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The Nebraska Independent
JULY 5, 1905
THE NEBRASKA INDEPENDENl
ESTABLISHED 1889
J. M. DEYINE, Editor
FREDERIC O. BERGE, Business Mgr.
Pufcllriel Every Thursday -1328
O Street
Lincoln, Nebraska
Entered at the postofflce at Lincoln.
Nebraska, as second-class mail matter.
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THE INDEPENDENT,
Lincoln, Neb.
VERMONT AND PENNSYLVANIA
The spirit of the times is contage
ou3. The wave, of independence in
politics that is sweeping over the land
is irresistable, and is brushing aside
moss covered traditions as things not
to be longer reverenced. If evidence
were wanted to put to shame even
such burbous as are trying to jeopar
dize the good name and best interests
of the people of Nebraska by having!
the democratic convention reject
sense and reason and prostrate itself
before the fetish of a party name, it
is furnished in the recent action of the
democrats of Vermont and Pennsyl
vania. The democratic state conventions of
these two old states have just nomi
nated as their respective candidates
for governor two men that have been
lifelong members of the republican
party, neither of whom have ever been
or have ever professed to be members
of the democratic party. And, in so
doing they have riscu out of the dead
past into the living present, and have
challenged the good that is in the fu
ture. Democratic principles are right and
sound and include the best interest
of all of the people. The party has
traditions that are inspiring, but they
are quite ancient. The party has been
for many years under a leadership
that has been stupid, antiquated and
blind, such as forbid rather than en
couraged growth. The party has lived
on the charm of its name, to which it
has not been true.
The great rank and file, the ground
tier of the party, the men who produce
wealth, pay taxes and fight the na
tions battles, found the desire of their
hearts in the meaning of the word
democrat, and voted for years for can
didates bearing the name of that party
who were mere adventurers and op
portunists who kept the party trail
lng along behind the republican party
awaiting the day when that party
would be rejected on account of its
crimes against the commonality, in
the hope that in such event they
themselves would supercede the re
publicans in the favor of the corporate
and predatory interests. t ,
Democrats have been at all times in
the great majority among our people.
But the party "bearing the name has
never been attractive to the real dem
ocrat from a period antedating the
civil war until it challenged the coun
try in 1896 by a display of intelligence
and courage, when, notwithstanding
the party split in twain, its old lead
ership going over to the enemy, it
rolled up a million more votes than
ever before, was successful in a ma
jority of the states and its candidates
were elected for the first time in ten
states in the union.
Between 1896 and 1900 the party
leaders in many of the states together
with many of the national leaders
longed to return to the old life of in
dodolence and mere negation. To the
efforts of William J. Bryan it was due
that the party was held in line for
the principles enunciated in Chicago.
And it was during the interium be
tween 1896 and 1900, and in the na
tional convention of the latter year,
that the real worth and true character
of William J. Bryan became known
and established, known not only to the
democrats in the party bearing that
name, but to the democrats who have
not yet affiliated with the party but
who have learned to love and honor
the man whom they regard as an ex
ponent of genuine democracy.
In 1904 the leadership of the demo
cratic party could no longer be held
in the path of recitude by Mr. Bryan
single handed and alone, and that it
devolved upon him alone to maintain
the integrity of the party principles
as enunciated at the two preceding na
tional conventions was amply demon
strated in the St. Louis convention of
that year. But his voice was yet
potent to reach the intelligence and
conscience of the nation, and the lead
ership that turned its back upon him
in that convention found itself unable
to hold the traditional party vote any
where, not even in the states of the
South. The old leaders of the demo
cratic party utterly discredited and
practically without a following now
recognize the inevitable and are add
ing their feeble voice to the spontan
eous and universal call of democrats
to Bryan to come and take helm. Such
a course with the old leaders of the
party has become a political necess
ity. This last ground-swell of opinion
that calls Bryan back into the lead
ership of his party is co-incident with
the waning power of the bourbons ele
ment everywhere, as is so strongly
ilustrated in the recent action In Ver
mont and Pennsylvania. The action
of the new democracy in those states
tells in thunder tones what is coming,
The reign of the bourbon is over and
an era of progress during which Jeff
ersonian principles will guide the con
structive statesmanship of the nation
is about to be ushered in with Bryan
as its guiding genius.
And, strange as it may seem, the
bourbons of the party in Bryan's own
state are particularly active at this
time. When party names mean less
than at any time in a century, when
the democratic party nationally would
be a moral bankrupt without the lead
ership of Williain J. Bryan, and wheri
Theodore Roosevelt with his many
weaknesses, and faults is still able to
wring some good out of a congress
composed of the agents and attorneys
of trusts, when the merits of men defy
partisan bias and party lines set more
loosely than ever before upon voters
generally, does it not seem strange to
find right here in Nebraska party
leaders clinging to the grossest and
most senseless form of party prejudice
wherein a flimsy technical point, ad
mitted to be. such and nothing more,
is sought to be maintained at the risk
of party success, it being suggested
that a fearless, faultless, recognized
tribune of the people with ten years
of loyal service behind him, who as
the standard bearer in the last cam
paign, showed strength with the voters
the state beyond all others and whose
renominatibn , is widely demanded by
the rank and file of the voters, be
humiliated and turned down because
he dees not wear an ancient brand.
The folly of the suggestion passes all
understanding in view of the fact that
it is a slap at from thirty to fifty
thousand independent voters who are
ready to elect the whole democratic
ticket including a United States senator.
The consideration thus offered is
unworthy of men of this age or any
other. It is opposed to the spirit
of the times. Let them behold the ex
ample of Vermont and Pennsylvania
and look to the East for light.
event is so remote that only such as
are utterly ignorant of the nature and
functions of money, and of the pros
pects of an adequate money supply
from the gold mh,5s for the indefinite
future, and are dead to the all-absorbing
issue of rescuing industry from
the deadly grip of depotism will ex
pose themselves to the contempt of
mankind by suggesting that any in
telligent American incumber the burn
ing issue of the day with the con
sideration of a question far removed
from present interest and belonging to
the future. .
. The editorials referred to, however,
are replete with expressions that
would suggest that the witer3 must
have been born since the silver ques
tion ceased to be an issue in our
politics, and that their research into
the question was limited to the read
ing of old campaign speeches such
as were formerly delivered on the
stump in Nebraska by John M. Thurs
ton. The slings made at the quan
titative theory of money show such
writers to be ignorant of the fact that
since the denial of that theory ceased
to serve the exigencies of republican
party politics it has been abandoned,
and that the arguments formerly em
ployed by party organs and speak
ers to appeal to ignorance on the mon
ey question, having served their pur
pose in their day, are no longer held
to be sound or correct by their au
thors. Those who, in the light of ex-
BRYAN AND SILVER
The normal individual experiences
a feeling of inexpressable sadness and
pity when in the presence of one of
his own kind having the years of
a mature person while in body and
mind the development . remains that
of a child. Cases of arrested develop
ment, whether physical or mental, jar
upon the natural sympathies oppress
ively and repulsively. But the shrink
ing from and sorrow for the unfor
tunate dwarf, the helpless and inno
cent victim of antecedent causes is
soon softened into gt-ntleness and pity
before the kindling fires of charity
and love that proceed from the higher
law of human sympathy. The tolera
tion, however, which our higher na
ture compels in us for the unfortunate
victims of arrested r evelopment,
where neither blame nor re sponsibility
attach to the victims themselves, is
as sternly forbidden in the case of the
intellectual dwarf made so by Belf
stultification and slavery to preju
dice. In view of , the recent , labored at
tempts of a few editors of newspapers
that are corporation organs to revive
a discussion of the silver question in
connection with the prospective can
didacy of Mr. Bryan for the presidency
in 1908. The Independent, in a broth
erly spirit, warns such editors against
allowing their zeal to serve their mas
ters in the dire extremity in which
they are placed by the political ex
igencies of the hour, to desist from
doing that which will brand them
selves as servile and idiotic, and there
by cause them to forfeit the respect
of all intelligent men and impair their
future usefulness.
The coinage of silver may again
become a burning issue before the
people of the western nations fo the
earth at some future time. Bu,t such
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THE INDEPENDENT,
.-.P,',' Lincoln, Neb.