The commercial. (Union City, Tenn.) 190?-193?, 1902-07-04

what tiresome; that those "holle
RS than thou" Democrats will foreve
and eternally insist that free silve
or bimetallism is the product o
Populism and had its introduction
to the American people in Bryan
first campaign is absurd in view 0
: the hight of facts. Whether o
not it would be wise to eliminat,
: it from the national Democrat,
platform of 1904 is a question fol
Democrats to decide-not boilers
or independents, unless they SEE
fit to affiliate with the party. Al
far as Populists are concerned
there were good men in the party
but they never had the wisdom tc
formulate measure as old ano
important as bimetalism, or free
silver" as it is briefly called, which
has been advocated by nearly all
of the leading Democrats of the
South. The following printed in
the Washington Post several years
ago shows the relation of the Dem
ocratic party to the question, and
the Post, which stood for single
gold standard, is second to no pa
per in the country:
The sound money organs of the Dem
ocratic party have confounded two
Questions that should have been con-
sidered separately. When they say
that the free, unlimited and indie
pendent coinage of silver would be dam
gerous they are probably right. But
when they assert that, because 1T
would be dangerous, its advocates are
not good Democrats, they are in error.
The principles of a party are tested
and judged by the votes of the men
whom it sends to the National Legis-
lature. Congress is the arena wherein
party platforms are interpreted. To
declare that such men as Morgan, Tur-
pie, Voorhees,, Vest, Cockrell, Harris,
Crisp, Culberson, Money, and many
Others scarcely less prominent are not
good Democrats, but have strayed
away from Democratic doctrines, is to
talk nonsense.
Looking to the votes in Congress to
find the Democratic position on the
silver issue it is easy to prove that the
party was thoroughly committed to
free coinage, Senator Cockrell, who, |
according to the diCtum of the sound |
money organs, is not much of a Demo-
GRAFT, took the trouble to look up the
record some months ago, and gave out
the results of his research. In the
Forty-fourth Congress he found 10
Democrats voting for and only Is
against free coinage bill. Another
test vote in the same Congress showed
123 Democrats for and II against
free coinage proposition. In the For
ty-tifth Congress 81 Democratic Rep
resentatives voted for the Bland free
coinage bill and 10 against it. 1t was
in that Congress that Stanley Mat
theWS, a Republican Senator from
Ohio, introduced a resolution declar-
ing that "all United States bonds is
sued under the refunding and redemp-
tiOn acts of July IA, 1870, and January
IA, 1873, respectively, could be paid at
the option of the government in tand-
ard silver dollars of Alp! grains with
out violation of public faith or in derO-
cation of the rights of public cred
itors."
Senator COckrell cites the record to
show that, in the Senate, % Demo-
Gratis voted for and against this res
while in the other end of the
Capitol, in the body elected by the
people, l16 Democrats voted FAYE"
and % mo" In the next, the Forty
sixth Congress, the Missouri Senator [
shows that 100 Democratic members
Of the House voted for free coinage
and against it; 107 Democrats voted
for a resolution directing the Secre-
Jary OF the Treasury to pay out stand
lrd silver dollars, just as he did gold
dollars, in payment of all the govern
nent's ''coin" obligations. 7.
In the FOrty-ninth Congress a ma
ority of the Democratic Representa-
lives voted for free coinage, and in
he Fifty-tirst Congress p Democratic
and 113 Democratic Repre-
voted for the Plumb free
coinage bill; Democratic Senators !
ind p Democratic Representatives ,
1oted against it.
In the Fifty-second Congress there 4
we're lbs free silver Democrats, and S
)ut - on the other side. {
Senator Cockrell asserts that his Z
VI Ulle TeCOGu Ol Uu6 Demo- :
ratio Congressman shows clearly that
hey had used their best efforts to re- {
tore bimetallism, and, by decisive
najorities, voted for the free and un-
United coinage of the standard dollar.
lpon equal terms with gOld, every
ime it was presented in all these s
except only in the last, a
Vhen it was proposed as an amend =
nent to the bill for the repeal of the a
herman law. a
In view of these established facts it n
absurd to question the genuineness !;
the Democracy of the free silver IL
Ontingent of the party. They may IL
e wrong in all their. opinions. but t.
hey have not departed from the Dem d
cratic faith; unless the majority is \
Ound to submit to the minority. 1t ~
- 6gitimate to try to change their II
Jews, but it is folly, or worse, to Il
barge that they were false to the doc n
rines of their party. r.
Negro Shot. a.