The Portland daily press., 1900-07-18
CURRENT COMMENT.
BRYAN's TWO GREAT ABSURD

TIES.
(From the Hartford Times, Gold Demo-
GRAFT and Anti-Imperialist.
We have no faith in any man who ad-
vocates the absurdity known as ''I6 to
one" Whenever we have a proper COM
mon school system in the United States
every boy ten years of age will be SO edu-
Gated in regard to the fundamental prin-
ciples of money that he will be forever
inc apabIe Of advocating the creation an
artificial Emoney standard. Nobody be-
lieyes now that any law fixing the actual
value of copper, or tin, or iron, would
have the slightest actual control over the
values of those metals. Why then ma Ike
the prepOsterOus claim that Congress- or
any parliament in the world possess es
such power over silver or goId2 1t is
purely a commercial matter, as Jefferson
recognized it to be. We believe that VII =
liam j. Bryan is too Intelligent to be-
Ileye the stuff he talks about gold and
silver We think he does it because he
hopes thereby to catch the votes Of ignOr-
ant citizens; and if nybOdy chooses to
call this a personal objection to Mr.. Bry-
an he may 90 so.
We object to Mr. Bryan, Furthermore.
that while he pretends to be earnestly in
favor of doing justice to all the people
taken to exercise sovereignty since the
war with Spain, he has secured the adop-
ton by the Kansas City convention Of a
platform pledg1ng this government to
provide stable government for the peO-
pie of the Philippines before setting them
free We have no business to be entering
into such an undertaking. The people
Of the Philippines have a right to be free
and before the Filipino is free he must
have the right to oppose any govern ment
which may be set up ain his country to
change, 1t or Overturn it We cannot
grant independence to the FiIipinos and
provide them with stable government
at the same time. If they have the right
to independence they have the right to
provide themselves with q new govern
ment every ten days If they choose to do
So We had just as soon trust to Mr.
Mckinley to provide stable government
in the. Philippines as to give the lob to
Mr.. Bryan. We may, by sending
100000 policemen to the Philippines to
stand guard over the people there, pre-
vent them from making any government
of their own, but we cannot compel
them to establish a stab lie government,
nor can we create such a government
for them. Such propositiou ignores
human nature. 1t is nearly as prepos-
ferrous as Is to l.
The Kansas City platform is Mr.. Bry-
an own creation. 1t is rsdolent Of Iiber-
ty and patriotism and il has tucked
away in one of it's planks this little trick
proposition which would enable Mr..
Bryan to do just as Mr.. Mckinley is
doing IN regard to the Philippines. We
do not assert that he would prefer to do
this, but we do assert that so long as we
attempt to do what this platform pro-
poses we shall have to keep a big army
in the Philippines We take into consid-
GRAFTON in the same connection the fact
that Mr.. Bryan personally besought
Democratic senators to vote to ratffy
the treaty with Spain, which pledged
this country to continue the old Span
ish conditions in the Philippines. With
out him the treaty would not have been
ratified, and we might have been saved
from the necessity of spending 500, 600, =
900 year In order to prevent the Fill
pinos from governing their country in
their own way. Had the treaty not been
ratified Mr.. Bryan would not now be
running for the Presidency upon what
his convention called the great para
mount issue" Of Imperialism.