The San Francisco call., 1896-08-14
BRYAN NOTIFIED.

No doubt those who heard Mr.. Bryan
in Madison-square Garden were made
drunk on enthusiasm by his matchless
oratory and no doubt great many went
away believing that new and valuable
political truths had been revealed to them.
Mr.. Bryan never forgets the instructions
which Hamlet gave to his players and
carefully avoids Saving the air too much
with hands," so in "the torrent, tempest
and whirlwind of passion" he always as
sumes temperance which gives the play
smoothness and the highest, the most
intense and the most thrilling dramatic
effect withal. Mr.. Bryan knows how to
make it appear that depth is being given
to shallow sentiment and in that lies his
greatest power to please-and to deceive,
too.
That the sentiment about which Mr..
Bryan wound threads of pleasing rhetoric
is shallow no one who carefully analyzes
his speech will deny, but like as in all
shallow waters dangers to craft lurk
everywhere. The central thought of Mr..
Bryan's speech and that which sustained
the burden of his argument makes the pur-
pose of that wing of the Democratic party
clear and certain.
At the very outset Mr., Bryan declared
that wealth is trespassing upon the
rights of the individual. War was then
and there declared against capital and
labor invited to take up arms against it.
He said, 1--WE welcome such opposition"
meaning the industrial and commercial
enterprises of the United States that are
opposing his free trade and unsound
money theories of government. Mr..
Bryan quoted from Andrew Jackson to
iortify his communistic aims, but he
neglected to say that Andrew Jackson
called down Calhoun and others for advo-
eating political doctrine far less in oppo-
sition to the spirit of the National Govern
ment than was implied in his own utter
ances.
Mr.. Bryan likened the men of this coun-
try who have gridironed the land with
railways for the benefit Of commerce. and
who have erected mills and factories
everywhere to highwaymen. and by init
nation at least he urged his hearers to
combine against capItal-against the very
capital that is the co-worker of labor in
transforming the material resources of the
country into merchantable products. Is
it good for wage-earners who operate rail-
ways of the country to have Mr.. Bryan try
to set them in hate against the source of
their income? Is it good for operatives in
the shops, the mills and the factories of
the country to have Mr.. Bryan going up
and down the land denouncing their en-
ployers as highwaymen and calling upon
them to declare war against the capital
that pays them their wages? Neverthe-
less that is what Mr.. Bryan's speech
means.
MIR. Bryan has removed all doubt as to
what influence dominates him. His attack
upon capital and his effort to inaugufate
a war of classes is Altgeldism, and should
Mr.. Bryan be elected Altgeld will be the
staff upon which the President will lean.
Aside from the attack upon those who
conduct the great business and transporta-
tien interests of The country Mr.. Bryan's
speech is rehash of what he has been
saying for tive months, only that the re-
hashlng of it dulis many of the sharp
points.
To sum up Mr. Bryan's speech. On the
money question he contradicts the ablest
political economists and statesmen of all
parties. On the tariff question he contra
diets the experience of the country for
more than a century. On the question of
internal Improvements he believes Gov
ernment expenditure of money should be-
gin and stop with the Mississippi River.
On the question of agriculture he believes
the American farmer should have no pro-
lection against the cheap-labor countries
of Europe and South America. On the
sugar-bopnty question he believes it no
better to demand bounty on sugar than
to rob d man on the hiIhway. On the sill
yer question he believes the Government
should double the price of the silver
miners product.