Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1900-08-31
The Paramount Issue" of this
Campaign.
From lhe Now York Sun !

vote for Mckinley, describes the para
mount issue in this campaign, that over
shadows and overwhems all Others" to
be Bryan himself. "Of his own volition,'
proceeds Mr.. English, Bryan "now, as in
1896, stands before the safe, conservative,
order-loving, law-abiding citizens of the
Republic as the appointed and selected
representative of all that they most fear in
our beloved political system and all that is
dangerous, menacing and threatening to
law, order and good government"
That expresses exactly the sentiment of
all the more intelligent and reasonable of
the American people, whether Democrats
or Republicans. Mr.. English himself is a
Democrat of long standing, is the only son
of the late William Hayden English of
Indiana, who was the Democratic candi-
date for vice.president on the ticket with
Gen. Hancock in 1880, and himself has
served as a Democratic Representative in
| Congress and as chairman of the Demo
cratic committee of his county during two
! important campaigns. The attitude of
Mr.. English toward Mr. Bryan's candidacy
and his reasons for repudiating it as a
! Democrat are the same as those of Gen.
| Palmer, Abram Hewitt, Elery Anderson
and multtudes of other Democrats who
have made known their views publicly or
privately since the denomination of Bryan
on the revived and reiifiirmed Chicago
platform. 1t is enough for them that the
candidacy and doctrines and theories whose
PRONUNCIATION drove away so many thou
sands from the Democratic party in 1896
are now repeated in 1900
1t does not matter to them that Bryan
presents himself in one guise to the "anti-
imperalists" at Indianapolis and in an
other to the Populsts at Topeka 1t is
enough that he especially is again the
candidate of the Democratic, Populist and
Silver Republican combination as the
most complete representative of the dan
gerous political doctrine which the fusion
was formed to propagate and put in
practice Under such circumstances no
reasonable man on either side needs to be
told what is the paramount ISSUE in this
campaign, for he knows, as Mr. English
'AAS"o' Ahob ~ 10 III lah LllIoNli AlO 10 90
much the paramount issue as Altgeld
would be that issue if ne had been nom
mated, or Debs, or Most, if one of them
had been selected at Kansas City.
Bryan himself was made the paramou unit
issue before the Kansas City convention,
and the votes of the people next Novem-
Der will be given on him as the issue and
on no other. In 1896 Bryan was simply a
political accident, nominated by an hyster-
zeal convention and unknown to the peo-
pie. Exactly what was the meaning and
what would be the practical consequence
of his revolutionary theories was then little
understood. They had been sprung on
the country. Comparatively few men had
thought at all on the subject. Before the
campaign of 1896 was over, however, that
ignorance was dispeled by Bryan himself
and by the argument and demonstration
of his opponents, among whom was in
cluded the best intelligence of the Demo
cratic party. He linked himself so
thoroughly with the doctrine to which the
nominal Democratic party had been COM
mitted that it became known and is still
known specifically as Organism. Except
as its prophet he has no reputation.
BY his denomination, therefore, Bryan
in himself was made the paramount issue
of the campaign of 1900, an issue as to
which popular conviction was settled,
whereas four years before the public mind
was in doubt and seeking information on
which to form judgment.
Bryan, AS everybody now understands,
means revolution, economical, financial
and judicial, and If the people turned from
that issue in alarm in 1896 when almost
unexampled business and industrial de-
preston might have disposed them to
favor any desperate experiment, they
ought to be the more determined in their re-
pudiation of it now after four years of al
most uneXampled prosperity because of its
defeat. The paramount issue then, it be-
comes more paramount now when it is
again put forward to a public which has
been brought to understand exactly what
1t means.
Mr.. English, a Democrat. therefore,
does good service to his country in calling
upon the "safe, conservative, order-loving,
law-abiding citizens of the Republic to
face squarely the one paramount issue in
this campaign, William Jennings Bryan
himself, as the appointed and selected rep
resentative of all that they most fear in
our beloved political system, and all that is
dangerous, menacing and threatening to
law, order and good government" The
issue to be decided does not concern diff
ference of opinion as to some phase or
detail of economic and financial policy,
such as we have had in past political con-
tests, but goes to the very root of the
whole system upon which the substantial
welfare of the American people rests.
Bryan means a radical revolution, the sub
stitution of an exploded experiment for
established and demonstrated economic
and financial principles. That is what he
is here for and only that.