Staunton spectator and vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1896-1916, 1906-07-13
ROosevelt's and Bryan's 4th Of July
Addresses.

hVVoUvCt Auu ~ al fku VI Juiy
Addresses.
OF the many speeches which were
delivered last Wednesday at Fourth of
July celebrations two surpassed all
others in significance and interest.
One was the address of the President
of the United States to his neighbors
and fellow citizens of Oyster Bay. The
other was the speech of Hon. William
j. Bryan, twice the nominee Of the
Democratic party for the Presidency,
at gathering of Americans in Lon
don.
The chief interest of these addresses
is to be found in the apparently ire
concilable differences in the policies to
which the two orators We're committed
10 years ago and the many vital prin
ciples which they now hold in common.
A decade ago they seemed to be as far
apart as the poles. Today their differ
ences on many essential and cardinal
principles are almost immaterial.
When Mr.. Bryan was a candidate for
the Presidency in 1896 he appeared to
be in all things the embodiment of
radicalism. Measured by the stand
ards of that period, he was certainly
far in advance of his time. Mr.. Roose-
welt, who had not then achieved ma
tional fame and did not become ma
tiOnal figure until 1898. the year of the
war with Spain, was the incarnation
of political conservatism, compared
with Mr.. Bryan. Elected Vice.Presi-
dent in 1900 on the ticket with the eau.
tiOus and conservative Mckinley, he
became President on the death of the
latter, IN September, 1901, and volun-
tarily pledged himself to carry out the
policies of Mr.. Mckinley. Bat his con-
servatism gradually relaxed until af-
ter his election to the Presidency, in
1904, it had become a radicalism quite
as distinct and pronounced as that of
Mr.. Bryan in respect to the regulation
of corporations, Government control
of railroad rates and tax on private
wealth after it had exceeded certain
limits. Measured even by Mr.. Bryan g
standard in 1896, this is starting ad-
vance upon the political and economic
doctrines which the Republican and
Democratic parties chalnpioned prior
to the appearance of Mr.. Bryan and
Mr.. Roosevelt in national politics.
With the evolution of Mr.. Roosevelt
into a radical in thought and action
every student of American politics is
familiar. The last five years, culmi.
mating in the reform" legislation oil
!, the Fifty.ninth Congress, have beer
an epoch in our history. We have
, fairly bounded from one ''extreme" tC
another. Suppose, however, that an
!, Intelligent foreigner, who is wholly
nnacquainted with our modern poIiti
cal development, who knew nothing Of
the attitude which Mr.. Bryan and Mr.
Roosevelt once held toward each 9th
er, were asked to give a critical opin
!; ion of their Fourth Of July speeches
with the view of pointing out essentia
, differences between them. Would hi
be able to show such a divergence o.
, opinion between them as easily to diff
ferentiate the one statesman as a Re
!, publican and the other as Democrat
Would he find it difficult to conclud,
that Mr.. Bryan and Mr.. Roosevelt
might have exchanged speeches SO fal
as vital principles are concerned with
out doing violence to their convictions
, Each statesman INDUCED in fine mora
and didactic reflections. One took bis
text from Abraham Lincoln and tn,
other from Rudyard Kipling. Ont
spoke of the "whlte mans BURDEN al
J it involves moral responsibility to bt
|. just in our dealings with so.called in
feriOr races. The other spoke of tht
white mans burden" as related t(
the punishment of trusts that Cypress
the people and the protection of cor
| POI IJiOdO WdCd OuCy law loU uOhS
wrong. Mr.. Roosevelt has often adopt
ed lofty tOne-however inconsistent
his actions may have benin discuss
ing our responsibility for the welfare
of Filipinos and Porto Ricans. He
could easily make Mr.. Bryan's Ian
guage his own. Every word that Mr.
Roosevelt said about trusts and corpo
rations could be put in Mr.. Bryan's
mouth without laying the latter open
to the charge of inconsistency. Surely
the foreigner would be puzzled with
their Fourth of July speeches as a
basis, to determine which orator was
the Democrat and which the Republi-
can. For even if Mr.. Roosevelt did
seek inspiration in the utterances of
Lincoln, no public speaker of our time
has quoted Lincoln more freque ntly
and more freely than Mr.. Bryan has
in his two campaigns for the Presidency
Two years will pass before the Re-
publican and Democratic parties will
hold their national conventions and
nominate their candidates for presi-
dent. What the future will bring forth
no man can tell. But all things are
possible, and the denomination of Mr..
Roosevelt, in spite of the third-term
tradition, and the nomination of Mr..
Bryan for the third time are among
the possibilities. If both should be
nominated it would seem to be clear
that, whichever was elected. the policy