"Che Conservative.
PROTESTS.Chairman Jones
JONES PROTESTS.
fa
because of the suggestion made by Sec
retary Gage that Bryan , if elected presi
dent , could have his secretary of the
treasury pay out silver where "coin"
was stipulated in the contract. He
thus indignantly resents the question
raised by Mr. Gage :
"It has been the fashion of the repub
licans for some years to denounce dem
ocrats as anarchists , revolutionists , etc. ,
but all fair-minded men will admit that
at this time the republican party seems
to have a monopoly of revolutionary
suggestions. We see a secretary of the
treasury in an effort to disturb the busi
ness of the country for political effect ,
suggesting that Mr. Bryan , in case of
his election , would deliberately evade
the law , with a purpose as unstatesman-
like and unpatriotic as his own in mak
ing these suggestions. Fortunately ,
Mr. Bryan has been before the public
long enough for every one to know that
tricks and false pretenses are not among
his weapons , and suggestions of this
kind excite contempt. "
During the last session of the fifty-
third congress , in 1895 , Mr. Bryan , in
speaking for his
Would Evatlo the Law.
amendment to
the gold bond bill , said :
"I offered an amendment which re
affirmed the Matthews resolution declar
ing all coin bonds payable in gold or
silver , and yet less than twenty ( I think
only thirteen ) republicans voted for my
amendment. The great majority of the
republicans thus declared that coin
bonds are gold bonds in fact. If coin
bonds are really gold bonds there is less
reason for agitation about the use of the
word gold in the bond. We who believe
that greenbacks and treasury notes are
redeemable either in gold or silver , at the
option of the government we , who believe
in the right of the government to redeem
its coin bonds in either gold or silver we ,
I say , can object to gold bonds as a vio-
lent change in our monetary policy , but
those who insist that greenbacks , treas
ury notes or coin bonds are all payable
in gold on demand have far less reason
to criticise the president. " This is
found in the Congressional Record , page
287 , appendix , 4D , fifty-third congress.
This speech of Mr. Bryan justifies all
that Secretary Gage has said. It shows
that Mr. Bryan would , if elected presi
dent , do exactly what Secretary Gage
said he could do. If Mr. Jones believes
this would be an evasion of the law , a
trick , or a false pretense , Bryan is pledg
ed to this sort of evasion and trickery.
In his speech before
BRYAN TRUST.
fore the Chicago
/ conference on trusts , September 10 ,
1899 , William Jennings Bryan said :
"One trust magnate may be more ben
evolent than another , but there is no
good monopoly in private hands , and I
do not believe it is safe for any man or
group of men to monopolize any article
of merchandise , or any branch of in
dustry. "
It is over a year since Bryan made that
speech denouncing each and every mon
opoly , but he is repeating the same doc
trine today.
October 10th , he asked in his speech
at Nashville , Michigan :
"Do yon know of any good monopoly
in private hands ? Do you know of any
man good enough to stand at the head of
any monopoly , and determine the price
of that-which others are to use ? "
Well , there is a certain book known
as "The First Battle , " which is an
article of merchandise , and an absolute
monopoly in W. J. Bryan's hands.
Quite an expensive one , indeed , to many
poor men , who have felt that they must
have it. On the reverse side of the title
page of that interesting work we read :
Entered according to act of congress ,
in the year 1896 , by William J. Bryan ,
in the office of librarian of Congress , at
Washington , D. O. All rights reserved.
On the next page is a warning by the
publishers against any "fraudulent
imitations. "
No honest man will deny Mr. Bryan's
right to his book , or his privilege to
make what he can out of it. It has al
ways been the policy of this country to
respect the rights of authors , and to
give them a monopoly , or , as the law
puts it , "an exclusive right" to their
works.
The wrong is that a man enjoying this
special protection , and getting rich by
making poor men pay a higher price
than he could get under the free printing
of this book , and free trading in it ,
should in his selfishness declare that
other people shall enjoy no such privilege ,
but have every vestige of protection
taken away from them.
IMPERIALISM
DEFINED.TivE publishes else
where an article by
Louis B. Ehrich defining imperialism.
THE CONSERVATIVE agrees with Mr.
Ehrich that the acquisition of the Philip
pines was not in conformity with our
traditions of expansion. Bat the step
has been taken. The acquisition has
been made and this with the aid of both
candidates for the presidency. The
future of these islands must now be de
termined by congress and not by the
executive. We believe Mr. McKinley
will give his approval of any equitable
arrangement for the Filipinos that con
gress may decide upon , and at the same
time he can be depended upon to pre
serve the present financial fabric. Hence ,
as a choice of two evils , THE CONSERVA
TIVE believes the election of Mr. MoKin-
ley will better promote the interests of
the American people than the election
of Mr. Bryan who is pledged to destroy
existing financial legislation.
BRYAN FOUR YEARS AGO AND NOW.
[ The impression Bryan made upon the
people of New York , while a guest of
Mr. Oroker and Tammany , is quite
faithfully portrayed by the following
editorial from the New York Post : ]
Bryan has made his visit to New York
city , and the demonstration , from the
spectacular point of view , was all that
he could have wished. Tammany hall
did its best to furnish crowds , enthu
siasm , and red fire wherever he went ,
with Oroker himself always on hand to
see that the program was carried out as
planned. The candidate was deeply
impressed by this exhibition of the
power exercised by the organization and
by the generalship of its boss. In open
ing his last speech at Cooper Union ,
Bryan said :
"This is my fourth meeting for to
night. It concludes the ratification
meetings held under the auspices of
Tammany , and I am prepared to say
'Great is Tammany , and Oroker is its
prophet. ' "
It is inevitable that one should con
trast the present appearance of Bryan
with his visit to the city four years ago.
The chief speech of last evening was de
livered in the same place where he
spoke in 1896. Then he read a long
and dull discussion on the financial
question in Madison Square Garden ,
while the audience dwindled away ; lost
evening he spoke for something over an
hour without notes , and held the close
attention of his hearers. The three
shorter speeches afterward had the same
characteristics.
As an agitator , Bryan showed him
self at the Garden last evening able , ad
roit and forcible. To che great major
ity of the audience all that he said was
new. The careful reader of the reports
of his tour in the west , however , soon
discovered that he was only repeating
those things which he had found to take
best with his hearers. Here were all of
those catch phrases , about the republi
can party suggesting to the farmer that
it is a silent partner with the Almighty
in giving him good crops , while "the
fact is that the republican party , instead
of being the silent partner , makes all
the noise and the Almighty gives the
silent part'about ; Solomon's proverb
regarding the wise man who forseeth
the evil and hideth himself , while the
foolish pass on and are punished , "con
densed so that you can remember it , "
and now rendered , "The wise man gets
the idea into his head , the foolish man
gets it in the neck ; " about the republi
can president sending a message of condolence -
dolence on the death of a king , but no
word when two republics expire ; and
a number of other expressions equally
sure to evoke "Laughter" or "Ap
plause. "
Not Outspoken.
The contrast between the Bryan of