The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1896-09-02

count the historical fact that the people
of this country have had a gold standard
for nearly half a century. 1t is not unrea-
sonabIe to infer from this fact that they
have had and have now a gold standard
because they prefer it to any other stand
ard. Otherwise the would have ex-
changed it for something else. 1t might
also be reasonably inferred from their fail
ure to make any direct assault, in any ma
tional platform, on the gold standard, pre-
vious to the recent opocratic conventions.
that they were entirely satisfied with their
possession of it.
But these natural differences would he
ruinous to the argument of Mr.. Bryan.
A disinterested auditor would most Xix ely
regard the manifestation of the preference
of a people through their acts and conduct
as even stronger than any expression CT
it in.the platform of a party. We have
also had a legislative expression OF their
preferences for a gold standard; and 1t
would require more than the noisy ciamor
of the free silverites to convince the disin-
terested auditor that it was not a deliper-
ate act of the whole people, through their
legal representatives, and equal in weight
and dignity to any partisan declaration CT
any part of them at Chicago or elsewhere.
Mr.. Bryan must have foreseen the proba-
BILE effect of these facts, and the differences
from them, upon the mind of his disinter-
ested auditor, and felt constrained 10 sup
press them in order to preserve his argu-
ment from disaster and ruin.
Nevertheless, it is a wonderful argument.
1t is just as much entitled to the c%ertii-
Gates of merit which were appended to
Mark Twain's map of the war as that map
itself. All of the leading generals of our
armies cheerfully testified that it was the
most remarkable map that they had ever
counter and we can truthfnlly say as
much for the argument of Mr.. Bryan. Its
method of ratiocination might be utilized
in many ways, and it's use really ought not
to be limited to the domain of politics.
Opponents of the nebular hypothesis and
the law of gravitation, the Ten Command
ments and the Sermon on the Mount,
might reasonably claim that the failure
of the people of this country to express
their preference, in any national PLATFORM,
for these dogmas and precepts is complete
proof that they are opposed to them.
If it be objected that these dogmas and
precepts are scientific and moral instead
of political. it may be urged with equal
force and propriety that the regulation of
our monetary standard of value belongs in
the same category. 1t might be indubita-
bly, proven, in this way, that we are OPP
posed to many political measures and rules
of conduct which have entered into and
become a part of our national life, through
our tacit or legislative adoption of them,
without having expressed our preference
for them as a party, in any national plat
form, and which we are entirely unwilling
to surrender.
The argument of Mr.. BRYAN is enforced
with a lurid patriotism which makes the
patriotism of the ordinary lover of his
country pale and colorless. 1t is the large
and altitudinous variety which thrives best
just before an election and reaches its SUI
preme efflorescence in a candidate for Of
fee. With a change of metaphor, we may
say that, in Mr.. Bryan. it RACES like a fe-
yer in his blood. 1t refuses to be satisfied
with any previous achievement of national
independence. Nothing short of rational
isolation will appease it's demands. indie
pendence means for him a complete sepa-
ration from the rest of the world. He
would deliver us from the body of COM
mercial law and usage which regulates the
intercourse of nations. 1t must DE a source
of humiliation to him that we speak the
tongue that Shakespeare spoke; the faith
and morals hold that Milton held. His
eager and rampant spirit will never be
Gained until we have an arithmetic in
which two and two make some other sum
than four, and a geometry in which paral-
lei lines can meet and be sociable. Our
retention of the systems of arithmetic and
geometry which prevail in other countries
exhibits q servile dependence on them
which exasperates the Popocratic mind and
consumes it with an inward fire and fury.