Show I LET THE TRIBUNE SUBSTANTIATE SUBSTANTI-ATE ITS ASSERTION The Tribune says The president of the United States several months ago sent a commission to Europe to try to induce the great powers there to agree with the United States upon an arrangement to restore silver They went on an implied invitation invi-tation and an implied promise on the part of Great Britain The president did send a commission to Europe several months ago to see what the powers would do regarding an International agreement on the question ques-tion of silver whether that commission made any definite propositions to any European government no one knows except those governments and the government gov-ernment at Washington Our contemporary says that those commissioners went on an implied invitation in-vitation and an Implied promise on the part of Great Britain Where does our contemporary get its authority for saying that the Wolcott commission went to Europe on an Implied invitation invita-tion from Great Britain So far as we have ever seen there was no invitation invi-tation from Great Britain implied or other and we should like to he informed in-formed why our contemporary makes the assertion The matter is surely important Im-portant enough to warrant in giving the grounds for its assertion we do not say that it is not true but we believe our contemporary is the only paper in the country that makes it If that commission went to Europe on an implied invitation from Great Britain presumably it would not have gone without an Invitation This being be-ing so what becomes of the theory that the president sent that commission abroad in pursuance of the promises of the St Louis platform Would those great promises have been left unfilled had Great Britain not sent that implied im-plied invitation Our contemporarys remarks above quoted were made last Monday morning morn-ing Let us see what it said yesterday morning Here it is It was expected all through the campaign I I cam-paign last year that XIr McKinley would if elected treat silver precisely as did his predecessor It was so in I substance announced by the gold press of his party in the east But so soon as he was inaugurated he aslted the permission Of congress to appoint commissioners I com-missioners and to extend certain powers pow-ers to them to try by a new congress or by negotiation to adjust the silver question with the nations of the old world Was that implied Invitation from Great Britain lying on Mr McKinleys desk waiting for him when he entered I the White House as president March 4 last It must have been if our con temporarys statement of Monday last and its statement of yesterday are to be reconciled I It can hardly fail to strike any one who will read the above two statements j that the second one entirely refutes the I i first and makes it plain that the first I is nothing but bold assertion In fact our contemporarys assertion about the I Wolcott commission going abroad on an implied invitation and an implied promise on the part of Great Britain I is but a part of its general scheme to make the people of the state believe that the McKinley administration intended I In-tended to do something for silver and I to make them further believe that McKinley Mc-Kinley would be aggressive on the matter McKinley aggressive in behalf I of silver Never |