The Denison review. [volume] (Denison, Iowa) 1867-current, 1904-07-13
Editorial Department
by F. w. Meyers
LONG LIVE THE KING. "

1t is very popular at present to picture
! William Jennings Bryan as ludicrous
pltiful and disgraced nan. There
certainly is something pathetic in his
fall from power but it seems to US the
obloquy belongs not to Mr.. Bryan. but
to the cheap political trcksters who
now brazenly confess that i hey never
believed in free silver. that their sup
port of BRYAN in two Presidential cam
/ paigns was all a fake, cheat, and
fraud, and who have now the effrontery
to ask the confidence of the people in
the coming campaign. Among such
people William Jennings Bryan, wrong
though we have always believed him,
stands forth as very giant of decency
and honor and moral courage. 1t is the
pack of senseless partisans who bend
the pregnant hinges of the knee to each
new car of triumph, stopping only to
throw stones at the late departed, who
are pltiful and ludicrous and oisgraced.
Personally we have never had such
admiration for Mr.. Bryan as in this his
hour of manly defeat. Whatever his
future course may be, whether he shall
find some excuse, as many of his weaker
and more mere nary followers will do,
to remain in the party and follow the
leaders he has so long and so bitterly
den ounced or whether he shall remain
true to his convictions under whatever
banner they may lead, we do not know.
but this we must admit that up to this
time. and this is written before the
course has been consistent, pc. sistent
and answering.
We may of course look for the weak
lings to eat their words, to repudiate as
Tammany has done, their past allie
glance to ali that Bryan represented.
1t will be pitiful, ludicrous and a
d.sgraceful spectacle, prostitution of
manhood for success, which even q
sweeping victory would not condone.
The performance at st. Louis the
wild cheering for Cleveland: who lead
democracy and the country to its dark
est hours, the nomination of the
mediocre nonentity, Parker, the insults
heaped on Bryan, the inpudent bold.
ness with which the democratic princi-
Piles of the past eight years have been
denied and denounced, the unmasking
of acknowledged hypocrisy, all these
but show the true value of democracy
and prove its incompetency, its insin-
certify, and its craven spirit.
This orgies of confessions of hypocrisy
will have no reward. The leaders may
change their "creelo" with all the speed
and ease with which they change their
coats, but we believe the masses of
democracy were honest in their support
of Bryanism and that they cannot be
manipulated at will by David Bennett
Hill. Under the new regime. he dem
ocrats of the West are to be abandoned
to their fates. Notice has been repest-
eddy served by the managers of the
Parker boom, that it was matter of
entire Indifference to this new democ-
racy as to how Bryan democrats of the
west should vote. Mr.. Parker's friends
do not hope nor do they care to carry
Iowa, Nebraska or Colorado or in fact
any state north and west of the Ohio.
They are not Catering to that ele-
ment of the party. They have openly
announced their hope that Bryan would
bolt and take his western followers
with him into the populist camp The
hope of the new democracy is that with
the Solid South-voting blindly demo
cratic as usual, by the aid of the com
mon political stumpet known as
Tammany, and by the wealth of the
Belmonts and the trusts magna+es who
know that Paker is safe" man, they
may be able to carry New York, New
jersey and enough trust" states to
win. Paraphrasing Jay Gould they
have said The Western democrates
be id" With what advidity the
believers i'll the democracy of the past
eight years wall kiss the hand that smites
them remains to be seen.
The Parker, Morgan, Belmont
Cleveland Co Ltd. now has control of
the great "anti trust party Whoop-
la.