
course which characterized it after tt
campaign of 1S96-maintained a discre
silence on the silver question, varyir
the programme only since the senatori
controversy has made necessary a chan,
of front. The horrifying r-ottenness
the revelations made has so discredit,