The Ocala banner. (Ocala, Marion County, Fla.) 1883-194?, 1906-06-15

convention, 10 have the larger body
only the business of confirming an al
ready agreed candidate, the selecting
of his yoke-mate and the building of
platform
In this there appears a certain in
stinct of the people which often baf-
des the best laid plans of the most
far seeing statesmen and astute poll
ticians.
That which is about to happen to
Mr.. Bryan happened to Mr.. Eilden.
Rejected by the party leaders in 1880,
when the issue of the old ticket
would have swept the country, his
unanimous acceptance came too late
lin 1884. The sage of Greystone had
grown old and infirTn and could not
avail himself OF the glory that at
length was his. He lived, however,
long enough to witness the triumph
of the cause which was dear to his
heart in the person Of a nominee put
forward by himself and his immediate
friends.
Mr.. Bryan is more fortunate than Mr..
has survived the crudities and hysteria
of the ill-starred campaign of 1896.
Though he went to a dwindling instead
of a rising vote in 1900, he held his or
ganization and following intact. The
end of the campaign of 1904 saw him
the one king pin erect and standing;
and since then it must be conceded
that he has carried himself with a pru-
dence and aplomb, intimating to
thoughtful observers the growing.
rather than the waning, man.
The Nebraskan is at the height of his
powers. If the party canot be united
on him, upon whom else? There is a
living hope among the democratic
rank-and- file that we can carry the
next election and T. latent fear that
the ckahce Of doing SO may be blighted
by possible factiOnalism, muddled by
misleading influences, perhaps by cor
rupt and corrupting influences These
democrats refuse to take two bites
at a cherry. A(r. Bryan is as good now
as he will be two years hence. They
intend to say so. They do not intend
to wait What he will most need will be
moral support and this they mean to
heap up in sufficient measure and in
advance. AS a consequence each state
at least in the west and south, which
meets in convention for any purpose
from now onward will follow the lead
of Missouri Arkansas and Indiana,
naming him "a the standard bearer for
1908.
So much FOR TIE more or less super
fetal and party aspects Of the case.
But behind them, and below them,
there lie, yet half hidden, forces i'm
, measurable and momentous. The peo-
pie have lost the control of their Gov
eminent and they begin to feel it, to
see it, to know it. The free silver emo
: ton. for 1t was little use. was merely
the manifestation of distemper of
whose real nature and extent, in 1896.
the country was not fully advised.
Something allied il. 1t cried cloud. and,
in answer to it's cry, various doctors
appeared; many of them em2iricists.
most of them strangers, but all of them
ought now to realize was not remedy
at all.
IL Mr.. Bryan had been elected in
1896 and the free silv>-' cure-all could
have been tried it would have brought
no relief On the ccStrary It would
have resulted in overwhelming dis*p-
pointment and reaction. Just as the
/, trend OF modern thought hid sci
against slavery the middle of the last
/, century had the same trend set against
the double standard at the close OF
q it. Slavery had become impossible and
it went its way. Free silver was equal
ly impossible. and it has gone its way
n It's disappearance makes democracy
q whole again. 1t brings democrats TO-
v gether once more precisely as after
. the war of sections they came tUgeth-
q er, all factions and factional issues re-
moved, the bond of agreement yet vita
and eternal; the pact Of the masse:
" the regulars; the government of the
. people, for the people and by the peo-
= Pile seeking the greatest good to the
E. greatest number against the organized
power of dishonest mOney-gettinG
n through favoritism and privilege. thu
j government of the syndicates. by tn
It syndicates and for the syn1icates.
: The latter we now surely know rule
n in the two houses of congress a
Washington, if not in the White House
where a yet problematic character i
'e playing queer politics and PURSUING
Il devious ways, to what finality no rial
can plainly see or say but. as demo
&c Gratis everywhere feel and believe
boding no good to any real or lastin
reform.
The republican party is mammoth
N trust. It is the greatest of all the syn
a. dicates. 1t could not, if it would. men
l. a0v of tha ahuSnS which have grow