The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1902-11-22
A POLITICAL CRISIS FORESEEN.
The Gloomy View OF One Of Mr.. Bryan's
Past Followers.

Past Followers.
To THE EDITOR OF THE SUN-Sir. Many
students Of events agree that these United
States are approaching a crisis Of great
pith and moment In the last few decades
we have been moving at an extraordinary
speed. Conditions are changing rapidly
and society is trying to readjust itself TO
these conditions. Great problems are be-
fore us pressing for solution. Great ques-
tons. like heavy trains, move slowly, but
when they do move, the opposing forces
meet with that clash of contending worlds.
The birth OF liberty is slow and painful.
The work of ages cannot be destroyed
without tremendous shock. Progress pro-
ceeds in inscrutable ways. The first law
passed by the Puritan fathers was one de-
claring the penalty Of death to those who
should dissent from their religious doc
trines. Evidences Of unknown or unrecog-
nized economic forces at work are apparent
everywhere. While most Of US praise our
institutions and recognize a remarkable
universality of prosperity. speaking COM
paratively, still there is a strong under
current Of discomfort. and discomfort Is
the mother Of progress. The basis Of all
philosophy is Il want" Ncn are con-
StaiININ aiming 10 DetteT tIfTF COnOltlOns.
The immense Bryan vote of 90, the rapidly
increasing Socialist vote, the steady in
crease and political activity of the Henry
George followers, and the almost universal
uprising against trusts, all point TO the fact
that sooner or later the sentiment of dis
satisfaction will crystalline into some for.
ihidaDle BODY. concentration Of wealth
and the disproportionate inequality Of
conditions in our country to-day. and the
fact that the tendency ia toward greater
concentration and greater inequality, do
much 70 promote discomfort and crystalline
radical thought.
Lesser things than the recen, coal strike
have kindled the spark of discomfort into a
ilahe heretofore, and men are still human.
Let there come now protracted period of
hard times such as preceded 90, let there
te great financial panic and lei the coal
miners and operators again fail to agree,
and, II am not over pessimistic, our Gov
| eminent would have serious proposition
| with which To contend. strong leader
Tor the radical forces-and surely one will
pe iourd, because great cria es create great
| men and the Government would be over
! thrown; not necessarily 10y force and vio-
lenc' but possibly So The spirit Of dis
! content and the desire for change was
present all over the world in the century
| preceding the French Revolut ion The
| rumbllngs of the great movement for free
| dom and liberty were heard everyw here ,
and the same seed from which grew the
! French Revolution also produced our
American Revolution. Even In England
the same germ vas in the air We find IL
In surly johnson, in gentle Addison, In
| pious Cowper, III simple, kind Goldsmith,
and in the bold. cruel Noltaire.
While many Of us refuse to recognize the
| dangers Of the future and are content to
believe that things will adjust themselves
OF their own accord, and that these radical
] M h,,l, 4
and glow for time and then burst into
/ nothingness, nevertheless that is what they
| kept saying in France, and in England,
until the taking Of the Bastile and the battle
| Of Lexington, When such men as Herbert
| Spencer. whose peer neither this nor the
| last century has seen, and Lyman Abbott.
! and Edward Everett Hale. and hundreds
| Of others give out notes of warning surely
/ II can do no harm TO stop for moment
and consider.
! Read your exchanges and see what the
/ radical papers are saying-and they are
! legion, new one springing up nearly every
( day. And when the great party Of jefferson
and Jackson does that in 1895 which lays il
| open TO the charge Of anarchy Oustlv or
unjustly), and to the charge of socialism
| in 1902 with some degree of justice), is not
| my suggestion we'll taken? In a time Of
serious industrial disturbance, starting
! perhaps with a slight furry in Wall Street
! and evolving into great financial panic
! and 50 interdepondent are men and indus
! tries and all our institutions that a slipped
cog would disturb, il not stop, the whole
! industrial machine-if on the eve Of a ma =
tonal election. who doubts but that all the
radicals and discontented in the country
would find party and leader which would
carry them into political power,
| While am n Democrat, ] would deplore
/ the day il carried the elections when com
| posed of mon of SO many inconsistent and
! totally irreconcilable ideas and beliefs as
| appears now would be the case The only
solution ! have ia leader for the Demo-
cratic party A man with up-to-date ideas
| and a man who can wisely shape the policy
of the party and lead, lead Where il he?
EruENE V BREWSTER.
| BROOKLYN. Nov. ID.