Daily capital journal. (Salem, Or.) 1896-1899, 1896-12-23
sRYAN's GREAT VOTE.

accounts for this IN part. But u
folly tu say that Mr.. Bryan receive
this vote as the candidate of anarchy
population and dishonor." Neithe
was his vote due entirely to the sill
YER issue, or to the unrest among the
people. His vote was in general pro
test of "the under dog in the fight
for existence. A plutOcrat newspa
per sees a hopeful sign in the fact
that syndicate manager Morgan is
grasplng the great Erie railway sys
tenn away from the Vanderbilts
This paper.cssnot see how that will
benefit. the laborer or producer who
are .oaxed and ground down to poy-
/erty by these corporations in order
that one man may be worth hundreds
OF millions.
The vote for Bryan was protest
against trusts and plutocracy, against
the overthrow of a Democratic form
OF government.
Analize the election returns. Itwas
the east that elected Mckinley. But
for the pluralities cast for him in New
York, Pennsylvania and Massachu-
setts, Bryan would have led him on
the popular vote.
1t was not a landslide after all.
The latest canvass of the returns
shows that McKinley's plurality was
but 900, ,799, iand his majority 3O7,627.
Immediately after the election the
victor's plurality was estimated at
100000.
1.-THE Washington Post which sup
ported Mr.. Mckinley during the cam
paign, does not take the view of most
goldbug papers that the American
people repudiated Mr.. Bryan. Refer
ing to the popular vote, it says in
recent EDITORIAL:
There are some very significant fea-
lures in these figures. They furnish
much food for thought. The Repub-
lican and assistant Republican Or
gans, for instance, are sneering at Mr..
Bryan, declaring that he has been
repudiated by the American people
and that it is a piece of ridiculous
impertinence in him to think of 1900
or to suppose that the American peo-
pie regard him with anything but
pity and contempt. 1t strikes us as
very stupid to put forward such prop
ositions as these. Mr.. Bryan got
e,22l ,552 votes. Six and quarter
millions of men are worth thinking
about especially as nearly:all Of them
are native born white Americans.
There were not that many voters for
Mr.. Cleveland in 1892, as his vote that
year was only 5,556,562, nearly 700, 900
less than Mr.. Bryan received on the
Sd inst. If, therefore, Mr.. Bryan is
an object of derision becausenof the
popular repudiation involved in a |
vote of only 6,221, ,552, how are we to
estimate Mr.. Cleveland's standing |
with the masses in the light of his
vote of only 5,556,562? The fact is
that taking the 1850, Democratic |
votes that went to Palmer and the
100000 or 100000 other Democrati
votes that were given to Mckinley |
direct and adding these to the vote
that he had actually received, Bryan
would have carried the country so far J
as concerns the popular vote-carried
it by an immense plurality"
"The country was not ready for Mr..
Bryan. He was hampered by elements
that would have loaded down his ad-
ministration and ruined the cause of
popular government. Those elements
are now eliminated. He stands before
the people as the man who got the
largest popular vote given any man
who has ever sat in the White House.
A committee Of nine senators has
been raised to investigate the vote
cast in 1896 for President. We do not
know what they will discover or re-
port. But one fact stands out clear.
Mr.. Bryan carried on a campaign of
ideas and not with money. 1t takes
from three TO six months to educate /
the voter on a political issue. 1t only
takes a minute TO buy him II he wants
10 sell;that explains Bryan's defeat.