The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1900-08-11
BRYAN, THE TRIBUNE
The Difference Between Him
and Mckinley.
Bryan Keeps His Promises, While Mckinley S
Record is One of Broken
Pledges.
Baltimore Sun.

| Baltimore Sun.
In one single sentence William j. Bry-
an makes it so plain that no man can mis-
| understand the difference between con-
| stitutiOnal President and an encroacbing,
| usurping Executive-in word, between
| Bryan, THE tribune of the people, and Nc
| Kinley, the would-be dictator. "If
elected" he declares, 81 shall convene
Congress in extraordinary session as soon
as / am inaugurated and recommend an
! Immediate declaration of the rcldions
purpose in regard to the future fate and
disposition of THE Philippines" There
are no ifs or butts about this declaration.
He does not say-and, what is more, he
does not mean.-"If l do not change my
| mind"-"f the bosses and the trusts
consent''-'if Mark Hanna approves
but, unreservedly and without unneces-
sary delay, ''as soon as l am inaugu-
rated 1 shall convene Congress in extra
| ordinary session" If elected the peoples
| President he pledges himself not to gov
| ern without the help and concurrence of
the peoples Congress, according to the
spirit and the plan of the Constitution.
| This was also Mr. McKinley's idea once,
and his promise to the American people,
| to be soon broken and forgotten, however,
| like his declaration that 'forcible annex
alton is criminal aggression" and that
plain duty" required the removal of all
tariff restrictions between the United
! States and Porto Rico. This is what, on
February 10, 1899, in his speech at Bos-
ton before the Home Market Club, Presi-
! dent Mckinley said: 81 do not intrude
upon the duties of Congress or seek to
anticipate or forestall its action.
| The whole subject (the disposition to be
made of our newly acquired pcssessions)
| is now with Congress, and Congress is
| the vote, the conscience and the judg
ment of the American people.
Until Congress shall direct otherwise, it
will be the duty Of the Executive to
possess and hold the Philippines" This
| is what Mckinley then said. What he did
was something else. He made this dec
laration in Boston on February 10, 1899.
| Congress did not adjourn until March 4,
| but Mr.. Mckinley neither asked it's adj
vice nor suggested the necessity of any
| action on it's part, although six weeks
| before he made his Boston speech he had,
entirely upon his own volition AMI re-
sponsibility, without consulting Congress,
| by his famous order of December 81, di-
| rected his pro- consul, General Otis, to-
proclaim his (the President's) intention
! to take military possession of the Philip
| pines-in other words, to begin the war
| of benevolent assimilation" or eXter-
mination, which is still going on. He re-
| fused to call the new Congress together,
which he might have done after the
| 4th of March if he really believed the
| whole subject was then with Congress,
| and that that body was 1.-THE voice, the
| Judgment and the conscience of the
| American people, For nine months he
| continued to wage war and to govern
without the aid of Congress.
| And when Congress, at the end of those
nine months, met, in accordance with the
| Constitution. in December. 1899, without
| the least reference to that body the
President proceeded to mature and to
carry into execution his own autocratic
| plans for the government of the Philip
rines by appointing a new commission, OF
which Judge Taft of Ohio, was named as
the head, with enlarged powers, execu-
tive. legislative AMI judicial. The SEN
ate was not even asked to confirm the
Presidents selection OF his Lord High
! Commissioners, probably because it was
understood that the whole business was
outside and in defiance of the CCnstitu-
ton. The present Congress, in fact, has
been reduced by President Mckinley and
| the Republican party to the mere func-
ton of registering the orders that are
transmitted from the White House. 1t
is in no sense the peoples Congress, but
the Congress of Mark Hanna and the
trusts. Witness the humliating specta-
Gle presented by the action of that body
/ tom
Congress met the President said in his
message that ''plain duty" required abb
solute free trade between the United
States and Porto Rico-the same as mas
always existed between the several States
and Territories of the Union--and the
chairman of the Committee on Ways and
Means reported ito the House bill to
give to the Presidents recommendation
practical effect. When, IA few weeks
later, the trusts got hold of Mark Hanna,
and, through Mark Hanna, of the Presi-
dent, the whole program was changed.
The President no longer saw his plain
duty" or saw it pointing in the opposite
direction in favor of the imposition OF
new tariff burdens upon the unhappy
people of Porto Rico. The same chair
man of the Ways and Means Committee
| substituted Il JdTlu Dill tOl hip AAt'S
|, trade bill. and in obedience to the Presi-
dent the Republican House promptly ex-
secuted a r'~1t-atout-fase. House and
Senate, at the crack of the whip, tum-
bled to the racket. 1t was literally:
Whatever you say, Mr. President-you're
the boss, and we are but your very hum
bic and obedient servants
All this Mr. Bryan promises to reverse
should he be President, and no one car
doubt that he will religiously and faith
fully keep his word In their whole men
tai and constitutional makeup, theil
moral fiber and their will power, there
could not be two men more diametricallJ
the opposite OF each other than William
j. Bryan and William Mckinley. The
latter richly deserves the keen thrus'
, which Mr.. Bryan gives to these who are
fond of quoting Destiny as being respon'
sible for their acts when he says: "Des-
tiny is the subterfuge of the invertebrate
who lacking the courage to oppose error
seeks some plausible excuse for support
ing it," Not without reason has Presl-
dent Mckinley been frequently compared