Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1903-05-20
w. ]. BRYAN'S VIEWS
AS TO DEMoCRACY'S CANDIDATE
FOR THE PRESIDENCY.
There Can Be No Compromise Between
the Party Of Plutocracy and
That of the Masses.
William Jennings Bryan In the Independent

William Jennings Bryan In the Independent.
The real issue between the democratic
party and the republican party Is whether
the government shall be based upon the doc
trine that all men are created equal and so
administered as to recognize the rights Of
man, or. built upon an ariStOcratic founda-
ton and administered in behalf of the few
at the expense Of the many. In all the re-
publican policies you will find that what
are called property rights"-and the phrase
simply means superior consideration for
those who own property-are paramount.
On the tariff question the manufacturers
are singled out for benefits at the expense OF
the consumers; ON the money question the
financiers are singled out and their inter-
ests advanced at the expense Of the pro-
ducers of wealth; on the trust question the
comparatively few who are endeayoring to
monopolize the industries of the country
are singled out and protected as against the
many who must buy of them: and on the
question of imperialism the syndicates or
ganized to exploit the islands are given
greater consideration than the taxpayers
of this country or the victims of our bevo-
lent assimilation.
You ask whether the candidate in 1904
should be "a compromise between the gold
and silver democrats, a silver democrat or
a gold democrat" This depends entirely
upon what the democratic party wants to
do If 1T wants to bid for the support of
the plutocratic element, it will nominate
gold democrat; il it wants to bid for the
support of the masses. it will nominate
silver democrat: If it does not want any
support a all and does not care to take part
in the contest between man and Mammon,
1t will find a man who lacks either the
brains or the heart to take position. There
is no possibility of compromise; if the party
Io ha off tive n
go in one direction or the other, and the di-
rection cannot long be concealed.
The. difference upon the money question,
among those who understood it, was not so
much a difference of opinion difference
in sympathies, and that difference exists to-
day as 1t did then. A man whose sympa-
thies are with organized wealth has no
claim to leadership in the democratic party
unless the party intends to become the ex-
ponent of organized wealth. The money
question Is not matter of gold or silver; 1t
is whether there shall be sufficient volume
Of money or an insufficient volume Of mon
ey., Gold and silver. together furnish more
money than gold alone. and the same rea-
sons that led some to favor the gold STAN
dard as against the double standard will
lead the same persons to favor some limi
tation upon gold coinage If the quantity of
gold ever becomes sufficient to maintain the
level Of prices. =----
In 1891 Mr.. Mckinley denounced Grover
Cleveland and declared that during his first
administration he was discriminating
against one Of the money metals of the
country-"trying Ito make money scarcer
and therefore Deuteronomy the master,
and all things else the servant" No one
has ever stated the issue more clearly than
Mr.. Mckinley did in those words, and no
one ever brought more severe arraign-
ment against public man than Mr.. Nc
Kinley brought against Mr.. Cleveland. The
issue still exists, and In the nature Of things
must ever exist, and 1t makes a great deal
of difference to the democratic party
whether its candidate wants to make mon
ey the master and all things else the SER
want" or desires rather to make man the
master and all things else the servant. 1t
makes a great deal of difference to the peo-
pie of the country, too, whether it has a
President who recognizes the true relation
which should exist between the man and
the dollar.