New Ulm review. (New Ulm, Brown County, Minn.) 1892-1961, 1896-10-28

The whole country throbss tnmultu
lly with the magnetism Of William :Jen.
nings Bryan. His sayings and his do
iags ere the themes Of the morning, the
noon and the night. His fame has ira,
veled abroad, and reviewers, thinkers
writer's, statesmen IN England, France
Germany, discuss his speeches, his theo-
ries and his amazing rise to influence
Ordinarily, a Presidential contest among
us aroases but perfunctory interest in
Europe. Pick up q foreign organ Of the
best thought today, and it contains col
umn after column of William Jennings
Bryan. The leading men of foreign
lands watch his progress with absorbed
attention. Prominent critics of our time,
like the editor Of the London ssStatist''
and the Vice President of the Bimetallic
League of London, are here solely to stu
dy his canvass. Our own republic Is
ringing with his name. Crowds surge to
see him. Millions read his speeches
Plutocrats, affecting only to desplse him
cannot refrain from unceasing denuncla,
ton, demonstrating thereby the impor
lance of his achievements.
| X y
What has become of Mckinley? Mr.
Hanna's Napoleon has shrunk into me.
diocr1ty. He is hopelessly eclipsed, q
dreary nonentity. The men who made
and OWL him attempt desperately to res.
cue his colorless personality from ex-
tinction. They hurl his name into the
faces of passers by from every street cor
ner, painting it on bill boards and can.
vases, like the omnipresent patent medi-
cine and ballet dancer. No trick of the
Snowman and the press agent remains
untried in the fierce effort to impart even
casual vogue, semblance of popular
ity to the Mckinley name. In vain.
There is no magic in such sorry fustian.
And this is the Napoleon Of politics,
this dull mouthpiece of palsied, purse
proud plutocracy, weary with his own
reiteration of platitudes to disrespectful
crowds, picked up at railway stations for
the inducement of days lark, pales at
his self-stultifcation, and grows visibly
wretched on his own lawn
The mean and paltry fruits Of the syn
dictate campaign disgust the very pluto
Gratis whose millions have sustained it.
Many days more of this and they are
lost. When first William Jennings Bry-
an trod the political stage, they found
youth jest. 1t is now crime. His
teaching was laughing stock. 1t is
now wickedness. His argument was
sophistry. 1t is not now answered. Con-
temptuous ridicule has given way to hot
abuse. Such is the chronicle of this cam
paign. The whole country knows that
the wealth Of the land does not rely up
on truth, upon discussion, upon justice,
to defeat Bryan. The wealth of the land
has staked its all upon bribery, upon cor
ruption, upon intimidation, upon false
hood. Unless these give it victory Bry-
an wins. His appearance at Tammany'
last week brought the people, the real
peop]e-not the mythical people exist
ing in the diseased imagination of the
jaundiced fnanc1er-by thousands to see
or hear him in the rain. They stood for
hours III the cold and in the storm, block
ing streets and squares, until the police
abandoned in wonder all computation of
their numbers. That is the sort of in
terest which we'll dressed magnates call
idle curiosity, ard sheer at. That is a
curious form of idle curiosity which re-
quires 100000 campaign subscriptions
and universal railroad intimidation to
insure it's counteraction.
There is a grand anxiety. Can the
syndicate triumph by foul means? 1t will
resort to them. The labor vote is syste-
matically spied upon. The bread Of
babes IS gripped by corporations, and
the homes of the hungry are invaded.
"Vo1e for Mckinley, or lose your job?"
Such is the watchword. And as all this
is observed and pondered. the class ha-
tired with which the land is scething
grows more furious and the snug unc-
ton of pulpits more hooking, and the
sleek scorn of capital more assertive.
The triumph Of Mckinley eau never be
as dangerous in itself as are the tactics
of plutocracy in this campaign. Those
tactics have done more than anything
else to arouse and maintain that class