Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1904-09-21
NOTHING TO TAKE BACK
How win Bryan Explain His Hostility
to Parker?


How win Bryan Explain His Hostility
to Parker?
William Jennings Bryan has been
officially engaged by the Democratic
national committee to make speeches
in New York, Indiana and other
places. The former candidate for the
presidency has something of a reputa-
ton as an agile political contortionist,
but he will have the time of his life
explaining his record during the pres
ent campaign. Mr.. Bryan has been
On good many sides of a good many
different questions, and yet he lives to
tell the tale. But just how he proposes
to advocate the election of Parker is
a mystery.
Bryan was opposed to Parker before
the convention met at st. Louis. He
was opposed to Parker every day dur
ing the sessions of that inharmonious
gathering. When Parker sent his tele-
gram supplementing the Democratic
platform Mr. Bryan rose from a bed Of
sickness to denounce the nominee as
a traitor and a dictator, and his dra-
matte appearance on that Saturday
night was one of the most extra
ordinary episodes of an extraordinary
convention. Bryan dashed Parker and
he dared the convention to send a tele-
gram to the nominee demanding his
honest opinion on other well-known
Democratic principles.
Later on Mr.. Bryan, in his paper,
The Commoner, while the events in
the convention were fresh before him,
openly charged that Judge Parker was
party to corrupt attempt to deceive
the convention and that his nominal
ton had been secured by improper
means. 1t was then that the former
candidate for the presidency put him.
self on record by saying in The Com
moner of July Is, less than a week
after the nomination: II have moth
ing to take back"
1t seems a curious thing to find a
man who has nothing to take back
appearing on the stump favoring the
election Of Alton B. Parker for the
presidency. If Mr.. Bryan has moth
ing to take back" he should in COM
mon honesty when he appears on the
stump in Indiana, and elsewhere, re-
peat to his audiences exactly what
bo coiI II, TyJ,o Coyo,,oyor 20 T,,lx, 10
which was printed exactly one week
after the Democratic convention was
called to order and only four days
after Judge Parker was nominated fOl
the presidency and had sent has tele-
gram repudiating the Democratic plat,
form.
In this issue of The Commoner Mr.
Bryan. said:
1T was plain and deliberate at
tempt to deceive the party. The New
York platform was vague and purpose
ly so; because the advocates of Judge
Parker were trying to secure votes
from among the people who would
have opposed his views had they
known them. The nomination was
secured, therefore, by crooked and i'm
defensible methods"
AS an exhibition of political gymnas
| tics Bryan's campaign speech for Par
ker ought to be worth going miles tt
hear. If, aus he says, he has nothing
to take back" how will be explain
matters to the people? What did he
mean when he said in The Commoner
''The nomination of Judge Parker
virtually nullifies the anti-trus
plank?" Was it true on July 13 thai
Parker's nomination had been secured
"by crooked means?" If it was true
then is it not true now?
Mr.. Bryan in The Commoner said
II shall not appeal for votes for thu
ticket on false grounds" How can he
| appear on the stump, therefore, ani
seriously ask the workingmen of the
| country to vote for the Democratic
nominee after The Commoner had de
clared that 1.-THE labor plank as pre-
pared by Judge Parkers friends OF
the subcommittee was a straddling
meaningless plank?"
Was Mr.. Bryan lying when he sale
in his paper, "a Democratic victory
will mean very little, if any, progress
so long as the party is under contro
of the Wall street element?"
If the party was under the contro
of the Wall street element whem Mr.
Bryan wrote that editorial, is it no
just as much under the same contro
while he is on the stump?
Perhaps Mr.. Bryan can explain
away these things. Perhaps he cal
answer these questions
Perhaps not.