Corvallis gazette. [volume] (Corvallis, Benton County, Or.) 1900-1909, 1900-09-25
POPULFST.
Bryan's PretensiOns Dissected
by a Former Supporter.
Democracy's Death Is a Prerequisite to
Any Political Reform, Says George
Rutherford, the Populist.

Geo. w. Rutherford, one of the pion-
eers Of the Populist party in Marion
County, ILL.,, Bryan's home county, is out
against Bryan.
Mr., Rutherford has been Populist
ever since that party was formed and
has quite a following in this State, as he
IL well and favorably known as a man
Of high integrity. When giving his rea-
sons for not voting for Bryan this year,
as he did in 1896. Mr.. Rutherford said:
"I severed my connection with the Re-
publican party solely on the question Of
finance, voting for Peter Cooper in 1876.
Since then, till 1896. uniformly voted.
when voting at all. for the presidential
candidate of the third party.
"I supported w. J. Bryan four years
sg3 because:
at. He stood for bimetallism at the
ratio Of 16 to 1. demanding also in the
platform that the standard silver dollar
ehculd be a full legal tender, equal with
gold, for all debts public and private
"2. The Democratic party, for the first
time since the Civil War, took the affirm
ative side of the live issues, and we Popu-
lists duped ourselves into the belief that
Mr.. Bryan and his party really meant 1t
for, at least, as many years as FIVE.
"3. That party actually named a can
didate for President outside of New
York, a political heresy they had not dar-
ed to be guilty of but twice in thirty six
years.
"f cannot support Bryan and Steven
son this year for various reasons, some
of which are:
"f. They stand for a Ascent silver dol
bar. By purposely leaving out of their
silver plank at Kansas City the legal ten
der clause, their so-called silver dollar
shrinks to it's bullion value.
''2. Mr.. Bryan said in accepting the
Populist nomination: 1t is true that the
Populists believe in an irredeenlable
greenback, while the Democrats believe
In greenback redeemable in coin.
'"Tom Merritt of Salem says: In fishing
for Populists YOU need no bait. Instead
throw in the naked hook; they will bite
at anything Bryan and Tom attended
the same school.
"3. Bryan's party relegated to the rear
the silver question by 'paramounting' the
bogy imperialism which is child of
Bryan's begetting. he acting as accouch-
eur in securing the one majority for the
Spanish-American treaty. Then he took
the place of wet nurse, having the child
dressed at Kansas City, afterwards car
Hied to indianapolis, and holding the pub
lie weakling up before the gaze of his
auditors, he attempts to justify his liai-
son by the following self-convicting testi-
mony:
"I believe that we are now in a better
position to wage a successful contest
against Imperialism than we would have
been had the treaty been rejected
HE, not like st. Paul. would do evil
that good to his party might come.
His actions in urging the members of
his party in the Senate to vote for the
ratification of that treaty, and his Ian
guage in justification convicts him be-
yond doubt, to say the least, of duplicity.
That treaty provided for the payment of
500, 900, 900 TO Spain for the Philippines,
the United States agreeing to certain
etipulations, the performance of which
requires ten years from the date of the
ratification of the treaty. A fight had
occurred between the American soldiers
and the Filipinos two days before the
treaty was ratified; and that treaty con-
tains the following section: The civil
anu poIlIlGdI StdiuS VI IAG udllSc
inhabitants of the territory herein ceded
to the United States shall be determined
by Congress-
"All of this Mr.. Bryan knew, yet he
poses as the champion of the ratification
that spawned imperialism as well as the
champion anti-imperialist.
Il. The Kansas City platform charac-
terizes the Philippine war as "a war Of
NriYn;Dol oDtYraSSiop Mr.
upon that platform said in substance at
Indianapolis: IF elected President, my
first act after Inauguration will be to con-
Vene Congress in extraordinary session
and give to the Filipinos a stable and in
dependent government
IF Mr.. Bryan is a friend Of the Amer
lean soldier, as well as friend to the
Filipinos, how can he be consistent in
the Endorsement of that clause of his
platform knowing. as he does, that it can
have no other effect than the encourage
ment Of the latter to fight on till after
November 6?
HE may be able to reconcile it with
his superabundant love for humanity, es-
pecially the Democratic portion of it, on
the theory that it puts him and them in
better position to wage a successful
war against imperialism than if it was
not in the platform.
'fThe Democratic party has the bold eff
frontery to talk about the consent of the
governed when they are the only party
in the United States that has been and
is guilty of governing people without
their consent, and not long since believed
in the divine right Of one man to own
another.
Had it not been for the TRANSMISSION
of oxidized Populist blood into the veins
of the Democratic party in 1896 the old
"reminiscences would have ceased cheating
the undertaken, and sandstone slab
would now be marking the spot of it's
everlasting home. Its death is prerequi-
site to any political reform. 1t is the
Eeritable dog in the manger. It stands
to-day as it has always stood, asininely
and stubbornly across the pathway of
progress.
'The party with which I have been
identified for nearly twenty-five years has
committed suicide. and I am, metaphor
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