The Courier. (Genoa, Nev.) 1899-1904, 1902-01-31

EutLOf JOuFHft.-Olu NeVdudu5 Sci
dom forget Nevada, and when absent
from the State for longer or shorter
periods of time the most of them in
dulge in the hope that they themselves,
are not entirely forgotten by their old
time friends in the land of silver and
sage. Such, at all events, is the case
with me, and being located for the
present in Washington, it occurred to
me chat some of my thoughts and OBJ
servations concerning matters of Ma
tional import might not be entirely de-
void of interest to your readers.
NEW POLITICAL CONDITIONS.
Politically and legislatively the stu
alton has greatly changed since the
time when | had the honor to serve
Nevada as best could in the House of
Representatives. Then the question
of free silver coinage was the issue of
paramount importance before the coun-
try. In Congress five-sixths of the
Democrats and all the Populists favored
such a measure, while something like
eighty per cent OF the Republicans OPP
posed it. But in neither House was
there any appreciable sentiment in
favor of the gold standard. Almost
2
every member protested to believe in
bimetallism, and the few pronounced
gold men like Harter of Ohio, and
Walker of Massachusetts, were re-
garded as monetary cranks of the first
water. To-day the Republican party
is solidly for the gold standard, not
only opposing the free coinage of sill
yer, but any coinage at all of the white
metal, save for small change, while
many of it's members are in favor of
getting rid of the silver dollars already
coined, and supply all deficiencies in
the currency by allowing the banks to
issue circulating notes upon the basis
of their general assets.
In fact bills for both of these pur-
poses have been introduced into Con.
gress by prominent members of the
party, and the one designed ultimately
to eliminate the silver dollars from our
monetary system has already been
acted upon and reported to the House
by the Committee on Banking and
Currency.
Thus has the attitude of the party
been completely reversed within the
space of decade. Radical as this
change has been, it was nevertheless
made by almost insensible gradations.
Little by little Republican platform dec
larations in favor of bin etallism be-
came weaker and more equivocal, but
tstill holding out some hope to those of
the party who honestly believed in
that monetary system. Even in 1896
the Republican national platform did
not declare unqualifiedly for the gold
standard but only for its maintenance
until an international agreement for
the free coinage of silver could be OBJ
tanned, and this agreement the party
leaders pledged themselves to promote.
The pledge thus given bore all the ear
marks of bad faith and OF being merely
to hold the votes of western Republi-
cans. 1t deceived none but those who
were willing to be hoodwinked in the
interest of the party. 1t was denounced
by Colorado's grand old man." Henry
M. Teller, as a fraud, and he, with
Cleveland of Nevada, Hartman of
Montana, and some thirty others left
the convention hall.
Subsequent events have more than
justified this action. The Wolcott
commission was appointed in a per-
funetory way. 1t accomplished moth
ing and was not expected to. In Eu-
rope it was regarded as merely the
formal carrying out of a campaign
pledge, with no purpose on the part of
the American Government that any
thing should result from it. While the
commission was at work in Europe,
Secretary Gage, with the full sanction
of President Mckinley, was making
gold standard speeches all over the
country, and actually formulating a
gold standard bill which was submitted
to and approved by the entire cabinet.
Nothing can be clearer than that the
work of the Wolcott commission was
not taken seriously by the Administra-
ton, and upon his return from Europe
one of Senator Wolcott's first official
acts was to make a speech on the floor
of the Senate in which he bitterly de-
nounced Secretary Gage, and ascribed
the failure of the commissions labors
to the official course and utterances of
the chief financial officer of the Admin
istration.
Then oil disguise was thrown off,
and the Republican party became the
outspoken champion of gold. There