The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1903-04-15
BRYAN's PROSPERITY.
Why It Bothers Some of the News.
papers Of the Country.

The fact that Hon. W. J. Bryan
has just completed home at Lincoln,
Neb., is being received with a great
deal of pain by a number Of papers
throughout the north and east. These
papers lay particular stress upon the
fact that this house has twenty rooms,
and that Mr.. Bryan is not only a free
silver man, but an energetic opponent
of the trusts. They hold to the axiom
that any man who sympathizes with
the poorer classes should remain poor
himself and leave to others the ac-
emulation of riches. 1t is said that
Mr.. Bryan has already accumulated
between $4,000 and $500, 900 worth
of property, and asserted that his an
nual income from his paper and other
sources is not less than $4,000 an
nually.
This condition Of affairs is sad, no
doubt, but what is the use Of protest
ing? An especially generous Prov
idence endowed Mr.. Bryan with more
than his share Of gray matter, and it
is not apparent how tuese people are
to keep him poor. 1t is true that Mr..
Bryan is becoming wealthy without
depressing any one, and that there has
never been the least suspicion that
one penny Of filthy money ever soiled
his hands. And it is this that hurts.
The plutocratic organs which are
panied at bis prosperity would have no
ill-feeling against him if his money
were wrung from the sweat and the
suffering Of the mass Of people. II
Mr.. Bryan had, for example, secured
his wealth by cornering The stock Of
coal in some city during the existing
blizzard or had devised some plan
whereby small dealers in certain COM
modities could have been ruined that
a syndicate might capture the trade
which had been theirs, be would have
been hailed as captain Of industry.
But that be should coin this wealth
out Of the gray matter within his
skull, and without injury to any OF
his neighbors, is, Of course, ineXcus-
able. 1t is more ineXcusaoIe that he
does not change his political views now
that be has acquired a considerable
amount Of worldly goods. But more
damning than all else is that he is
making regularly the salary Of a mana
ger of a great syndicate without op-
pressing any one whatsoever.
The public will be panied along
with the plutocrats at this extraordi-
nary conduct Of MIR. Bryan, but their
pain will by no meaps be as acute.
In fact they may be willing that Mr..
Bryan should continue to prosper,
though the more envious will not un-
naturally complain that Providence
was not more eyen-handed in it's dis
tribution Of brains. Mr.. Bryan has
achieved a notable victory in demon
strating that even at this late day
brains are a valuable commodity in
the world, and that a man may pros
per even yet without expressing his
neighbors and without permitting his
conscience to be scared by the acquisi-
tion Of wealth by furtiVe methods.
1t may be as well to inform these
plutocratic organs that wealth is not
in itself an evil, but that evil meth
ods Of acquiring the wealth is what
constitutes the sin, and that they will
never be able to convince the world
that honesty acquired wealth is ads
grace, while wealth dishonesty and
illegally acquired is an honor to the
holder. May Mr.. Bryan continue to
coin wealth out Of bis brains until he
has all that is necessary to his happl-
ness. The pity Of it is that most OF
the great fortunes in this country are
not in the keeping Of such men as
he.-New Orleans Times-Democrat.