The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1899-09-13
THE SOUTH PUTS PRINCIPLE FIRST.

4 almost everybody WHO goes 10 New IoIh
| falls in line with the provincial spiri;
that dominates that metropolis. Here
| is Mr.. Willis b. Dowd of North Caro-.
| lima birth, who writes like most other
| New Workers, losing sight Of facts in
| the acceptance of the New Yock creed.
| In Sundays Charlotte Observer he has
| communication more than Il column
| long against the denomination of Mr..
| Bryan. To show how utterly wrong
Mr.. Dowd is in his conception of Mr..
Bryan, we quote:
His (Bryan's) main idea is that Il war
to the death on wealth is the supreme
need Of the hour"
Now, there is no man who knows Mr..
Bryan who believes anything OF the
kind about him. Mr. Dowd accepts
New York SANDER of the Nehraskan for
the truth. His North Carolina mother
wit should have taught him better. The
truth is that Mr.. Bryan's main idea"
is that every dollar of honestly acquired
wealth must be sacredly protected. He
is a conservative man who does not be-
lieve in war on wealth, and he neither
makes nor countenances such war. As
President, the legitimate business enter
prises and all wealth honestly employed
wonld be safer under Mr.. Bryan than
under any man who has been in the
White House in a quarter of a century.
lit is not wealth against which Mr..
Bryan wars to the DEATH" 1t is
against the dishonest and illegal uses
which some men make of wealth that
Mr. Bryan wars; for example, he wars
against that use of wealth which COM
PEELED Cleveland to give the bond issue
to one firm whereby j. Pierpont Nor
gans concern made twenty million dol
lars which belonged to the people, that
use of wealth which organizes trusts to
rob the people, that use of wealth which
bought the election of 1896, and that
use of wealth that puts brains and labor
at a discount.
The South is getting much gratuitous
advice these days about its foolhardiness
in sticking to its old creeds. We are
told that unless we repudiate Bryan and
the Chicago platforms, the Democrats
cannot win in 1900. II this We're true,
has anybody shown how the party can
win in any other way? If SO, we have
failed to see it. The Southern Demo
Gratis are anxious for success and ready
to make any honorable sacrifice to
achieve it. They would abandon Mr..
Bryan any day if by so doing they could
succeed in placing as good and more
available Democrat in the White
House who would be brave enough to
throttle the trusts, and gold monome-
talism, and stop the war of conquest in
the Philippine Islands. 1t is not men
that the South cares about. 1t is prin-
ciples. The Southern Democrats prefer
Mckinley in the White House to Cleve-
land Why? Because if Republican
policy is to he carried out they prefer it
to be carried out by Republican.
Clevelandism differs in nothing upon
trusts, money, and the use of soldiers
to oyerawe the people from Mckinley
ism In other particulars it is immense
ly better, but when Cleveland was Presi-
dent nothing Democratic emanated from
the White House. The same men who
dominated the Treasury Department
now. dominated it then. The scandal of
trusts free from prosecution existed
then as now Everything was subordin-
ated then as now to the interests of
those corporations that fatten illegally
upon the masses.
If Mr. Dowd can point out a way to
Democratic victory that will carry out
Democratic policies, the South will
listen to him. 1t will listen to no
more detraction OF Mr. Bry-
an and no scheme to win on a platform
like that of 1892 that made the victory
worse than defeat The South will not
go into the struggle merely for offices.
1t will demand policies that do not per-
nat the few to monop0lize the fruits of
labor. 1t is because it knows that Mr..
Bryan has the courage to carry out the
Democratic creed that it supports him,
and not merely because it admires him
personally