Twice-a-week plain dealer. (Cresco, Howard County, Iowa) 1895-1913, 1908-05-05
Official Paper Of City and County.
BRYAN Solves the Panic Problem.

William j. Bryan never made bet
ter bid for the presidency than when
he suggested that the federal govern
ment should guarantee the deposits in
all national banks. 1t has given Bryan
a strength throughout the country
which few men are aware of except
those who travel about and mingle with
all sorts ofpeople and learn what is real
ly going on in the public mind. ltshould
be remembered there are two great
commanding topics of thought and dis
cussion before the American people to-
day, and only two. One of those is the
recent panic, and the other is the max
ing of new president. The panic was
drama, it was tragedy, it entered the
home of almost every man in the coun-
try, sharply or indirectly. 1t is the
one thing find men talking about
wherever I go from the far east to the
far west-the panic, how it came, why
it came, who is responsible, how future
panics may be averted.
the men who are carrying on the great
commercial activities of the country,
men one meets and talks with in the
smoaking rooms of sleeping cars, in
hotels, in clubs, the merchant one meets
in cities and towns, the bankers all are
convinced there is something radically
wrong with the financial and banking
system. They know the recent panic
was not purely a banking and currency
collapse.
Business, which they represent,
which is their life, was hit blow from
above which staggered it, blow which
came from the quarter where business
had the right to expect only safety and
support and help-from the banks.
Realizing this, feeling it deeply, re-
senting it bitterly, demanding that it
shall never occur again, these men,
hundreds of whom l have talked with
in all parts of the country, want some
thing done, and want it done immedi-
ately.
Such was the setting of the stage,
such the psychological condition, when
Mr. Bryan came forward with his
proposition that the government guaran-
tee bank deposits. The idea met with
instant response in all parts of the land
1t impressed millions of men as sens
ible and proper and necessary thing to
do Government guarantee, they say,
would make the collapse of confidence
an impossibility. With confidence in
banks unimpaired there could never be
runs on banks; with no runs there could
be no panic like the one which swept
the country last fall, starting at New
York, and stopping not till it hao
reached the borders of all the seas.
Not every one agrees that the exact
method of accomplishing this result
proposed by Mr.. Bryan was the best
one to adopt. But he had started the
principle. He had pointed the way.
He is given credit which naturally ad
hered to such action. Mr.. Bryan is the
only man of first rate public promi
nence who dared deal with this ques
ton in any way. The president has
been silent; Taft has been silent; Can
non and Aldrich, with the president s
support, have been trying to pass d
measure which the whole country
knows is Ineffective. Bryan, and Bry.
an, alone, has spoken out in way tic
command attention.
How much good that one suggestion
has done Mr.. Bryan as presidential
aspirant can be judged only by visiting
among the people. 1t is not theory
but fact. 1t has gathered confidence
around him. 1t has made thousands
upon thousands of men feel a faith ir
him that they never felt before. They
have said: 1--WE always thought Bryan
was nothing but dreamer of impos
sible things, such as free silver, free
Philippines, government ownership Of
railroads. Now we find him intensely
practical. When a great crisis arises
in the country's affairs he is the only
public man to come to the front will
proposal that goes to the very hear
of the trouble. There must be some
thing in Billy Bryan after ALL
1t is too much to say this one sug
gestion, this one fortunate stroke
will make Bryan president, or ever
carry him near to the presidency. Blu
it has immensely bettered his position
He is on account Of it stronger than HI
ever was before. His old friends an,
admirers all stand by him. Now h
has new ones. He is looked upon diff
ferently. He has risen. This is al
true. tbs truth which must be take
into account in any impartial estimat
of the force of Bryan as. a seeker fo
the presidency.
He alone has connected the two grea
topics in the public mind-the PAM
and the presidency has Joined them il
discussion, in suggestion, in looking
ahead, in a way out, and with himsel
as the beneficiary of the union. 1t wa
a clever stroke.
The good rich have nothing to fea
from Mr.. Bryan, if he is elected presi
n I. L i 1l,o