New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1904-07-11
JUDGE PARKER.s DECISION.

JUDGE P4RKER'S DECISION.
The earlier reports received from st. Louis
on Saturday night about Judge Parker's declar-
atorv telegram on the financial question, or
which several versions were sent over the coun-
try. seemed to endow his action with some
what finer quality than on careful examination
it is found to possess. He did not, as at one
time appeared. demand that the convention
should either insert an acceptable money plank
in the platform or take him off the ticket. but
informed the convention that he regarded the
gold standard as firmly and finally established
announced that he should act accordingly II
elected, and requested Mr.. Sheehan to decline
the nomination for him if that attitude was
proved to be unsatisfactory. The course Whlch
Judge Parker thus took at the last moment was
much more credtable than q proionSatlon OIL HIS
strange silence would have been, and was sure
while it remained imperfectly understood to
excite the admiration of men OF all partleS VINO
respect moral courage. But we cannot DOUBT
that on deliberate reflection they will feel that
an earlier definition of his views would have
furnished q more signal proof of courage ana
good faith
The fact is that Mr. Bryan told the exact truth
when. in the course of the remarkable speech
which, in defiance of his DOCTORS he left his bed
TO deliver, he said:
think it is a manly thing for man to ex-
press his opinion D6IOTe the COuNcIIllJiI ebNJ'Hi
II would have been manler to have expressed II
before the convention met 1t is manly thing
TO express his opinion before the delegates act
finally upon his position. but it would have been
q inanlier thing had he expressed his opinion
before the voters throuGhout this country went
to their caucuses and their primaries ana SEM
instructed delegates here.
Unless Judge Parker was mysteriously ig-
norant OF what everybody else knew, he must
have been aware on Friday that Hill was eX-
plictly quoting him to anxious inquirers as
saying that he was entirely willing to leave the
platform TO the wisdom of the Democratic
party. There was time enough after that TO
enable the delegates to choose candidate with
their eyes open.
The situation which confronted Judge Parker
on Saturday was this: He had been nominated
on a platform which, with a cowardly folly
characteristic of the party in general and Hill
in particular, made no allusion whatsoever to
the financial question, and therefore left unre-
canted the fatal heresy of 1895 and 1900. He
knew that unless he did something to Offset that
omission the Indispensable electoral votes of
NewYork were lost in advance. II he took the
bold step of declaring his personal adherence TO
the gold standard, there was strong probable
ity that a distracted and exhausted convention
would consent to keep him as its candidate and
let him convert 4 certainty OF defeat into re-
mote possibility of victory. If, en- the other
persuade the convention to drop him and make
another nomination. he would escape all the
burdens of Il hopeless campaign and remain
Chief Judge OF the Court of Appeals. 1t seems
to be necessary TO say as respectfully as may
be, that Judge Parker played shrewd game Of
politics. BY maintaining his own silence and
permitting his accredited agents TO create an err
roneOus impression of perfect dOcility on his
part, he secured otherwise improbable If not
impossible, nomination, then made a spirited
offer of withdraw wal, which was virtually GER
tain to be declined, and thus gained for him
self an advantage of position which he could not
do without, but which the convention never In
tended him to have.
We do not say that Judge Parker has dishon-
ored himself by such tactics but we cannot
concede that the final dramatic act in a skill
full performance entities him to be acclaimed as
man of heroic mould. Yet, from wretched
conflict of base motives and disgraceful passions
he energies creditably in comparison with the
men TO whom he intrusted his interests In a
convention whose most respectable figure, we
are tempted TO say. as we review the scenes
enacted in st. Louis, William Jennings
Bryan, discarded leader, who stood by his
colors and won several victories which left his
final overthrow incomplete.
In nominating ex-senator Henry G.. Davis, OF
West Virginia, for Yice-Prcsdent, in his eighty
first year the convention made a choice which
we hesitate 10 term pathetic. The candidate for
second place has great possessions, and the
pectation is that he will help to placate the frac-
tious German contingent. Happily there is no
prospect OF his being called on, at the end Of
his long life. to preside over the Senate and hold
himself in readiness to assume responsibilities
which would overwhelm him in an instant.