Western Kansas world. [volume] (WaKeeney, Kan.) 1885-current, 1899-04-22
BRYAN JOINED TO HIS IDOLS.

notwithstanding all the incentive
which Bryan has to profit by his ca
lamities he is a Bourbon to the last.
mo step taken in 1896 shall be re-
traced he says. The suggestion, he
declares, which are made that the
platform of three years ago shall be
given up are made by the Democrats
VINO opposed that platform at that
time. He wants base money, and he
wants it at the old ratio. A change
in the ratio which would bring the
intrinsic value of the silver dollar up
near its nominal value in the coinage
would be, according to Bryan, equiv
alent to transfer by legislation of a
vast amount of wealth from the pro-
ducing classes to the money-owning
classes" This would, in Bryan's view.
increase the purchasing power of
dollar and increase the burden of
debts.''
That is to say, Bryan has Learned
nothing and has forgotten nothing.
He repeats his old folly about the sep
aration of the people of the United
States into certain distinct and fixed
''classes." The interest of each of
these classes is diametrically opposed
to that of the other. He believes
and proclaims that a policy of dishon-
tsty on the part of one class would
benefit one class and advance the in
terests of the country. OF course he
comedies that the other class would
necessarially be injured by that poll
cy, but his excuse would be that that
class deserved to be injured. The
verdict of the people in 1896, by which
his policy of political rascality was
condemned by the country by an over
whelming majority, has no mean ng
for Bryan. He would make the fight
in 1900 on the same issue as that of
1896, plus, perhaps, little more dem
agogy about the trusts, and opposi-
tion to the policy of national eXpan-
sion which the country has accepted.
His reverse three years ago, and the
ridicule which has been heaped upon
him recently by many of his old sup
porters for wanting to tempt fate
again on the old platform, have no
influence for him. Whatever may be
the current issues of the day in 1900
he is determined to give the most
prominent place IN his platform to
the silver question which brought
disaster to him and his party three
years ago
Only one explanation consistent
with belief in his sanity can be adj
vanced for Bryan's Bourbonism, and
that is his knowledge that on the
permanance of silverism as an issue
his political future depends. If sill
yer be dropped in the next Democrat
ic convention he necessarily goes with
it. He is identified with this issue so
completely that he must cling to it
through evil and good report. In hos
tility to trusts, or what the Demo-
cratic demagogues call trusts, he could
be easily outbid by other members of
his party. Mayor Harrison, of Chicago,
for example, who is apparently over
on Bryan's side, Notwithstanding the
hopes of the CrokeriJes to win him to
their faction, is much more .-log-
icaln candidate for the Democracy in
1900 if silver be dropped and hostility
to the combines take the leading
place in the Democratic programme
of campaign. Even if the Democrats |
should be mad enough to give the |
leading place in their platform to the |
isolation policy there is no certainty
that Bryan would be the strongest |
l silver be Knocked out /
or ignored in the Democratic conyen-
ton in 1900 some other man will be |
put up. The certainty that his po- t
litical future is linked with the silver /
policy accounts for the desperation /
and faulty with which Bryan clings
TO dead-an discredited cause.-St. I
Louis Globe-Democrat-