The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-05-24
TUESDAY, MAY 24, 1904.
SOME ABSURD CHARGES.

In the following extract from a recent
 editorial in The Commoner Mr. Bryan
 goes to the limit of what in an ordinary individual would be called asslninity:
 The only plausible explanation for the
 preparation Of the articles at this time
 Is that MT. Cleveland desires a re-
 nomination and keenly feeling the criti-
 cisin directed against that deal, Is try ing to explain it in such a way as to satisfy the financial element. to which
 he looks for the support of his candi-
 dacy. His political opponents are not alarmed by it for obvious reasons. Mir.
 Cleveland does not think for himself upon the money question. He accepts the ready-made opinion of the money changers, Whatever they want done is manifestly proper, and with him it is hardly necessary to say that what they want done should be done.
 It would be expressing very low esti- eaate of MT. Bryans intelligence to say that he believes what he says. If MT. Cleveland had entertained an idea of be- ing a candidate he could not have ''queered" himself more effectually with the great body of Democrats who fol- lowed MT. Bryan in all his vagaries than by writing and publishing two recent articles dealing with the most important events of his administration. Even MT Bryan, we imagine, will not assert that MT. Cleveland is a fool, and it would be the height of foollshness for him to at tempt to secure a nomination by faunt- ing in the faces of the Bryan Demo- crats a defence of the bond matter. < It is a fact that many of the best and most intelligent people of the Union. both cede that MT. Cleveland acted wisely in that much-discussed bond deal. By step which he knew would be unpopular with the masses of his party, as we'll as with the politicians, he saved the credit of the government which was about to be wrecked in consequence of previous Republican tactics and legislation. This is fact so well known that it is useless to discuss it, but it made him a target for every free silver Democrat in the country, and most of them still retain their bitterness against him. To think that he could expect to secure a nomi- nation by stirring up all this antagonism is to charge him with imbecitity.
 Still more absurd is MT. Bryan's as- sertion that Mir. Cleveland did not think for himself, and that he was under the domination of others. There has never been President. not excepting Andrew Jackson, even, who was less dominated by others than MT. Cleveland. The main reason that so many Democratic leading politicians hated him was because they couldn't control him and use him. He thought and acted for himself and on his own judgment, and when he decided 1 that a certain course was right he fol- | lowed it. To say that he does not think | for himself on the money question is not | even respectable nonsense.
 Mir. Cleveland neither expects nor de- | sires the nomination. There are com paratively few Democrats who look on | him as a possibility. or have any thought | that his name will be presented to the He is not bidding for it or laying any plans to get it, but his bold and almost defiant explanations of his course as President offer a good excuse for the denunciation of radicals like Mir. Bryan. What they expect to gain by him is not apparent, but we are pretty sure that he Is not worry ing over it.