As the day of the election draws nearer Americans and
Englishmen are awakening to the fact that Mr. Bryan's chances of election are not hopeless, that, in fact, the insurrection of discontent in the Union is a very serious matter. The South is a solid block for him, the Far West will give him a majority, and the result will depend upon the vote of the Mid- West. The Republicans have hitherto represented this region as certainly " sound," but on Wednesday the Committee which manages for General Palmer, the candidate of the sound- money Democrats, issued a statement indicating that they almost despaired of Illinois, Indiana, and Michigan. T he farmers in those three States are increasingly inclined towards Mr. Bryan, and the Committee call anxiously on their supporters to work harder and harder till November 4th. It is said, by men who are not his friends, that Mr. Bryan's speeches at railway stations in his endless journeys through the Mid- West have been attended by a quarter of a million of voters, and we hear from other sources that every day deepens his supporters' fanaticism. The currency is the pivot round which the argument turns, but the Bryan Democrats really think they are rising against a tyranny. They will have a sharp disillusion, but it may only come after the election. It is never in its first rush that a jacquerie is defeated, but after its success has roused the knights to arms. This movement is a jacquerie which uses the ballot instead of the club.
Previous page
