Daily inter mountain. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1881-1901, 1900-02-07
BRYAN IN THE EAST.

In an effort to show that Bryan is
making a speciality of free coinage in the
east, a democratic contemporary quoted
from an eastern paper what purported
to be an excerpt from his speech in Con-
cord. New Hampshire. The excerpt was
confined to remarks anent the position
taken by the silver leader in 1895, with
out the further qualifications of the issue
contained in his advocacy Of what he is
pleased to designate as the paramount,
campaign. Not a step has been taken by
Bryan since he invaded the "enenly's
! country that has not been characterized
by a disposition to place silver in the
that he has done SO.
/ He was TO have spoken in New York
some days ago. Tammany and anti
Tammany democrats desired it, and had
figured upon a demonstration in behalf
Of the party leader. But the Tammany
men wanted him to ignore silver in his
speech, while the anti-Tammany men
wanted him to talk silver. Did Bryan
declare that the free coinage question |
was the paramount issue and would re-
main such, until settled and settled right,
and that he would beard the lion in its
den? Not he! He slid out OF town as
speedily as possible into the rural dis
tricts Of New England, leaving silver
wholly unprecedented from the house tops
of New York.
In a short time he rounds up at Bos-
ton, another hot-bed of the goldites. |
What does he do there? Does he hurl
free silver arguments at the benighted
%nounce that free coinage at a ratio of 16
to 1, by the Independent action of this
nation, is the paramount issue upon
which his candidacy for president shall
be based? 1t has been officially an
nounced by the leading democratic news
papers Of the nation that Bryan's eastern
Itinerary is for the purpose of outlining
the issues of the campaign upon which
the standard-bearer will max his fight
for victory at the polls. Refusing to
speak in New York, on account Of fric-
ton between the silver democrats and
the gold democrats, lest he might an
tagonize the latter-Lord save the mark!
he was supposed to make his record for
campaign purposes in Boston. But did
he then embrace the opportunity of his
life to strike a blow for free coinage?
The Boston Journal, in editorially COM
menting on his speech, says:
So far as free silver goes, Mr.. Bryan
seemed to feel that he was ..in the
enemy's country" A man of real cour-
age and strength of convictions would
perhaps rave felt that this afforded pre-
cisely the opportunity for pressing his
views home upon his audience. But to
Mr.. Bryan it seemed a good time to let
the subject alone. Presumably, 'the
crime of 1873 is just as much a crime
as ever in his eyes, and silver is still the
distressed n pitiable object of his COM
passion that it was four years ago, but
he said nothing about 1t. THE MYSTIC
RATIO OF 16 TO l WAS NOT MEN
TONED.
There was some raillery directed at the
republican party because it went into the
last campaign committed to bimetallism
and was now enacting the gold standard,
and the gold standard bill enacted by
the house was held up to derision as a
measure intended to create a paper
money trust, but the orator extricated
himself from an embarrassing situation
Dy making no attempt to vindicate free
silver, or to square his and
predictions of four years ago with the
actual course of events. It was a Judi
cious reticence, but it marks no change
in the real purpose of Mr.. Bryan, and
diminishes not in the least the menace
OF his candidacy to a stable currency.
The Journal IL a newspaper that IL
welded to the gold standard and is more
than anxious to prove that Bryan stands
for free silver and is therefore a dam
gerous proposition. It was a great dis
appointment to it that Bryan did not
commit himself to free coinage, and thus
afford it an opportunity to show that
free silver would be a possibility in the
event of his election! The Journal ac-
credits Bryan with being a fluent and
effective orator. but says that his speech
was almost wholly confined to the Fill
pino question. which goes to show that
he still regards anti-imperialism as the
paramount issue Of the campaign, and