The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-06-24
Bryan Rips Up Republican Platform and Shows All
 Its Fa|Iacies
PATCHWORK CURRENCY
 PLANK IS R|O|CULED
Trust Plank, Says Mir. Bryan, Makes No Demand for Rigid Enforcement of the Law, While the Negro
 Is Given Lot of Taffy.

Lincoln, June 23.-Announcng the re- publican platform as a silent repudiation of almost every Rooseveltian principle, William J. Bryan today completed summary of the work of the Chicago convention. MT. Bryan in this summary said:
 Have you read the republican plat form? If not, you ought to read it. The contest in the republican party between the reformer mad stand-patter is for the present at an end, with the stand-patter in the saddle. The platform Is a silent repudiation of nearly every promise of reform that the President and his fol- lowers have given to the country. It be- gins with an 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 Amer ican people have found a voice. GA re- fection is here implied that previous re- publican Presidents have failed to fur nish a 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 country. American man. hood has been lifted to a noble sense of duty and obligation
 Too Much Roosevelt. "Wthout asking why the republican party has held office and divided the of ficial salaries among its partisans so long without giving us a President who represented the best aims and worthiest purpose of the people, without asking why no other republican President in re- cent days has lifted American manhood to a noble sense of duty and obligation we may ask why it is that the republican convention spends so much time in ex- pressing praise of the President and gives so little attention to the specific endorsement of the things he has advo- cated. But the President must feel that he is the only republican deserving of praise
 'The recent congresses, according to the platform, have been full of patriots and the republican legislators have been keeping step in the forward march to better government What does the Pres ident think of being bracketed with re- publican senators and members of con- gress in this indscriminate praise? Moth ing is said of the conspiracy formed among the republican leaders of the sen ate to defeat the Presidents railroad rate bill; no intimation is here given that he sent several messages to con- gress in a vain endeavor to get the lower house to take up the reforms which he was urging. The President must resent the fact that the platform expresses no gratitude to the democratic members and senators for supporting him when the re- publicans deserted him. Not only does the platform fail to give the democrats credit for helping the President in every effort to lift up Amer iean manhood to noble sense of duty and obligation, but 1t actually condemns the filibuster which the democratic minority instituted and carried on for the express purpose of compelling republicans to carry out the Presidents recommenda- tions. Mir. Williams. leader of the mi- nority,g time and again called upon the republicans to furnish 30 votes in sup port of the Presidents policies and pledged the democratic minority to furnish the remaining number of votes neces- sary to carry out several of the Presi- dents recommendations, and yet the men who wrote the platform presume upon the ignorance of the public and complain that the filibuster prevented the enact ment of many wholesome and progressive laws
 Currency Plank.
 ''rhe writers of the platform especially commend the passage of the emergency currency bil-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 chance for a discussion there was sufficient re- publican opposition to condemn both fea- lures of the bill but under the influence of a few financers the bill was rushed through during the closing hours with all of the bad features restored and all of the good eliminated. How proud the republican bosses in the enate and House must feel to have their work thus indorsed by republican rational con- vention,
 .The plank demanding permanent change in the currency system is general enough to permit the republican orators to advocate in each section of the coun- try the system most popular there and sufficiently indefinite to enable Congress to do whatever it pleases or nothing, without violating any pledge.
 Trust Plank.
 ''The trust plank must prove a disap- pointment to every republican who has come to understand the inquity of the trusts. There is no demand for rigid enforcement of the law there is no sug- gestion that the criminal clause. which has not yet brought the trust malefactor within the walls of a penitentiary-shoud be called into use. The platform says that the law can be strengthened by amendments which will enlarge the su- pervision of the general government. but these amendments are not mentioned and there is nothing in this plank of the plat form that can be appealed to to secure any real improvement in the law. If the President with all of his strenuosity has not been able to enforce the criminal law against single trust what progress can be made with such an antitrust plank