The San Francisco call., 1896-08-17
Democracy's Leader Has Not
Denied That He Was Hired
by Mine-Owners.
REASON FOR HIS MUTENEss
Direct Charges Made by Democratic
Newspapers Permitted to Go
Unrefuted.

4nuISIOu mas sent 10 DGndtOE Chd4t Vi
Nevada the following open letter:
To Hon. William " SteOart, Washington D. c.
SIR: On return from recent campaign tour
find your open letter OF August 1, which you
so kindly gave to the press OF the country be-
fore awaiting its receipt by me.
In your letter you refer to the address deliV-
cred by me at the Chautauqua Assembly at
Madison, Wis, on July 8. You must have
known when you penned your letter that did
not make any charge against Hon. William j.
Bryan of any kind whatever; that did MOTH
ing except 10 read portions of an editorial pub
lished in the greatest Democratic journal of
the West, the Chicago Chronicle, on the 11th
Of last July. The editorial read by me is as
follows:
There was time when the owners of the
big bonanzas of the far West were glad
to occupy by purchase seats in the United
States Senate.
sharon, Stanford, Fair Jones, Stewart and
others gratifed their fancy in this manner
until the novelty wore of, and then they depu-
tized attorneys and other employees to take
their places and vote for protective tariffs and
free silver.
''Of late years, owing to the encouragement
that they have received from the Republican
party, which always does something for sill
YER when IL passes a tariff bill, the proprie-
tors Of the big bonanzas have found it profit
able to keep large number of orators, lectur-
ers and other spokesmen on the road preach
ing to the people already limping as a result
of bites by the free-silver cur, the sovereign
remedy of applying the hair of the dog to the
wound.
Among the many who have been thus en-
ployed and carried on the payrolls of the big
bouanzas for number of years is William J.
Bryan of Nebraska. The paid agent and
spokesman for the free-silver combine, he has
not since his retirement from Congress had
any other visible means Of support"
did not, directly or indirectly, even express
an opinion as to the truth or falsity of the
charge thus clearly, explicitly, unequivocally
and editorially made by q great Democratic
newspaper, reputable and responsible. did
say, and I still say, "that the man posing as
the advocate of the downtrodden masses of
his country-the man holding a crown of
thorns in one hand and the bugaboo, a cross
of gold, in the other-owes it as q duty to
every man, woman and child in this country
TO say whether that charge, thus publicly and
deliberately made, is false or true"
Now, my dear Senator, you must have
known, and you did know. when you indited
your open letter to me, that the charge was
not mine; no, not even by adoption; that 1
had not even expressed an opinion with re-
spect to It, and that no more than fulfilled
my duty as a citizen in insisting that Mr..
Bryan should tell the American people whether
or not the charge made by the Chicago Chron-
icle was true.
One word from Mr.. Bryan on the 18th day
OF last July would have set the public right;
one word from him on any day since that time
would have accomplished the same purpose.
The charge thus editorially made by the
Chronicle while the Chicago convention was
still in session was reproduced in many of the
leading journals of the country: it came to
the attention OF Mr.. Bryan's own paper, the
Omaha World-Herald, of which he was at the
time editor-in-chief, and the only reference
ever made to it in that paper was on the 18th
day Of July, when in its editorial column sp-
peared the following under the caption ain
Whose Pay?":
1.-THE Chicago Chronicle wants Mr.. Bryan to
explain in whose pay he has been since he
was dropped out of Congress.-sioux City
Journal.
"Mr. Bryan did not drop out of Congress-he
stepped out-but he has been in the employ of
the World Herald and it is generally conceded
that he has fully earned his salary"
The press dispatches from Lincoln, Nebr.,
show that Mr.. RTyan was asked on the first
day of August to make such answer as he
might desire to the charge of the Chronicle,
as read by me at Madison. and the press re-
port is to the effect that Mr.. Bryan had noth-
ing TO say, except that he would answer in due
time and manner.
another prominent, responsible and reputable
journal, find the statement that Mr.. Bryan's
stated salary from the silver-mine owners, OF
the Silver League, was $4,000 per annum, paid
10 him in monthly checks, which went
through the Lincoln banks.
Then Mr.. Thurston quotes an article in
a recent Issue of the Philadelphia Ledger,
written by Major John NJ. Carson, in
which that gentleman says that in 1892,
when Mr.. Bryan was a candidate for re-
election to Congress from the First Dis
trict of Nebraska, he was materially as
sisted In the expenses of his campaign by
donations from Denver, Colo, which
funds, he sail. were placed in the hands
of the chairman of the Congressional
committee, Judge Broadly, and announces
that as result Mr.. Bryan was elected by
majority OF 140 votes, and more than re-
paid during the Fifty-third Congress the
morey expended in his behalf.
Continuing, Senator Thurston says:
These are only few Of the direct and posi-
tive charges of similar kind which have ap-
peared from time to time in the most reputa-
bic and responsible newspapers OF the United
States.
would be the last man in the world to
assail the character of Mr.. Bryan. have not
done 30 in any instance or by any word OF
mine Mr. Bryan is a candidate OF a great
party. II is not just to the American people
that charges of this kind Should go un-
answered. He is the man and the only man
who can make definite and conclusive answer.
Mr.. Thurston suggests that Senator
Stewart turn his batteries "upon those
reputable editors and newspapers making
the charges" In conclusion he says:
The American people, however, can best