New-York tribune., 1906-07-05
4 REAL NATION.

The agreeable impression produced by perusal
Of Mr.. Bryan's Fourth of July speech in London,
which doubtless was greatly heightened to those
who had the privilege of being under the direct
spell Of his engaging oratory, is inevitably and
not inapproprately mingled with reflections
upon the contrast between the admirable senti-
ments OF that address and the tone which was
affected only few years ago by many of those
whom Mr. Bryan accepted as his political fol-
lowers and supporters. We might indeed, with
out injustice include Mr. Bryan himself in the
contrast, for il would be no compliment to him
TO assume that in these years of study and travel
he had gained nothing in penetration, scope and
clarity Of vision or in conservatism and ma
turity of judgment
When, for example, Mr. Bryan takes for his
text The White Mans Burden" and empha-
sizes the fact that there is a white mans bur-
''den-a burden which the white man should not
'shirk even if he could, burden which he could
mot shirk even if he would"-we must all
cordially agree with him. But what of those
who only little while ago were so vociferously
declaiming that we had no business among the
brown men OF the Oriental tropics and that we
should scuttle out Of the Philippines at once
should. indeed, have done so on the Monday
after the first Sunday in May, 1S9S-and leave
them TO stew in their own juice? When he
argues that that burden must be consistently and
persstently borne, in patience and even with
selfsacriice, and that "our duty to the so-called
inferior races is not discharged by merely feed
ling them in times OF famine or by contributing
Ito their temporary support when some other
calamity overtakes them' we must applaud the
wisdom and the fine humanity of his utterance.
But what Of those who were-perhaps a few of
them still are-sitting up O. nights consumed
with zeal for instantly prescribing the precise
hour of the day after tomorrow when we are
10 declare our heeting duty done and are to lay
the white mans burden down and evacuate
Manila? THAT no one liveth unto himself or
dieth unto himself has, says Mr.. Bryan, "a ma
"tiOnal as well as an individual application.
Our destinies are so interviewer that each
'eXerts an influence directly or indirectly upon
"all Others" That is more than rhetoric 1t is
convincing truth. But then what becomes Of
the demand, recently made in a platform upon
which this distinguished orator stood as a Presi-
Dental candidate, that this country should do
thus and so in matters Of international import,
without waiting for the aid or consent of any
other nation?
The fact is-and Mr.. Bryan now seems to
perceive it as clearly as did Thomas Jefferson
on the day of which yesterday was the both
anniversary-th the United States of America
is not part nation nor sham nation, nor yet
is it an entire world by itself 1t is a real ma
tion, whole, complete and sovereign, and is
'able to do all acts and things which indie
pendent states may of right dO,' and at the
same time it is a humane nation, to which moth
ing which concerns humanity is foreign, and as
a member OF the worlds family of nations, with
whose interests and destinies it's own are mex
tricably interviewer, it is bound to cultivate
honest friendship with all and TO consider its
duties and it's relations to its neighbOrs in all it's
eXtraneous acts There are no lessons of the
Fourth Of July more essential or more profit
able than those two, which Mr.. Bryan so elo-
quently rehearsed in London, and we may add
that there are no citizens of this nation who
more urgently need to learn them and to be gov
erned by them than the members Of the political
party Of which Mr.. Bryan is the most cOnspic-
nous leader.