Kansas City daily journal., 1896-12-08
A BeIated Agitation.

From the Boston Herald
Mr.. William J. Bryan talks like a man
who has had. on the whole, pretty good
time. He has achieved notoriety beyond
his widest expectations. and he emerges
from the campaign a parsonage of national
Importance, instead OF the second or third
rate politician that he was before the Chi
cagO convention. Naturally. he is in favor
of continuing the fight on the lines already
laid down. I'VE are ready for another
contest" he says. the I'VE in this case
meaning the cohorts of Populized Democ-
racy with himself at their head We en-
tered the contest with disorganized army:
we emerge from it united and disciplined
force without the loss Of a soldier" The
bearing of this observation depends on its
application. The idea of the managers of
the campaign was TO unite the forces
which supported Cleveland in 1892 with
those who voted for Weaver. But, with a
total vote of 100000 more than it was in
1892, the combination of 1896 pClled 10000
votes less than its component parts did
four years before. Assuming that it could
claim only half Of the new vote, or 750.
O01, there is between the votes that it
dropped and the votes that it did not get
an obvious loss of 100000 Democratic
soldiers as a result Of the combination
formed at the Chicago convention.
1t must. therefore. be regarded as an
open question whether the Democratic
party leaders view the prospect of con-
tinuing the contest with the same salts
faction as Mr.. Bryan. He has nothing to
lose. IL not much to gain, by keeping before
The public the principle which the public
has energetically repudiated. What Mr.
Bryan persists in calling "bimetallism" is
as dead as the principles of the silver gray
Wings. and If the defeated candidate can
not find an issue having more vitality than
that the chances of success in 1900 are
surely nil. The sclemnity with which Mr.
Bryan repeats the charge that internal
tional bimetallism was not seriously con-
templ5ted by those who wrote the Repub
lican platform involves the assumption
that he ever seriously believed in its pos
sihility himself The official organs of the
European bimetaIlsts have made haste to
rapudiate him and his methods. and have
extracted much comfort from his defeat
IF there We're any such thing as logical
cohesion about the processes of Mr.. Bry-
ans mind. he would see that there was an
absolute incompatibility between what he
calls IAN American financial policy for the
American people" and any talk of bimetal-
lism dependent on international agreement
In fact. Mr.. Bryan is as little capable
after the election as he was before ii OF
giving any ineligible statement of what
he wants, or of discussing questions of
finance in any other language than that of
vOluble and reckless demagOgism- Whether
it he his tongue or pen that is working.
the same shallow sophistries that We're his
stock in trade during the campaign are
made to do duty over again. Tho rising
value Of gold. the diminished volume of the
worlds standard money. and all the old
familiar faIlaCias which have been so con-
cIUsiveIy refuted ny facts appear to he
still regarded by Mr.. Bryan as forming
solid basis for his lost cause. Il re-
Quires a certain obtuseness. moral or intel
lecual. or both TO offer to the objections
Of the wage Garner the formula that "a
dollar which iucrea ses in purchasing power
IS an injury to those who owe money and
must purchase it with the proceeds Of
toll" The total inversion of the relation
borne to an honest dollar by the greatest
creditor class" of all. the working men
ard women of the country. is a chara ter
iStic stroke Of Rryanism. but It has lost
any power 1t ever had to convince. even
If it still retains some OF its power to de-
ceive.