The Chanute times. [volume] (Chanute, Kan.) 1897-1913, 1900-09-21
POPULIST.
Bryan's Professions Dissected
by a Former Supporter.
Democracy's Death Is Prerequisite TO
Any Political Reform, Says George
Rutherford, the Populist.

Geo. w. Rutherford, one Of the pion-
GERS Of the Populist party in Marion
County, H., Bryans home county. is out
against Bryan.
Mr.. Rutherford has been a Populist
ever since that party was formed and
has quite following in this State, as he
is well and favorably known as man
Of high integrity. When giving his rea-
sons for not voting for Bryan this year,
as he did in 1896, Mr.. Rutherford said:
81 severed my connection with the he
publican party solely on the question OIL
finance, voting for Peter Cooper In 1910.
Since then, till 1896. l uniformly voted,
when voting at all, for the presidential
candidate Of the third party.
II supported W. ]. Bryan four years
ago because:
~. He stood for bimetallsm at tile
ratio Of l6 to 1. demanding also in the
platform that the standard silver uoilar
Should be full legal tender. equal with
gold, for all debts public and private.
49,. The Democratic party, for the first
time since the Civil War. took the affirm
atiye side Of the live issues. and we Popn-
lists duped ourselves into the belief that
Mr.. Bryan and his party really meant It
for, at least, as many years as five.
"3. That party actually named a can
didate for President outside OF New
York, political heresy they had not dar-
ed to be guilty Of but twice in thirty
years.
"T cannot support Bryan and Steven
son this year for various reasons, some
Of which are:
81. They stand for 45-cent silver dol
lar. BY purposely leaving out of their
silver plank at Kansas City the legal ten
der clause, their so-called silver dollar
shrnks to its bullion value.
80. Mr.. Bryan said in accepting the
Populist nomination: 1t is true that the
Pnpulsts believe in an irredeenlable
greenback, while the Democrats believe
in n grcenback redeemable in coin.
'"rom 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.
y. putty NiN6at'N W ''N 800,
the silver question by 'paramountlng tho
bogy imperialism which is child OF
Bryan's bcgetting, 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
red TO indianapolis. and holding the pub
lie weakling up before the gaze of his
auditors, he attempts to justify his liar
son by the following self-cOnvicting testi
mony:
81 believe that we are now in better
position to wage a successful contest
against Imperialism than we would have
been had the treaty been rejec, ed
"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 tho
ratification of that treaty, AMI his Ian
guage in justification cOnvicts him be
yond doubt, to say the least, of duplicity
That treaty provided for the payment OF
100000 900 to Spain for the Philippines
the United States agreeing to certain
stipulations, 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
trenty was ratified: and that treaty con
tains the following section: "rhe civil
rights and political status of the native
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-imperiaist.
II. The Kansas City platform charac'
terizes the Philippine war as "a war OF
criminal aggression Mr.. Bryan running
upon that platform said in substance al
Indianapolis: II 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 friend Of the Amer
lean soldier, as well as n 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
meut Oh TIE Ou
November g?
"He may be able TO reconcile 1t with
his superabundant love for humanity, es-
pecially the Democratic portion Of it, on
the theory that it puts him and them in
a better position to wage successful
war against imperialism than IL it was
not in the platform.
''The Democratic party has the bold ef-
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 IL not been for the TRANSMISSION
of oxidiDed Populist blood into the veins
of the Democratic party in 1896 the old
reminiscence' would have ceased cheating
the undertaken, and a sandstone slab
would now be marking the spot Of its
everlasting home. Its death is prerequi-
site to any political reform. 1t is the
vcritabIe dog in the mangcr. 1t stands
to-day as 1t has always stood, asininely
and stubbornly across the pathway Of
progress.
..The party with which have been
Identified for nearly Twenty-Five years has