Delaware gazette and state journal. (Wilmington, Del.) 1883-1902, 1896-08-20
Mr.. BRYAN AND HIS SPEECH.


New York Times, Aug. isth-
Mr.. Bryan is beaten. This prediction
may be as well recorded now rs at some
later day. The candidate himself fur
nshes the complete assurance of its full
filment. He has come TO the first great
test of the campaign and he has wretch
eddy failed to meet il. His managers had
deliberately planned for him a vast spec.
tscuinr demonstration sin the enemy's
country" ms he pleasantly put it. The
sweltering thousands who pressed into
Madison Square Garden expecting to be
thrilled and inspired by the magical
tongue of the boy orator, We're treated in-
stead to series of disjoiDted utterances
upon III to which, are duh enough in
the reading and proved intolerable In the
bearing. These fragmentary observations
may have heen noted down upon the backs
af envelopes as they occurred to the orator.
during his railway jonrneyings or in the,
intervals of his cOmmunings with X. p.
Bland. But they do not constitute a
speech After NIL the anteccdent herald
ing II this surprising boys flights of eio-
quence. IL was an audacious and risky
thing for him to Supply an audience which
wished to sympntliize with him by dron-
ing out seven columns of watery theoriz-
ing about the effects of free coinage, IN
relieved by single Thought or sentence
that rises above the level of plodding
commonplace.
Undoubtedly II was largely free-silyer
audience which greeted Mr.. Bryan. But,
new to the faith and in some degree emo
tional they required to he confirmed In
their devotion to the cause of Bryan by
hn ,,,au nd tI. In, i,,,, xua
of the candidate himself. While his man
ner of speech, falling so much below his
reputation. chilled and repealed them, the
speech itself, ms a deliberate and formal
confession of Mr.. Bryan's political belief,
as n forecast and promise oftwhat he will
do If elected President must inevitably be
fatal to his chances ms a candidate. No
people on the earth would elect to the
greatest office In their gift man who
cody and deliberately threatened to do
them the injury that Mr.. Bryan's doc
trines would inhict on this country.
| Setting aside that part of the speech In
which he yields to his natural propensi-
ties as demagogue by railing at the
capitalists and money changers, there are
two substantive propositions, both of
| them false, and both Of them in-
| finiiely mischevous, upon which he
bnses his entire argument and appeal.
| One is that the gold dollar has appreci-
atcd or increased in value, thus causing
low prices and other evils which he de-
picts. The second proposition is that the
! free and unlimited coinage at the present
ratio will create demand for silver which
| will keep the price of silver bullion ut
Sl.29 per ounce measured by gold"
We have already expressed the convic-
ton that Mr.. Bryan will not win votes by
arguing that the dollars at present in use
in this country are worth too much and
must be cut in half by the enactment of a
law for the free coinage of silver. Wage
earners whose hard toll has gained them
some little money over and above the
cost of their subsistence will not he easily
persuaded that every one hundred dol
lars of that money, now as good as gold,
must he cut down to fifty-three dollars to
please MIR. Bryan and his supporters.
Every voter who has n savings bank book,
every veteran of the war who is In recent
OF pension. every man, young or old,
VINO IL wholly or III part supported by the
income of investments, every factory op-
eratiye, wage Garner and working man
who can he got to think clearly for two
minutes upon the Bryan doctrine of the
double dollar, will walk miles through
rain and snow and mud to vote against
him ON election day. But MIR. Bryan
says "wage carriers know that. while n
gold standard raises the purchasing power
OF dollar, 1t also makes it more difficult
to Obtain possession of the dollar" This
is false, and if Mr.. Bryan does not know
that il is false he is too ignorant for the
great business in which he aspires to en-
gage. The figures of the Aldrich report
\ hat I,...,. l..
than 60 per cent since 1860. so that a
laborer working ten hours day now gets
one dollar and sixty cents where la
borer working eleven hours a day in 1860
got only one dollar. And we have been
on gold basis all the time. Surely thirty
six years is fair test. The truth is that
u is easier FOR the laborer to get possession
OF the dollar than 1t was thirty-six years
ago.
The restoration Of himctalIsm in tho
United States will take away from gold
j'ist so much of its purchasing power ms
was added 10 il by the deinuuetiza ton of
/ silver by the United States" That sem
trnce will kill Mr.. Bryan as a candidate
There is not oratorical wind enough in all
Nebraska to convince the American pe0-
pie Of the truth Of the absurd proposition
that the decentralization of silver enhanced
the purchasing power of gold All that In
left of Mr.. Bryans assertion is the de-
mand that the dollar shall he split in two.
and that is repuhinion. naked and ugly.
Mr. Rryan processes respect for the VEN
erable law of supply and demand. Yet
he insists that the free coinage will raise
the price Of silver bullion TO 81. % an ounce
in gold. II that were true some very
strange things would happen in intcrnn-
tional finance. But il is no more true than
MIR. Bryans other assertion that the re-
storation OF bmctnllisin will restore tbe
, parity between money and proprrty =,
doubtless the most idi0tic statement eyer
+ made by candidate for the Presidency.
J The appeal which Mr.. Bryan makes
I TO the holders Of fixed Investments y
to think of prosperity" and in a noble
, burst of posihunous generosity TO give
: up the advantages they are reapinp
from yiciouS financial system" AFT
fords fair measure of this mans in
tclligence and of his understanding of
} the lines upon which n political campaign
can he successfully conducted We have
not the slightest wish to treat Mr., BRYAN
! other TINA in the NEST respectful manner.
: He is not In h. heatcn by abuse or by
epithcts, hut only by candid exhibition
OF him MS he s. When. therefore. we
! describe him us Il cheap mountebank Il
! is because we really believe him to he one,
and wish calmly to speak the truth about