The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1908-06-24
He SAYS READ II
William j. Bryan Advises
Everybody to Peruse
The Republican Platform
Adopted at Chicago.
HE HAS GONE OVER 1T
And Finds Little in the DOcu-
ment to Commend.
.f
HE HAS GONE OVER 1T
Calls 1t Silent Reputation O
Roosevelt Principles.

dfatton OF ROOSevelt1dn principles, W.
]. Bryan has completed an editorial
summary of the work of the Chicago
convention. Mr.. Bryan will say in the
next issue Of the Commoner:
Have you read the Republican
platform? If not, you ought to read
it. The contest in the Republican
party between the reformer and the
standpatter is for the present at an
end, with the standpatter in the sad
die. The platform is silent repudia-
ton of nearly every promise of reform
that the president and his followers
have given to the country. 1t begins
with a eulogy of the president. In
no other period since the days Of Lin
coln,' according to the platform, has
there been such mighty progress in
those ideals of government which
make for justice, equality and fair
dealing among men,
The highest aspirations of the
American people have found a voice
CA reflection is here implied on pre-
vious Republican presidents who
have failed to furnish voice for the
highest aspirations of the American
people.D
Their most exalted servant repre-
sents the best aims and worthiest pur-
poses of all his countrymen. Ameri-
can manhood has been lifted to
noble sense of duty and obligation
party has held Office and divided the
official salaries among its partisans so
long without giving us a president who
represented the best aims and worth
lest purposes of the people. Without
asking why no other Republican presi-
dent in recent days has lifted Ameri-
can manhood to a noble sense of duty
and obligation, we may ask why 1t
is that the Republican convention
spends so much time in praising the
president and gives SO little attention
to specific Endorsement of the things
he has advocated. But the president
must feel that he is the only Re-
publican deserving of praise. The re-
cent congresses, according to the plat
form. have been full of patriots and
the Republican legislators have been
keeping step in the forward march to
better government
The Money Plank.
THE writers of the platform 'espec-
tally commend the passage of the
emergency currency bill'-a bill which
combined two features, one of which
had been rejected by the senate and
the other by the house. So long as
there was a chance for a discussion
there was sufficient Republican op-
position to condemn both features of
the bill, but under the influence of a
few flnanciers the bill was rushed
through during the closing hours with
all of the bad features restored and all
Of the good ones eliminated. How
proud the Republican bosses in the
senate and house must feel to have
their work thus Endorsed by a Republi-
can national convention.
The plank demanding a permanent
change in the currency system Is gen.
eral enough to permit the Republican
nVaf ~ or Ia Tt1 nnI %
the country the system most popular
there and sufficiently indefinite to en-
able congress to do whatever it pleases
or nothing without violating any
pledge.
The trust plank must prove a dis
appointment to every Republican who
has come to understand the iniquity
Of the trusts.
There is no demand for a rigid en-
forcement Of the law; there is no sug-
gestion that the criminal clause which
has not yet brought the trust male
factor within the walls of the peniten-
tiary-should be called into use. The
platform says the law can be strength
ened by amendments which will en-
large the supervision of the general
government, but these amendments
are not mentioned and there is nothing
in this plank of the platform that can
be appealed to to secure any real i'm
provement in the law. If the president
with all his strenuosity had not been
able to enforce the criminal law
against a single trust what progress
will there be with such an antitrust
plank as that inserted in the Republi-
can platform?
Finds Something Good.
There is plank in the platform in
favor Of such legislation and super
vision as will prevent the future over
issue of stocks and bonds by inter-
coupled with the advocacy Of a pool
| ing arrangement which makes a large
concession to the railroad without ex-
acting any security to the public for
the convention voted down an amend
| ment proposed by Senator La Follette's
followers authorizing an enlargement
| OF the powers of the interstate COM
merce commission.
The negro comes in for his quad
rennial quota of taffy He is reminded
| that the Republican party gave him
freedom and citizenship and in this
| there is the implied warning that he
| must not use his citizenship against
the party that gave it to him. II boasts
| that he is indebted to that party for
MS political rights and for his prog
Tess In intelligence, industry, etc. The
Republican party has made political
capital out of the negro for third of
century. In many of the close STATES
1t has won its elections by the negro
vote and in the states where it has
had power it has. never treated tne
negro any better than he has peen
treated by the Democrats IN otner
words. in the northern states the
Democrats without receiving any sup
port from the negro vote. have been
as friendly to him as the Republicans.
In the south the Democrats nave rur-
nished a large part of the money to
provide that education of which the
Republican platform boasts And yet,
publican leaders have attempted to APP
peal to the prejudices of the negro by
parading before him the restrictions
placed upon suffrage in some of the
soutnern states They have been In
control Of the government with the
exception of few years for now near