Staunton spectator and vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1896-1916, 1908-11-13
Friday, November 6. 1908.
WHAT HAS MIR. BRYAN
WRECKED !?

MT. Bryan as the WreCAeT vi tuc Delh-
ocratic party are blatherskiting. Look |
at the facts.
Mr.. Bryan was unknown to the par
ty as leader until the Chicago con-
vention Of 1896. That year the party
leaders assembled looking over the
wreck that Grover Cleveland had made
Of the party. In 1892 the party had
elected him by an immense plurality, |
at his back it had placed Senate and
House of Representatives,, and every
thing had been done that united and
strong party could do or could suggest
Before his term ended he had scattered
them as leaves before storm. He had
denounced leaders as perfidious, he had
allowed his Treasury to be looted, he
had refused to recognize silver dollars
as money with which to pay the obi
cations Of the government. He had
permitted the endless chain to be work
ed on him, he had permitted the gold
to be drawn out of his treasury, and
his dogmatic and undemocratic con-
duct had disguised the leaders of the
party, produced dire calamity, and his
enemies charged, a panic. At the So
licitation of John P. Morgan he issued
bonds to restore the gold reserve which
he had frittered away. This cast a
blot on Cleveland, for he was openly
accused of having made a deal with
Morgan by which he, Morgan, got the
entire bond issue, and Cleveland got a
"rake off" So much for conditions
when Mr.. Bryan appeared.
With all this upon party shoulders,
the party assembled in Chicago,
dow ncast and disheartened, looking for
a leader. But no Moses was found
among the bullrushes, no former leader
rode into the lists. Nobody wanted
the job. 1t was an empty honor, no
matter on ,whom it fell. The party
was q wreck, 1t mattered not whether
it went to pieces on the waves OF its
own discomfort, or its own incapaclty,
or by Cleveland's policies, it was a
wreck, when that convention met. Mr..
Bryan had had nothing to do with
the disaster. He was an humble citi-
zen of Lincoln, Nebraska, when it oc-
CURED. But he happened to come to
that convention as delegate, and by
his bearing and ability he captured it,
and it thrust upon him nomination,
nobody else under existing conditions
seemed to want. The convention
adopted platform in which the free
coinage of silver at Is to was the
most prominent feature. Mr.. Bryan
endorsed that feature, but he did not
beget it. In the beginning the follow
ers of Cleveland fed from him. with
such plank in the platform the whole
Cleveland administration and all of his
followers turned upon him with the
ferocity of savages, and they have
fought him with that ferocity ever
since. We are not here to DISCUSS the
right or the wrong of that issue, any
more than we are here to discuss
the rag baby currency bill known as
the Aldrich-Vreeland bill passed by
the Republicans at the last session Of
Congress. Both may have been mis-
takes. The latter is criminal one.
Mr.. Bryan in the face of Cleveland's
opposition, in the face Of party di-
vided and rent to pieces, when he
found it, in the face of panic charged
to the party of which he then became
the leader-charged up to them an "the
Cleveland panic" in the face of all the
corporations in the nation being solidly
against him, with the most popular
candidate the Republican party to that
time had ever had, opposing him, with
the most INSCRIPTIONS politician the
country has ever known-Mark Han
main charge of the opposing party
machinery, with money flowing as
water, he made the most remarkable
campaign this country has ever seen.
Within two weeks of the election Mr..
Hanna went to New York and on
Blended knees begged for money, or all
was lost, he said.
Now let's see how the party was
wrecked by Mr.. Bryan in that cam
paign. In 1896 Mr.. Bryan carried Ala
bama by $1,000; Arkansas by 1900;
{ Colorado by 1874, 200; Florida by 1000;
Georgia by $4,000; Idaho by 10000;
Kansas by 10000 Louisiana by $4,000;
Mississippi by $4,000; Missouri by
$1,000; Montana by $1,000; Nebraska
by 1900; Nevada by 5000; North
Carolina by 1900; South Carolina by
40, 600; South Dakota by 1888; Tennes-
see by $4,000; Texas by 100000 Utah
by $4,000; Virginia by $4,000; Wash
ingtonby $4,000, and Wyoming by 7S9.
Many Of these were States no Demo-
GRAFT had ever carried, and had New
York, New Jersey, Indiana, or a few
other then admittedly Democratic
States, not bolted to Cleveland and his
stool pigeons he would have been tri-
umPhantly elected. McKinley's pop
ular vote over him was only about 592, )
600. In 1904 Mr.. Bryan stood aside
and the ''safe and sane" element of the
Democratic party took hold of the
reins, and what did they do? Did they
save it or wreck it? Let's see. They
carried Alabama, Arkansas, Florida,
Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Missis-
sippi, North Carolina, South Carolina,
Tennessee, Texas and Virginia, and no
other States, and these generally by re-
duced majorities. Their candidate was
Alton B. Parker. His opponent Mr..
Roosevelt, had popular majority over
him of 2, 541 900. The wrecker Bryan
had carried % States, whereas the s'safe
and sane" candidate had only carried