The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1900-08-08

ht. B3t1 IN AMI hOSt1S-
In a speech delivered last year at Chicago
Mr.. Bryan virtually charged that the
United States was committing grand lar
ceny in the Philippines and INVOKED the
spirit of Moses to promulgate a new law
against stealing. He said:
Shame upon a logic which locks up the
petty offender and cultivates grand lar
eeny. Have the people returned to the
worship of the golden calf? Have they
made unto themselves a new command
ment consistent with the spirit of conquest
and the lust for empire? Is Thou smart
not steal upon a small scale to be substi-
tuted for the law of Moses? Awake, y
ancient lawgiver, awake. Break iortn
from thy unmarked sepuichre and speed
thee back TO the cloud-crowned summit
of Noun Sinai; commune once more with
the God Of our fathers, and proclaim the
words engraven upon the tablets Of stone
the law that was the law that Is to-day
the law that neither Individual nor ma
ton can violate with impunity.
one of the most creditable things in Mr..
in the war which made the acquisition
of the Philippines necessary. For a few
brief and honorable months he wore the
uniform of a United States soldier and
was one of the willing citizens, not con-
scripts. who go to make up both its reg
ular and it's volunteer armies, and who
to his present vision appear distorted as
the advance agents of militarism. They
are just as much a menace TO the country
as he and his regimen of Nebraskans were
while they wore the uniform-no less and
no more. Having closed his military ca
reer and resumed his original and normal
vocation as a politician and oficeseeker
Mr.. Bryan's incurable habit of oratorical
display and Misrepresentation led him to
thus arraign his country as a thief among
nations, dishonesty ignoring the fact that
we had acquired the Philippines by treaty
with Spain that made our title as good
as 1t Is to any other part of American
territory.
Mr.. Bryan's apostrophe TO Moses was
intended to create the impression that if
Moses were alive to-day and an American
he would be an anti-expansionist, just as
he has often claimed that IL Jefferson
were alive to-day he would be for the
dishonest and impossible ratio of Is TO L.
AS all the Democratic statesmen of the
past have been expansionists Mr.. Bryan
goes further back and attempts to press
Moses into service to prove that the pres
ent administration Is perpetrating a great
crime. He forgot that the same great
lawgiver who said Thou shalt not steal"
also said Thou shalt not bear false wit
ness against tiny ~ne.ghbor." Mr.. Bryan
violates this commandment when he i'm
putes dishonest and unpatriotic motives to
a Republican President and administration
who are simply trying to establish the
authority of the government over posses
sions r%ightfully and legally acquired.
Neither did ii suit him TO recall that Moses
said Thou shalt not curse the ruler of
thy people, and Thou shalt not raise a
false report" He might have mentioned
also that Moses was a man of deeds, not
of words. a great captain and fighter. and
hat in dealing with the enemies of Israel
he smote them and spared not, wiping
them off the face of the earth whenever
ing possession of their lands. Moses was
an expansionist and land grabber. The
Hittites, and the Girgashites, and the
Amorites, and the C~anaanites, and the Per-
~izzites, and the Invites and the Jebusites
all felt the weight of Moses hand as he
obeyed the which said: Thou
shalt smite them and utterly destroy them
thou shalt make no covenant with them,
nor show mercy unto them" Nobody ever
heard of Moses compromising with or
trucking to his enemies. In fact, Moses
differed from Mr.. Bryan as radically and
Moses. One led his people out of Egyptian
bondage and the other is trying TO lead his
countrymen into a quagmire of 16 to L
Moses was a man of great achievements
while Mr.. Bryan is a dreamer of dreams
and a seer of spooks. Moses may have
had such a man in his eye when he said
to the children of Israel. 'If there arise
among you a prophet or a dreamer OF
dreams and giveth thee a sign or a won
der thou shalt not hearken unto
the words of that prophet or thai dreamer
Of dreams" 1t is evident that Moses
slumbers were not disturbed by dreams
of Imperialism. Probably if the truth were
known Mr.. Bryan's are not. either, bu;
he would like to nave people believe they
are.