Greene County herald. (Leakesville, Miss.) 1898-current, 1899-08-03
Bryan and Imperialism.

/ Among those, who, a few week $
ago, heard William j. Bryan de
llver u speech at Colorado
Springs, was Mr.. Louis r. Enrich.
who is out of sympathy with the
NebraSkan on the silver question
but a man of standing in the
Republican party. After listening
to Mr.. Bryau's address to the 5000
people who attended the meeting
Mr.. Enrich, in letter to the New
York Evening Post, gives his I'M
preSSlons of the speech, especially
that portion in which the orator
discussed the question of imperial
ism, which has OreIshadowed all
others now before the American
people, and promises to be the
PIVOT on which the next president
ial campaign will turn. We quote
as follows from Mr.. EnrIch's letter
to the New York Evening Post:
After q brief discussion OF trusts
Mr.. Bryan spoke at considerable
leugth on imperialism. This por-
ton of the address won the most
enthusiastic applause of his audi
ence. AT times the orator rose
into impassioned and sweeping
eloquence, revealing the secret OF
his singular power. There was a
glow in the heat of his trenchant
argument and in the iervor of his
patriotic and liberty-loving utter
ance which kindled the audience
into spontaneous and cheering re-
sponse. he said: We are accus-
ed of giving aid and encouragement
to the Philippines. No! The in
splration of their courage and their
resistance comes from uobler
source. Ii comes from the men
who lived long ago; from Patrick
Henry, when he said, Give ine
liberty or give me drath;' from
Washington, when he drew the
sword to fight in defense OF his
God-given rights; from Thomas
Jefferson when he wrote the De
claration of Independence, and
from our Revolutionary fathers,
who offered up their lives in the
cause of liberty and selt-govern-
ment.' No thoughtful man could
have listened to Mr.. Bryan's plea
against imperialism without realiz-
ing the tremendous power winch
such appeals will exert on the
American conscience.
Messages have come to me from
sound money leaders. Republican
and 'emocratic alike, 10 different
parts of the country, which eau be
summarized thus: We fought
against free silver in 1896, but we
shall fight even more vigorously
against imperialism in 1900. If We
are forced To make a choice between
che two evils We prefer to risk tree
silver. That is an attack against
the financial integrity of the Ma
ton, but Imperialism sears the very
soul and conscience of the Republic.
Free silver Is an excrescpnce which,
after some acute suffering and
financial disaster, we can fling oft
forever. Imperialism will poison
The very blood of our body polite,
aud with the consequent develop
ment of militarlSm may eventually
lead to the overthrow of American
liberty. That is the mental attitude
of men whose voices and whose
pens made possible the election of
Mr.. Mckinley three years ago.
Another wear, unless the admins
tratiOn will at once open its eyes to
the silent truth aud recede from its
present policy, these men will
throw the weight of their CON-
handing influence into the oppoS-
ing scales. The labor organIza-
tons have declared against this
policy. The German element has
protested against it. Is then the
Republican party hopelessly blind
and deaf?