The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-03-04
Twaddle About Old Platforms.

New York World.
 MT: Bryan has recently expressed his belief that "the majority of the Demo- cratic party favors beyond question the platform adopted at Kansas City" And he serves notice' on Judge Parker that the latter may as well save the worry of campaign If his acceptance of noml- nation depends on the adoption of a plat form that repudiates the Kansas City platform announcing that
 the Kansas City platform Democrats will attend the National Convention"
 The plank which overshadowed all that specifically reaffirming the free-sil- yer resolution of the Chicago platform, to which Mir. Bryan still adheres. In con sidering what tho majority of the Demo cratic party" will think next year of this dead and buried issue, 1t will be instruc- tive to recall what they thought of 1t in 1900. The historic facts of value'' as to the adoption of this plank were thus grouped editorially in The World of July 9, 1900:
 l. Neither Senator Jones, the Chair man of the National Democratic Con- mittee, who called the Kansas City Con- vention to order, nor Governor Thomas, of the silver State of Colorado, its tenn perory chairman, nor Representative Richardson, the leader of the Democrats in the House. permanent Chairman. said in his speech one word in favor of free coinage or mentioned 16 to 1.
 g. Senator Monay of Mississippi, strong supporter of free silver when that question was a living issue, said In the Platform Committee that an actual can- vass of the convention made by the chairman of each State delegation showed only I'll votes in favor of a 16 to 1 plank out of 930 delegates.
 3. The Platform Committee in It's first and unfettered expression on this queS- tion showed majority against a 16 to plank.
 TNho Froo syi,ar ,IaoL u,as RpaII,y adopted in the committee after a twelve hours struggle by one vote. that of the delegate from Hawaii-a striking illustra- ton of the political possibilities involved in the new policy of imperial expansion. The die of a national election was cast by the delegate from newly acquired territory having no electoral vote and population of less than 1000 male white Americans.
 5. -four other votes for the silver plank were cast by delegates from territories having no voice in the Presidential cleo tion-Arizona, Indian Territory, New Mexico and Oklahoma.
 G. Nine States of the original solid South" the bulwark of the Democratic party, voted against the free-silver plank. and only four in its favor.
 7 Of the twenty-one States voting Tor this plank only thirteen are Democratic, and their total electoral vote Is only 90.
 S. The twenty-three States voting against this plank have 2S7 electoral votes and among them thirteen are now or were before 1896 doubtful-the deciding States in every Presidential election.
 9. The final majority of one in the Platform Committee was secured only by the personal insistence of MT. Bryan and his explicit threat that he would not ac- cept the nomination if the policy of 16 to 1 were not distinctly declared. He announced that he would personally as sume "all the responsibility for the re- suit.
 What the responsibility involved was shown in the election returns recording the most complete, disastrous and dis graceful defeat that the Democratic party ever experienced.
 Since this second sacrifice of the party to fads fallacies and folly, the Populist party, whose alliance MT. Bryan eagerly sought, has dissolved and disappeared, and the Free Silver Republicans, whose nomination he courted, have gone back to their own party. To imagine, in view of this history and of the changed con ditions that the next Democratic Ma tional Convention will either ''reatfirm" these past lunacies or make them test of Democracy for the next campaign, Is to proclaim ones self not merely an ire concilable but a megalOmantac of the most extreme type.
 If a party fools itself once 1t may be forgiven If 1t permits itself to be fooled A second time Its punishment Is deserved. But to play the fool a third time Is performance beyond any stretch of credulity.