The Evening statesman. [volume] (Walla Walla, Wash.) 1903-1910, 1906-08-14
MIR. BRYAN AND RADICALISM.

| When Mr.. Bryan says II am more
radical than 1 was in 1885," he gets
nowhere in particular. AS between rad
icalism and conservatism names count
for little. Mr.. Bryan thinks Mr..
Roosevelt is too conservative. Wall
street wonders what that man Roose-
Welt" will do next Mr.. Roosevelt him.
self regards his radicalism as true
conservatism and insists that his poll
cies are really in defense of property
rights. Practically everybody is rad
ical these days, says the New York
World, except Senator Foraker, H. H.
Rogers and George F. Baer. So until
Mr. Bryan chooses to be specific it is
impossible to ascertain whether his in
creased radicalism represents an adj
vance or a retreat
On the money question Mr.. Bryan is
certainly more conservative. Although
he still proclaims his belief in bimet-
allism and quotes Wall street in sup
port of the quantitative theory of mon
ey he has nothing to say in favor of
| the free coinage of silver at 16 to 1.
He still thinks that the restoration of
silver would restore par in exchange
between gold and silver using coun-
tries" but as there are virtually no
silver using countries left he is safe
in assuming that an increased gold
production has 'for the present re-
moved the silver question as an issue"
/ With that out of the way, Mr.. Bryan
has yet to explain what meat it is
upon which his radicalism is going to
| feed. 1t is not SO easy to define new
radical issues without going into the
socialist camp, and Mr.. Bryan has
given excellent reasons to show why
he is not and cannot be a socialist.
The radical domain outside of social
ism is being rapidly pre-empted by
left to jump, unless Mr. Bryan is pre-
pared to make a campaign on the issue
eral progressive inheritance tax.
| The president has failed to wiring
| from a reluctant congress the most
radical legislation that could have
! been enacted but the public seldom
searches critically for defects in leg1s-
lation. 1t takes the bill for the deed.
To most people it is enough that con-
gress passed a rate bill, pure food
| bill, and a meat inspection bill, and
that the administration is enforcing
the anti trust and interstate commerce
laws even against such exalted Offend
ers as the beef trust and the Standard
Oil Company. When he returns Mr..
Bryan will find that in order to attack
Mr.. Roosevelt it is not enough to be
radical, but he must be radical in
some new and unexpected way.
There is one issue worth considera-
ton, nevertheless, which was defined
by that excellent radical, Justice Day.
id J. Brewer of the United States Su-
preme Court, in his speech in Little
Rock Thursday. The national govern
ment had come to be considered gen.
eral dispensatory, he said. Washing
ton had become the great lobby camp
of the word. More legislation was
thrust upon congress than it could at
tend to. "Constructive" judges were
clamored for who could stretch and
enlarge the meaning of the constitu-
ton. 1t was no longer a question of
how much the individual would give
to his country, but how much the ma
ton could take from him. "The federal
government is efficient" continued the
justice, "but there are things greater
| than mere efficiency-namely, the pro-
building of his sense of individual re-
sponsibility.'
Here is the groundwork of a program
that might we'll appeal to any true rad
ical 1t is the very kind of radicalism
| on which the republic was constructed.
Nothing could be more spectacularly
radical in these days than for a public
man to combat the prevalent theory
that the government is a little father
whose supreme duty is to transform
the country into a national nursery.