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 ?