4 Conservative *
THE CULMINATION OF DUPLICITY.
WILLIAM JENNINGS BHYAN :
MY DEAU Sm : Now that you are
again directing your efforts to secure
the chiofest gift of the American people ,
and therefore the choicest in all the
world in their minds , I address this com
munication to you. Yon are seeking
the most sacred trust that it is in the
power of American citizens to confer
upon any one man. Therefore , it is not
only their right but their duty to ex
amine and scrutinize the qualifications
of those ambitions to gain this honor ,
because it is necessary that whoever is
chosen for this vast agency of our com
monwealth , must arrive at a thorough
understanding upon affairs of mutual
interest , with the people of this nation.
It is not for you to decide how much
you will say , and how much leave un
said ; but it is imperative that you shall
answer , fully and frankly , all questions
that are asked of you , and state clearly
and with no equivocation your views of
and position on all matters that any
citizen may consider of importance to
the welfare of himself , his fellow-
citizens , and his country.
I have no hesitation in saying that I
had hoped the defeat which yon experi
enced four years ago would be sufficient
to convince even yourself of the
absurdity of the illusions by means of
which , through an extraordinary twist
of fortune , you were projected before
the public eye. But in this I was mis
taken ; but it was no mistake of reason ,
rather a misjudging of men. What
there is that should hold men faithful
to such a champion as yourself , is , and
doubtless ever will be , inexplicable.
Such a champion I The cause which yon
pretend to advocate with so much earn
estness and sincerity , is that of a labor
ing man. Your speeches are constantly
over-flowing with exuberant common
places upon the working-man , his misery
and misfortunes ,
Who Is the Laboring Man ?
Did you ever stop a moment to
analyze the word "work" ? He , sir , is a
working man who earns his dollar by
the sweat of his body , by the ache of his
bones , by callouses on his hands , and
dimness over his eyes. He is a working
man who bends over a desk through tke
long hours of the day and under the hot
glare of electric lights and feels his
head throbbing and burning. He is a
working man who , awakened in the
stillness of the night , must arise and
hasten to some bed of sickness , to sooth ,
to aid , to comfort , and to administer ,
taking hours from the end of his own
life that the lives of others may bo pro
longed. These , I say , and many others
are the working men for whom you
profess BO much anxiety. You , the
champion of the laboring class ? What ,
I pray you , is your title to this noble
and honorable guardianship ? By what
t * !
right have you invested yourself with
their interests and needs ? You yourself
are no working man for years you have
been an idle man , when wo consider the
word "idle" in its true significance.
You have no profession now other than
the sordid one of politics , which we all
know ranks lowest in our catalogue of
occupations. Formerly you made claim
to the law as the means of a livelihood ;
but yonr failure was so signal a one that
oven now you make no pretense to
hide it.
Ton Toll Not.
But it is the last four years that I ask
you particularly to review. During that
period yonr entire time has been
devoted to preparing for the contest
which now confronts you ; your whole
efforts have been employed in harmo
nizing other men of your ilk ; your
abundant powers of shrewdness shall I
not rather say cunning ? have been
concentrated upon the 9116 object of
mastering the democratic machine. Not
an hour of these four years has been
spent in the pursuit of making a living
by upright work. All of this time you
have run up and down the land crying
that the working man was being robbed ,
crushed , and deprived of his rights and
due. Yet the source of your own means
of existence has been a part of the hard
earned dollar of a portion of these men ,
obtained from them by various insidious
methods. While they were wringing a
livelihood from the earth or toiling in
the shop , you have lived at yonr ease in
Pullman cars , in your library , or over
yonr billiard table your property and
income has multiplied a hundred fold ,
and all without a day of man's toil.
Forsooth I am mightily tempted to ask
how many of the working class which
you claim to represent have a conception
of this. I cast my eye over this land of
ours and sigh to see how many yet
cleave to yon. So strange a thing the
world has never seen so sad a thing I
hope it shall never see again. For sad
it is when men lay all their hopes and
faith upon the altar of so phantasmical
a folly ; sad it is , for when the awaken
ing shall come , they will find in yon an
idol with clay feet. To them then all
the world will seem the falser for it.
Farmer Bryan.
But not contsnt with carrying the
deception to this extent , yon needs must
drag upon the stage such a travesty that
fools jeer and wise men grow sad.
Through the assistance of your lieu
tenants a landed property comprising
some thirty acres was procured and
labeled the "Bryan Farm" . Broadcast
over the land into nook and cranny were
scattered accounts of Farmer Bryan at
work. Full page illustrations of the
proprietor in rustic regalia sped east ,
west , north and south , as fast as mails
could bear them. Almighty shades of
American statesmen ! Never in the
history of all our politics has such a
burlesque been perpetrated upon this
republic. It is enough to make all
honest men of the democratic party
weep to see their ancient prestige
thus lain prostrate and to make them
cry with Antony :
O mighty Caesar 1 dost thoti lie PO low ?
Are nil the conquests , glories , triumphs ,
spoils
Shrunk to this little measure ?
Unrivaled ns a Dcinngogue.
I can find in my dictionary no softer
word than demagogue with which to
crown yon. Were I less true to myself ,
and were the thing less deplorable , I
might congratulate you upon the culmi
nation to which you have brought your
duplicity. In your speciality you stand
unrivaled. As a Chevalier d'indnstrie
posterity will thunder plaudits after
you , and mourn that they were born too
late to see in the flesh the exemplar
unique. It has been with infinite care
and watchfulness that you have pre
served your adherents from being cured
of their malady. Danger yon scent
from afar , and delude your followers
with a cunning as consummate as that
employed by Machiavelli ; shorn of 'par
amount issues , as swiftly as truth
strikes them dead , you invent others as
fallacious and fictitious , with a versa
tility which would have put a Mun-
chausen to shame ; reproved by your
own inconsistencies , yon flood doubters
among your consort with glittering
catch-words and jingling platitudes , till
gasping and choking in the torrent , they
mistake volubility for wisdom , rhetoric
for statescraft , anathemas for prophe
cies , and blasphemies for truth.
Convicted of Hypocrisy.
Your whole course has been such ns
to doom you in a political way as yon
stand. Condemning in theory certain
commercial institutions of our country
namely the trust yet in practice you
woo with a siren tongue gentlemen of
New York , of Montana , of Missouri ,
and elsewhere who ore large stock
holders in trusts , and call them friends
and solicit their aid , does never a
qualm prick your conscience ? How ,
sir , do you explain this strange paradox
of theory and practice ? If you be
honest in your fight against the trusts ,
then your friendship is hypocritical ; if
your practice in thus seeking the friend
ship and aid of these gentlemen , in
opposition to your theory , be indicative
of your character , I am justified in
calling you a demagogue. Likewise , if
you be honest in your theory of the
"consent of the governed" , your failure
to reprove your disciples in North Car
olina for depriving the "governed blacks
of their votes without their consent" ,
shows you to be hypocritical ; on the
other hand if you secretly sympathize
and encourage such action in the
son them states , yon again stand branded
as a demagogue. What then shall be