The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1898-01-22
WILLIAM ]. BRYAN.
Stronger With the People To-Day Than
He Ever Vas Before.

He Ever Was Before.
From the Washington Post.
The attempts on the port of the gold
organs to dismiss Hon. William j. Bry-
an as a back number" a dead issue
and relegate him to the limbo of insig
nificant and forgotten derelicts, do not
strike us as being particularly happy.
Whether they have been inspired by
honest Ignorance of public sentiment
throughout the country or are mere
demonstrations of malice and deceit
we do not undertake to say. Perhaps
we should adopt both explanations with
q geographical division, attributing the
Ignorance to the east and the deceitful
purpose to the west. No newspapers
in the United States have a poorer I'M
derstanding of popular opinion than
the great metropolitan dailies," be-
cause none are so cock sure of their
own omniscience and of the overshad-
owing Importance of the community
they represent To find the true pro-
vncial, the hopeless, narrow view of
things, one must go to New York. Com
pared with that big, bumptious and
complacent aggregation of prigs, Hog
eye, Texas, is a yeritable coSpomolis.
We can easily believe that New Workers
speak in perfect candor when they say
that Mr.. Bryan is a closed incident,
for they regard their own verdict on
a national issue as beyond appeal.
But neither conceit nor misrepresen-
tation will avail to dispose of Mr..
Bryan. Every intelligent and compre-
hensive observer. of public events knows
that he is stronger with the party to-
day than he was a year ago; that he
has lost none of the marvellous person
al influence which he exerted during
the campaign of 1896; that the princi-
pies for which he stands are as ardently
espoused by the democratic masses as
they were when Bryan proclaimed
wit arInr of his enthuSi
and the witchery of his eloquence. No
one need be deceived by the circum-
stances of the recent campaign in New
York city. The fact that Tammany ig-
nored the Chicago platform is of no
significance. We may admit that, for
the immediate purposes of that par
tcular struggle, and in order to recover
control of municipal affairs-to rescue
| Greater New York, in fact, from the
| dispensation of an impudent and hypo-
| critical tyranny = the democratic
masses consented to the CrokerWhit-
! ney programme. But that proves moth
| ing. Indeed, we may say that, even If
| it involved the permanent rejection of
| Mr.. Bryan and the Chicago declaration
| by the New York organization-wh hitch
| it does not-the fact would be of minor
| consequences The democrats of the ma
ton are not under New York control.
| The millions who voted for Mr.. Bryan
| in 1896 do not look in that direction for
guidance and leadership. They would
not be moved one hairs breadth from
their purpose If New York were to
threaten them with absolute secession
They lost New York in 1896. They can
! afford to lose it in 1900. They have no
calculations based upon New York as
an indispensable factor in their scheme.
! They know that Mr.. Bryan and the
Chicago platform brought out more
votes, year before last. than any dem
I'll IA raj
| nearly a million more than Mr.
Cleveland had in 1S92-and they are
content with the record and the brilliant
prospect it opens to them in the future
Let no one imagine that Mr.. Bryan is
q dead issue. If a democratic conven-
J ton were to assemble today. he would
be without "A serious competitor. I'm
less all political conditions be revolu-
/ tioniZed meanwhile, he will be even
stronger two years hence.