Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1901-08-28
ovERMYER's DEMOCRACY.

Vest, of Missouri, who put some yer
severe structures on w. j. Bryan an
: the Chicago and Kansas City Platforms
Mr.. Overmyer concludes his lnterviey
in the following forclble language:
Senator Vest says: we must stol
hunting around in corners and up can
yons for populists, socialists and single
tax votes, land go back to the doctrine OF
Jefferson, upon which alone we cal
achieve victory Was the senator
hunting around corners for populists
socialists and single tax votes when he
placed Silver Dick Bland in nomination
at Chicago upon platform which met
his approval and the approval of every
democrat III Missouri? When he says
he is bimetalllst and ready when nec-
essary to resume the advocacy of that
doctrine, is he still in that search? Is
his declaration for graduated income
tax search for single tax, populst
and socialist votes? And when he de-
clares his unrelenting opposition to
trusts, and declares against imperial
ism and the colonial system, as
we'll as for an income tax, is he not de.
claring for the very things for which
the Chicago and Kansas City platforms
are condemned by the critics as being
socialistic and populistic?
What single plank in either the Chi
cago or Kansas City platforms would
Senator Vest advise the democratic
party to openly renounce? And how
can we stand by the doctrine Jefferson
more completely than we have done in
these two platforms? Those who wish
to placate that monopolistic and cor
poration sympathizing element which
was false to the party in 1896 and 1900
are constantly telling us to go back to
the principles of Jefferson, but do not
designate what particular principles
they refer to. Let them point out in
syllable terms and III doctrinal prOpo-
sitions, in plain and definite language,
the exact principles to which they refer
and we will find them fully recognized
and thoroughly applied in the Chicago
and Kansas City platforms.
1.-The difference is not that the party
in 1896 and 1900 was not true to the
principles of Jefferson, but that owing
to the influences that prevailed at the
election in those years the principles of
Jefferson were not supported by enough
votes. The opponents of these plat.
forms, therefore, If they propose to con-
tlnue in their opposition, should do so
upon rational lines. They should adopt
the Hamilton theory-the theory adopt
ed by the critics of republican institu-
tions, namely that true democratic prin-
ciples are not compatible with wealth,
atf1uence and luxury. We will then be
In position to debate the question
whether popular rights can BIZ mail-
tanned after the advent of great wealth
in republic. If they can not be, the
sooner we know it, the better for us all.
Let those who oppose the Chicago
| and Kansas City platforms, frankly ad-
NIT that they also oppose the principles
| or Thomas Jefferson, and instead of
| asking democrats to go back to those
III.
that since 1896 the democratic party
has been standing upon the principles
OF Jefferson as 1t has never done before
| in Its history, and let them be manly
enough to say what they mean; the
| principles Of Jefferson, in their opinion,
no longer are feasible under the rule of
! the dollar. Let us be honest about
these things and debate them like men.
| Alexander Hamilton was honest and
did not swerve in his opinion IN public
affairs. He maintained that IN well
ordered community the rich and well
born should rule. He had no faith in
the masses of the people and he did not
hesitate to say so. Let those who would
liberty of their countrymen, tell their
countrymen that. since the nation has
| grown rich, wealth and the impulses
| which it engenders and the imperious
| expectations which arise out of it must
be the objects of the special solicitude
of the government. But let them no
longer misrepresent the facts by as
| Stunning that they are democrats and
that the democratic party are not, for
that assumption is false and hypo-
critical.
Nv. J. Bryan, as he says himself, may
never again be a candidate for office.
Doubles he has made mistakes-who
has not? But let no one imagine that
the man who was denied seat in the
Chicago convention, but who came out
of the convention its nominee for the
| presidency; the man who, without cabal
or intrigue, was able to so impress his
countrymen and his party that he was
from the hour of his defeat in 1896 the
predestined candidate for 1900, and was
nominated without opposition and with
wild acclaim by his party-let no one
imagine that this man and his devoted
friends throughout the country, friends
not for peif and plumber, but tor prInci-
pie and patriotism, for justice and hu-
manity-let no man, Il say, imagine that
all these can be set aside by a handful
OF malcontents and treacherous dissem-
b!ers, in whose cold hearts is not one
pulse-beat of sympathy with common
humanity.
-