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About The Conservative (Nebraska City, Neb.) 1898-1902 | View Entire Issue (Aug. 2, 1900)
t , , N t be Conservative * a conventiou which he made talk auti- imperinliBin instead of plutocracy. The noted Irish M. O. from New York , when asked by a committee of 'the 9th ward how Tim Cuiupbclllmn. . , , . . he stood on the tariff and free coinage , replied instantly and with charming frankness : "Tell me where the byes of the 9th ward stand on money and tariff and yo'll find me standiu' wi'd 'em , at onct and iutirely. " This is the Bryauarchic model for an issae maker. The paramount of yesterday is made the subordinate , the minor , the inferior of today by the Yesterday ami Today. _ , . , , Kansas City de cree of July. Could anything bo more logical or appropriate than a free-coin- age-of-silver convention creating para- niountcies and ordaining issues by flat ? Fiat money and flat paramount issues are twins. A convention can create and establish issues with the same efficiency that a government can create and estab lish values. Imperialism will take the place of finance in this campaign with the same satisfactory facility that silver dollars would take the place of gold dollars in the world of trade. The fiat of the Eternal "Let There be Light" poured effulgence throughout the universe and Let There l e Light. . . . . , , , illumined the sun , stars and all the planets. But only the Almighty can create by fiat. Neither legislatures , congress nor conventions , achieve anything but the absurd when they imitate the sublime creative power of Deity and attempt to evolve currency , statesmen and paramountcies by order , decree , proclamation or fiat. And the most unworthy mind and the one far- therest removed from good citizenship is that one which directly or by impli cation assumes that issues , both minor , and paramount , must always be readymade - made , hand-me-down issues from the platform shops of conventions. SPOONEK.Senator Spoon- SENATOR SPOONEK. er has announced his intention to retire from public life at the expiration of his term in the sen ate. There is a precedent for his con templated action in the case of Senator Edmunds of Vermont , who voluntarily withdrew from the senate in 1891. Thomas B. Reed is another who tired of public life and recently declined a re election to congress that he might devote his talents to private business. All of these men possess ability of the highest order , are courageously inde pendent , and their careers are splendid examples of official integrity and hon esty. It is to be regretted that such men find the public service uncongenial and that , upon retirement , their places , in most instances , are filled by men of an entirely different type. The New York Post , in commenting upon the announcement of Senator Spooiier , offers the A Student of . , , , Public Questions , following explana- tiou , which is not unreasonable : ' 'Mr. Spoouer is a man who studies public questions closely , reasons out conclusions clearly , and states them for cibly. He was therefore at home in a body where Edmunds and Merrill and Sherman ( still in his prime ) and Evarts were leading debaters , and where a powerful speech would affect , the votes of members , as his own against the Blair bill , during the session of 1889- 1890 , turned the scales and defeated that measure. Mr. Spooner does not need to say that the proportion of senators who study public questions , who enjoy dis cussions of them , and who can be moved by argument , has materially diminished since he first took his seat , while the influence of the millionaire and the ma chine has increased quite as much. "These changes were already visible when Mr. Edmunds resigned in 1891. _ , , He had seen Allen Tliunnan. _ , . G. Thurman , "the grand old man" of the democratic side , denied by his party in Ohio , in 1884 , the re-election which he so richly deserved , that the seat might be given to a mil lionaire who would never have been thought of for the office except for his wealth , and six years later he had seen still another and much less worthy , rich man capturing the same place through the use of his money. He had seen the democrats of New York elect Fran cis Kernan as their ideal in 1875 , and David B. Hill sixteen years later. He had seen Matthew S. Quay elected to the senate from Pennsylvania , and ex ercising a great and growing influence over the management of the republican party. He could discern the working of powerful tendencies which must at no distant day supplant the type of Sher man and Evarts with that of Hauna and Platt. Mr. Edmunds did not need to say that the senate was a less attractive place to the statesman in 1891 than it had been in 1866. ' 'Mr. Eeed had been the foe of extrava gance and corruption. As speaker of , * he house , he re- Czar Reed. ' peatedly "stood like a stone wall" against the onset of the grabbers and jobbers during his first term as presiding officer. Returning to the chair after an interval of four years and occupying it then for four years , he found that the influences which sought to make money out of the government were steadily growing stronger , and that his own support as watchdog of the treasury was as steadily weakening. The same tendencies which Mr. Ed munds had experienced earlier in the senate were constantly becoming more powerful in the house. The time seemed at hand when "the Ozar" might be de throned by the jobbers. Mr. Reed did A not need to say that the leadership of his party in the house had lost its at tractiveness. " Th ° THEN AND NOW. claimer m 1890 thus declared himself upon the question of " " "paramountcy" : "The democratic party has begun a war of extermination against the gold standard. We ask no quarter , we give no quarter. We shall prosecute our warfare until there is not an American citizen that dares to advocate a gold standard policy. You ask why ? We reply that the gold standard is a conspi racy against the human race , and that wo should no more join it than we would an army marching to destroy our homes and to destroy our families. "We believe that no language can overstate the infinite distress that the gold standard means to the human race. "I believe we shall win now. But whether we win now or not , we have begun a warfare against the gold stand ard , which shall continue until the gold standard is driven from our shores back to England. " Not only was the gold standard para mount then , but it was to be paramount , , in perpetuity or Bryan the Crusader. * . . . . . . until "it was driven from our shores back to Eng land. " But this crusader , who , so grandiloquently , announced his inten tion of unceasingly warring upon the gold standard , is now faltering and wavering. He is even willing to give quarter ; has proclaimed his intention of subordinating the fight upon the gold standard and has said that he will have another "paramount" this year. For his engagements this season , player Bryan will have imperialism for his "paramount" . While there are , no doubt , a great many people who look with favor upon this new "paramount" , they rightly distrust the leadership of one who , in a very brief career , has been wedded to so many "paramounts" and has demon strated such wonderful ease and agility in jumping , with all the grace of a pro fessional acrobat , from one "para mount' ' to another. They , not un j ustly , feel somewhat concerned lest he might , in the event of a successful candidature , yield to the coy blandishments of some other paramount , and forsake the one that now , temporarily , engages his fancy. In * ASSASSINATION. _ flamboyant speech at Indianapolis in 1896 which speech is canned goods on page 526 of "The First Battle , " Colonel Bryan thus eloquently spoke of the gold standard : "It carries the knife of the assassin and does its work behind the mask of the burglar. It is not an open enemy , never was and never will be. " What gold standard advocates are now wearing burglar masks ? What gold standard voters are hiding and afraid to defend gold ?
