The Ocala banner. (Ocala, Marion County, Fla.) 1883-194?, 1908-09-04

now 10 divide US? Nothing upon the
face of the contention except the per
sonality Of Mr.. Bryan. Having been
twice beaten, he can never be elect
ed" says Sir Aracle. Having been
twice beaten he can never be elect
ed says Sir Oracle. Having been
been twice beaten, he can never be
elected" echo unthinking democrats.
Yet it is this twice beaten candidate
whom the rank and file of democracy
cling to, and whom republican leaders
and newspapers most savagely abuse.
Why? In my opinion it is because
there is in the people a discerning in
stinct and in Mr. Bryan a rejecting
spirit which make for mutual trust
fulness.
Mr.. Bryan, upon acquaintance, prov
ed different from my precOnceptiOn of
him. | met not a visionary orator but
man of sense, in deadly earnest. di-
rect and candid. Coming to know him
better, seeing him in mis- home, |
found a man able and sincere, devoted
and devOut, having a childlike faith
in the people, in God and truth. l
changed my opinion altogether. | felt
that l had done him injustice. |
would as soon trust him in the White
House as George Gray or Richard Oh
ney; and l believe that when he gets
there militant democracy of the school
of Jefferson and Jackson and Tilden
will renew it's youth and vigor, leading
the way to such reforms in the nation
al house and senate as will restore
them their legislative functions and
give the people assurance Of real and
lasting good.
No party was ever known to reform
itself. Republican promises to re-
form republican abuses make but a
poor deathbed repentance Taft
means either -four years more of
Theodore" or a new lease for Aldrich,
Cannon and Company. Bryan means,
if nothing else, the new broom that
sweepeth clean, upon floors that are
admittedly foul. There must be an
occasional change of parties if we are
to have decent administration. One
party government is only a degree
less Objectionable than the one-man
power III
1t is a peculiar misfortune and an
augury of evil that the people of the
east-notably the people of New
York-get their mental sustenance
chiefly through the organs or the rich.
in the bucOlic days "befo' the war"
the people of the gulf states were fed
from the same trough. Their newspa-
pers sang only the virtues of slavery.
None others were allowed to exist.
In the fabulous wealth of the east pill
ed up in a few handsome Of it pre-
datory-much of it sprung from class
legislation-all of it more OF less cor
rupting-it is easy to detect a growing
likeness to the patricianism of the old
south.
Already artificial conditions of life
predominant. Young men are reared
to regard enthusiasm as effeminate.
Young women are almost as educated
in a knowledge of evil as young men.
The sex line becomes less and less
visible. Moral confusion makes po-
litical obliquity. Caste distinctions
press upon the cOmmOnalty more and
more, and harder and harder. The
foolish poor either hate or emulate
the foolish rich. Graft is everywhere.
Money-making seems to have swamp
ed simple patriotism and popular
ideas. The newspapers are so used
to this that they grow callOus-they
take their complexion from society,
which is we'll pleased with itself and
wants things to remain as they are
dissOnant note denounced as the ig-
norance of an outsider, or the Outcrop-
ping of anarchism. It was just so in
the Carolinas fifty years ago. He
who did not shout for slavery was an