People's Pilot, Volume 6, Number 20, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 November 1896 — EDITORIAL NOTES. [ARTICLE]

EDITORIAL NOTES.

Now for the loaves and fishes. The “landslide” was not much of a slump after all. In the distribution of favors our republican friends should not forget the services rendered by Lyman Zea. McKinley wins, but the race was hot to the finish, and fortunes of battle hung upon very narrow margins in two or three states. The gold democrats are already organizing to capture the several state organizations of the party they so basely deserted, but it is safe to predict that any political favors they receive will come from their republican allies. The Rensselaer post-office is the high persimmon that George Robinson may possibly reach with his long pole, though rumor has it that B. F. Ferguson and several others are standing expectantly near the tree upon which the luscius fruit is ripening. _____ The silver craze that the gold standard press reported dead all last winter, seems to have been in the ring with its opponent right up to the close of a very interesting •‘mill,” despite repeated fouls, and though defeated in this contest it has already gone into training for a fight to a finish in 1900. Bryan has carried the cause of silver to the very crisis of battle, where victory seems quite within his grasp, and if any one believes the fight is to be abandoned, they will be as surely undeceived as that another campaign will come. The cause is the living truth and it will remain uppermost for public consideration until it is successful.

One year ago not many democrats believed it possible to pull the party together with the odium of the Cleveland adminis tration upon it. That Bryan was defeated by the narrowest possible margin is history now, and is proof that, even from a purely party standpoint, a wise course was taken when it championed the cause of silver and called to its aid the people’s 'party, the pioneers in the great reform movement. The people have been heard on the financial question, the money power has been shaken to its foundations, and it knows that the people, tftfohgh lulled to acquiescence by fair promises, cannot be long deceived. Relief must be given, and no relief will come except by an expansion of the currency. It is quite probable that an expansion will be inaugurated; it is even likely that ,a measure for silver coinage will be passed. Europe has discovered *by this campaign that the “silver heresy” is a power that cannot be overcome, and the great financiers of England are already suggesting more favorable legis-

lation for silver. It may result in some limited form of silver coinage by international agreement, and if so it will be the direct result of the agitation in this country, and a vindication of the truth of our defeated contention.