New-York tribune., 1906-08-31
MR.. BRYAN IN THE SADDLE.

Mr. Rrvan came into his own last night with
all the eclat of a Cinclnnatus waylaid at the
plough or q Prospero summoned by wireless teie-
graph from his enchanted island. NO nero
making good" in the fifth act could nave hau
'fatter" part or played 1t more 10 the sausIac-
ton of an admiring multitude. One reason for
this was. of course that the multitude gathered
I'm Madison Square Garden had gone there win
a fixed determination to be satisfied. The fifty
seven varieties of Democracy represented had
resolved to become one variety. Having voted
In advance to accept Mr.. Bryan's leadership,
they were prepared TO indorse anything he said
as pure and unadulterated wisdom. Democrats
of all shades of opinion have admitted that Mr..
Bryan is the sole surviving hope Of the party OF
Jefferson and Jackson. He Is its guide, its coun-
sellor its friend, its idol. What he says ls'
therefore, as good as law, and, though there
may be some Democrats left who differ with
him on minor particulars of policy, like the
single gold standard, compulsory arbitration of
labor difficulties, public ownership and opera
tion of the railroads and of municipal utilities,
the levying Of an income tax, strict supervision
by the government of all corporations engaged IN
interstate commerce and the general subJecIlon
of business and industry to stringent federal
regulation the Madison Square Garden apothe-
Osis seems to show that such doubters are no
longer inclined to strain at either gnats or
camels. In politics, as in the stockyards the
hide and the horns go with the carcass. and, if
the Democratic party is TO take the Bryan cure
for general debility. why should it not, it SEN
sibly argues, take what's coming 20 it in doses
three fingers high?
Mr.. Bryan's first care last night, we notice.
was to rewrite the Democratic national platform
At ST. Louis two years ago he was only minor
ity leader, and, though he demanded and OBJ
tained important concessions from the committee
on resolutions, those concessions were virtually
annulled by the famous codicil to the platform
from EsOpus Now Mr. Bryan's ipse
dixit is all powerful, and he substitutes for
Judge Parker's unconditional acceptance Of the
single standard theory the vague assurance that
for the present, while gold production continues
at an abnormal rate, he and other bimetallists
will rest content with q practical, If not a tao
tical, victory. Yet If this utterance-in line with
others of recent date-means anything, 1t means
that should gold production shrink Mr.. Bryan
would again favor an attempt to enlarge the
volume OF our money circulation by free silver
coinage or some other form Of fiat legislation.
In theory Mr.. Bryan stands on the money issue
exactly where he stood in 1896, and he frankly
admits that he merely awaits another OppOr-
tunity TO prove the soundness of his imitation
doctrines.
OF the other features OF the revised Demo-
cratic programme many are old-like the pop
ular election of Senators, tariff revision. the
imposition of an income tax and the abandon
ment sooner or later, Of the Philippines. Others
are incidental and of minor interest. As Mr..
Bryan puts il, the crucial issue is that OF reg
ulating production, transportation and COM
merce, checking monopolistic growth and reviv-
ing the old system Of competition between indi-
viduals. The Nebraska statesman insists that
he is an indiyidualist and not socialist. Yet
he purposes TO combat socialism by compromis-
ing with It and encouraging sOcialistic expert
ment on vast scale as the only means of stamp
ing out existing private monopoly. He wants to
limit all the activities of business and produc-
ton, and, holding the business of railroading
TO have OutgrOwn private control, advocates the
taking over of all our railroads by the state and
federal governments. No scheme of cooperation
between the states and the nation is clearly
worked out, but the Democratic party is boldly
committed TO a programme of state socialism
which 1t has never yet ventured to affirm in its
widest moments Of radicalism. OF Mr. Bryan's
platform as a whole it is sufficient to say that
It is no more radical than he has shown himself
TO be In the past, and no more conservative It
proves that the altered, broadened and chastened
Bryan heralded by our ex-conservative Demo-
cratic friends was an idle myth Neo-Bryanism
is no whit different from the Organism Of 1896.
The real change is in the party itself, which now
unprotestingly accepts a programme on which
ten years ago it split violently in twain