The age-herald., 1899-06-01
B|NETALLC CLUBS NAME WILLIAM ]. BRYAN;
 FREE COINAGE SHOULD BE HIS MANS1N

believe that those who made the platform of 1886 and who contended for the success of that platform in that year and who placed the democratic organization under the control of the people should make the democratic platform of 1900. We believe that the democratic national convention or 1900 should be composed of those who are now in sympathy with and in accord With the democratic party as now orsanizea. and not of those who are hostile to It, ana if convention so composed should see ilt to take away from or alter the Chicago platform of 1896, 1t will then remain to be seen whether the people of this country will endorse 1t. l am well aware of the fact that in 1896 thousands of intelligent and sincere American voters refused, be- cause of honest conviction, to support the democratic nominee for president. l am aware that many of those had for years belonged to the democratic party. We have right to eriticise such men for leaving their party, or for voting their convictions; they had the right to so leave, and they had the right to so vote, and no man ought to be expected to vote contrary to his judgment and his conscience, no matter what the convention of any party may have declared. Many of those democrats have concluded that they were wrong, and they want to come back. They have the right to come back, expressing their be- lief in and their adherence to the doc trines and the platform of democracy as now established and no one has any de- sire toi keep such men away.
 "But there is another class, made up of men who have spent their lives In the pub lie service, and who have spent years in of- flee by the grace of democratic voters, and who have for years expressed their be- lief in the cardinal doctrines of the Chi cago platform of 1896; men who abandoned their party, violated their convictions, dis regarded their expressed beliefs and sought destroy fhnGa hpGtnyUp6 them every dollar and every honor they had ever known. These men acted under influences, and the doors of the democratic organization ought to be closed to them, If they seek to return. it is for the pur- pose only of betrayal. We have some of them in Kentucky-some of them who de- clared that they would support the Chi eago platform in 1896 after its adoption and even then changed their minds. To men of this class may say that we followed them for years; but now our path lies one way and their path lies another way. We may say to them that they have been tried and found wanting; and that we do not want our course or our platform to be marked out by them. We may say to them, Good bye, and God be with you-for you will need him."
 Form of concentrated Wealth
 'The trust is the highest form of con- centrated wealth yet known. It is the per lection of the ownership b ythe monied class, of all the fruits of labor, of all the land. The trust meets with universal con- demnation; yet we many observe that Some of those who condemn have the pow CT to destroy the trust, but fail to do so We may observe that the office of attorney general of the United States, through which the trust could be destroyed, has been filled by one who was the governor of New Jersey, the hot-bed and birthplace of trusts, and who was elected and who is owned by the trusts We may observe that those connected with the present national administration, condemn trusts, and yet the power of the adm tnistration to destroy the trusts is not exercised We may re. member that the republican national con vention of 1896 renounced the gold stand ard, and that thereafter the advocates of the gold standard supplied the money with which to buy the election of the nominee of that convent on.
 We may hear from some that they
 oppose the trusts, but favor the gold
 standard. The man who makes this
 declaration is lacking either in inteli-
 gence, or in sincerity. The sincere man
 who thinks will say that it is self-evi-
 dent that he who is opposed to the
 growth of trusts is opposed to the gold
 standard. He who opposes the trusts
 opposes that system without which the
 trusts could not live It does not re-
 quire the stupendous intellect of gold
 standard advocates to understand that
 the less money there is, the easier 1t Is
 to concentrate it, and that the more
 money there is, the more difficult 1t is
 to concentrate it. Even a democrat. with
 the little intelligence credited to him by
 the gold standard advocates, can under
 stand that the denomination of silver
 was one of the steps in that process by
 which it was made possible for the
 trust to come into being Every sup
 porter of a trust and evegy beneficiary