The evening times. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1906-1914, 1906-09-05
~BRYAN's PLAN uNw1sE."
Henry Watterson Against Govern.
ment Buying Railroads.,

y . . .. = . o . y 8 9 . . o . . 90
Louisville. Sept. 5.-"'The suggestion.
as plank in the democratic platform
at this time is not only impracticable
in the highest degree" Henry Wat,
terson says in the "Courier-Journal,"
in discussing that part of Bryan's Mad
isop Square Garden speech relating to
government ownership of railroads,
but II 1t were adopted as a fighting
line would cost US the election. 1t
could not be carried out as policy
even IT by some 'cataclysm we should
come to power in spite Of it and it
ought not to be adopted or contemplate
ca as policy by any party having
the real good OF the people at heart.
1t ID un-American and un-democratic
illogical to all our professions ON
the side OF simple, efdcaci0us and up
right government-like the winged
horse in the Irish legend-"impossibl
to catch and not worth having when
caught"
This paragraph is the keynote of
q strong but kindly arraignment of the
Nebraskan statesman on this particu-
lar point by the dean of the Kentucky
democrats. In long editorial Mr..
Watterson attempts to point out the
fallacies into which the twice defeated
democratic candidate for president has.
fallen, saying:
1t is with positive lamenting that
we read. mark and inwardly digest
what he says Of the purchase and
public ownership of the railways be-
cause we not only think 1t the height
ofsunwisdom from the political point
of view, but Of error from the demo-
cratic and republican point of view.
Well may Mr.. Bryan doubt whether
the country Is ready for this CHANGE
whether "a majority Of my own party
favor It," though 1t may be conceded
that IAN increasing number of the
members of all the parties see in pub
lie ownership the sure remedy for dis
examinations between persons and poll
tics and for the extortionate rates
for the carrying of freight and pas
sengers," the increasing NUMBER"
embracing for the most part those who.
fail to differentiate between the adj
mtnistration, of the railway service
with its too frequent disregard of
private rights, and the relation of the
business Of transportation to the char
acter and conduct of the government
OF the country.
Mr.. Bryan's scheme, as we shall
proceed to show, is in conflict with his
philosophy. with the real tenor and
burden of his argument against the
plutocracy, proposing to enlarge rath-
er than to abridge its influence and
area and to multiply it's agencies an
hundredfold, while at the same time
removing the government further away
from the reach Of the people and the
pressure Of public opinion.
The incident of state ownership of
state lines, which Mr.. Bryan throws
as sop to the old democratic theory
Of state rights, is the merest item. It
takes away none of the centralizing
features of the government ownership
of the trunk lines. The federal idea.
carried to its ultimate thule, could go
no further in consolidating the powers
Of government.
Under the system he advocates the
government of public opinion, upon
which, in spite Of organized money, the
people yet retain a certain hold, would
become a tyrannous partisan autoc-
racy. the president as puissant as a
monarch and the people the merest
appendages of the politicians. The
land would bristle with officials, the
spirit OF the time with oficialism. We
should be literally jumping fpom the
trying pan into the fire.