Show SILVE AXD THE rAGE EARXER The question has often been asked what can the three or four million people of the west do for free silver and financial reform against the sixty million people of the east I i were true that the majority of the people In the east were opposed to financial reform the task would indeed be hopeless hope-less but we do not believe this is so That nearly all the leading papers of I the east that most of the influential citizens and a majority of the politi I clans are in favor of the gold standard may be true but the great mass of the I wage earners and more especially organized or-ganized labor in the east as elsewhere are in favor of the free coinage of silver sil-ver and opposed to bonds and the national na-tional banking system We base this opinion not only upon the declaration of organized labor in their platforms but also the utterances of the labor press We know of no labor la-bor or trade journal that does not take i this position I will also be remembered 1 remem-bered that a year ago the Knights of Labor tried to get into court to protest pro-test against the first issue of bonds but were denied on the ground that they had no standing in courtthey were not individually affected I is not strange that the protests of labor are unheard or unheeded I They have no great or Influential dailies to plead their cause Theis journals jour-nals circulate almost entirely among their own class They have no men of national influence A telegram from the chambers of commerce of three or four cities commending the Presidents sound money policy will be reproduced repro-duced in every daily In the country while a petition of 10000 workingmen or a mass meeting in favor of silver is passed by with little or no comment An Invitation from a hundred bankers railway magnates and prominent citizens zens of Chicago irrespective of party is sent to President Cleveland to attend at-tend a demonstration in honor of his sound currency policy What wonder won-der that it should appear to the people of the country as it doubtless does to President Cleveland that Chicago is sound on the money question Yet we think there is no doubt whatever but that if the issue of free and inde pendent coinage of silver were presented pre-sented to the people of Chicago an overwhelming majority would support the proposition And so it Is elsewhere The great dailies the bankers the millionaires the chambers of commerce do not represent rep-resent the common people who comprise com-prise the majority of the population They represent the Influential class whose opinions are qudted whose appreciation ap-preciation seems the most desirable and who are in a position to grant favors and benefits I Is the most natural thing in the world that statesmen should seek this class for advice That men who have made a success in life from a material standpoint should seem more capable of passing judgment upon a financial question than th6 man of more humble pretentions and moderate means we must remember that the judgm t of such men is Influenced largely y selfish motives They desire whaf wj benefit tqem The poor mail the va l r I earner Is undoubtedly Influenced by the same motives but he may b quite as capable of judging what will benefit him as is his more successful neighbor A his class constitutes the majority his views are entitled to the greatest consideration At the polls however their vote is equal There majorities rule and if at the next election the money question is presented to the people as a clear issue there is little doubt upon which side they will stand N B D |