The Leon reporter. (Leon, Iowa) 1887-1930, 1902-01-23
COnl1o1o1ler Comment.
Extracts From W. J. Bryan's Paper
That Populist Influence.

That POpulist Influence.
The reorganizers are always com
planning of the influence which the
populists have eNerted upon the demo-
cratic party in recent years When
ever reorganizer wants to find fault
with the democratic platform or any
part OF it, he denounces it as populistic
Inc fact is most of the things which
are complained of as populistic were
advocated by the democrats before the
popullst party was organized, and that
which the democrats did borrow from
the populist party was Endorsed by
practically all of the democratic party
prior to the Chicago convention. Take
for Instance the question of free silver
The democratic party in congress had
for years been contending for the very
thing which the Chicago platform in
dorsed. Time and again before there
was populist party nearly all of the
democrats in both the house and sem
Endorsed by the platform. They had
voted for free coinage and for unlimit-
ed coinage: they had voted for IL bill
opening the mints at the ratio of 1G to
l without waiting for the aid or con-
sent of any other nation, and no ma
tional democratic platform had ever
announced a different doctrine The
Chicago convention opposed the ma
tional bank of issue, but in so doing it
was entirely consistent with the party
record.
The Chicago platform Endorsed the
income tax. The prin ciplc of the in
come tax had been Endorsed in the
previous populist platforms, but it had
also been embodied in the revenue
measure passed by congress in 1891.
Comparatively few of the democrats in
the house and senate voted against the
income tax, Senator Hill of New York,
being the most rabid of it's opponents.
While it was known TO the democrats
in congress that Mr.. Cleveland did not
favor an individual income tax, he
allowed the bill containing this tax to
become a law without his signature
The opposition to the income tax
plank has not been directed SO much
to the principle involved as to the
wording of the platform, and the word
ing of the platform was not suggested
by anything the populist party had
ever said OF done.
Government by injunction was also
denounced in the Chicago platform,
but it will be remembered that the
United States senate had already
passed. practically without opposition.
the bill which the democratic platform
commended
These are the propositions usually
referred to as popuhstic, and yet, while
the populist and democratic party
agree on these propositions, they arc
thoroughly democratic, and no demo
crat can consistently object to them
merely because the populist party IA
| yors them.
But why should men who voted the
republican ticket find fault with the
populists who supported the demo
cratic ticket? Should men who sup
ported the Palmer and Buckner ticket
feel aggricved because the populists
we're more anxious than they to secure
the reforms for which the democratic
party had been working? Ii men arc
TO be Judged by their actions rather
than by their words, the populists are
much more in sympathy with demo
cratic principles than those who spend
their time criticising and carping at
the populists.
Something More Than Independence
The imperialists' claim that the
American colonists simply struggled
for independence fro n Great Britain
and did not lay down /. rule for the
government. OF future generations, is
we'll met by an extract from IL speech
delivered by Mr.. Lincoln February 81,
1861. On that occasion the great re.
publican said: Away back in nv
childhood, the earliest days of my be-
ing able to read, 1 got hold of Il small
book, such a one as lew Of the young
er members have ever seen-'Weem's
Life Of Washington. | remember all
the accounts there given of the battle
fields and struggles for the liberty of
the country, and none fixed themselves
upon my imagination so deeply as the
struggle here at Trenton, N. j. The
rrossing of the river and the contest
with the Hessians, the great hardships
endured at that time, all fixed them
selves on my memory more than
any single revolutionary event; and
you all know, for you have been boys,
how these early impressions last long
er than any others. | recollect think
ing then, boy even though l was, that
there must have been something more
than common that those men struggled
for. l am exceedingly anxious that
that thing which they struggled for,
that something even more than ma
tional independence, that something
that held out IL great promise to all
the people of the world in all time to
COME am exceedingly ANTIQUE that
this union, the constitution and tho