The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1900-04-01
destiny stand today as mournful and
filapidated witnesses
.HaIf Devil and Half Child"

No treatment of the extraordinary
speeches OF Mr.. Bryan can be so ade-
quate as to set his words before our
people In cold type. They are their own
best antidote. II man should say that
Seattle Is built mile below sea level,
and that the waters Of the Pacific are
about to break in and engulf 1t, argu-
nIent would be bootless. Not less ex-
travagant are the statements of Mr..
Bryan, who seems to throw away an
other restraint of reason and sanity
with every mile that he covers in his
wild flight. At Spokane he said:
The war against Aguinaldo is one of SUBJ
jugation, which will result in turning
American bayonets against American
breasts in furtherance OF the imperialistic
policy of the national administration.
This is mere sound and fury. Does
any sane hearer of Mr.. Bryan believe 1t
any more than he would the rawlings Of
a mailman? Does Mr. Bryan believe one
word Of it himself?
and aristocrats praying for the success Of
the Republican party.
There is an echo of the faubourg and
the sansculotte about this; and indeed
the rhetoric of Mr.. Bryan would be
more appropriate for a beer-hall social
st meeting in some European capital
than for an assembly OF thinking Amer
lean freemen. II is he who has caught
the faint OF absolutism; OF the reckless
ness, violence and appeal to baseness
that It engenders.
Wien the rich want the constitution
amended. they have only to secure de-
cision of the supreme court
There speaks the gospel of the Chi
cago platform. What think the people
of that shameless charge?
II you plant a despotism under the flag
in the Orient, you can only expect that
the soldiers sent across the Pacific will
return. and you people on the Pacific
coast will first feel their bayoneta
I have come all the way from my Ne
braska home to try to impress upon the
people of Washington the dangers OF an
imperialistic party. warn you that
when you send soldiers across the seas
and accustom them to bloodshed, they will
return In time. and turn their guns
against you In order to enforce the doc
trines Of an imperial government which
are now advocated by the Republican
party.
The work Of giving freedom. educa-
ton and complete local self government
70 hn lnA tp xsxhi 1H 80
pledged and to which our bravest and
best are consecrated, Is planting a des-
potism.' In the companion picture Mr.
Bryan surpasses himself The image of
the First Washington regiment. for in
stance. bayoneting their friends and
families under orders from Mr.. McKin-
ley. provokes not so much amazement
or anger as inextingulshable laughter.
This fellow is only a transformer, ar
ter all
The policy OF the Republican party Is as
tyrannical, despotical and damnabe as
that OF any despot of ancient or modern
times.
The Republicans say; God help the
rich; the poor can work"
No man and no party has anything
to fear from opposition such as this.
Those Democrats who retain reason and
respect for the deccncies of thought and
speech must tsrithe under the lashings
of self-respect as they sit upon the plat
form with this man and call him leader.
His sympathy with the Malay seems to
have impaired to him some likeness to
a people whom kipling called "hals
devil and half child,