Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1906-07-28
BRYAN AS A PEACEMAKER.
Success of the Colonel Mt the Confer
ence in London.
Chicago Inter ocean.

Chicago Inter Ocean.
Mr.. Bryan has thrown the universal
peace dreamers assembled in London into
trance Of establishment variegated with
spasms of admiration He came into the
meeting of the Interparliamentary union"
that queer concern supported by millen-
NAL Missionaries and worked by notoriety
seekers-merely as a guest with the privi-
leges OF the floor, and straightway got
something done.
It is true that what he got done does
not amount to anything. But then the
whole work Of those he moved to do 1t
is of the same character. Nations are
like men, When they really desire TO
fight they will always find reasons and
causes. All these international confer
ences" to remove causes of war are
futile. Wars arise from conflict of human
desires. There Will always be wars while
desires confiict--until the millennium comes
and we are all angels.
The impelling desire that brings together
these universal peace conferences is chiefly
social. The dreamers want a chance to
tell their dreams to other dreamers. Men
who find happiness In prominence" want
more prominence. So they gather and
shake hands and make speeches and tell
how happy the world will be when dreams
come true, And then they go home think
ing they have piously promoted universal
| happiness, when all they really have done
is for their own pleasure
In to such a gathering OF mystic ideal
lists battened upon by prominence hunt
ers Mr.. Bryan came. Now, Mr. Bryan,
from the viewpoint Of fundamental Amer
lean instincts as revealed by history, is
both ignorant Of the vital facts of Amert-
them. We have seen this at once when
we remember that every reform advocated
by Mr., Bryan is OF the burn-the- barn to-
| kill-the-rats kind. But Mr.. Bryan is not
| a mystic. Within his mental and moral
limits he is extremely practical.
The thing which Mr. Bryan got done was
the adoption OF an amendment to .he
model arbitration treaty" whose framing
is the latest effort to make universal
peace dreams come true. This model
treaty, by the way, is of no Importance
whatever, for the simple reason that even
| II universally entered into II will not
prevent war when nations really desire "a
| night Mr. Bryan's amendment gave prac-
| tical application to the beautiful-and
useless-theory Of the document by ex-
! tending II to al cases
Probably the amendment would not
have been adopted II MI Bryan had not
/ strayed in. The dreamers were too much
occupied with the theory to think about
II, and probably none OF the other promi-
hence hunters-thelr aims being social
rather than politicaI-would have seen
the opportunity II offered. And probably
none OF them had Mr.. Bryan's great gift
of putting a thing simply.
And so Mr., Bryan was able to MI the
dreamers with gasping establishment and
the other prominence hunters with envy
at his success. Out OF this international
social gathering in London Mr.. Bryan
comes with the chief prOminence-leavIng
the dreamers filled with the notion that
something has been done OF enormous sig
nihoance-aH because MI Bryan, with
all his Limitations, is sim a practical
American.