The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1900-02-21
BURTON'S SPEECH
Brilliant Kansan VIII Answer
Bryan Tonight.
Extracts From the Address He
VIII Deliver in Brooklyn.
DISCUSSES BRYANISM.
Calls 1t Composition of Demo-
cratic and POpulist Errors.
Defends Record of Republican
Party on Trust Question.

- N-- - ~-oC ~@SO~AO--~
The following is from the speech Of
J. Ralph Burton which he will deliver
tonight before the Union League club
of Brooklyn, New York:
Organism is a composition of Demo-
cratic and Populistic errors. 1t is
product of fusion. The uniting of par
ties on the same candidate is an un-
natural and unholy alliance that has
produced Organism. Organism is the
mule in politics. 1t kicks, it brays, but
it can not boast of it's ancestry nor take
pride in its posterity. Bryan has been
the greatest champion of fusion In
his own state he dominates the Demo-
crat and Populist parties as well as
that small faction calling itself silver
Republicans. He does not organize
these into one party. That would mean
defeat, but he unites them on the can
didates; that gives a better chance for
victory. With three tickets and one
candidate the more ignorant and preju-
diced voter can be led to believe that
he is voting his principles, while the
per cent of mistakes in marking tickets
alone will turn the scale in close con-
test. The chief element of fusion is
hypocrisy, the assumption of a superior
virtue while practicing deception.
Fusion is more corrupting than the
outright purchase of votes, for the lat
ter is confessedly a pollution of the bal
lot, While the former. under the guise
of virtue, teaches that principle may
be sacrificed for success
"A trait of Bryan is his inordinate
vanity. He has often compared himself
with Lincoln, Jefferson and Jackson,
not, perhaps, in explicit terms, but by
nnRaCSnrW einfnrnnnn no oil
at either of these illustriOus characters
presents Mr.. Bryan only in contrast
But on the 9Th of this month, at Hart
ford, Conn.,, Bryan bounced at one leap,
if We are to believe him, beyond all the
great men of this and all other coun-
tries and landed his personality by the
side of Jesus Christ. In speaking of
himself and Christ, he makes our
Saviour suffer by the comparison as
shown by the following thoughtless, if
not SacI5leg1ouS, utterance: L am con-
servative am more conservative than
Jesus Christ who drove the money
changers out of the temple because
they made it a den of thieves. When
1 want to be severe, I quote the Naz-
arene, who spoke as no man spake. I
quote his words against the f1nancierS
of Hartford. 1.-The wealth of riches,
choketh down the truth 1t is strange
indeed that such a man could be the
idol of a once great political party in
this country. Out in Kansas, where we
try everything, there is a man who is
about to try to edit a daily paper for
one week just as Jesus would have done
were he the editor. Some think that is
| quite an undertaking. But even Kansas
has no man who claims that he could
beat Infinity. Our neighbOring state,
Nebraska, is entitled to whatever dis
tinction she may gain by having a
citizen who has put himself above our
Saviour The POpulist party has dis
covered many strange freaks among
mankind, but this is the first time any
M them a n "a foT
than the Almighty.
THE principal topics Bryan is now
discussing in order to prove that the
/ Republican party has exalted the dollar
above the man, are, an income tax,
trusts or corporations, free silver and
/ Imperialism.
He assumes that an income tax is
| right: that it would take part of the
! burdens of taxation from the backs of
| the poor and place them on the backs
of the rich. Since he relies on state
ment and not argument, I am led to
ask, who is this advocate of an income
| tax?
Has he prophesied about other mat
ters and has the fulfllment of his
/ prophecies shown him to be a prophet
| that has been annOinted? How success
full has he been in making political
| gueSSeS? Can anyone recall a single
/ thing that Bryan said in his campaign
in 1885 that events have not disproved?
| What more does he know about income
! tax than he did about free silver Then
on the other hand what is the tribunal
| that has decided an income tax uncon-
! stitutional; it is the highest judicial
body on earth. Bryan, against the su-
preme court of the United States, ought
to be at a great disadvantage before
! the American people. But we need not
| beg the question. Bryan might be
right for once in his life, and the SUI
| preme court is not infallible.
Adam Smith states the reason why
an income tax is wrong in the following
terse language: 1t is an inquisition in
/ to every mans private circumstances
and an inquisition which, in order to
accommodate the tax to them, watched
/ over all the fluctuations of his fortune.
would be a source of such continual and
! endless Vexation as no people could Sup-
/ port" It is the rule that men do not
make objection to an inquiry about
! what property they own; they, as a rule,
| do not conceal it; they are proud for
! people to know of their hOldingSS a
man will not conceal the fact that he
owns a block of buildings or a block of
bonds or stocks: the only reason for
/ hiding his property is to escape taxa
/ ton or debts. But every man resents
/ an inquiry about his income. He feels
] that is his own private business, about
which the public has no concern; it is
an inquisition into his private affairs
/ that he naturally resents. The actor
demands that his salary shall be deliv-
cred him in a sealed envelope; the far
rner as readily would resent an inquiry
about his income; the business man
may be carrying burdens that an in
come tax would reveal to the public and
ruin him, while If he is not molested he
will pull through: may have neglected
| the mana cement of my affairs, and my
! income is far less than it should be, but
I do not want it known; the man of
thrift may be getting larger income
4 than would be possible if it was known
hence he will not tell what it is An
income tax would not add to the reve-
nues. For every man who would con-
ceal property to avoid taxation there
| would be hundred who would conceal