Iowa state bystander. [volume] (Des Moines, Iowa) 1894-1916, 1900-07-20
Former Comptroller Of the Cur
rency Under President Cleve
land Speaks Plainly.
Says Bryan Is United for the Presi
dencv and Misconstrues Cur
rency Laws. ..-1.
EavOrs McKinIey's Policies and Will
Do All in His Power to
Elect Him.

under President lleVelanu, ana Is now
one of the most successful business
men in Chicago, the head of one of
it's largest financial institutions, has
announced that he will oppose Bryan
with all his might. In the course of
an interview in the Times Herald he
says:
II did not support Mr. Bryan in 1885,
and don't intend to now. L shall oppose
his election this year with all the vigor
and ability I possess l do not feel that
I could stand to my convictions by re-
naming merely passive and contenting
myself with simply voting against him.
Bryan the Issue.
mo issue set forth in any platform,
no matter how cunningly devised and
arranged, in this campaign can be made
paramount to the issue of Mr.. Bryan
himself. his erroneous views of public
questions, his numerous vagaries and his
demonstrated desire to find popularity
and votes in a never absent appeal to
class prejudices and supposed race
hatredS. e.
Il am still democrat, If believing in
democratic principles correctly inter-
preted and properly enforced as an agency
for good constitutes true democracy; but
I am not one if the utterances of the
platform adopted at Chicago four years
since. and just reaffirmed and reem-
phasized at Kansas City are the right
full expression of what modern democ-
racy stands for.
Isms Of POpulfsm.
"The many isms of populism were alb
horrent four years since to my sense OF
what was safe and sound in the opera
tons of government and the general well
being of the people, because l viewed
them as being fundamentally wrong, and,
being so, neither lapse of time nor errors
of the party in power reconcile me to
their adoption or make 1t possible that
l should support candidate VINO not
only approves of them, but is their best
embodiment and most vigorous champion.
II have not read all of Mr.. Bryan's ut
terances during the past four years, but
l have taken note of enough of them to
know that his views have not changed
on any important question since 1896,
and his determination to stir up class
strife is not less manifest. Throughout
all his addresses, public and private, Is
shown uniformly an apparent pleasure In
prea ching the desirability of discord be-
tween employee and employer. class and
class. No appeal ever comes from him
which is not tinged with advice to those
who must work to distrust those who
must employ.
Harmful to Labor.
"All this is not only un-American, but
1t is unjust, unfair and harmful most of
all to the laborer. for whose we'll being
beyond all others 1t Is necessary that
complete harmony between capital and
labor and not continual antagonism
should exist. The interests of labor are
never in such great jeopardy as when
intrusted to a man who has the gift OF
oratory coupled with unbounded polit-
ical ambition and no business judgment
or training.
mo man is fitted for the presidency
who day in and day out proclaims. in the
midst of a demonstrated better condi-
| ton of affairs, the reverse to be true in
| order to foment a discomfort, which Will
| gain to himself and party political ad-
| vantage.
Ignorant or blind.
"Mr. Bryan, without the craftsmanship
to analyze the conditions as they exist
and find remedy therefor. gives utter
ance to nothing that would Improve them,
| but only to that which would make them
worse and cause greater injury to the
great mass of the people. whose fate he
constantly bewails. l do not believe in
| the public value of any man who Is, un-
| der any and all circumstances, fault
finder and mere protester against all ex'
| listing order of things.
Effect ON Gold BASIS.
IF elected president the public must be
prepared to see Mr.. Bryan as chief ex'
ecutive apd those associated with him as
| cabinet cOunselors construe every law
bearing upon the currency ana the pow
ers of the treasury department in sucf
| manner as to nullify as best they car
its provisions in so far as they bear upor
the question of the maintenance OF the
! gold standard.
HE can and will keep the country in
state of ferment and uncertainty In al
attempt to bring about the larger US use
of silver as a redemptive money. me
experiment Is too dangerous a one to Of
entered upon by any on the grounds ina,
the gold standard Is so fixed in law tina
it cannot be disturbed, no matter who
treasury. The law ought to be executed
with construction favorable to 1t tt
fully carry out its provisions and not ir
manner antagonistic to them.
Bryan and Recent War.
ut will hardly do for any sound none!
man to support Mr.: Bryan because OF
supposed better position he occupies thar
Mr.. Mckinley on the question of colonia
possessions, despite his worse position o.
the question Of the monetary STANDARD
! law, and the right of private contract
Mr.. Bryan's position can hardly be
satisfactory one on an ANALYSIS OF any
thing growing out of the Spanish war.
He and his friends, in order to put tn
administration to political disadvan
tage. urged on the declaration of wal
with Spain and when it was over Mr.
Bryan, personally DIT Washington, through
personal advice and solicitation, brough
into line a sufficient number Of demo
cratic senator's to ratif KIT the treaty rrnEde,
, for the purchase and taking sovereign
possession Of Porto Rico and the Ph tIs
: them any home government whatso
ever. The evils and burdens OF the pres
ent moment growing out of the !Spanisl
war are to be laid as much at the dool
of MI: Bryan and his party as at that
Mr.. Mckinley and his. The whole thini
reflects credit upon neither.
Policy ON Philippines.
, II imagine that self-government vii
} come quite as readily through the ad
2 ministration of Mr. Mckinley as through
Z that of Mr.. Bryan. 1t will not come un
der either until the Philippines are fitte'
for 1t, property rights safe and persona
: ones protected. hardly believe MI
Bryan could do more than send com
mission there, as the president has done
n order to take steps looking to sup