New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1903-08-29
NARRoHING rHE CIRcLE.


For statesman processing undying devotion
to democratic principles, the Hon. Tom L. John
son shows Il singular inaptitude in applying
them Pretending to believe in equality of
rights he does not hesitate to deny TO those
who differ with him either voice or representa-
ton in party councils. Pretending TO believe III
freedom Of speech, he blac1lists and Ostracizes
fellow Democrats who have the courage to
defy his edicts Proclaiming that all power
comes from and reverts to the people, he de-
vises machinery by which delegates elected J
the Democratic voters in Ohio are unseated by
the hundred, and State conventions are turned
into mere ratification meetings, approving cut
and-dried decisions long before formulated in
his Cleveland Office.
Posing as a disciple of Jefferson and a be-
lever in the doctrine of government by consent,
Mayor Johnson is, in fact, a full blown abso-
lutist- He drives his party, instead of guiding
it. He prefers coercion to persuasion. He prac-
tises prescription not Cancellation. He seems bent
on ruling, and ruling absolutely, no matter what
ruin to party interests his triumph may entail.
Like his great friend and fellow Jeffersonian,
Colonel William j. Bryan, Mayor Johnson is
party wrecker first and a party builder after
ward. He prefers following fit though few
to a following somewhat larger but more IN
manageable In his speech at Columbus ac-
ceptng the nomination which he offered to him
self after purging the Democratic State con-
vention of some hundred-odd opposition dele
gates, Mr.. Johnson thus badly and recklessly
outlines his wedding OUT programme:
My friends, you may call it "red devil" cam
paign or call it what you like, but the cam
paign waged in Richland County against rene
gade Democrats will be carried on, so help me
God, in the State of Ohio If to win.
If we are to win the great battle it has to be
won first, my friends by getting rid of the dead
timber that hangs around your neck, and TAX
ing the living timber, my friends that only
wants to be collected into a party standing for
some principle. l never asked anybody in my
life TO vote for me for any office for any nom
nation, and 1 never will; but, my friends, 1
have asked some people not to vote for me- and
l say to-day men who 90 not believe in the
platform read here to-day. who do not
think that the platform stands for the Demo-
cratic idea, ask them not to vote for me-
Here is the Johnson-Bryan policy in a nut
Shell. IT is policy of threats, of buster, OF
intimidation 1t brooks inquiry. 1t holds
party issues settled forever when once settled
the Johnson-Bryan way. 1t would drive out of
the party all ''renegades' disloyal enough to ask
for q rehearing-for q appeal on any ques-
ton to the reason and judgment of the Demo-
cratic voters. Mayor Johnson and Colonel
Bryan-however loudly they may boast their
lineage from Jefferson--have no real faith in
the capacity of the people to settle questions
of party policy and settle them right. They and
politicians of their type seek, therefore, to elm
mate opposition, not to placate it. They want
to restrict to the narrowest possible limits the
constituency they seek to dominate.
Ne and my wife
My son and his wife:
We -four,
And no more.
That is the ideal toward which the Johnson
Bryan conception Of party leadership scars.