Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1904-08-19
A LOST OPPORTUNITY
HOW DEMOCRATS MISSED BEING SANE
AND CONSERVATIVE.

William Jennings Bryan Forced Up
form Declaration to the Effect That
AL Protection Is Robbery.
1t is refreshing in these days of par
tisan radicalisnI to encounter SO calm
SO sane and so intelligent an expression
on a subject Of high Importance as the
following from the Brooklyn Eagle, an
independent newspaper Of Democratic
proclivities:
'"The Bryan substitute for the Will
liams draft begins with characteris-
tic Bryanism. At this writing the full
text of II has not come from st. Louis,
but 1t is described as declaring that
all protection Is robbery. This is n
proposition with which the country
may take issue. 1t is undoubtedly a
proposition from which the voters may
withhold the seal of their Endorsement.
They do not regard protection as rob-
berry. The rank and file of Republic
ans and many more Democrats than
can be counted regard the schedules,
with all their infirmities, as shield.
Prices paid for labor in Europe are
such as are suggestive Of pauperism
here The difference is a sort Of credit
balance In favor of the American ar
tisan. 1t is balance he is more than
disposed to keep on the right side Of
his ledger. To ask him to vote 1t out
Of existence is to invite him to become
his own worst enemy"
1t was the Bryan substitute which
went through, while the far more mod
crate and guarded draft Of John Sharp
Williams was voted down in the COM
mittee on resolutions. Bryan was in
the saddle SO far as concerned the form
Of declaration to be used or not used
relative to vital questions. The Ne
braska malcontent could not control the
presidential nomination either affirma-
lively or negatively, but he could and
did bar the way to the recognition of
the gold standard as an accomplished
fact, and he could and did compel the
adoption Of a tariff plank whose rabid
folly Of denouncing protection as
felony must offend many Democrats
and alarm many Republicans who
might otherwise have been favorably
disposed toward tariff revision at the
hands Of the Democratic party. 1t was
the blind Samson pulling down the
stones Of the temple on the heads of
the Philistines. Bryan could not rule
the convention. but he could ruin the
chance Of the Democracy to regain pub
lie confidence.
Barring a few fanatical free traders,
the delegates to the st. Louis conven-
tion know now, and knew when they
voted to adopt Bryan's tariff plank, that
they were voting to adopt lie. They
know perfectly well that protection is
not robbery and that 1t is not SO re-
lgarded by nineteen-twentieths of the
American people. The Eagle well says:
'''They know what robbery means.
They know that the policy Of protec-
ton is legitimate, even though there
are Instances in which 1t is pushed to
extremes. They know that the only
free trade country in the world is be-
coming restive under the system and
may invoke a change. And they know
that under the existing tariff this coun-
try has broken all industrial records.
Commerce in this country Is not rob-
berry. 1t is giving an excellent account
Of itself in competition with countries
which would ask nothing better than
an opportunity to undersell the Ameri-
can producer in his own market"
To say that protection Is robbery is
to say that protection Is felony, an in
famous crime against society, and to
say this is to insult the intelligence of
close on 20,000,00O voters, who, though
some Of them may object to that policy
for one reason or another, know perfect
ly well that protection is not robbery.
The Democratic party has simply lost
one more opportunity to be sane, safe,
reasonable and decent on the tariff ques-
ton.