| Show JUSTICE TO A SILVER ADVOCATE ADVO-CATE The death of Banker W P St John has forced the New York and other eastern papers to confess than there was at least one honest and sincere advocate of free silver in the United States That they would admit there were others is perhaps improbable if not impossible Thus one of these anti I silver papers says that first Mr St j J John sacrificed his influence and standing 1 stand-ing among his colleagues in the banking bank-Ing business that then he sacrificed I his S1SOOO a year salary as president I of the Mercantile bank in order to devote de-vote his whole energies to the silver campaign It freely acknowledges that Mr St John was undoubtedly sincere I in his convictions on the silver question ques-tion and that he acted on principle and that he deserved and generally received re-ceived the respect due the conscientious conscien-tious devotion to what one believes to be right It is admitted that of all Mr Bryans 6000000 followers not one was more disinterested and sincere in his devotion than Mr St John All this is true But why do these eastern gold papers all admit this of the late Mr St John and not of the rest of tile silver men Simply because he was so well known in New York I financial circles and his character was iso i-so high and unimpeachable that they I could not say otherwise Had he lived in a far western city been exactly the same highminded and unselfish citizen I citi-zen that he was these same eastern gold papers that now acknowledge his honesty and sincerity would have denounced I nounced him as a repudiator a man who desired to defraud his creditors a man who was willing to sacrifice his personal and public honor in fact to I overturn our system of government and make the supreme court into a subservient subserv-ient tool for furthering the plans of scheming and unscrupulous men They would have said all this about Mr St John just as they said It about millions mil-lions of other supporters of Mr Bryan and the cause he represented who were just as honest and sincere as Mr St John whose motives were as pure and unselfish as his They denounced the silver men because of their prejudice and not because of their Drinciole They knew Mr St John but they did not know the character of those who stood with him in his support of silver It was unfortunate for them it was unfortunate for the country that they so misapDrehended the motives and u desires or the silver advocates They should broaden their view and look more at things as they actually are give credit for honesty where there is difference of opinion admit that men may be sincere when advocating theories theo-ries they deem the most heretical This will also apply to the silver men Both parties need more toleration |
