Virginian-pilot. (Norfolk, Va.) 1898-1911, 1900-09-09
STANDARD OILS INSULT TO
BRYAN.

The brutal insolence of President II.
II. Rogers. of the Ohio River Railroad.
in refusing to allow Mr.. Bryan's spe-
cial car to pass over his line, was out
rageous. but not surprising. 1t was
not the outcropping OF sentiment
peculiar TO Rogers. From one end of
the country to the other 1t is the SEN
timent of his kind. Others may be
more polite; they do not hate Mr..
| Bryan the less on that account. In
the Whole country there is not a man
connected or allied with a trust but in
MS secret soul will applaud the senti-
ment of Rogers. though he may con-
denim the petty fury of its open dis
play as an error of Judgment.
1t was an act without precedent or
parallel in the political annals of the
country. 1t was an insult that includ-
ed in its sweep every supporter and
every admirer of Mr.. Bryan; 1t was an
act OF SO mean n spirit that it must
move the Indignation of every man of
independence. regardless of party. 1t
was confirmation strong as proof of
Holy Writ. that the trusts know their
friends and their enemies
TO what pass are we come when
courtesy that usage has transform
cd Into right is refused by a common
carrier to candidate for the Presi-
dency on political grounds To what
a vast assurance have the conspira-
tors of loot and Doodle attained when
an ally of the Standard Oil Trust visits
upon distinguished citizen-honored
with the suffrages of six millions of
his conference.-the impudence of a
1Sowery fought What shall the plain
citizen expect at the hands OF the
commercial oligarchy. now aiming at
the complete mastery of the country.
If 1t has already the effrontery dis
played by Rogers in this incident?
Shall the citizen shortly. be compelled
to satisfy Board of Political Scru-
tiny that he is "all right" before he
can take advantage OF the public util-
tiles that have been monopolized?
| This incident was fortunate In two
particulars-it has shown the Demo-
Gratis of the country tho nature of the
opposition they will have to meet In
this campaign; it has enabled that
large mass of independent voters, who
believe that man has a right to think
| and vote as he pleases. TO locate the
forces that aim at political coercion
What. for instance. would be the case
of any employee of the Ohio River
Railroad who should vote, or express
an intention to vote, for Mr. Bryan?
His tenure of place would not be worth
last years birds nest.
Hereafter freedom or thought. OF
speech and of action, is an issue in this
campaign. Evidently the trusts and
their allies are of the opinion that, the
Declaration of Independence having
been repudiated by the Mckinley A
ministration, it is time to intimate
strongly that hereafter men must
think and vote as they are told to
think and vote. The assumption of
autocratic power t Washington has
founG speedy reflex in a contemptu-
GUS disregard of the rights of the citi-
zen by the influences that are behind
the movement for Empire. Roosevelt
insulting every man who does not pro-
pose to vote for him; Mckinley turn
ing over American troops to the EN-
peror of Germany; a Standard Oil
ally Offering an unexampled affront to
the Democratic nominee for the Presi-
dency-these be few contemporary
manifestations of what the Republican
party understands Americanism to be-
--------------------
The Filipinos, it seems, also have an
octopus, and Il bout between it and the
American article promises to be one of
the interesting events of the immediate
future The Americans in Manila want
an American bank; the Spanish Fill
Pine bank claims that under a conces-
sion from Spain it is entitled to a
monopoly of the right TO issue notes of
circulation. As the American national
bank cannot be characterized as a
modest and retiring institution it is not
likely to stand idly by while the Span
ish- Filipino bank clears so per cent. in
the Philippines.
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Richmond is lamenting a decline OF
more than three million dollars in the
value of it's real estate, as shown by
ha u,s.~.