The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1906-09-13
A BRIDGE TO THE MOON.
New. York Times Hands Out Some
Pretty Strong Talk to w. ]. Bryan.

Ing Democratic paper Of New York
City, says the following
Mr.. Bryan is wasting his time,
and wasting the time of the public
and Of the Democratic party. His
advocacy of an eighthour day for
labor does not interest the coun-
try. Everybody knew, or could
have guessed, his views upon
labor questions. The thoughts he
has expressed about international
arbitration and universal peace are
as old as the hills. But his plan
for the transfer of all the railroads
III the country to the Federal and
State Governments is new, yet he
does not explain how the moment
ous change is to be brought about,
presents no plan even in outline,
tells US nothing about it, in fact,
save that it ought to be done. If
Mr.. Bryan wishes the country to
take him and his public ownership
plan seriously he must without
any farther delay come down to
specifications.
When he accepted the Demo-
cratic nomination to the Presiden-
cy ten years ago and began to ad-
vocate the free, unlimited, and in
dependent coinage Of silver at the
ratio of IS to I, his writings and
his speeches abounded in detail
and explanation. He told the
country precisely what he meant.
Everybody understood that under
the coinage laws as he would shape
then, man having 100 ounces of
silver could take the metal to the
United States mint and get it coin
ed into I29 silver dollars. AS sill
yer could at time be bought in the
open market for about 81 cents an
ounce, every mind could grasp in
an instant the meaning and scope
OF the change proposed by Mr..
Bryan in our..fnancial policy and
currency laws. His supporters
could get at him. They did get
at him, for in the course of his
manifold expositions of the free
coinage policy he propounded so
many false doctrines that his ignor-
ance was exposed day by day
throughout the campaign, and the
ruinous effect of his policy was
made so plain to the country, or at
least to the thinking men of the
the country, that his defeat follow
ed.
Mr.. Bryan now asks the Dem
ocratic party to accept him upon
platform of government ownership
and operation Of the railroads, but
he does not even in a general way
tell US how the Federal and State
Governments are to come into pos
session of the thirteen billions
worth of railroad property now
privately owned. Absurdities are
not infrequent in politics, and cleo
torates sometimes behave as if
they were deprived of reason and
without foresight. But there is a
limit, and Mr., Bryan is pushing
himself and unexplained new doc
trine perilously near to the verge
of liberation, if he has not already
passed it.
If Mr.. Bryan had returned
from his journeyings with the
news that the "overshadowing
evil" that now besets this country
was lack of room and opportunity
for our National development, and
had advocated as an immediate
cure-the only possible cure-the
building of a bridge to the moon,
it is conceivable that an audience
might have been brought togetheg
in Madison Square Garden that
would have ap plauded the idea of
a lunar bridge. Those Americans
who really believe in Mr.. Bryan
believe in him so unreservedly
that we are inclined to think that
they would accept from his lips al
most any policy ''unsight, un-
seem" as the boys say in their
jack-knife trade. But, really,
there are not enough Americans
to form a party who would consent
to embody in a platform the de-