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The Commoner.
-.it:r -"linn
tot Virginia, has stated that Mr. Bryan In tho fall
of 1894 Intended to speak in favor of the pop
ulist candidate for governor in Virginia, but wris
rpersuaded not to do so by Mr. ' O'Farrall, then
'the democratic candidate for governor. Mr. O'Far
xall may have been so informed, but if so his in
formant was in error, for Mr. pryan never con
templated any such thing. Tho criticism, how
over, comes with poor grace from Mr. O'Farrall,
for while asserting that he prevented Mr. Bry
an's speaking against him when'ho was a can
didate for governor, he bolted the national ticket
when Mr. Bryan was a candidate for the presi
dency. Certainly his fight against a national can
didate nominated by tho aiJ of Virginia's votes '
was a mora serious breach than the failure to
support a gubernatorial candidate, even if Mr.
'' Bryan had opposed Mr. O'Farrall, which ho did
not do.
Ih6 charge that Mr. Bryan voted for Mr.
Weavor has already been explained and the facts
have been presented so often that one must con
fess, himself misinformed if he circulates tho
chargo as an evidenco of Mr. Bryan's abandon
ment of tho democratic party.
As tho election of 1892 approached it became
evident that it was impossible for tho democrats
to carry several of the western states, but that it
was possiblo for tho democrats to assist the pop
ulists in carrying them. This situation having
been fully discussed, tho democratic national com
mittee, of which Mr. Harrity was chairman and
Mr. Whitney tho controlling spirit, (If tho word
"spirit" can properly bo used of,' tho Whitney
type), Instructed to urge the democrats of Kan
sas, Colorado and a number of other western
states, to .support the1 Weaver electors for the pur
pose of taking those states out of the republican
column and throwing tho election Into the house
of representatives where tho democrats had a
majority. That evidenco of this is conclusive, and
has been published time and again. Tho following
letter from James B. Boyd, then tho governor of '
Nebraska and the Nebraska member of the na
tfonal committee, ought to set this fact at rest:
lii.ncoln, Neb., Oct 17 (Personal and
confidential.) Dear Six: I .have just returned
- from the past where I was. honored by a con
sultation with tho national committee and
leading, men of our party .with regard 'to the '
best policy to bo. pursued in Nebraska this
fall. in dealing with the electoral ticket; and
they agreed with me that tho wisest course
would be. for democrats to support tho Weaver
electors; the object being to take Nebraska out
of her accustomed place in tho republican
column. , '
Information has reached me that a num
ber of independents who wore formerly re
publicans contemplate voting for the Harri
son electors. With tho ropublican strength
thus. augmented it would bo impossible for the
democrats to carry their own electors' ticket
to victory. It Is therefore the part of good
judgment and. wIsq 'action for democrats to
support tho Weaker electors in as large num
bers as possible. For democrats to do this is
no abandonment of principle; on tho con
trary, it is a definite step toward victory, and
the ultimate triumph of Cleveland and Stev
enson, and tho principles they represent.
JAMES B. BOYD.
Mr. Bryan was then a member of congress as
well as a candidate for re-olection, and announced
that if tho election, was thrown into tho house
he would vote for Mr. Cleveland, tho demo
ciatic nominee, as against Mr. Harrison, the re
publican nominee. . Mr. Bryan may be justly criti
cised for having known so little of Mr. Cleveland
as to prefer him to Mr. Harrison, but from tho
standpoint of democratic regularity he cannot be
criticised for obeying tho democratic national com
mittee, and voting for General Weaver in order
Son? l? elfc Mr CIeyeland. In the election of
189G Mr. Weaver was one of tho most active
supporters of Mr. Bryan, while Mr. Cleveland
turned to republican advantage the influence
which the democratic party had given him. When
Mr. Bryan became personally acquainted with tho
two men, ho found that General Weavor was in
finitely more democratic than Mr. Cleveland in en
vironment, principles, purpose and method.
As to the policies which Mr. Bryan has sup
ported, only a word need be said. On the tariff
question no one will dispute his orthodoxy. Ho
helped to prepare tho Wilson bill, which was
much more acceptable even to Mr. Cleveland, than
the senate bill after Mr. Gorman and Mr. Hill
got through with it Tho free list of the Wilson
bill was practically identical with the freo list
-Bet forth in tho platform upon which Mr. Bryan
was elected in 189), four yearSj before. ThT demo
crats of the G2nd and 63rd congresses favored the,
election of United Statds ' sena'tdrs by direct vote
of tho people, and this was made a part of tho i'
democratic platform of 1900.' This demand will1'
be found in the democratic platform upon which
Mr. Bryan ran in 1890. The Wilson bill con- . ,
tained an income tax, and this was supported by
a large majority of the democrats of the senate T
and house. Tho income tax was also demanded in
Mr. Bryan's congressional platform of 1890. Mr.
Bryan's first congressional platform also contained
a plank in favor of the free coinage of silver, and
ddring rthat year the democrats of tho house by
an1 overwhelming majority voted to reconimit the
Sherman law with instructions to the committee
to' bring, in a free coinage' bill (16 to 1 being the
only ratio then considered). For twenty years
the democrats of the senate and house had been
voting for bills embodying exactly ,the coinage
provisions that the platform of 1S96 contended
for. There was not a plank in the Chicago plat
form that was inconsistent with the record of tho
party on questions dealt with, and that platform
was prepared; 1 y a committee-selected from all the .
states of the Union and was reported to the con
vention before Mr. Bryan's 'nomination was con
sidered probable by any considerable .number of
tho convention.
Tho money plank of the Chicago platform,
while identical with the plank adopted by tho
democrats of Nebraska in 1894, had been in
dorsed by the democrats at the primaries in al
most all the states and no one can say that its
adoption was not the freo and voluntary act of
tho rank and file of the party. .At Kansas City
the only controversy was over the. money plank.
No other plank of jthe Chicago platform was ques
tioned or opposed, and the dispute over the money
plank was as to whether it should be reaffirmed
or reiterated.
Mr. Bryan has defended the Chicago plat
form and the Kansas City platform, and if his
democracy can be questioned because of his ad
vocacy of those platforms, then the same objec
tion must be made to the democracy of the mil- "
lions who believe 'in those platforms as firmly
as he and haVo advocated them as earnestly.
Space has "been' givettj to the vahove not.be
. cause' Mr. Bryan's 'qohduct.or views ought to in
' fiuence others, but because the reorganizes are '
seeking,. to make the fight a personal one against
Mr, Bryan, whereas it is "and 'ought to be made
upon principles. A principle is neither good nor
bad because it is advocated by any man; ft is
good or bad in itself, and t;his discussion of Mr.
Bryan's personal connection with these questions
would not appear here but for the fact that the
friends of the Kansas City platform are contin
ually annoyed by the misrepresentations' that aro
mtjde by the gold democrats and "by the republi
can, papers which take great delight in assisting
thc.gold democrats. '
Like Two Peas In a Pod.
r
Insisting that the democratic party must
"throw both Bryan and Bryanism overboard," the
Brooklyn Bagle undertakes to state just what will
bo the position of the democratic party as well
as of tho republican party in the event the re
organizers have their -way. The Eagle says the
republican platform will be about as follows:
"No tariff revision is necessary; nono
should occur until necessary; none, when nec-
, essary, should be made except by us; none,
when made by us alono, should affect articles
produced by trusts, whether those trusts aro
monopolies or not. On the expansion question
the republican platform will be in favor of
It kinS expansion for granted and of regarding
the Philippines, Hawaii and Porto Rico as
colonies always and states of the Union never.
S?i, e cu"ency question the republican party
will seek to legislate, on the basis of gold' as
the standard, in the direction of making tho
supply of cunency through the banks auto-
matically respond to the needs of localities or
of exigencies. The rest of that party's plat
form will doubtless comprise republican
claims to have produced all the good things
which have occurred and which have taken
tne name of prosperity among politicians, pro
moters and the like, and of inflation among
. philosophical economists. Of course, the plat
form will arraign democracy."
,i,.iThe F60.110 v,ty according to tho Eagle,
7ie n h a1dmittlnS so many words that it has
been entirely wrong, will, in the event the reor
ganizes gain control, admit that the party has
" ' " ::?rTr!E 3' number 2
been wrong without ,'directly sayln- so t
describes the .democratic "platform e 2j
: The party willlassume gold to bo thn
standard. It will assume expansion to ho nor
...manent and unalterable. It wm omit all Si"
lusion to an income tax, and it will not fi? "
' ter mobs, in tho nam -of labor? .r attack thn
; securities of order by sliirs at the judiciary
"The party will have a good deal of twin
ble, even if it shduld get these dangew
questions out of tho way, in dealing with til
tariff matter. Jhe country, has. become used
to protection. It is opposed to free trtfde or
to what can be truthfully or falsely called
free trade. It would, however, have a rational
and not a radical revision of duties and it
does not believe that the republican nartv
can. or will give it." ' y
, According to the Eagle's plan, then, tho dem
ocratic party, like the republican party, will bo
in favor of the single gold standard; it will as
sume expansion to be permanent and unalterable
it will be opposed to the income tax, and will
ignore the very general complaint against govern
ment by injunction. According to the Eagle's
plan, the democratic platform will differ from tho
republican platform in three particulars. Tho
Eagle's platform will not assert- nor admit the
republican claims to have produced all the good
things which have occurred; the Eagle's platform
will not arraign democracy; the ..Eagle's plat
form, while leaning somewhat in the direction of
protection, will provide for "a rational sjiu not a
radical revision of duties."
In other words, after "throwing Bryan and
Bryanism overboard," the Eagle and its associate
reorganizers would, make the democratic party so
similar to the republican party that the two or
ganizations would differ in name, only, and would
make tho platform as nearly like the republican
platform as it would be possible to do, leaving at
the same time sufficient margin in the hope of
hoodwinking, the voters and making them believo
that, after all, the democratic party had not been
completely swallowed up. .
Perhaps it has not occurred to tho Eagle, al
though it will '".oubtless occur to a. great many
people, that there will be considerable-difficulty
even after the democratic- party shall have adopted
the republican platform, in educating democrats
up to a point where they- may grow enthusiastic
in following republican methods and in advocat
ing the ' policies dear to tho hearts of the trust
magnates.
JJJ
Biit He Did Not.
The St. Louis Post-Dispatch, commenting on
the formal and insignificant message sent by
President Roosevelt on the opening of the Phil
ipine cablei says:
"Suppose, Instead of the commonplace
greeting President Roosevelt sent to Governor
Taft he had sent to the people of the Philip
pines a message like this:
"I pledge all my energy, ability and power
as president of the United States to the task
of enabling the people of the Philippines to
enjoy the blessings of liberty and to secure a
government based upon tho principles of 11b-
erty and equality embodied in the Declara
tion of Independence and the constitution of
the United States.'
"That would have been a memorable mes
sage and it would have made the Fourth of
July as blessed and "memorable to the Fili
pinos as It is to Americans. It would have
enhanced the blessings of the day to Ameri
cans because it would have been a notable step
. toward the proclamation of liberty throughout
all the possessions of the United States.
"A message like that would have dono
more than merely go '"around the-world; It
would have thrilled the -world wit4i the spec
tacle of a great man at the head of a great
nation placing' the cause of humrtn liberty
above all other considerations; it would have
cheered the lovers of liberty in all lands
and struck a deadly blow at imperialism. Mr.
Roosevelt could well have given up all that
the presidency offers for the privilege of send
ing such a message to a 'people in bondage.
"It would have assured him the right kind
of immortality."
The president might have said4 something
worthy of the occasion but he did not. Why I
Because he has been paralyzed by imperialism. .,
MhKxSfmtiMti