Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1900-10-04
Halt Impsr,aI,sm-E,ect Bryan

Either William j. Bryan or William
Mckinley will he elected president
of the United States in November.
There are other organizations and
candidates which may command hun
dreds of thousands of the popular
vote. but they are not reckoned in
considering the ultimate issue of the
| contest.
The battle of 1896 was fought and
| largely decided on an issue that has
been entirely overshadowed by the as
serLiOn OF a new and most dangerous
policy to the tranquility and safety of
the repu bic. Capitalization has been
appreciated by intelligent political OBJ
servers as the great peril to the repnb.
lie ever since our civil war; but it has
| been whOlesomely restrained by the
people. and never reached the appsll-
ing attitude of positive Imperialism
until President Mckinley proclaimed
it and enforced it. regardless of the
wise limitations upon executive au-
thority.
The paramount issue between the
two great parties today is that of i'm
perial prerogatives against the true
Jeffersonian theory of government by
the people; and it must now be OBJ
vious to all intelligent voters that
there can be no hope of hating the
present reckless and riotous spirit of
imperialism in any other way than
by the election of William j. Bryan
as the next president of the United
States. 1t is the vital. the paramount
issue. and it must triumph whenever
the people of the nation appreciate
their sovereign power and assert the
majesty of popular rule.
We are now engaged in n costly and
bloody struggle in the Philippines that
could and should have been avoided
by recognizing the right of the people
10 rule themselves; and under the
imperial policy now for the first time
proclaimed to the country and to the
world, the president inaugurates war
in the far distant east, without
the authority OF congress and in de-
tiance of the supreme law of the ma
ton; and has made and prosecuted
war, and proposes to make peace,
with all the authority of the car of
Russia
The nation il thus in peril from the
threatened subversion of the soyer-
eign power of the land that is sup.
porting the concentration Of capital
against the interests of,lsbor; that is
debauchiug our political system by
the open collection of millions of
money from protected trusts to ex-
pend in the national political contest
and that has inaugursted q reign of
reckless profligacy and extravaganza
unexampled in the history of the ma
tion. 1t must be halted by the peo-
pie il they would preserve their own
"of the people, by the
people and for the peoples" and it can
he done emily by the election of Will
liam j. Bryan as the next president.
The democrats OF Pennsylvania
have a great duty and great opporiu-
nifty in the present contest. They
can become an important. indeed
factor, not only in restor-
ing Pennsylvania to n purer political
system and better administration. but |
in gaining for themselves and for all |
good citizens, an honest ballot and |
fair representation of all parties in |
the national aud state legislatures.
Democrats have the cordial coopera-
ton OF Independent republicans. and |
they must be false to themselves il |
they fail to control both branches of I,
the legislature. and thus place the de-
OF Pennsylvania in position !,
to command the confidence of the Peo-