The Ogden standard. [volume] (Ogden City, Utah) 1902-1910, 1909-10-05
w. j. BRYAN'S Ell PAS0 STATEMENT
IN REPLY TO SEN. BAILEY'S INTERVIEW

Mr.. BRYAN gave the following In
teryiew at Ell Paso, Texas, an answer
TO an inquiry from one OF the local
papers rs 10 whether he had any
thing &c say Ia regard TO Senator Ball
cy's Dallas speech. he replied:
II read Senator Bailey's Dallas
speech on the train this morning aa
7 was colnins into El Paso. 1t Is an
able presentation of his positlon--as
able prescnIrtion as can be made
and | am very glad to have his side
or the proposition presented by one
who con pei the best appearance up
Oh II. II when the voters OF Texas
have read it. they will know that
nothing letter can be said In defense
OF n tax on raw material and as ne
las not answered my arguments, the
voters will have a right TO assume
that no one else can. His speech does
not require ali answer In detail
may. in future speeches refer 10 par
ticular arguments he advances. but
all thar needs to be said now can be
said very briefly in this interview
Senator Bailey does not attempt
to meet several of my arguments and
he does net fairly present some of the
others HIS Misrepresentation of his
tory is surprising. He says that we
we're defeated In the congressional
election OF 1894 because the doctrine
of free raw mnterial was embodied In
the Wilson bili He certainly has not
forgotten that the defeat in 1894 was
due to the fact that the silver ques.
tion divided our party at that time
and that Il majority of our party OPP
nosed The position taken by the demo-
cratic administration on the uncon-
ditlonal lepeal OF the purchasing
clause OF the Sherman law. And,
further, if he Will examine the elec
tion returns of 1894, he will find that
about the only districts that we car
ried were districts in those portions
Of the country in which he says the
people resent the doctrine of free raw
material while we lost the districts
In those portions Of the country where
they have practically no raw material
TO protect He also oyerlooks the
TACT that Ia 1892 we elected demo.
cratic president and secured large
democratic majority in congress on
a platform which indorsed the doc
trinc Of free raw material, and he
will remember also that we won that
victory alter the house Of representa-
tiycs OF me Fifty-Second congress had
passed several free raw material bills
for which both he and ] voted Is 1t
necessary TO overlook entirely a ma
t;onal victory and TO misrepresent a
congressional defeat in order TO find
support CT the senator's theory?
Senator Bailey says that the ma
,ional platform Of 1896 was in har-
mony With the Texas platform of that
year. and he demands the right to
coustrue the tariff plank on the ground
that he wrote it. That is the posi-
tiun taken by the Aldrich republicans
in regard TO the last republican ma
tiCnal platform. They demand the
tight 10 construe the word revise"
because they inserted it in the plat
form, but the western republicans in.
sist that they also have right 10
construc the word revise, and they
cons;lue II as promise OF reduction,
The words which Mr. Bailey inserted
in The democratic national platform
OF 1896 do not appear in the Texas
state platform: neither do the words
platform. appear in the national plat
form He construes the platform as
an attack on free raw material, but
II was not so construed in other parts
OF the country,
As tc Platforms.
"As to the binding force of plat
fol nus. he does not meet the PROPOSE
tioE which ] presented He discusses
whether he should be bound by na-
tional platform made after his elec-
tion, and he also discusses whether !
should have been bound oy plank
OF a national platform made after
my nomination for congreSs-a plank
which | repudlated before the cleo
ton. but he does not discuss whether
an clhcill has right TO repudiate a
platform upon which he himself was
elected and which he. himself de-
Tended during the campaign If he
VIII examine my speech, he will see
that presented a sample platform for
congressional district and insisted
that a candidate for congress should
announce his belief in the binding
Of Rla