The Ocala banner. (Ocala, Marion County, Fla.) 1883-194?, 1914-04-24
TOYING WITH OUR AMIA6LE
SECRETARY

The following from the San Fran
cisco Chronicle mot one of the
Hearst publications. is Sent to u:
from che of our subscribers on the
Pacific slope. The Chronicle seemi
to think that our amiahle secretary
OF state and master mechanic in tht
construction of the Baltimore plat
form las gotten himself all in a tan
gle.
The Chronicle says:
Secretary Bryan's statement" in
respect to the democratic party's po-
sition on canal tolls is the most
awkward attempt at explanation" in
our political history To do the secre-
tary justice, it is evidence of the
great difficulty which an honest
gentleman experiences when he first
attempts to deceive.
The exemption plank, he says, is
little plank" and would never have
been adopted by the convention had
it known that it concealed in its
bowels a subsidy"
The presidents phrase is better
The plank was "molasses set to catch
f1ies.'' Of course, before election, the
president said it was no such thing
but now he cannot say that it was
not. When the matter Is brought to
his attention, like the celebrated Tar
Baby, she amt saying tlottin."
But Secretary Bryan's assertion
that the convention adopted plank
without knowing what it meant, it a
most astonishing political confession.
Did the committee which reported
it not know what it meant? 1t was
supposed to contain the best minds
of the party. Brother Bryan was
prominent and, indeed, the most in
fluential member of the committee
and is supposed to have written the
platform. Did not he know what it
meant? If he says that he did not
know what it meant, he confesses in
competence to assist in party delibe-
rations. If he says he did know what
it meant, he confesses, in the light of
his present position, deliberate at
tempt to deceive the people-or to
repeat the presidents expression, he
"set molasses to catch flies"
We do not believe that either Mr..
Bryan or Mr.. Wilson ever did or ever
will "set molasses to catch flies" Nor
does it seem possible to believe that
they did not understand the meaning
of the exemption plank.
AS to the subsidy" if any is con-
cealed in the exemption plank, and
the assertion that all democrats are
opposed to "subsiding" American
ships by exemption from tolls, what
will he say to the great canals on the
lakes, through which more commerce
passes than is likely in generations to
pass through the Panama canal, with
out cent of tolls from American
ships? Is not that exemption Sub
sidy," if exemption at Panama is a
subsidy? And has any democrat heen
heard to protest against that subsidy,
if it is one?
The southern states are most re-
markably prolific in democratic states
men and orators, and which of them
has been heard to protest against the
enormous subsidies, if they are subsi-
dies, to American vessels on the Mis-
sissippi river by the million lavished
in making it navigtable? so far from
protesting, are they not ravenous for
still greater appropriations to make
that noble river still more navigtable?
And, if we subsidize- American ships
on the Great Lakes and the MISSISSIPPI
pi, why may we not with equal pro-
priety, so far as Subsidies" are con-
cerned, substitute those navigating the
Panama canal?
Frankly, Secretary Bryan is too
honest a gentleman to deal Adequately
with that subject in that way. The
democratic party has many who can
say the thing that is not with far bet
ter grace that Secretary Bryan.