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About The Conservative (Nebraska City, Neb.) 1898-1902 | View Entire Issue (June 28, 1900)
ft "Che Conservative. party , after you go home , endorses your action and makes your position its per manent policy , I promise you that I will go out and serve my country and my God under some other name , even if I must go alone. " Mr. Bryan here announced what he would do if the democratic party adhered - hered to its advo- Trnttorfl. , , caoy of the gold standard he would become a bolter and believed he would be performing a patriotic duty in bolting. But the gold standard did not remain the permanent policy for the democratic party. The national convention of 180G adopted a 10 to 1 plank in the platform. Many true , honest and patriotic democrats could not support that platform , believ ing it to be dishonest and a menace to the business interests of the country. Accordingly they did what Mr. Bryan said he would do if the party persisted in its advocacy of the gold standard. They bolted. The action of the gold democrats forced Mr. Bryan to revise his philoso phy of bolting as promulgated in 1893. Then bolting was a "patriotic duty. " Now it was to be branded as the "act of a traitor. " In 1893 , "duty to country was higher than duty to party. " In 1896 strict party devotion was more to be commended than loyalty to principle or love of country. In his speech at Richmond , Va. , in 1890 , Mr. Bryan thus defined his attitude toward those demo crats who were not supporting his candidacy : "I want to warn you who are con templating deserting from the demo cratic party at this time , that the man who , in the face of such an enemy , either goes to the roar or is found in secret conference with the enemy , is a traitor upon whom the brand shall be placed and HE SHALL NOT COME BACK. The gold democrats are today as firm in their convictions for honest money , as loyal in their devotion to prin ciple , as they were in 1896. If Mr. Bryan is again the nominee of the democratic party they will use , with slight variation , the words he uttered in 1890 , at Richmond "we will no ! come back. " Should we CO- CHINA. , . . . , . operate with the powers in the dismemberment of the Chinese empire ? Should we willingly become a party to international land grabbing ? Shall we forcibly enter the ter ritory of the Orientals and try to excuse ourselves upon the ground that we were obeying a "manifest destiny ? " Be cause of A native uprising in China , the extent of which we know little or noth ing about and concerning the exac nature of which we have little or no re liable information , quite a number o : people are very excitedly and strenuous y urging that we should do what the above queries imply. In discussing the Chinese problem the San Francisco Argonaut asks : "Is it right that the - . pow- Kosponslblllty. ° * ers should permit ; ho continuance of a government under ; he mad and malign rule of an empress who despises reform , and whose hatred of foreigners finds expression in acts of utmost cruelty ? " This sweeping and scathing denunciation of the dowager no doubt has its foundation in the depre dation of the Boxers. We might ask if it is right to hold the dowager , the head of the government of China , personally responsible for every transgression of law on the part of her subjects ? Must we not make a distinction between individual and national crimes ? In our own country riots are of frequent occur rence and often they are in the nature of outbreaks against foreigners. Many times a cruel fate has made the China man a victim of mob violence and he has yielded up his life to satisfy the gory cravings of some of our patriotic citizens , bent upon preserving the national type by preventing the possi bility of Oriental assimilation ! Twenty Chinamen have thus perished to one missionary killed by Boxers. If the Chinese were only as wise as the Argonaut they would place the responsibility for Domestic Violence. . , , . . . these acts with President McKinley and demand the cooperation of the powers to prevent the "continuance of a government under the mad and malign rule of a president who despises reform , and whose hatred of foreigners finds expression in acts of utmost cruelty. " It was but a few days ago that the press despatches from St. Louis told of the forcible removal , by striking laborers , of a lady passenger from a street car. After being denuded her body was painted. Is it possible to conceive of a more cowardly and vicious act than this. Yet a condition of affairs , in which such revolting scenes form a conspicuous part , has been permitted in St. Louis for nearly two months , without any determined effort being made , on the part of the authorities , to establish order. If the president of the United States is personally responsible for all this , what a monster the civilized world must believe him to be. If , as the Argonaut says , the dowager of the Chinese empire is to be held personally responsible for every act of vandalism and murder committed within the boundaries of her empire , to be con sistent we must place at the door of President McKinley the responsibility for like outrages committed within the boundaries of our own country. Instead of their being the lawless acts of indi viduals they are to be regarded , as national crimes. But would the most bitter enemy of President McKinley make such an accusation or take such an extreme view ? Then why do so when lie head of the government of China is u controversy ? Why have one stand ard of official responsibility for our W presiaeut and another for the dowager ? ORATORY. In his speech before the national republican convention at Philadelphia , ast week , Governor Roosevelt said : 1 'We have passed such wise laws on finance , that they the silver demo crats actually appeal to the pat riotic , honest men who deserted them at the last election to help them now , because , forsooth , we have done so well that nobody need fear their capacity to undo our work. I am not exaggerating. This is literally the argument that is now addressed to the gold democrats as a reason why they need no longer stand by the republican party. To all such as may be inclined to listen to these specious arguments I would address an emphatic word of warning. "Remember that , admirable though our legislation has been during the last three years , it has AViimiiifj to Gold Democrats. been rendered pos sible and effective only because there was good administra tion to back it. Wise laws are invalu able , but , after all , they are not as necessary as wise and honest adminis tration of the laws. The best law ever made , if administered by those who are hostile to it and who moan to break it down , cannot be wholly effective and may be wholly ineffective. We have at last put our financial legislation on a sound basis , but no possible financial legislation can save us from fearful and disastrous panic if we trust our finances to the management of any man who would be acceptable to the leaders and guides of the democracy in its present spirit. No secretary of the treasury who would be acceptable to or who could without loss of self-respect serve under the populistic democracy could avoid plunging this country back into financial chaos. "Until our opponents have explicitly and absolutely repudiated the principles which in 1890 they professed and the leaders who embody these principles their success means the undoing of the country. Nor have they any longer even the excuse of being honest in their folly. They have raved , they have foamed at the mouth , in denunciation of trusts , and now in my own state their foremost party leaders , including the man before whom the others bow with bared head and trembling knee , have been discovered in a trust which really is of infamous and perhaps of criminal character a trust in which these apostles of democracy , these prophets of the new dispensation , have sought to wring fortunes from the dire need of their poorer brethren. " The allusion to the New York ice trust made up , quite exclusively , of disciples of the doctrines of the Chicago platform of 1890 and delegates to the convention which meets at Kansas City next week is rather refrigeratory , chilling in fact.
