Show I THE MASTERLY IK ACTIVITY POLICY < r The silver leaders neve 1 displayed more wisdom than they s re now by pursuing policy of mast ly inactivity inactiv-ity The forces that were combined against silver last year are slowly but surely disintegrating There has been no appreciableuJmprovement in business busi-ness whilethe promised prosperity has not come and the high hopes held out to the people last year have been broken Those who held out these hopes who have themselves been disappointed dis-appointed and can scarcely hide their chagrin are telling the people to wait and be patient that the return of prosperity I pros-perity is necessarily a slow process And how they are scurrying around to find something that will still blind the people and prevent them seeIng Just what is the matter with the country The supporters of the tariff bill are beginning to realize that if it fails in accomplishing the object for which it is being enacted if in consequence of it there is no revival of business no return re-turn of prosperity the tariff game is up If it does not bring prosperity within a year said a member of the ways and means committee the other day and who hails from a Mississippi valley state I for one shall retire from public life Certainly in my state the protective issue will not again avail against free silver and the onslaught of the Populists unless this bill gives us good times The Washington correspondent of the New York Evening Post writing his paper on the silver question and tariff under date of the 10th inst says It is now nearly half a year since the national campaign on the silver question ques-tion The time has already arrived In the opinion of Washington observers when it is possible to look about a little lit-tle and see what has become or is likely to become of the great silver craze which resulted in the capture of the Democratic national convention and the nomination of William J Bryan All sorts of predictions were ventured the day after election Many persons believed that the silver cause I had suffered such overwhelming defeat that it would never rise again there was certainly a time when a considerable considera-ble part of the Bryan voters seemed to be awaiting a favorable opportunity to throw the silver issue to one side r The soundmoney element of the I southern Democracy were especially restive under free silver leadership I They had submitted to the Chicago platform for party regularitys sake but in many instances declared that they would never do so again It is easy to believe that had there been a substantial revival of business after the November election or even after the inauguration of President McKinley McKin-ley the silver movement would have begun to disintegrate Circumstances may yet arise which will produce this hopedfor result but it must be confessed con-fessed in honesty that events which are stronger than men have thus far tended to shape things in the other direction di-rection No one will contend that the silver cause did not meet with a reversal last I November but still it was far from being be-ing as great as its opponents had I thought for It should never be forgotten forgot-ten that it was the first time it had ever been presented to the people as a I national issue While so far as being dead as an issue is concerned it is far from it apparently farther than is protection itself It is a most living I issue today though not being agitated and the fact is being realized by those who a few months ago were shouting most vociferously that the silver issue was dead The policy that the people declared for last November should be given and is being given every opportunity to prove its own impotency to effect any considerable or permanent change for the better in the business condition of the country It is working its own destruction without let or hindrance from the silver neople Their present policy of inactivity is in every respect a masterly one I |