The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1906-07-28
A VICIOUS ASSAULT
ON VIM. J. BRYAN
New Orleans States.

The sense OF decency and lalr play
is strong in the American people and
nothing IL more calculated to make
them support a man than persistent,
reckless and malignant abuse of him.
This Is a fact that should impress IT.
self on the Chicago Chronicle which is
seeking TO prevent the nomination of
MT. Bryan in 1908. by making him
odious, but it appears that in it's v!ct-
GUS partisan assaults it not only
maligns him but millions Of Ameri.
cans, among whom are included pres
idents of the United States who have
long been numbered among the dead
In discussing Mr.. Bryan this Republi.
can newspaper says:
Whenever a moral issue has been
decided Alright and ceased to be an Is
sue, all the politicians who were on
the immoral side have been inferred
with 1t.
Secession is dead issue and every
politician who advocated 1t is dead al
80 for all national purposes. Slavery
Is dead issue, and no man who adj
vocated 1t can ever be president. Fiat
money is a dead issue, and James B,
Weaver can never be live Doliti.
clan.
''In like manner silver is dead is.
sue, and William ]. Bryan died with
it as national politician. The ten
dency is to bury a politician with his
theories even when they are only a
question Of expediency, but history
does not afford an example of a poll.
fnio h. Cd n
icy and survived it.
"The free silver proposition was a
steal. 1t involved the reputation OF
one-half of all existing Indebtedness
It's results would have been worse than
war, famine and pestilence put to.
gether. The man who proposed 1t was
at heart q robber, and nothing can
ever bleach him to the complexion OF
an honest man. 1t may be out of his
power at present to perpetrate the
robbery, but that does not make him
either safe or respectable"
However mistaken may have been
the free silver idea 1t Is nevertheless
fact that Mr.. Bryan and his six mil
lion or more followers were ON ground
that had for twenty years been occu.
pied by a large majority of the Dem.
ocratic party, and they had much dis
tinguished Republican company Mr.
Bryan did not originate the free sill
Yer crusade, but was selected to car.
~ forward work in which other
and at that time far more prominent
men, had long been engaged. In this
connection the Washington Post re
fn 0nfe ty1 -;
tory which are interesting when read
In the light Of the present day. i,
says:
IF friendship for free silver made a
man a robber whom nothing can ever
bleach to the complexion Of an hon
est man. what has the Chronicle to
say OF the course of William McKin
ley, Benjamin Harrison and those who
sympathized with them in kindly feel
ing for the dollar Of the daddles?' II
is well known that the Sherman s.l
yer act was passed because to have
defeated it would have caused a free
coinage bill to be sent to Present
Harrison, and the understanding was
that II such a bill came to him il
would receive his signature. It was
the great good fortune of the Republi
can party to keep little ahead Of the
Democracy In the long conflict be-
tween sound and unsound finances
But the man who saved this country
from the calamity of free coinage was
not Republican. That service was
rendered by President Cleveland, al
the cost of being repudiated by his
party"
Mr.. Bryan knows quite well that
free silver is dead issue and will
play no part in the next presidential
campaign. He has said as much in
his public utterances, but this fact is
not going to save him from innumer
able vicious assaults such as the Chi
cago Chronicle has levelled against
him. He Is going to be assailcd
fiercely from behind the skeleton OF
free silver because a man of his hon
esty and steadfastness In the cause OF
the plain people against the tyranny
and corporation of predatory wealth
is not wanted in the presidency. Nc