The Calhoun chronicle. [volume] (Grantsville, W. Va.) 1883-1984, 1910-09-06
EXEUNT BRYAN?

SSCS anu TSI)uuldLlOll ny IIlOSe
who follow him in matters OF
state only to forsake him when
a moral issue had to be met
does not mean the elimination OF
William Jennings Bryan as a fac
tor, influence and power in not
only the politics of his state but
that Of the nation.
We hold no brief for Mr..
Bryan. Nothing happened a.
Grand Island that was uneXpec-
ted or was not predicted in these
columns, but when he goes down
to defeat fighting for a moral
principle such as was at stake in
this convention, we must say his
sacrifice was honorable and
praiseworthy. 1t were better
to go down to a thousand far
more humiliating defeats than
was the wrestling of power from
Mr.. Bryan while espousing a
good cause, than to succeed to
the ultimate in advocacy of a
bad one.
The liquor issue must be met
in Nebraska as we'll as elsewhere.
The problem which confronts the
people is not must we deal with
the question, but how shall we
best deal with it. When Mr.
Bryan offered the plank, I'VE
favored county option as the
best method of dealing with the
liquor ques tion," he offered a
moral truth, for which he was
rewarded by outcasting, denun-
ciating and humiliation.
If l have advocated that which
is not good for the state let me
feel your wrath. If you find |
have done anything that is not
for the good of the democratic
party, | do not ask your mercy, "
said he to the assembled demo-
Gratis by whom we knew he had
been marked for slaughter.
With full consciousness than his
undoing was imminent, that each
and every word he uttered in adj
vocacy of mis- country option plan
dug his political grave in the
state but the deeper, he had the
courage of his convictions and
the strength of his conscience
and continued to urge his fellow
democrats to avoid the pitfalls
of the past and to meet the issue
squarely. For an hour and a
half, with the same eloquence
with which he had electrified
those self same men time and
time again, he entreated them
to adopt the plank which he felt
must sooner or later be written
into the Nebraska platform, but
they turned a deaf ear upon his
implorings. And with what re-
suit.
The republican party and the
populist party of this state have
adopted country option if you
do not adopt it, it becomes an is
sue," said Mr.. Bryan in conclud-
ing his remarks.
And thus it is today that coun-
ty option is an issue in Nebraska
and will continue to be the issue
until the liquor problem is solved.
And for his pains to steer his
party from probable reefs, for
his loyalty to a belief whose
truth needs but time to prove, he
is trampled down, disowned and
scoffed at as a theorist and
dreamer. No stronger corroba-
tive proof of his charge that the
whiskey interest had sold him
out could be needed than the ma
jority against his plank. Bryan
was a man Nebraskans loved,
respected and followed. He has
paid a pretty price for his convic-
ton and his devotion to his state
and party in Nebraska. What
was the price of his selling out?
A man who has dominated the
democratic party in his state for
twenty years and been to haven
for the national party for four
teen years is not thus easily to
be gotten rid of. Bryan's good
principles are bigger broader
than the democrats Of Nebraska,
and they will prevail when those
who have sought to crush him
have been forgotten. Richmond