The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1898-01-17

and from the stump hammered Tam
many for negiecting the Chicago plat
! form.
OF necessity, we draw differences
from the known. If Mr.. Bryan IS
foxy politician as to New York. he can
scarcely be an ingenious disregarder
of policy in other states. And, taking
his New York measure. he is not even
a fairly good politician. The good poll
tician knows when to be daring, when
to assume the virtue, If he has II not,
of holding principle high above ex-
pediency. Mr.. Bryan, plainly, has not
the capacity to play the game OF poll
tics largely He should not play ii at
all. but since he does play, ii is pity
that he punts ell over the table with
white chips on the chance OF picking
up a delegation here and there
There are larger men in the Demo-
cratic party than Mr.. Bryan. At pres
ent they keep. or are kept in the rear,
for his primacy is so evident that rival
~ is not invited. But it is a long time
to 1900. and if Mr.. Bryan should con-
tinue TO diminish, to reveal his hmlta-
tionS at the rate we have witnessed
within the past year, he will have TO
fight for the nomination for which ne
is maneuvering, and the more he hgnts
for it the more likelihood is there that
ne will lose it.
Failing the broadening of Mr.. Bryan,
his awakening to the greatness of the
battle to which his party has commit
ted itself, a more adequate leader must
in the nature of the case appear. The
attempt to cOnfine the elemental forces
of the new Democracy TO the inch-wide
channel of 16 to 1 is as hopeless an en-
terprise as it would be to endeavor TO
divert the discharge of the Mississippi
into the bunghole of a barrel.
The issues are too fundamental and,
therefore, too irresistible to be con-
trOlled or long Influenced in the ex-
preston of their energy by any man
who is not in thorough sympathy with
them and brave enough to bind up his
fate with theirs.
Not division, but harmony, is the
need of the Democratic party. 1t has
room in it for all Americans who be-
lieve in equal rights. no privileges, and
government by the people instead of
by the plutOcracy. The business of
true leader should be to make entrance
to the ranks easy, and to strike down
all artificial tests that would exclude
such as have the right spirit, though
they may lack faith in minor particu-
lars of the creed of proposed policies.
The 16 to 1 test of OrthodoXy-thiS
question, not of bimetallism, but of
ratio-has no more intimate relation
with the soul of the new Democracy
Itd0 the tenet OF luldII DdpllSul VI VI
infant damnation has with real Chris
tianity. So long as Mr.. Bryan is per-
mitted to speak with authority for the
party and to cry Depart from me. We
accursedi' to all who are inclined TO
think that II to l, 20 to l or 80 to l
might possibly be safer to start with
than 16 to I, the cause of the people
is in unfit hands. and the Democratic
party will repel from it large numbers
of Taaff-infiQ who C1nahla 0f
entertaining more than one idea at a
time, and who are fully as sincere as
Mr.. Bryan ever was in his hostility to
that socialism of the rich which eX-
presses itself in the Dingley tariff, the
trusts. the syndicates, the lawless cor
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS and other
than appropriate the earnings of the
people. keep them industrially enslaved
and politically subject.
The Democratic platform of 1896 de-
mands 16 to 1. But there is nothing
divine about platforms that they should
be the same yesterday. today and for
ever. Democratic platforms have al
tered ere now. One of them pronounced
the war to be a failure. Gettysburg
was the answer to that, and the next
platform took cognizance of the an
swer.
The new Democracy should with
gladness invite the hottest hostility
that the party which defends the priv |
ileges of the plutocracy can offer, but
the Democratic party should not give !
battle on an incidental question, but !
fight for its vital contention, which is
that the men of this republic. and not /
its millions, should rule it. Let us chal- /
lenge the trusts and all the beneficiar- /.
les and upholders of the system of I
favoritism in legislation. of which the Z
trusts are necessary and illustrative
fruit, to a life and death conflict That I
is the duty and the hearts wish of the I
new Democracy.
The man who is of the opinion that .
a demand for free coinage of silver at 1
the ratio of 16 to l is the best, the only /
way in which this challenge can be /
given, and that no citizen who does .
not agree with him can be allowed to /
fight on his side, may be admirable for /
his earnestness, but he is not to be /
on the size or shape of I
his head.
Mr.. Bryan may. if he chooses. stick
like an oyster to the rock of Is to l. but
the stream of the new Democracy will /
not be stationary for his sake, nor for
any mans.
Organism is a bigger thing than
Bryan, and Organism will continue to
grow, whatever Mr.. Bryan may do.
ARTHUR M'EWEN
New York, Jan. II.