- w Mi
The Commoner.
MAY 1, 1003.
3
SPEAKING
O F
MARPLOTS
The Boston Herald in a recent issue com
plains that Mr. Bryan is acting the part of "a
marplot" This is so serious a charge that the
editor will be pardoned if he devotes a little time
to it The Standard Dictionary defines a marplot
as "one who, by meddlesome interference, marsN
or frustrates a design or plan." It is evident to
all that one must understand something of the
plan or design to be frustrated before he can pass
judgment upon the merits of the attempt to frus
trate it If, for instance, a group of persons
should plan to do injury to an innocent person,
to a city or to a country it would hardly be fair
to denounce as a marplot one who frustrated such
a design or plan. The term 'marplot'f can be
properly applied only to one who not only meddles
with affairs which do not concern him, but in
terferes in the carrying out of some good plan or
thwarts some laudable effort. What is Mr. Bryan
doing to earn the name of marplot?
The Herald attempts a sketch of Mr. Bryan's
career. The following is an extract:
"Now, how did this come to be? It is
one of the most curious manifestations of
modern politics. About a dozen years ago
William J. Bryan was a clever young demo
cratic representative in congress from a newer
western state, a state that no one expected to
see furnish a candidate to the presidency from
any party in this generation. He did not stay
long in that body, being defeated by a repub
lican competitor. Then ho transferred his al
legianceor, at least, a good part of it to
another, the populist party. The populist par
ty? having in effect taken possession of th,o
democratic party in his locality, sent him to a
democratic national convention, in which he
made a speech so electrifying in its eloquence
that it drew the presidential lightning upon
him and made him the party candidate for the
presidency."
It will be noticed that Mr. Bryan's first crime
was to come from one of the newer western states
"a state that no one expected to see furnish a
candidate to the presidency from any party in
this generation." It was perfectly proper that
Maine, with less population than Nebraska, should
furnish a candidate for, the presidency, although
Maine was in one corner of the country, but Ne-
. braska, almost in the geographical center of the
country and much nearer to the center of popula-
' tion than Maine, was not expected to take a
prominent part for a generation yet.
The editor of the Herald next informs the
. public that Mr. Bryan did not stay in congress
because he was "defeated by a republican com
petitor." Mr. Bryan served in congress for two
terms, and was not a candidate for re-election,
tout instead became a candidate for the United
States senate, being the unanimous choice of the
democratic state convention. The editor of the
Herald then asserts that the populist party sent
Mr. Bryan to a democratic national convention.
He either knows better, or convicts himself of an
ignorance that would be surprising if manifested
by the editor of any other paper than the Herald.
Mr. Bryan was never a member of the populist
party, was never a delegate to a populist conven
tion, and was never nominated for office by the
populist party until he was nominated by the
populist party two weeks after he had received the
democratic presidential nomination. In Nebraska
the democrats and populists have co-operated in
the selection of state officers, congressmen and
senators, but before they had ever united on a
state ticket they united in the election of William
V. Allen to the United States senate, and this
action was recommended by the democratic steer
ing committee of the United States senate. It may
be added that Mr. Cleveland's secretary of agri
culture advocated co-operation between democrats
and populists in 1890, two years before Senator
'Allen was elected. Most of the democrats of Ne
braska, by the direct and specific instructions of
Mr. Cleveland's national committee, voted for the
populist electors in 1892 for the purpose of taking
the state out of the hands of the republicans. It
was confessedly impossible to elect the democratic
electors, and as the house of representatives was
democratic, the national committee very wisely
planned to throw the election into the house in
case it was impossible to secure a majority in tin
electoral college. So much for the Herald's at
tempt at history.
The Herald proceeds to commend Mr. Bryan
for the manner in which he conducted himself in
the two campaigns, and then laments the change
which it thinks it discerns in his conduct It
says:
"Wo hardly recognizo tho amiable, and
aside from his capital error in participating
in tho free silver delusion, this discreet Mr.
Bryan in tho man that ho has since become,
and who is now addressing tho public. His
modesty has departed, and his discretion has
vanished with it His amiability has given
place to resentment and something resembling
rancor toward those "who he thinks have
thwarted his purposes. Wo cannot believe ho
fully realizes it himself, but in nis present at
titude he is like a man who, having failed to
continue to rule the party that he lately rep
resented, has now set himself to ruin it His
later position toward the democrats is that of
a marplot a marplot who is determined that
as far as he has influonco it shall be exerted
to prevent union upon any policy that does
not render party defeat inevitable."
Mr. Bryan was nominated for the presidency
by a convention more 'truly democratic than any
other convention in recent years. The platform
ominated from the voters. While the phraseol
ogy of the platform, so far as the money question
was concerned, was practically tho same as the
phraseology of the Nebraska platform two years
before, the fact that this phraseology was indorsed
by a largo majority of tho voters of the party"
made it their platform rather than the platform
. of any state or individual Certainly no one will
charge that the delegates to the national conven
tion were influenced in making the nomination by
anything other than their own judgment They
may have erred in judgment, but they were un
der no coercion whatever either in writing tho
platform or in tho nomination of the ticket.
During the campaign Mr. Bryan spoke in de
fense of tho principles enunciated in tho platform,
and whatever strength ho acquired was not a per
sonal strength, but a strength duo entirely to
the principles for which ho stood. As soon as the
election was over he announced his purpose to
continue the fight for those principles, and be
tween that day and the date of the next national
convention he visited all parts of the country, ev
erywhere discussing and defending the Chicago
platform.
When the action of the republican party
brought Ihe question of imperialism before the
country, he immediately took a position upon ft
making a speech against a colonial policy on
Juno 14, 1898, before any party or association had
spoken on tho subject. This question ho treated
as an additional one rather than as a substitute
for any of the other questions before the coun
try. When the time came for the holding of the
state conventions it was found that with two
exceptions every stato and territory instructed
for his renomlnation. As this nomination came
to him in spite of the misrepresentations, criti
cisms and protests of the papers which, like tho
Boston Herald, opposed the ticket in 189G, ho was
constrained to believe that the people still ad
hered to the principles that he advocated, and
still repudiated the sordid and mercenary argu
ments of commercialism advanded by the pluto
cratic press which, although claiming to be inde
pendent or democratic, defended tho republican
position on most questions.
It is often asserted by the metropolitan papers
that Mr. Bryan prev6nted a repudiation of the
Chicago platform at Kansas City. The fact is,
that the delegates at Kansas City were nearly all
of them selected by conventions that reaffirmed
the Chicago platform, and the only question that
excited debate at Kansas City was whether the
silver plank should be reiterated or simply re
affirmed. As an honest reaffirmation meant the
same as reiteration, no one could strenuously op
pose the latter if he sincerely favored the former,
and all that Mr. Bryan did at Kansas City was to
say that a reaffirmation intended not to reaffirm
but to abandon the question was not a fair treat
ment of the subject, and that If the convention
desired to Ignore the money question It should
select candidates who were willing to carry out
such a program. He did not attempt to control
the convention, but he did insist upon his right
to control his own conduct and upon his right
to fefuse a nomination if he could not con
scientiously indorse the platform.
Tho convention made imperialism tho para
mount Issue, and whllo tho party's position on
the money question was not abandoned Mr. Bryan
and all tho othor speakers spont tho greater part
of tho timo In discussing imperialism. It Is a
common practice for tho plutocratic press to
chargo tho defeat of tho party to tho money plank.
This is neither true nor Is it honest In 1900 tho
republican party had tho advantage of having
carried on a successful war, and it had the further
advantage of boing In power during a period of
good crops and Increasing currency. Tho result
of tho election showed that tho democratic lead
ers gave too little rathor than too much timo to
the discussion pf the money question, for the im
proved industrial conditions which followed tho
increase in the currency vindicated tho party's
position on the monoy question and showed how
much greater tho advantage would havo been
could silver havo boon added to tho gold supply.
We aro now preparing for the campaign of
1904, and tho reorganizes, not satisfied with Mr.
Bryan's announcement that ho will not be 'a can
'didato, insist that he must either indorse the
viows of those who aro responsible for tho party's
defeat in recent campaigns or, at least, keep silent
whilo they plan the emasculation of tho platform
and the demoralization of the party. Is it med
dlesome for Mr. Bryan to take part in politics?
Does the fact that he has been a candidate for
the presidency impose silence upon him? He is
only forty-threo; if ho lives forty years longer
ho will witness ton more presidential campaigns.
Must ho bo a mute observer of what transpires
from now on, merely because ho cannot agree
with tho men who in a great crisis voted the re
publican ticket, and tho newspapers which for
business reasons supported tho republican ticket?
This would be a high price to pay for a nomi
nation to any office.
The responsibilities of citizenship rest upon
Mr. Bryan as much as upon the bolting democrats
in general or upon tho bolting editors In partic
ular. It would not be presumptuous to say that
Mr. Bryan's responsibility is even greater than
tho responsibility of those who question his right
to discuss prosent'issues. Responsibility Is meas
ured by opportunity, and if Mr. Bryan lias had
an opportunity to know tho purposes as well as
the plans of those who, failing to destroy tho
democratic party from without are now trying to
destroy it from within, could ho excuse himself
if ho hid himself under tho cover of two nomina
tions rather than subject himself to the venom
and detraction of those .editors who bend the
suppliant knee to organized wealth? Who Is
under greater obligation to the rank and file of
the democratic patty than Mr. Bryan? And wh6
has more reason than he to 'co-operate with them
in the gigantic task of defending the wealth
producers against the attacks of exploiters and
monopolists?
The Herald belongs to that class of papers
which pretends great solicitude for the welfare of
the party. Has not Mr. Bryan shown as much
solicitude, for the welfare of the party as those
who have aided and contributed to the enemy?
Tho reorganizes assume that .the men who
supported the Chicago and Kansas City platforms
are ready to go back and apologize for their par
ty's position. This Is a groundless assumption,
and is known to be so by those who make the as
sumption. There has been no change among the
voters; those who were opposed to a financial sys
tem made by the financiers for the financiers, are
still opposed to such a system; those who were
opposed to a high tariff, even when the reorgan
izes were supporting a high-protectionist for the
presidency, are still against a high tariff. Those
who were opposed to the trusts, even when tho
leading reorganizes were helping to elect an ad
ministration pledged tothe trusts, aro still against
the trusts; those who opposed government by in
junction, even when the leading reorganizes were
helping the corporations that rely upon govern
ment by injunction, are still opposed to this
tyrannical process of the court; those who op
posed" imperialism, even when the leading reor
ganizes were willing to surrender the Declara
tion of Independence at the demand of Wall
street are still opposing the separation of our
people into citizens and subjects.
If Mr. Bryan were to remain silent in order
to escape hostile criticism, his silence would not
change tho convictions of those who voted for
him; if he were openly to join the reorganizes
- and proclaim a conveslon to the opinions o
.(Continued on Pag 5.).
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