The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1900-09-22
HER IDOL HAS TUMBLED
MRS. LEASE NO LONGER ADMIRES
WILLIAM JENNINGS BRYAN.
His Anti-Expans Talk IL the Cop
perheadism of the Sixties-She
Is Now for Mckinley.

CHICAGO, Sept. 21-Mrs. Mary Elizabeth
Lease, formerly of Kansas but now of
New York, yesterday announced formally
that she is going TO take the stump for
Mckinley. Roosevelt and expansion. She
is at the Palmer House having confer
ence with Senator Hanna at the Republican
headquarters. incidentally she took oc-
casion to pay her compliments to Mr. Bry-
an, Mr.. Stevenson and the Democratic
party in general. She will not begin her
campaign work until she has finished a
course of ten lectures under a contract
with the Redpath Lyceum Bureau. but
this engagement will soon be disposed Of
and then Mrs. Lease will proceed to set
the prairies of Kansas and Nebraska afire
with her eloquence.
'I with the Republican party now,'
she said. primarily for the reason that
as 1 take IL the issue has resolved itself
into the old issue of apprehension versus
Republicanism, and as the daughter of an
old Union soldier I feel that my place is
with the Republican party. The Demo-
cratic party is still anchored to the obso-
lete and worm-eaten doctrine of State
struction purely, with no issue except that
of retrogression and opposition to Repub-
licanism.
Mr.. Bryan-well. though him a sincere
man four years ago, a man devoted TO a
principle and with the courage to maintain
it in the face of all opposition. But, alas,
events have forced me TO the sorrowful
conclusion that my erstwhile idol is simply
an ordinary man with an abnormally de-
veloped presidential bee in his bonnet.
whose seductive huns have made him for
get principle, consistency and duty to his
country and fellow-man.
has ri y6N hn1fA d,
his sincerity four years ago to compare his
fearless and consistent utterances then
with his cheap demagogism of to-day. i
have even heard some of his followers say
that his present speeches did not seem to
ring as true as those of four years ago, and
that he failed to impress them as he did
then. This is simply due to the fact he is
talking what he does not believe in his Sc
cret heart.
..At the same time, 1 do not believe he
has any great hope Of succeeding this year.
His game is to become one of the new SEN
ators from Nebraska, believing he can in
this way keep himself before the public eye
until the elections four years hence. He is
going to remain in Nebraska during the
greater part of the campaign for this rea-
son. and from what | know already Of
resolution is a wise one, for the people of
that State are not with him In his anti
expansion policy. They are for expansion
because they realize the manifest benefits
but to the whole country.
ITO my mind this anti-expansion or AL
legged imperialism policy OF the Democratic
Marty presents the most unpatriotic un-
american unwise issue from a purely ma :
terial point of view that has ever come
before the people of this country. There
is, of course, one exception, the issue pre-
scented in 81, but il is the same old spirit,
the same old copperheadism of that day
which is now demanding the Endorsement
of the American people. Expansion has
come as a natural development and has
come to stay. The people of Nebraska and
the West generally are progressive, intelli-
gent people. and they are not with Mr..
BRYAN on this issue. Neither are they
frightened by his "bogy of miitarisn,
which he is trotting out for the spiritual
delectation of the German-Americans He
is not making the impression on their minds
he thinks he is when he talks about the
hardships 1t is working on their fellow
countrymen at home.
II hear Adlai Stevenson spoken of as a
real nice old gentleman, and / presume he
is but remember him as one of those who
were firing on our troops in the rear I'm the
stormy days of 81, a Knight of the Golden
Circle and he seems to be at his old tricks
now. | tell you this so-called anti-imperial-
istie fight of to-day Is simply a counterpart
of the comprehend fight of 81. and, as then
il was the Republican party which was
fighting In the front ranks with a Demo-
cratic enemy both in front and in the rear
so ii is now. don't believe the American
PEOPLE are going at this late date TO change
front on this question: