The Ocala banner., 1914-06-12
DIscREDITINe THE PRESIDENT

The esteemed Tampa Times says that
the 0cala Banners intimation that
the poll of the delegates to the Balti-
more convention was done at the re-
quest of the president is a purely
gratuitous assumption. and charges
that the statement was made to dis
credit the president.
Senator Gore was praised for doing
it. He was given credit for singular
intuition and thoughtfulness in doing
so. If it were excellent for the sena
tor, why would it have been discred-
liable for the president to have sug-
gested it?
Well, be that as it may, this paper
saw the statement made in some pub
lication at the time that the sugges-
tion originated with the president,
and we did not then and we do not
now regard it as discreditable to him
at all.
1t is true at any rae that had net
the president appealed to congress
to set aside this plank of the plat
form on which he was elected to Of
fee it is quite certain that Senator
Gore would never have made his poll
of the delegates, and it is equally
certain that if he had, nine out of ten
would have repudiated the PROPOSE
ton, because, as a rule, the men who
have character and standing enough
to be sent as delegates to national
conventions do not lightly regard a
party platform as merely catch-pen-
ny affair to climb into office on and
to be cast into the waste
basket.
The esteemed Times seems to
think that it is a part of irreverence
and superstition for one to regard
with any sort of religious ardor a
mere party platform the work of falli-
BILE men, and to attach that kind of
to it, to say the least, is
a novel idea.
Let's see about that. Senator Var
daman in his speech in the senate
chamber last Wednesday used the
following language:
"The idea of any human being,
however, in his own conceit or wise
ID the estimate of others, imagining
ne has the power to absolve himself
rom such a pledge, to substitute
some theory of his own in place of
t, is a heresy in political religion in
he United States, which is now be-
ng preached and practiced by lead
srs of the democratic party for the
irst time. 1t may be treason to the
crown, but I cannot approve it. II
will not subscribe to such a doctrine"
To show that the president is mere
y mortal-as other men-that he is
made of the same kind of clay, this
paper printed two letters written byi
lim, one knocking" the other "prais-
ng" Mr. Bryan.
The Times says that there is moth
ng inconsistent in these letters, as
hey were written several years apart
one before any personal acquaint-
ance with the secretary, the other aft
erwards. Well, the Banner need not
have gone back so far. 1t could
have quoted his "molasses speech"
In praise of this very plank in the
democratic platform in which he said
that it was not to "catch flies with"
1t could also have quoted what Mr..
Bryan said of the sacredness of party
platforms.
In saying that Mr.. Bryan ought to
be knocked into a cooked hat" the
president was making no reference to
Mr.. Bryan's personality-he was all
out of sorts with his political theo-
ries. Either Mr.. Bryan has changed
since that time or the president has
changed.
So, extolling this plank in the plat
form when a candidate for president
before the farmers of the country the
president has either undergone a
change or was not sincere then, or is
insincere now.
The change in his attitude only
proves what the Banner charges, that,
like other men, the president is mere
ly mortal. He is made of clay, the
same as other men.