New-York tribune., 1901-10-16
STILL RIDING TWO HORSES.

Colonel w. ]. Bryan seems 10 be one of those
Ill fated politicians who never can cure them
selves of the habit OF riding two horses. To
such curiOusly constituted statesmen no prob
lem in politics offers more excitement than the
enlistment in some common enterprise of IN
terests and elements not naturally assimilable
and no triumph is more dear than one which
flows from a union of forces resting on no
essential unity of opinion purpose. OF the
leaders OF our day Colonel Bryan has been
foremost in embracing the theory that political
combinations may be nourished and maintained
long after the accidental causes which prompted
them have ceased to operate. No other Amer-
can politician has been more cOnspicuOusly the
victim of this illusory notion Yet in spite of
failures and mishaps the Nebraska statesman
clings to his old political practices, and find
him declaring the other day that inasmuch as
his services are not especially demanded else
where this fall, he will gladly devote his time
and energy 10 assuring the success In his own
State of the ticket on which the POpullst and
Democratic parties have agreed as an equitable
appOrtOnment of the State offices.
1t is creditable to Colonel Bryans consistency
that he should thus endeavOr to reassemble the
elements of an alliance TO which in great part
his own political power and prominence have
been due. But 1t is not fattering TO his polit-
zeal wisdom that he should misread so entirely
the lessons of his own disastrous efforts to
compel success through the mere machinery of
coalition. His two elections to Congress as a
fusionist in 1890 and 1892 evidently laid the
train for all his future ventures and misad-
ventures in politics. Since then he has appeared
in two Presidential canvasses as the nominee of
three separate political parties, not accepting in
their entirety the views of any and attempting
10 dat iT1Sa To Tho rtrax-
of all. In 1896 on the free coinage issue he led
the alliance of Democrats, Popullsts and Silver
Republicans. In 1900 by adding to free coin
age the issue of antl-imperialism, he drew to his
support a fourth political segment, organized
TO combat the administrations policy in the
Philippines, But the more he spread the folds
of his political dragnet the fewer votes he
caught, and as the candidate of four parties in
1900 he had the humiliation of showing less
strength in the Electoral College than as the
candidate of three in 1896
This year the elements in Colonel Bryan's
amalgam are reduced to two In Nebraska the
shadowy anti-imperialistic and Silver Repub-
can organizations of 1900 have ceased to exist
and the perennial amalgamator is again strug-
Cling fuse into unity the two political parties
which supported him for Congress in 1890 and
1892. But though the horses he rides are now
only two in number, the task of controlling
them has become more difficult than ever Time
has shown the hOllOwness of the basis of union
on which the Democratic and Populist combi
nations OF the past have rested, and even in
Nebraska popular sentiment has wearled of an
alliance which subordinates to mere greed for
Office that genuine solidarity of interest or
opinion on which any true political coalition
should be based. To the average observer the
futility OF such union as Colonel Bryan is
fighting TO maintain has long been obvious. But
the Nebraska leader evidently needs one more
lesson before he can be convinced OF the folly of
the political policy of which he has been at once