The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1896-08-21
THE CHICAGO CHRONICLE AND MIR.
BRYAN.

To that great Democratic daily"
! the Chicago Chronicle, is due the dis
tinction of having started the cam
paign lie that Mr.. Bryan was or had
been in the pay of the silver mine
owners. The Herald denied it so soon
as it was started, and did so on the
authority of a. gentleman conversant
with all the doings of the Bimetallic
union. But the Chronicle has never
seen fit to retract the statement. In
its issue of Tuesday last it devoted It's
leading article to q discussion OF the
matter. 1t says there was nothing
discreditable to Mr.. Bryan in his
employment by the mine owners I'M
der the conditions which existed at the
time when that contract was made;
that he was then a private citizen-a
lawyer open to professional engage
ments-and he had d perfect right to
make such use of his legal knowledge
and his skill as an advocate as would
bring him in the most satisfactory
financial returns. Then it goes on to
say that conditions have changed; that
Mr. Bryan is no longer the plain lawyer
of Lincoln; he is a candidate for the
presidency of the United States; that
his relations with large and power
tul interest which seeks to profit at the
expense Of the whole people of the
United States form legitimate sub
ject of inquiry and he himself should
be prompt to dispel any doubts that
may exist upon the subject.
The Chronicle then proceeds in this
manner:
His course is plain. Let Mr. Bryan
deny that he has received in any way
or at any time from a syndicate Of
silver producers or from any person or
persons representing the silver interests
a compensation-eithe as salary or
'expenses''-for his advocacy of the
proposition for the free and unlimited
coinage of, silver.
His specific denial, in the terms in
Dictated, will go far toward removing
the shadow which now rests upon his
claim to sincerity and disinterestednes
in his present advocacy of that propo-
sition.
In his private relations Mr.. Bryan is
admitted to be man of probity, truth
and honor. AS a candidate for the
highest Office in the gift of the people
his statement concerning a. matter
which has assumed so vital an i'm
portance will be received with the re-
spect and credit which it deserves
But the statement must come from
Mr. Bryan himself. It will not be &C
cepted at second hand, nor will it re-
ceive any attention emanating from the
editorial rooms of newspapers which
are endeavoring to becloud the issue
by substituting billingsgate for facts.
Mr.. Bryan is the one man whose
denial will receive any credit from the
American people.
Well. Mr.. Bryan has denied the story
in person. Now will the Chronicle
make the amende honorable? And
when it has made it, will it explain
what prompted it to start such a cam
paign lie? And if it did not know it
was a lie when it started it, will it
give its authority for it?
On Monday last the Chronicle had an
article on Mr.. Bryan, in which it
made some very contemplate insinua-
lions. For example it says:
Whatever his motives, 1T is equally
undeniable that for three years his en-
tire time was occupied in advancing
the interests of the silver mine owners.
He spoke and he lectured in various
parts of the country in favor of the free
coinage proposition, and during that
time he was in receipt of no income as
a lawyer, nor had he, so far as anyone
knows, any private resources.
These facts speak for themselves No
man abandons promising political ca
reer and turns to the advocacy of a
private interest unless the private in
terest offers a substantial inducement.
The ill-advised and discourteous de-
"a Of Mr.
epithets and vituperation in their zeal
for his cause but they cannot explain
away the fact that for three years he
was the advocate of the silver interest;
that he himself did not deny the fact.
and that unless he was paid by the
interest he supported he must have
starved to death.
That may be metropolitan journal
ism, but to the provincial it appears to
be nothing more or less than mud
singing. The Chronicle can neither,
build up its own cause nor pull down
Mr. Bryan by a, resort to any such