Daily inter mountain. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1881-1901, 1899-09-27
POLITICAL INCONSISTENCY.

Iitical inconsistency in that this paper
Is not supporting Colonel Bryan with the
trdor that characterized it's efforts in
1895. Our Broadway %neighbor is en-
Htled to the thanks of the public for rails
Ing a question of that kind, even though
It looks at the Inter Mountain through
a camera and receives its impressions
upside down.
If men are greater than principles-if
the representative of an idea is greater
than the idea representation those
newspapers which refuse to champion
the personal interests Of a candidate
whom they previously supported are in
deed guilty Of inconsistency Bat if it
be true, as the Inter Mountain believes,
that the interests Of the public as a
whole rise above the personal aspirations
Of any man who asks for the endorse
ment Of the people. then there is nd in
consistency in withholding from q can
didate a supper that Was previously ac-
corded him.
In 1896, BRYAN insisted that the free
oAA@ m M tfN 9oi 49, = III n
1e to !, by the independent action Of
this nation, was a principle that lay at
the very foundation Of commercial and
industrial prosperity. and that it was Of
SO much Importance to the American
people that it was and would remain the
paramount issue-the issue of issues
until settled and settled right. AS. an
evidence of good aith-as a sign Of sin
cerity in the professions then made-he
advocated cooperation on the part Of
the silver men in all political %organiza-
tons. The silver men took him at his
word, and cooperation became the es-
tablished policy Of the democratic party,
insofar as the paramount issue was con-
cerned.
But the established policies of the DEM
ocratic party, like its principles, are laid
IN and off as the garments of a dress
parade. In less than a year after the
solemn declarations made by Bryan as
to the p~ermanency Of the paramount
issue, and the necessity Of the co-opera-
tive methods that could alone give it
force and vitality, such champions of
the democracy as the Butte Miner led a
movement in violent opposition to the
plans that had met the undivided ap
proval of the democratic party in 1896,
The policy Of cooperation, at one time
heralded as the only way through which
the cause of free coinage could attain
victory, was discarded by the democracy
nrel aratory to the gradual retirement
OF that question as a issue
At first Bryan objected to such meth.
DDS, insisting that the cooperative plans
of 1896 should be continued as the sole
hope for silver, but when his Judgment
was overridden in the silver states
when "his picture was turned to thu
wall"-when his methods were discard
ed in the house of his friendships weak
ness as a politician overcame his cour
age as a man, and he fell into the cur
rent and swan to the front as the newly
f1edged champion of any issue which
promised the retirement of free coinag,
to the background.
-
Though Bryan was DETECTED from hi
original idea of holding the silver force
together, despite their views on othe
questions, and thereby keep free coinag
to the front as a paramount issue, by tn
Vaccinations of the multi-millionair
democratic newspapers of the silve
states, his cannot be condone'
ny those who supported him in 1896 as
resolute and uncompromising advocat
of the white metal. Today he is not onl,
willing but anxious to bring some ques
ton other than silver to the front as tn
paramount issue for 1900. For months h
has planned and schemed to that end. l
he stands ready to place free coinage i
the background as a matter of politica
expediency, as a candidate for the presi
dency, hi considerations of that typ
might influence his official actions in tn
white house?
In refusing to give it's support to Colo
mel Bryan, in his efforts to supplant tn
paramount issue of 1896 with the unpa
triotic and un-American idea Of ar.i--ex