upon Populists to take up the gauntlet and meet
"the enemy upon his chosen field of battle," with
the "aid and coöperation of all persons who favor
the immediate free coinage of silver at a ratio of
16-1, the issue of all paper money by the Govern-
ment without the intervention of banks of issue, and
who are opposed to the issue of interest-bearing
government bonds in the time of peace."

There was nothing new in this declaration of hos-
tility to bank issues and interest-bearing bonds,
nor in this demand for government paper money,
for these prejudices and this predilection had given
rise to the "Ohio idea," by force of which George
H. Pendleton had hoped to achieve the presidency
in 1868. These same notions had been the essence
of the platforms of the Greenback party in the late
seventies; and they had jostled government owner-
ship of railroads for first place in pronunciamentos
of labor and agricultural organizations and of third
parties all during the eighties. Free silver, on the
other hand, although not ignored in the earlier
period, did not attain foremost rank among the
demands of the dissatisfied classes until the last
decade of the century and more particularly after
the panic of 1893.

Prior to 1874 or 1875 the "silver question" did

-155-