The Washington weekly post., 1900-09-11

promises sbouid Be judged hy the way the rsst
events have squares sith his pruphery. The event
shswed that voting for the Rspahlicsn ticket put
al e55 ts hard times
We have been hearing good asal recently OF
Mr. BFysn's statement that he wanted TO put
the before the dollar and not the dollar be-
fore tie nan" There are certain conditions 70
which such statement might Apply but Il car
not possibly apply to the present conditions As
things are nov. /; can best b compared with Mr.
Bryan's ether statement of September ~. 1926. In
which he denounced the gold dollar as 'rohber
dollar One statement meant Just much as the
other and more Instead o. bothsriRg about
whether the naa Is aksad Of the dollar the dol
lar Is ahead Of the man. or whether the gold dol
lar Is ''robheT-'-vhstsvsr that nay meaR-or
anything else prepos,erOHs. let rs sI our aitsHtion
on the fact that the policy followed For the last
three years has resulted in bringing the man and
the aalIar together.
In his speeches MF. Bryan kept insisting upon
the alleged fact that money growing dearer
that under A gold standard Il bound to con-
time 10 grow searcer. Well. matter OF faet.
and thanks 20 our prosperity there is more money
in circulation per capita tn the United States to-
dsy than ever before in the history Of the country.
Every single prediction he has made has been
falsiHsd By the event. On October - he said.
ssTbese are hard tines They will be harder times
he said. III you ask how the gold standard az
fects tse farmer We tell you that the gold standard
lowers the price Of products OF him who sells
wirhou, lowering his taxes or debts II you ask us
how TIE gold standard Affects the lab0ring man.
we reply that il destroys the opportunity for labor
muItipIies the number Of idle men. and hls our
streets with those anxious for work Who cannot
find the opportunity. The gold standard BY In
ereasinz idleness brings poverty to those who
ought TO have enough and 10 spare" On October
. ne said: The gold standard means dearer
dollar and falling prices. and falling prices mean
hard times" On October he said; II We have
a gold standard prices are as certain to fall as
a s,one which is thrown in the air. l do not
have 70 comment on these prophecies. Their lu-
dicrous falsity is patent 20 every farmer, every
business man. every wage-yoTkeT.
Now. when utterances such I have quoted
represent the fine flower of a statesman's thought
as TO what is best for a country from an eco
nomieal and financial standpoint, the country is
itself blame II II invites disaster by giving him
chance TO put his theories into effect. Remem-
ber that all these statements / have quoted were
made absolutely without qualification. Our op-
Donents eock-sure about the gold dollar be-
ing ''robber'' dollar four years ago as they are
about what they are pleased to term ''militarism
and Imperialism at the present day. and their
utterances mean 10 more now than they meant
then
Ne. Bryan seems at the moment uneasiy cor
sci1us that there is sfmething very wrong with
his proposed financial policy. and talks very little
about IL: but he tas definitely committed himself
10 II, and the various COW Ltions that nominated
him have reiterated their belief in all the absurd
and exploded theories which he ehampioned four
years ago. Unless our Opporents guilty OF the
greatest hypocrisy, a hypocrisy great As 20 de-
priy5 them Of the right appeal to any straight
forward and sincere man. they must If they carry
the election Immediately start In to revolutIonize
our whole financial system. and begin a series Of
experiments with II dustrial welI-being which
could only result in the most widespread disaster
No body Of men who have made such prophecies
opponents made in 1896 and who have seen
them fasined so signaly by the result. have a
right 10 appeal TO the public to be put in any
POSITION OF responsibility Even if they recant
their foolish heresies. they ought to serve an
apprenticeship before they expect people 10 trust
than: and, until they do reeant-outright and not
merely by attempts at evasion-nO single promise
they make. no single plsn they propose for the So
luton OF any problem which confronts us is en-
titled to the consideration OF patriotic and far
sighted men. ~
II Is terrible and most lsmentabIe truth that
our soldiers who are ia, ng death in the Phil
ippines forced to recognize in the Brvanis,ic
Democracy their most dangerous foe | need not
repeat the oft-quoted words of Gen. Lawton The
outlets that slay our mtn in Luzon are inspired
Oy the denouncers o America here. No TagaI gen
erai' not Aguinado himself, can do so much 10
proions the nghtlng. can do much TO increase
the oloodshed of American and Filipino alike as
has been done BY the Kansas City Convention.
have shown you how little Mr.. Bryan's utter
snees in the past have squared with the facts and
1t Is exactly as true to-day. when he and the
makers of the Kansas City platform talk of i'm
perialism or militarism. One reason that makes it
difficult to seriously argue either question is that
so far as know. there is no man in the United
States who believes in either Imperialism or mill
| tarism Tney are pure phantsms of an even more
shadowy and intangible quality than the iniQuitous
iropber gold dollar which disturbed Mr. Bryan
so much four years ago. The regular army is not
nearly as numerous. relatively to the whole popu-
lation, as is the New York police force relatively
to the population OF New York; and 1t is literally
as absurd to predicate militsrism or imperialism
on the size of the army as It would be to see in
the number Of policemen a menace 10 personal lib
erty. There is no more chance of a draft TO hll
one body than to hll the other, and there is even
less chance in the case of the army that it will
be used against our freedom.
There is not the least little danger Of imperial
ism, and there IS not dividing line OF any kind
TO be drawn between our methods OF expansion in
1898 and 1888 and the methods Of expansion under
which We acquired Michigan, Illinois Florida
Louisiana, Minnesota, Missouri, Oregon California
Hawaii, and Alaska. Mr. Bryan has recently
spoken OF as having purchased the Philippines
at 81 so head. treating IL analogous to buying
slaves at ST. 600 head. II seems impossible that
such statement could be made unless as a Jest
Mr.. Bryan must know that the Philippines were
mia. and Alaska were paid for The FiIipinos
were no more purchased than were the individual
dwellers in New Orleans st. Augustine, Santa Fe.
and sitka. II the Fiipinos we're purchased at so
much head by President Mckinley then the in
habitants OF Louisiana were purchased by JEFF
ferson, and the chrstianized hslf-esstes of Alaska
were so purchased by Seward.
| Mr.. Bryan and his associates cannot say enough
about the consent OF the governed doctrine as
! applying TO the Philippines They dwell upon
the fact that mo man Is good enough TO govern
another" In North Carolina and other Southern
! States sec before our eyes the process Of the
disfrsnchisement Of the negro. We see before our
eyes the black man governed without his consent
1 by the white man. Be IL remembered too that
the men thus disfranchised have always been NJ
Brysn's felloW-citZens. most Of them born as free
as he was born. II our opponents are sincere they
must necessarily denoCnee what has been done in
North Carolina with more bitterness than
they have shown in denouneing what has been
I done in the Philippines
The policy Of the Kansas city platform is a
policy Of economic disaster anG financial dishonor
I al home and Of unworthy shrinking from duty
abroad; and We appeal to all honest. fsr-seeHg.
brave and patriotic men. North South, East Or
West, whatever their political sfaiIation may have
been in the past. to stand with us now against the
! men who would bring such abuse and misery upon
+ our country. and 20 support uphold the
I cause OF honesty AMI Of Industrial well-beng At
( home and the honor Of the American Gag In The
/ face of all the peoples Of the earth.
TAKES BRYAN tn Task