The sun., 1904-07-12
Bryan's Maleficent Influ ence.

Bryan's Maleficent Influence.
To measure the extent of the obstruc-
ton offered by WILLIAM j. BRYAN to a
regeneration of the national Democracy,
it is only needful to compare the plat
form reported on July by the sub-com-
mittee to the full committee on resolu-
tons with the fabric which left the hands
Of the latter body after being subjected
to manipulation by Mr.. BRYAN through
out the night Of July 7-s. 1t was, we need
not say, the silence OF the latter docu-
ment concerning the paramount issue
OF the last eight years that provoked
Judge PARKER's manly declaration that
he must decline the nomination for the
Presidency unless it came to him with
full knowledge on the part of the con-
vention that he does not approve Of its
silence on the subject, but personally
is firm believer in the gold standard and
will unf1inchingly uphold it should he
become Chief Magistrate.
BY it's negative as we'll as its positive
features, the platform reported from the
subcommittee was immeasurably SUI
perior to that which emerged from Mr..
BRYAN's tinkering. Let us mark, first,
what the reorganizers who controlled
omit to say. Concerning the relations
of capital and labor, they confined them
selves to a declaration in favor Of the
enactment and administration of laws
giving labor and capital impartially
their just rights. Give both their just
rights, said the subcommittee. That is
what the Executive and judiciary Of
Colorado have been doing, They have
used the power vested in them to compel
riotous strikers to obey the law. To the
single clause in which the Subcommittee
propounded the indisputable principle
that capital and labor are equal before
the law Mr.. BRYAN managed to tack
three clauses that have no meaning un-
less they are intended to encourage the
Colorado rioters and to rebuke the au-
thorities of that State Mr.. BRYAN also
seized the occasion to insert in the st.
Louis platform plank which had been
conspicuous in the structures fashioned
by him in Chicago and Kansas City, a
plank denouncing what he termed the
government by injunction" exercised
by Federal courts. Well aware that
the immemorial right Of English and
injunction or mandamus would prac-
tically be nullified were they deprived
OF the power to punish for contempt, Mr.
BRYAN made the full committee and
subsequently the convention, approve
a measure which passed the United
States Senate in 1896, but which Repub-
lican Congress has ever since refused to
enact, a measure providing for trial by
jury in cases OF indirect contempt.
Unmistakable, also, is BRYAN's mis-
chievous hand in the Disagreement of
the tariff plank which had been carefully
and cautiously constructed by the sub
committee. AS originally framed, the
plank favored a wise, conservative and
business-ike revision, and gradual re-
ducton of the tariff by the friends of
the masses, and for the common veal,
and not by the friends of its abuses. In
kept in view, it said, the ultimate end
Of equality of burdens and equality Of
opportunities, and the constitutional
purpose Of raising revenue by taxation
TO wit, the support of the Federal Gov
ernment in integrity and virility, but in
simplicity. The subcommittee went on
to insist that tariff revisers should also
keep in view, as being men OF common
sense, eristing conditions, however mis-
takenly or unjustly brought about, and
the danger with which an abrupt and
revolutionary reversal Of policy would
threaten the cause of tariff reform itself.
In other words, the subcommittee
recognized the folly Of putting the helm
of State into the hands Of doctrinaires.
Revisers should bear in mind, it de-
clared, not only the general principle
that the warrant for the exercise of the
power of taxation is the duty of sup
por ting the Federal Government, eco
nomically, constitutionally and effeo-
lively administered, but also another
truth OF coordinate obligation-that in
the assertion Of any general principle,
however sound, and in comprising any
ultimate end, however sacred and log
ioally unavoidable, due regard should
be paid to actually existing conditions,
The platform that went to the conven-
ton, after Mr.. BRYAN had wrought his
will upon it, contained not word cal
culated to reassure and guarantee the
business community against an abrupt
and paralyzing reversal Of fiscal policy.
On the contrary, the Organized platform
1denounces protection as robbery OF
the many to enrich the few" the infer
ence meant TO be drawn being that rob-
bers and the receivers Of stolen goods
deserve no respite, no indulgence, no
consideration.
It was, however, by his treatment OF
the money plank reported by the sub
committee that Mr.. BRYAN exercised
on the fortunes O. his party an influence
D. .lt.iIIllt 81. ~. 2 So 10 '.i. -