Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1899-04-20
BRYAN TO BELMONT.
The Silver Leader Reviews fractional
Differences ON Questions OF
Party Policy.

Party Policy.
Col. w. J Bryan has sent his answel
to the latest letter received from Perry
Belmont some weeks ago. The cor
respondence thus far has dealt largely
with the rival Jefferson dinners to bs
held in New York, but Mr.. Bryan nov
ignores that matter and devotes his
attention to the differences existing be
tween himself and Mr.. Belmont or
questions of democratic party policy
His letter in part follows:
Lincoln, Neb., April 8. Perry Belmont
| S55 Fifth avenue, New York. Dear Sir.
ter containing the original letter and post
| script given to the press some days before
| I cannot find anything in my letter to which
you can consistently object.
MY letter was much more conservative
| in tone than the editorials and resolutions
| directed against you by the democrats of
| your own state in 1896. In your book, vol
ume 5, page 10, you reproduce an editorial
| which appeared in the Brooklyn Citizen of
| October s. 1896 That editorial was more
| severe in its condemnation of you than the
| New York Journal editorial from which you
/ quoted in your letter, and yet, instead OF
| suing the Citizen, you contented yourself
| with furnishing evidence to show that
| money question.
You ask, first, that point out wherein
your utterances are 'unpatriotic, un-demo-
| cratic, un-American, and in conflict with
| the democratic creed set forth in Jeffer-
| sons first inaugural address. We have no
accepted standard by which to determine
whether a given opinion is patriotic or
American, but we have means of determin-
ing whether an opinion is democratic and
in accord with the teachings of Jefferson.
the word 6amNPra tic in
the party sense. otherwise that term would
! be as difficult to define patriotic or
American
1.-THE right to determins what is demo-
cratic in a party sense belongs to the demo-
cratic party. The Chicago convention was
more purely representative than any other
convention held in recent years, because
the rank and file of the party spoke on pub
lie questions through instructed delegates.
The Chicago platform is the latest author
itative definition of democracy as applied
to existing conditions. If minority OF
the delegates to a national convention. rep
resenting a minority of the members of the
democratic party, has a right to deter
mine what is democratic, then each men,
Der of the party has a right to define democ-
racy for himself and to assert that he is a
better democrat than anyone else.
ffLet me apply this principle to three
questions upon which you have taken po-
sition in the volumes sent me-first, stand
ard money: second, paper money; third,
income tax.
Jefferson favored the double standard
as against the single gold standard, and
during his administration our nation had
the free and unlimited coinage of gold and
silver at the legal ratio of fifteen TO one.
The ratio was changed to sixteen to one
during JackSon's admfnistrat ton. The Chi
cago platform pronounced against the gold
standard and in favor of the return to the
free and unlimited coinage Of gold and sill
yer at the ratio of sixteen to one, without
waiting for the aid or consent of any other
nation. As a delegate to the Chicago con-
vention you voted for a minority report
which declared against independent free
coinage on the ground that it would not
only imperil our finances. 'but would re-
tard or entirely prevent international BIZ
netallisn. to which the effort of the gov
eminent should be steadily directed AS
a delegate to the Indianapolis convention
two months later you supported a platform
which declared in favor of the gold stand
ard without any declaration in favor of in
ternatiOnal bimetallism. You may be able
to explain why the minority rejected at
Indianapolis the plank for which it fought
at Chicago.
''cIr Mckinley, in 1891, charged In a pub
Tic speech that Mr.. Cleveland during his
first administration was dishonoring one of
the precious metals, discrediting silver and
enhancing the price of gold. He insisted
that Mr.. Cleveland was trying to make
money scarce and therefore dear and
added: He would have increased the value
of money and diminished the value of
everything else. Money the master and
everything else the servant If Mr.. Nc
Kinley theI understood the real purpose of
the gold standard, as believe he did. who
could think Jefferson capable Of advocat-
ing a policy which, instead of securing
equal and exact justice for all, makes
money the master and everything else the
servant?'
"After the election Mr.. Mckinley sent a
commission to Europe to secure interna-
tional aid in getting rid of the gold stand
ard, and republican congress appropriate
ed money to pay the expenses of the COM
mission. The commission failed because Of
English opposition, and English opposition
was due to the opposition of English finan-
ciers. Jeffersonian democrats must have
a better reason for submitting to the gold
standard than means for raising the pur-
chasing power Of their money.
81 have selected these three questions be-
cause they are important and because your
position upon them has been clearly de-
fined. Your speeches abound in express
sions of confidence on the gold standard,
your correspondence with Mr.. Warner sets
forth your opposition to the income tax,
and a newspaper item, quoted in your book,
gives you credit for drafting that portion Of
the Indianapolis platform which related to
the retirement of the greenbacks and the
of bank currency.
Your prophecy that "a law to prevent
wage earners and salary earners from de-
ana securing payment IN Soid DOL
lars would not be winning issue evinceS
tender solicitude for the laboring man. I
might suggest that bimetallism alarms you
more than it does the wage-earners. It was
not the employees who were frightened at
The specter of free silver in 1896. Neither
did the laboring man share your desire to
add to the privileges of the banks. On De-
cember 90 1897, a year after the election, the
of Labor adopted the following
Resolved, That we declare ourselves
most positively opposed to the Gage fnan-
cial bill recently introduced in congress by
the secretary of the treasury. 1t is a
measure that, If adopted a law, will only
he more firmly rivet the gold standard on
the people of the country and perpetuato
It's disastrous effects in every form.
Resolved, That we pronounce the Gage
bill an undisguised effort to retire our
yreenback currency and all government pa |
per money, with view to the substitution |
IF national bank notes in their stead, and |
-hus fasten the national bank system Cor |
years upon the American people,
81 am not willing to believe that you are |
more interested in the laboring men than |
hey in themselves, or that You know |
better than they what is GOOD fo- them. |
Yours truly, w. J. Bki AM