The daily morning journal and courier., 1904-12-01
mR RRYANs pRoGRAMME.


 old familiar Bryan lines-unswerying and indiscriminate warfare on trusts, state ownership of railroads, free sil- ver-held in 'abeyance"-the enact- ment of an income tax, hostility to 2 ''large'' army and navy, a wholesale attack on protective duties, the cleo tion of federal judges United States supreme justices presumably included by popular vote for fixed terms, op- position to government by injunc- tion,' and so on.
 The odd thing about MT. Bryan's scheme is that he bases it on the as sumption that the Republican party is the party of ''plutocracy, and that the Democratic party will not be restored to power until 1t adopts policies that appeal to the "plain. common people. The absurdity of this assumption is shown In the fact that President Roosevelt is elected by a popular plurality approximating 100000
 more than double the popular plura- lity that any nominee for president has heretofore received. Net only did Presi- dent Roosevelt carry all the so-called doubtful, states by pluralities greater than those received by President Mckinley in 1900, but he carried Re- publican states by increased plura- lities over 1900 and even several of the Southern states The contention that this tremendous vote came solely from 'plutocrats'' or was due solely to plutocratic. influences, carries on its own refutation
 The great popular vote that Presi- dent Roosevelt receivsd does not i'm ply, by any means, that every person who voted for him approves of all the policies that he has pursued. It merely signifies that the majority of American voters were satisfied with his adminis- tration and with Republican rule as a whole, and that they were distrustful of the Democratic party; and the chief reason why they distrusted the latter party was that they were afraid that, were it to regain power at Washing ton, it would plunge into just such re- volutionary and fantastic experiments as those which MT. Bryan now pro- poses to reintroduce. Not even Judge Parker's known sanity and safety on many public questions was sufficient to dispel this feeling of misgiving, and President Roosevelt naturally profited by the fact.
 The Democratic party has admitted ly received a tremendous blow, but it is altogether premature to say that It cannot be rehabilitated except along the radical lines suggested by MT. Bryan. A number of states that return ed pluralities for President Roosevelt elected Democratic governors, while in a number of others notably Ney York l.state-the Democratic candidates for 1 governor, although defeated, ran far ahead of the Democratic electoral and congressional tickets. This shows clear l ly that there is plenty of vitality still left in the Democratic party provided 1t can divorce itself from Populism and Socialism. At any rate, it is a queer sort of reasoning that finds in President Roosevelt's sweeping triumph a cause for adopting policies that are diametrically opposed to those which l he represents.
 It may be fairly assumed, therefore, that the Democratic party will re- habilitate itself in popular confidence in the direction outlined by Judge Parker's candidacy. It is to be remem- bered, however, that the Democratic l party of today is made up of conflict ing clements, of extreme eonserva- tives and extreme radicals; and &C., cordinyly the process of rehabilitation is likely to be slow. This, however, will | depend much upon the way in which the Republicans use the power with which they have been clothed. A glaring abuse of this power or neg lect to employ 1t for just ends might easily result in a rejuvenated and az gressive Democracy four years hence.-- From the New York Commercial Ind.) | I