The Eureka sentinel. [volume] (Eureka, Nev.) 1902-current, 1902-02-01
BARTINE ON SILVER QUESTION.
Demonstrates That 1t Is Still a
Very Lively Issue.

represented Nevada in the House of Repre-
sentatives for two terms. sends the following
letter to the Reno Journal:
Editor Journal: Old Nevsdans seldom
forget Nevada, and when absent from the
State for longer or shorter periods Of time the
most of them indulge 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 Washing.
ton. it occurred to me that some OF my
thoughts and observations concerning matters
Of national import might not be entirely de-
void of interest to your readers.
SKw POLITICAL CONDITIONS.
Politically and legislatively the situation
has greatly changed since the time when i
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
country. In Congress fve-sixths of the Dem.
ocrats and all the Populists favored such q
measure. while something like so per cent of
the Republicans opposed it. But in neither
House was there any appreciate sentiment
in favor of the gold standard. Almost every
member professed to believe in bimetallism,
and the few pronounced gold men ike Har.
ter Of Ohio. and Walker Of Massachusetts,.
were regarded ss monetary cranks of the first
water. To-day the Republican party is solidly
for the gold standard, not only opposing the
free coinage of silver, but any coinage at all
Of the white metal, save for small change,
while many of its members are in favor of
getting rid of the silver dollars already coined,
and supplying 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 purposes
have been introduced into Congress by prom.
inent members Of the party, and the one de-
signed ultimately to eliminate the silver dol.
lars 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 a
decade. Radical as this change has been,
it was nevertheless made by almost insensible
gradations. Little by little Republican
platform declarations in favor Of bimetallism
became weaker and more equivocal, but still
holding out some hope to those Of the party
who honestly believed in that monetary
system. Even in 1896 the Republican ma
tional platform did not declare unquali6edly
for the gold standard, but only for its main.
tenance until an international agreement for
the free coinage Of silver could be obtained,
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
Republicans. 1t deceived none but those who
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 event. have more than justified
this action. The Wolcott commission was ap.
pointed in a perfunctory way. 1t accomplish
ed nothing and was not expected to. In Eu.
rope it was regarded as merely the formal
carrying out of the campaign pledge. with
no purpose on the part of the American gov
eminent that anything should result from it.
While the commission was at work in Europe,
Secretary Gage, with the full sanction Of
President Mckinley, was making gold stand.
ard speeches all over the country, and actually
formulating a gold standard bill which was
submitted to and approved by the entire cab
met. Nothing can be clearer than that the
work of the Wolcott commission was not
taken seriously by the administration, and
upon his return from Europe one of Senator
Wolcott's first official acts was to make q
speech on the floor Of the Senate in which he
bitterly denounced Secretary Gage, and as.
cribed the failure of the commissions labors
to the official course and u~tterances of the
chief financial officer of the administration.
Then all disguise was thrown off, and the
Republican party became the outspoken
champion Of gold. There was no frank dec
l~aration that the party had seen the error Of
its ways, and changed. 1t simply began to
"re-af6rm" its devotion to the gold standard
just as If it had always been for the yellow
metal. The predictions made by Senator
Teller as to the Interpretation that would be
placed upon the platform of 1896, and where
the Republican party would ultimately land
| upon the question, have been verified to the
letter.
ATTITUDE OF SILVER REPUBLICANS.
In the advocacy of free coinage the Repub.
licans of the Mountain States took the lead,
and when the break came in 1896, they left
their party almost in a body. Some of them
have since returned to it. and why they have
done so has never been explained to my salts
faction. If it be urged that silver is q dead
issue, a good and sufficient answer Is that the
Republican party killed it; and while a for.
giving spirit is. In itself, a quality to be adj.
mired, when we carry It so far a. to embrace
and fondle those who have given the death
blow to our dearest political hopes it conveys
the idea of weakness rather than Christian
virtue. In this connection it should be re-
membered that in 'killing the silver issue"