Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1899-04-21
A RINGING LETTER.
BRYAN'S UNANSWERABLE RE-
PLY TO BELMONT.

he DoeS MOI Leave the MaSqIeraoer peg to
! Stand Upon BeImont's Position on Stand.
ard and Paper Money and Income Tax
Briefly Reviewed and Shown to Be Incon.
sistent With Jeffersonian Democracy as Well
as His Own Professions.
Last Saturday Col. Bryan mailed
from Lincoln, Neb., his answer to the
letter received from Perry Belmont
several weeks ago. This letter, for its
brevity, is marvel of comprehensive
ness, and relates solely to the differ
enccs existing between true Democracy
and Mr.. Belmont. 1t is as follows:
LINCOLN, Neb., April 8, 1S99.-Hon.
Perry Belmont, New York. Dear Sir
Upon my return found your letter
containing the original letter and post
script given to the press some days be-
fore. | cannot find anything in my
letter to which you can consistently
object.
"You began your speech in Madi-
son Square garden, on August Is, 1896,
by saying that it was time for plain
speaking and proceeded to accuse the
Chicago Convention of betrayal of
of the Democratic party. In your
Brooklyn speech on September 10,
1856, you spoke of the Chicago plat
form as the strange doctrines born in
Chicago of a coalition between the un-
thinking element of the old party and
the socialists who masquerade rs Pop
ulists.' 1t seems that in using the
word betrayal and masquerade l
unconsciouly fell into the style which
you employed in 1896, but / did not
reflect upon intelligence of the gold
standard advocates by characterizing
them as 'unthinking element
You ask, first, that l point out
wherein your utterances are 'unpatri-
otto, undcmocratic, un.Amcrican and
in conflict with the Democratic creed
as set forth in Jeiferson's first inau.
gural address,.
ave have no accepted standard by
which to determine whether q given
opinion is patriotic or American, but
We have means of determining whether
an opinion is Democratic and in &C.
cord with the teachings of Jefferson.
/ presume you use the word Demo-
cratic in the party sense, otherwise
that term would be as difficult to de-
fine us patriotic or American
"The right to determine what is
Democratic in party sense belongs
to the Democratic party. The Chi
cago convention was more purely rep
resentative than any other convention
held in recent years, because the rank
and file of the party spoke on public
questions through instructed delegates.
The Chicago platform is the latest au-
thoritative definition of Democracy as
applied to existing conditions. If n
minority of the delegates to national
convention representing a minority of
the members of the Democratic party
has right to determine what is DEM
ocratic, then each member of the party
has right to define Democracy for
himself and to assert that he is bet.
ter Democrat than any one else.
Let me apply this principle TO
three questions upon which you have
taken position in the volumes sent
me:
First-Standard money.
Second-Paper money.
Third--Income tax.
Jefferson favored the double stand
ard as against the single gold standard,
and value Of everything else. Money
the master, and everything else the
servant If Mckinley then under
stood the real purpose of the gold
standard as believe he did, who could
think Jefferson capable of advocating
a policy which, instead of securing
equal and exact justice for all, makes
money the master and everything
the servant
Carlisle, in II speech in 1873, said:
"The conspiracy to destroy by legisla-
ton and otherwise from three-sevenths
to one-half the metallic money of the
world is the most gigantic crime of
this or any other age If Mr.. Carl
isle was then right, as l believe he was,
in his denunciation of the gold stand
ard, who can believe Jefferson capable
of being a party to such crime?
"After the election Mr.. Mckinley
sent a commission to Europe to secure
international aid in getting rid OF the
gold standard, and q Republican Con-
gress appropriated money to pay the
expenses of the commission. The COM
mission failed because of the English
opposition, and English opposition was
due to the opposition of English finan-
ciers. JefTersonian Democrats must
have a better reason for submitting to
the gold standard than the fact that
the English financiers favor 1t as u
means for raising the purchasing
power of their money.
al have selected these three ques-
tions because they are important, and
because your position upon them has
been clearly defined. Your speeches
abound in expressions Of confidence in