The herald., 1896-07-23
PLEDGING MIR. BRYAN

The disposition Of some Populists to
demand of Mr.. Bryan patronage pledge
as the price of Populist Endorsement is
calculated to discredit both their sin
cerity and their consistency. The Populist
party has from the outset posed as and
it can be safely said has generally been
credited with, being party of princi-
pie and not patronage. Some of its
principles have been good and some
very bad, but in the advocacy of all it
has professed to be, and as said be-
fore, has generally been considered,
honest. One of the salient remedial
features championed by the Populists is
the free and unlimited coinage of silver
at the 16 to 1 ratio. 1t is the thing that
more Populists agree on than any other,
unless the initiative and referendum
be excepted. This financial idea to
which they have vowed such unfalter-
ing fealty has a chance of realization
through the Democratic party 1t is the
business of the Populists to help make
that chance certainty, and they can do
this by giving a united support to the
Democratic ticket. Such a course does
not involve the surrender of their par
tvs organization. If the other reforms
their party stands for are as vital as
they claim, and they are as earnest as
they profess, the Populist organization
will not die because it happened to pass
one presidential campaign without a
ticket or some sort of public and formal
recognition as a separate political en-
tity. Not only will the party not die,
but in the estimation of those outside of
its lines it will be considerably enhanced,
as it will have proved itself to be loyal
to principle, not hungry for office.
One of the most hurtful facts against
Mckinley is that he is covered with
pledge tags. No man ever stood for the
presidency with so large a draft drawn
on the possibilities of prospective power
He is mortgaged to syndicates,, trusts
and monopolies for the funds furnished
to prosecute his campaign for the NOM
ination, and to be furnished to further
his fight for the election and his hoped
for patronage is pledged to the degree of
exhaustion to the bosses. little and great,
of the Republican party for the practi-
cal politics done in his behalf before
and during the convention and expected
in his cause between this and the day
of election.
Mr.. Bryan, on the other hand, re-
ceived his nomination without price and
covenant, as the free Offering of an IN
bought and an unwhipped, practically
leaderless convention. Noman in Amer
lean political history ever entered a
contest less weighted with engagements
But one pledge has he assumed-the
pledge to stand by the platform on
which he was placed. He wears no
trammels but those of party doctrine
and American patriotism. 1t is to be
hoped and believed that he will remain
thus. Tens of thousands of non-parti-
san American citizens are waiting for
a chance to vote for presidential can
didate Independent of everything ex-
cept the wishes of the people, and in
William J. Bryan they ought to find the
man.
The Populist leaders who are now de-
manding the assumption by Mr. Bry-
an of obligations have been among the
loudest in the denunciation of McKin-
ley's fettered condition, and yet, with
singular inconsistency they demand
that Bryan proceed to put himself in
similar fix.