Omaha daily bee., 1897-01-09

tue ChlcaSo PLATFORM.
William Jennings Bryan hes appar
emily experienced radical change OF
heart within the brief time of twelve
| months. Less thau five months before
his nomination for the presidency hi
penncd an editorial which appeared III
tile Omaha World-Herald of February
2G, 1S06, under the heading, "The
Philosophy of Bolting," in which he dc.
fends the right to bolt in the following
language:
The strength o; party organization Is fo,tut
In the fact that men do not like to iepudi
ate a nominee or leave their party for light
or trivial causes; in fact. the tendency tc
vote straight ticket Is SO great that mer
require the strongest of reasons TO iustif,
desertioE, and yet the right to bolt or abandon
Is essential unless a man is to become a mere
machine and unless the party machine is tc
be made omTpotent. Thh desire to draw
voters to the party makes the party careful
to endorse the wisest policies, and the feal
that men may bolt Is the most effective pro
lection against bad nominations. I
The reason why abandonment of party Is
not frequent Is found In the fact that party
principles are generally permanent in char
acter, and therefore the members of the
party, agreeing in opinion, work together
harmoniously to carry out thosC opinions in
legislation. The fact that new national
platform is adopted every four years is evi.
dence that the right of party to change It's
position on public questions is uniyc sally
recognized. and the fact that a campaign is
n he.
stump is proof that the right of the yoter
TO change his party affiliations is also recog-
nlzed. The party is a means. not an end
1t may be sad to contemplate the
disturbance of harmony or the disintegration
Of party, but until human nature is
changed and our form Of government aban-
doned such things must be contemplated
If abandonment of party is ever
justifiable the voter must determine for
himself when the time for abandonment ar
rives. When should he decide? The
proper time If not the only time is after
the party has adopted it's platform and named
It's candidate. Until that time he does not
know whether he can rely upon 1t to Sc
cure the government which he regards a.
good and the legislation which he considers
necessary. Does participation in a primary
or a convention bind the voter to support a
policy which ha considers rulnOus? If he
tries, through his party organization to save
his country and fails, must he then take a
hand in its destruction? If a great ques-
tion arises must he assume that his party
will go wrong and therefore leave It before
it acts or should he try to hold his party
to this right course?
Tn npDl,inu thnSn ,lpploroti VILLA N,
Jennings Bryan was paving the way for
II wholesale bolt of the free silver wing
Of his party, which at that time
seemed to be on the eve of defeat in
the national convention. But the
changing of the tide turned the tables
and Bryan found himself supported by
Il majority of the delegates. Who be-
lieves that he would have supported
the Chicago candidate or the Chicago
platform had he been turned down? ?
linquished his claim to the name of
democrat had the gold wing CON
trolled the convention and been van
quiShed at the polls?
There is something passing strange
also in the assumption that the 6,470,-
656 people who cast their votes for
Bryan electors are all actual, sincere
and heartfelt believers" in 16 to | free
coinage and all the other doctrines in
the Chicago platform. Mr.. Bryan
knows as well as every intelligent
American knows that fully one-half of
these voters gave "a formal and en-
forced submission to the decree of
the convention. 1t is matter of
history that the six New England states
which gave Bryan 203,256 votes sent
gold delegates to Chicago pledged
against free silver The states of New
York New Jersey and Pennsylvania
which cast 1,112,171 votes for Bryan,
were equally pronounced against free
silver, and so were the delegates from
the states of Delaware, Maryland, Wis
consn and South Dakota and ma
jority of the delegation from Mime
sofa, while the Michigan state conven-
ton had also declared against free sill
yer.
If the millions of democrats who
supported Bryan and the Chicago plat
form against their honest convictions
are good democrats according to the
latest test prescribed by Bryan, under
what rule of morals or ethics can Bryan
prescribe the democrats who had the
courage of their convictions and fol-
lowed the advice which he volunteered
before his nomination? If Bryan's
democracy Is true Jacksonian democ-
racy, as he would have us believe,
then the New England states and the
great central states must be forever
abandoned by the democratic party.
and from a great national party it will
sink down to mere sectional ana
factional aggregation. In that condi-
ton its fate would be that which over
took the whig party when 1t disinte-
grated and passed out of existence.
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STATE IEGISLl TIDk,