The times., 1899-08-18
DROP THE SILVER ISSUE.
Ihe Trenchant Suggestions of Mr..
Wfl1ett of Alabama.

Willett of Alabama.
Joseph j. Willett, President of the Ala
bama Bar Association, stopped in Wash
! ington &, few hours yesterday on his way
to New York, where he was going TO pre-
SIDE over the conference of the anti-Bryan
democrats held last night at the Hoffman
House. Mr.. Willett was emphatic in his
declarations that the Democratic party
must select some other candidate than Mr..
bryan in order TO win the Presidential
election next year.
i supported Mr. Bryan Loyalty and ar
IDENTIFY in 1885," said Mr. wiilett, :. and /
| nave no excuse or apology to make for
my attitude of three years ago. With mil
| lions OF other Democrats l believed that
! MI. Bryan and free silver would sweep the
country. and 1 was willing to try the ex-
pertinent, The, conditions then seemed fa-
| Voraoie to free silver campaign. Money
/ was tight. Industrial and commercial de-
preston was Widespread. The wage level
! was lower5than for many years. Hundreds
! Oh thousands of able bodied, honest men
were out OF employment. A general feel
| ing OF unrest permeated the country. Peo-
pie everywhere and of all classes were de-
manding change. 1t seemed to us that
| Tree silver would make a popular issue
| agitation had been successful in the South
and West. and we had reason to believe
that our platform and candidate would be
sustained by allarge majority of American
voters
With every political condition in our
favor We tried the free silver experiment
In 1896, tried it honestly and earnestly
ana everyone now knows how disastrousiy
we were beaten. If we failed then, when
everything was in our favor, how can we
succeed now, when so many things are
against us? The situation today is every
Where unfavorable to silver. Times are
good Every man in the United States
| VINO wants work can get it. Wages have
gone up 10, 20, and 80 per cent Smoke is
puffng skyward out of every factory Chin
ney and smokestack in every town from
birmingham to Washington. That is only
i typical OF conditions throughout the coun-
try. Iron, coal, steel. lumber wool hides,
and In fact everything except the raw
staple OF cotton has advanced, and is still,
advancing. 1t would be unutterable folly
! to raise the Bryan calamity howl under
such conditions as these
| Besides this. silver as a medium of ex-
change. has lost ground greatly in the last
three years Japan, Russia, and I.um-
Der of the South American Republics have
abandoned the white metal. Great Britain
has permanently closed the mints OF India
to silver and has thereby put the Indian
Empire practically on gold basis. With
| these things happening since 1896, it
/ would be simply uncomfortable for the
people of this country to elect Mr. Bryan
on free silver platform.
/ The East is permanently hostile to sill
] YER We haven't even the hope now Of
making converts, which we had three years
ago. Silver then was a new freak. an
untried issue. During the last two years
4 . y L. II L
! the recognized leader has deserted the
Democratic party. There are only three
or four small States, and these with but a
combined electoral vote of fifteen, that can
De depended upon in a free silver cam
paign. Kansas. Nebraska, Washington,
! Wyoming. South Dakota, and California,
] have all gone Republican. With these facts
staring us in the face. / am convinced that
We must make a new alignment.
ut is q singular coincidence that while
all these Western States. so devotedly loyal
! to Mr.. Bryan's candidacy, have been
| steadily going Republican, the Eastern
| States. hostile to Mr.. Bryan. show signs
of coming back to the Democratic rarty
| At the last Congressional election in New
York not single Republican was elected
/ in Greater New York. The tremendous
.Republican pluralities of 1896 in New Jer-
sey and New York have been cut down to
| the narrowest margins. Maryland again
presents a united Democracy that will in
all probability recover the State this year
| from the Republicans. -sni.
"Mr. Bryan's leadership on the free sill
yer issue has lost US the, Presidency and
the House of Representatives. and given
the Republicans majority of twenty-six
| In the United States Senate, and the Ger
tain control of that body for six years to
| come Under such leadership the Demo
cratic party will soon gravitate down to
/ the melancholy condition of the Fsderalists
after the war OF l812-a mere faction with
out purpose, power, or policy.
There Is another factor in the equation
which the Bryan managers fail to recog-
nize and reckon with. / mean the inde-
pendent vote throughout the country
There are as many organization Democrats
j as organization Republicans. who would
vote for any candidate or any platform the
/ party would endorse. There are million
| voters in the doubtful States who are
| neither Democrats nor Republicans, and
who will not vote for a radical candidate
! nominated on an extreme platform. 1t is
a fact-an incontestable fact-that these
| independent voters are of large influence
in deciding every Presidential election.
Mr.. Bryan will not receive their support
| or the support of the great conservative
/ business and industrial interests through
! out the country. Without the support of
| that element no man can be elected Presi-
| dent of the United States. do not believe,
/ therefore, that there would be the slight
/ est hope OF Mr.. Bryans election 4 he
! should be nominated He simply cannot
succeed, and it will be political suicide for
| the party to nominate him again for the
Presidency.
"A great many of the Bryan leaders In
| the South clearly recognize this fact, and
1 candidiy admit in private that Mr.. Bryan
| will be defeated In 1900 if he be noml
mated They concede this without ques-
| ton But they say with a significant wink
or shrug that "the masses will not be-
| lieve it until after November, 1900. In
| the mean time the county and State offices
are to be filled, and the Bryan leaders
| feel that there is one more election in
1 the free silver agitation. just as the Re-
publicans used to think there was one
4 more President in the bloody shirt" The
Bryan men in the South are not leaders In
| the broad sense of the word; they are
| followers of the popular impulse, and in
stead pioneering ahead and directing the
| uninstructed voters, they fall in with the
populace and go along the line of
| least resistance. l believe that il the
| thinking people of the South can be made
! intimately acquainted with the exact sit
uation they will understand that Mr. Bryan
cannot be elected President and that they
| will support a more available candidate
4
| Trade BARRIERS.
| From the Boston Herald