Truth. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1901-1908, 1906-09-15
DEMOCRACY STILL AT SEA

Bryan, which had been expected TO re- |
unite the Democracy upon platform
on which conservatives and radicals
could feel equally at home, had start
ling and disconcerting effects. The
reception to Mr.. Bryan in New York
was impressive in point of magnitude
and enthusiasm, although the crowd
that flied Madison Square Garden did
not overflow in the uncomfortable vol
ume that had been looked for. But for
some unaccountable reason the con-
servatives who had taken 1t upon
themselves to introduce the hereto or
1896 as convert to political orthodoxy
had assumed that he would show his
sense of the value of their approval by
suppressing his well-known views upon
the Government ownership of rail
roads. It was fatuous assumption,
for If there was one thing more cert
ain than another with regard to Mr..
Bryan it was that he would never hide
his convictions on any important sub
ject for supposed political advantage.
The devotees of expediency labored
with him for some time to induce him
to ignore his remedy for railroad abus-
Sc. They failed. In his speech Mr..
Bryan dealt with the tariff, the trusts,
the promotion of peace among nations.
the election of senators by the people,
and the independence of the Philip
pines. But he deliberately reiterated
his often expressed belief that the only
way to insure the proper subsection of
railroads to law was to have them
owned by the public. He even persisted
in his opinion that the trunk lines
should be owned by the national gov
eminent and the local ines by the
states-a scheme which strikes most
students of the subject as utterly fam
tastic, but which has been cherished
by Mr.. Bryan as his pet contribution
to the theory of railroad regulation.
Granting full credit to the President
for his moral courage in advocating
rate legislation, "even If he had TO get
his inspiration from the Democratic
Party" Mr.. Bryan expressed the fear
that in curing one disease we had in
Cured a new danger. when you give
to commission" he said, 1.-THE power
to fix railroad rates, a power which,
when exercised, may mean difference
of hundreds of millions of dollars in
the revenues of the railroads. you give
the railroads high stake in each
Presidential election. My fear is that
If the history through which we have
gone in regard to municipal enter
prises repeats itself, we may find a
larger fund raised from the railroads
to control the Interstate Commerce
Commission than they ever raised
from the manufacturers to secure pro-
tective legislation"
Mr.. Bryan did not profess to know
what the sentiment of the country
might be- He did not know whether
the people, or even the majority of the
Democratic Party, had reached the
point at which they were willing to
consider the Government ownership of
railroads. But my theory" he de-
clared, SIS that no man can call mass
convention to decide what he himself
shall think. have reached the con.
clusion that there will be no perma.
nent relief on the railroad question
from discrimination between individ
uals and between places, and form eX
tortionate rates until the railroads are
the property of the government an6
operated by the Government in the
interest of the people"
Here the specter of Capitalization
intruded, and Mr. Bryan undertook t.
exercise it by his scheme of State,
ownership of local liues whose prac
ticability he defended by the exampl,
of the German States and other small
countries of Europe.