The Commoner.
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ful. If tlie men who cat tlioir "broad in the
Wcat of tho faco would aot in concert at the
!pollB, a speedy and inexpensive remedy would
1)0 found for every evil complained of.
The Issues of 1904.
The following letter, written in reply to an
invitation to outline" tho issues of 1004, is re
produced "because it will answer many similar
letters received from persons who are impatient
to begin tho noxt campaign:
Lincoln, Kjsb., September 2, 1001'..
Mr. George W. Harris,
President W. J. Bryan Travelling Hens'
Club, St. Louis, Mo, ,
Dear Sir:
I am just in receipt of your letter on my re
turn to the city. Before complying with your
request, permit me to suggest that the name of
your club should be so changed as to proclaim
your allogianco to tho party rather than to tho
personality or views of an individual. When
I was the party candidate your club, following
tho usual custom, took my name, but now that
I am a private oitizen I do not desire that any
organization should suffer because of criticism
aimed at me. I believe that your club will bo
more useful if it stands as tho representative of
Democratic principles and is free from the sus
picion that it is attached to the political fortunes
of any man.
1 beg to assure you of my appreciation of
the :worlc done by your organization and I am
gratified to know 'that it takes a lively interest
in. the discussion of pending questions.
Replying to your inquiry, I would say that
it is too early to outline a platform for tho next
campaign. Conditions make issues; parties
must meet issues as they arise. Tho tariff
question occupied the largest share of public
attention in 1802 the MoKinloy law being tho
irritating oauso. Befd'ro 180G rolled around,
however, Mr. Cleveland and his Republican and
gold-Democratic associates had forced the tariff
question into tho background and created con
ditions which made the money question para
mount. Tho Democratic party was compelled
to meet that issue and it met it fairly and
honestly.
Between 1800 and 1000, tho Republican
party by its inaction on the trust question and
by its un-American action on the Philippine
qu&Btion compelled a- consideration of individ
ualism, which was attacked by private monopoly,
and of tho fundamental principles of govern-,
ment, which wero attaoked by imperialism.
The tariff question was not settled in 1800 when
it gave way to the money question; neither was
the money question settled in 1000, when im
perialism and monopoly took precedence over
it. Tho position taken by tho Domocratio
party on tho money question is as sound as its
position on the tariff question, but circumstances
must, in the future as in tho past, determino
tho relative importance of issues.
No one is able to say what new issues may
arise between now and 1004; neither can any
ono say what relations tho various issues may
bear to each other. It seems probable that
imperialism will again bo prominent, and prob.
ably paramount, for the Republican party shows
no disposition to abandon its colonial policy,
and wo cannot accept colonialism without repu
diating all that we have been taught to regard
as Democratio in government.
Tho trusts are increasing in numbor and
magnitude, and we must resolutely oppose them
or forfeit the confidence of tho common people.
The Republican party is determined to re
tire greenbacks and substitute bank notes, to bo
issued by tho banks for their own profit and
controlled by them for their own advantage.
We must resist this effort or place the Demo
cratio party in a position entirely antagonistic
to tho position of Jefferson, Jackson and all the
Democratio leaders down to tho time when
Cleveland betrayed tho party into the hand of
tho Philistines of finance. The paper money
issue is entirely separate and distinct from tho
silver question, and yet it is a significant fact
that those who declare tho silver question dead
have nothing to say about tho irreconcilable
conflict between government paper money and
national bank notes. Tho increased supply of
gold does not affect, ono way or the other, the
question of paper money, but the influence of
the money power is such that whenever it can
bribe or terrify a man into tho support of the
gold standard it can silence his opposition to
banks of issue.
Whether the silver question will play an
important part in tho next campaign is a ques
tion which cannot now bo determined. The
thing to bo desired is a stable dollar, and that
can only bo secured. by legislation, which will
furnish a volume of standard money sufficient
to keep pace with tho demand for money. Wo
have no assurance that gold alone will do this,
and certainly the interests -of the people ought
not to be entrusted to those who defended tho
gold standard when the dollar was increasing
in purchasing power and who would favor the
gold standard still, even though the pro'duction
of gold was decreasing. N
The gold standard is not yet complete it
romains yet to make silver redeemable in gold
and limit its legal tender qualities. The Re
publican party has these further steps in con
templation. We cannot abandon the Democratio
position until wo are ready to accept the Re
publican position, and wo cannot accept tho
Republican position until we are sure that the
world's supply of gold is sufficient to furnish
all the tho nations with enough primary money.
As tho influence of our nation, if cast on the side
pf tho yellow metal, would tend to hasten an
universal gold standard, wo cannot afford to
join in the crusade against silver until the world
is ready to do without it as a money metal.
The Kansas City platform covered a num
bor of other important questions among them
the dangerous and tyrannical system known as
government by injunction. This judioial abuso
is growing more and more threatening to liberty,
and no ono can say at what moment some judge
may so shamefully exceed his authority as to
make tho settlement of the question imperative.
Tho election of senators by a direct vote of
the people is a reform which will come ulti
mately and the Democratio party must aid in
bringing it.
The Kansas City platform is sound through
out because it applied Democratic principles to
the conditions then existing. Those principles
arc still Democratio and we must apply them
to present and future conditions. The line be
tween the Republican party and the Democratic
party is the lino between plutocracy and Dem
ocracy, and we cannot afford to obliterate that
line or to make it less distinct. As a matter of
principle we must not compromise with those
whose sympathies are against the rights ,and
welfare of the masses; as a matter of policy we
cannot afford to compromise, because organized
wealth has more confidence in the Republican
party than it could possibly have in the Demo
cratic party. If we abandon the Kansas City
platform wo shall lose the support of the plain
people without gaining the support of those
who are opposed to that platform. We may
deserve to win and still lose, but it remains true
that to deserve success is the snrest road to
victory. Those who boast of their willingness
to do "anything to win" are unsafe pilots, be
cause they throw away the compass when they
discard Democratic principles. . The party now
stands for positive principles and definite poli
cies. If the party is right, as Ibelieve it is, we
can confidently expect vindication, and we can
better afford to wait for that vindication than
prove recreant to the trust reposed in the party
by more than six million voters.
Thanking you again and wishing for tho
club still greater influence I am,
Very truly yours, .......
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v ; YvTrf J: Bryan; -
Making and Receiving Apologies.
The Emperor of Germany has done tho
world a distinct service by modifying his
requirements of the Chinese representative,
charged with making an apology to Germany,
to the extent that it was not necessary for
the Chinese representative to " kowtow." This
ceremony would have consisted of the Chinese
representative approaching the Emperor of
Germany on his knees and knocking his head
on the floor nine times.
In the presence of an apology between in
dividuals, if both parties be intelligent, there
must necessarily be some embarrassment, and
the embarrassment is by no means one sided. It
is just as difficult to accept an apology gracefully
as it is to gracefully extend an apology. And
the burden of acting gracefully rests as heavily
upon the recipient of an apology as it does upon
the one required to make the apology.
The man who, being tendered a full and
complete apology, made in a manly way with
the form of the apologist erect, with the eye of
the apologist looking frankly into the eye of
tho ono to whom the apology is due, must on
his part be equally manly. Ho must accept it
in the spirit in which it is tendered, and the
real man, appreciating tho difficulties of his un
fortunate fellow, will make the situation as easy
.as possible for tho apologist.
So the ruler of a nation to whom an apology
must be made by tho representative of another
nation has nothing to gain and everything to
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