The McCook tribune. (McCook, Neb.) 1886-1936, 1900-10-12
What the Nebraskan Threatened
to Do in His Campaign
Speeches Of 1896.
The Issue Now as It Was Then,
Prosperity and National
Honor.
Attack on the Gold Standard and Def
ance Of the Supreme
Court.

b1c pO"CI HlICH ID an ihISht 40
president TO nullify the gold standard
law, if so disposed. Mr.. Bryan has
pledged himself in pubic speeches to
use every power. regular and irreg-
LAular, direct and indirect, to force the
country upon a silver basis, if he is
elected president.
Bryan gives in his book the full text
of his speech in the campaign of 1896
to the business men of Chicago. In the
report of this speech, since cody and
deliberately embodied in his book. on
page 5S7, he says:
And then / propose that we shall
say to our foreign creditors that we in
tend to pay our coin obligations in
either god or silver. l propose that
we shall say to them: Gentlemen, if
you conspire to make that silver dol
lar less than the gold dollar, we shall
pay you in that silver dollar.
Bryan proposed a policy which was
to be followed. not because of any
supposed benefit to the country, but
solely to ecure revenge upon the for
eign bondholder. He did not stop to
consider the question of saving off
the limb on which the country is sit
ting and starting it down toward a sill
yer basis by paying interest in silver.
In view of Mr.. Bryan's threat to
have it out with the bondhoiders ]" is
significant to know that the threat of
striking them over the shoulders of
labor and industry was not confined to
M speech or one occasion. Many
times in the campaign he reiterated his
determination to resort to extreme and
even circuitous and irregular measures
to attack the gold standard. Thus in
his speech at Philadelphia (report on
page AIT of his book he boldly de-
clared:
II have said hat if there was any
body who believed the maintenance of
the gold standard absolutely essential,
he ought not to vote for me at al. If
1 can prevent the maintenance of the
gold standard, you can rely upon me
doing it upon the very first opportunity
that the people will give me-"
1t was no mere slip of the tongue
which caused Mr.. Bryan to speak of
attacking the gold standard by irreg-
ular and eXtra-legal means. In an eX-
traordinary speech made at Ottumwa,
Ia, where he spoke of "the people TAX
ing the reins in their own hands," he
said also (page 500 of his book:
IF L have behind me the hearts. as
well as the votes, of the American peo-
PIE, you may depend upon it that 40
power in this country Or any other
nation will prevent the opening of our
minis to the free coinage of silver on
equal terms with gold and at the pres
ent ratio"
A moment later in that same speech
he spoke of the people waiting until
patience was exhausted. then %
ing themselves and taking the reins
of government into their own hands
a course transcending the law and ap-
pealing to the forces of revolution.
The full significance of these utter
ances is only to be understood when
they are considered in the light of the
still earlier and more formal one made
at Madison Square Organs book page
500 where he said:
81 shall always refuse to apologize
1OI JIG SISS VI bllC IIShUl ~ uiSSSHb
from a decision of the supreme court"
+, These are revolutionary doctrines,
! one and all. There is no lawful or con-
stitutional power in this country COM
ing from 1.-The hearts of the people" as
distinguished from their ballots. 1t
takes a three-fourth's vote to amend
the constitution. Equally certain is it
hat holders of our bonds cannot be
Disseminated against and paid in a
deprecated coinage. The supreme
court would be bound to prevent any
such action. Bryan, of course, knew
that and hence the significance of his
threat and warning to that tribunal.
Mr.. Bryan knew as well in 1896 as he
does now that some able lawyers have
persistently claimed that, as a matter
Of mere legal duty, the supreme court
would be compelled to declare against
a change in the obligations of con-
tracts from a gold standard to a silver
basis. Bryan, of curse, denies that,
but is not content to stop there. He
plainly means to dissent from the de-
cisions of the supreme court" not only
in that instance, but in many others
where that tribunal might feel bound
to uphold the gold standard and the
obligations of the law, as against the
invocation of irregular and unauthor-
lied powers derived from 1.-THE hearts
of the people, and not from ballots
cast in accordance with the constitu-
ton and the laws.
1t would no doubt be dangerous for
Bryan to nullify the gold standard law
by paying the interest on bonds in sill
yer. but he would have to belle his own
utterances if he stopped there. The
revolutionary programme which he
proposes goes much farther than that.
What is to be the response of law-abid-
Ing and law-respecting voters?