The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1899-09-05
a REPUBLIcAN VIEW.
J. J. ingalls, Writes of Bryan and the
Political Situation.

The monarch of the twentieth CEN
fury viii be the merchant. The desti-
| MES of the world will be decided in the
/ counting house, not in the council cham
| Der of kings. The syndicate will super
| sede the dynasty, and crowns, sceptres,
/ stars, garters, pedigrees and the tinsel
millinery of titles will go to the trash
/ pile where they belong.
History will be written in ledgers and
| on check stubs, and government will be
| a matter of balance sheets and book
/ keeping. The wars of the future, peace
ful or bloody, will be for trade, and not
for traditions.
The world already smiles derisively
at emperorS, princes, dukes and lords
They are anachrOnisms. They seem
like harlequins in a pantomime for vii
I layers. The pretensiOns of Kaiser
/ Wilhelm are parody on medtaeVal1Sn
+ that would excite mirth in comic opera
/ Is it possible to imagine an existence
/ more intOlerable to a man Of honor,
spirit, ambition and sensibility than
that of the Prince of Wales? A beggar,
/ inextrIcaDly involved in dishOnOfable
( debts, and dependent upon public char
( ity; a libertine, q gambler, a FRIVOLOUS
4 idler, waiting to become king of Eng
/ land by the death or abdication OF his
I mother.
/ If possible it must be worse than be
( ing vice president of the United States
The Democratic spirit. by abOlishing
prescription, substituting indiVidualsm
for absOlutism, equality for privilege,
and eleVating the prOletariat to Supre-
macy in the state, has reVolutiOnized
: society and changed the functions of
1 government
/ The emancipated mind, stimulated by
/ education and rendered intrepid by lib
/ erty, has subjugated nature, and by in
vention and machinery doubled the
/ working capacity of the human race.
/ Each of the four great civilized powers
! France, Germany, England and the
! United States-is producing more food
and commodities than it can consume,
4 and must find purchasers for its sur
+ plus, or curtaH business, reduce wages,
! discharge workmen and fall in at the
rear of the procession.
This is the secret of the partition of
/ China, of the conquest of Africa, of the
| Siberian railroad, of the agitation in
/ the Orient.
/ It is a contest for industrial and COM
mercial supremacy. Civilization is on
trial, and we have more to gain and
more to lose than either of our cOmpe-
( titors. This is the appointed time. Ten
/ years hence it will be too late The
( game will be made. 1t is easy to say
/ that American genius and enterprise
/ will conquer the markets of the world,
but Spain kept our products out of
! Cuba for a century by hostile tariffs,
and this exclusion had quite as much to
! do with bringing on the war as SYM
pathy for the victims of Spanish tyran-
ny.
Governor Morton, of Indiana, when
sarcastically upbraided by his enemies
! IOr inconsistency was accustomed TO
retOrt that there were but two classes
of citizens who never changed their
! OpiniOnS-thOse in idiot aSylumS and
those in the cemeteries. This was not
| perhaps strictly philOsophic, but it had
a kernel of truth. 1t is impossible for
a political leader, in the constantly
] changing conditions of a nations daily
/ life, to maintain absolutely immutable
/ opinions upon all subjects affecting the
public welfare. What is right at one
/ time may be wrong at another-nOt in
| morals, but in policy. s'Tempora mu-
/ tantum or nos in ills mutamur' is as
| true now as when it was written.
! Policies, too, are generally tentative
! and experimental, and must be judged
and measured by results. If beneficent,
| they will be approved; If injurious, re-
! jected.
| Could the problems of reconstruction
/ be presented now for solution in the
/ light of the experience of the past thir-
| ty years, there would be immense and
/ fundamental notifications. MI. Bryan
| appears to be in awe of his fame. He
seems to fear that if he does not wear
| the same clothes and say the same
4 things in the same way about the same
/ subjects as in his famous presidential
! campaign he may be suspected of
| fckleneSS and feeble vacillatiOn.
No human composition, perhaps, is of
| less Importance and consequence than
/ political platform, unless it may be
! the menu of a subterranean cOOkshop:
J but Mr.. Bryan habitually refers to the
/ Chicago platform as if it had the sane
/ tity of the Decalogue and. the Sermon
/ on the Mount, and insists on the &C
| ceptance of the dogma of Is to 1 as in
/ dispensable to political salvation.
! The Modern WOodmen of America
/ had a picnic and cakeWalk at St Marvs
/ Kan, recently, at which Mr.. Bryan,
/ who is making his annual tour of the
! provinces, appeared as one of the prin-
/ cipal attractions for a fee as the pa
/ pers stated, of $3.50. From ST. Marys
| he went to Upton, No, to speak for
| Judge Shackleford, whom the Demo-
/ Gratis nominated for congress as the
| successor of the 1amented Bland.
/ He made the same speech on both
! occasions, and, returning from Upton
! was interviewed at Kansas, City, where
/ he reiterated his devotion to free silver
and the Chicago platform, with hos
! tility to Imperialism, militarism and
/ trusts added thereto At Upton Mr.
| Bryan rubbed against the shins of the
/ Populists and purred very gently,
I urging mutual belief in silver as q rea-
I son why they should combine with
/ Democrats in support of ShackIeford
but his appeals lacked the ferVid re-
/ Spouse of former occasions.
/ The Populist has been to the barber
/ this year He has had the hayseed
| combed out of his hair and his chin
/ whiskers vandyked. He wears a collar
and a four-in-hand. He has had a.
/ shine, and his trousers are outside his
! boots. When he takes the middle n
| the road it is in a Columbus buggy will
J a pair of cObs and a knot of blue ribbon
on his whipstOck. He has paid off the
mortgage on his farm and has bal
ance in the bank He has wheat in the
/ bin, and corn ripening in the field. and
punch OF 1at cattle in the pasture
Ihlngs 90 not look to him as they did
IN 20 AdVerslty was harsh school
IfhnaStef. DuC prosperity has not been
WITHOUT It's instruction. He has begun
70 discover that, Notwithstanding the
CRIME OF 1853, the gold standard and
kmonometallism, something has scat
[ tered plenty Ger a smiling land
1t has dawRed above the horizon of
his intelligence that if the farmer has
grain. and beef and pork to sell the per
capita is not important He sees dim
/ IL fnat be 70 IL.