Freeman's Protective Silver Federation
From Kook Science
The Freeman's Protective Silver Federation (or Freemen's Protective Silver Federation) was an American secret society, formed at Spokane, Washington and formalised at Pullman, Washington in 1894, existing for the stated purpose of promoting bimetallism as the monetary policy of the United States of America, or, in their own words, "to unite the friends of silver under one banner, to battle for the white metal, and to wage war against the gold monopoly."[1] The federation was most active in the Pacific Coast states and was reported to have dubiously boasted some 800,000 members at its peak in 1896,[2] subsequently dwindling in membership after the failure of William Jennings Bryan's presidential campaign against William McKinley, who would proceed to institute the Gold Standard Act in the years that followed, and was ultimately being assumed to be defunct by the 1920s.
In addition to the cause of free silver, the federation was reported to have taken up other populist causes, including resistance to land seizures brought on by mortgage defaults.[3]
Reading
- Berger, Knute (28 February 2017), A Mysterious Disappearance in Wheat Country, crosscut.com, https://crosscut.com/2017/03/a-mysterious-disappearance-in-wheat-country — on the disappearance of Charles Gloystein, and the newspaper attacks and accusations against the Silver Federation consequent
References
- ↑ Stevens, Albert C., ed. (1907), "Freemen's Protective Silver Federation" (2 ed.), New York: E.B. Treat and Co., p. 301, https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015020238435&view=1up&seq=329
- ↑ "WARRIORS IN SILVER'S CAUSE, Have Been Secretly Organizing for Several Years Past. WAGE-EARNERS UNITE. Are Ready to Take Up Arms in Behalf of the White Metal. IN OPPOSITION TO TRUSTS. Their Membership Said to be Eight Hundred Thousand Strong in the West.", San Francisco Call: 16, 11 August 1896, https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn85066387/1896-08-11/ed-1/seq-16/
- ↑ "TO SAVE THEIR LANDS. Eastern Washington Farmers Will Resist Mortgages. FIRST IN STATE COURTS; If Defeated There, Silver Federation Will Probably Do Something.", Seattle Post-Intelligencer: 1, 10 July 1895, https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83045604/1895-07-10/ed-1/seq-1/