Bisbee daily review., 1906-08-12


 In attempting to prove the charge that the people no longer have any influence with their public servants, the statement is frequently made that Speaker Cannon and the other stand Datters are doing nothing of the sort. They think they are following public sentiment. At least, they think they are pursuing the course calculated to secure the election of the largest pos sible number of Republicans to the 6cth Congress. Instead of being in an attitude of defiance, the haunting fear that they may have chosen the wrong road causes them troubled days and sleepless nights. They would fall over one another in changing fronC were they fully convinced they were in error. There isn't a Republican member of Congress who wouldn't be rampant for revision of the tariff if he thought a majority of his voting constituents felt that way about 1t. All of which goes to show that Gen
 Hancock wasn't far wrong when he said the tariff was a local issue. It certainly is local to troubled states men who are in an agony of dread lesI they guess wrong on the direction in which the cat intends to jump.
 Members of Congfess who come to Washington these days, and most of them manage to get here at least once during the course of a summer, re- late that interest in Mir Bryan's pres identical boom overshadows almost every other political question aside from the query vital to Republicans, Who can We name to successfully oppose Bryan in 190S?" Those who propound the question almost invari- ably are ready with an answer. It is Roosevelt, they declare, else defeat.
 A period of about twenty-three months must elapse before the con. vening of the next Republican nation al convention. A great many things may happen in that time, but just now Republicans are scared and they do lot take the trouble 10 conceal it. There is a possibility, of course, that within the next two years Roosevelt or Bryan, or both. may do or say something to remove them as presi- dential possibilities. But If things go on unchanged, is the prediction that comes from four points Of the con- rass, it will be a walkover for Bryan unless Roosevelt is his opponent.
 If. when the Republican national convention meets in the summer of 1908, it appears that Bryan's election is certain unless Roosevelt is nom- mated for a third term, what do you suppose the convention is going to do? Do you suppose Roosevelt's dec laration that he did not want and would not accept a third term would have great weight with the delegates to that convention? Do you suppose they would tamely nominate a man whom they were convinced had no chance 70 win, or do you believe they would follow the logic of the sit uation and place Roosevelt again at the head of the ticket? And. if an ether question may be asked without les majesty, what do you suppose MT. Roosevelt would do if the con vertion nominated him for President and then adjourned and the delegates went home without waiting for any word from him?
 Any one who can rightly answer these questions will confer a favor by writing a letter to the editor. It would be such a relief to a large number of folks whose cushions are filled with pins and needles of anxiety.
 MT. Bryan IS being subjected to Democratic criticism just now be- cause he has taken a hand in the Hi nois factional fight and demanded the ,ce= cyro+;c, Of NStiC0ol Cpu1nirtpe- man Sullivan. Some of those who are MT. Bryan's 'weli-wishers; others are not. The well-wishers fear il may mar his homecoming and hurt his presidential boom. His other crit ics hope it will do both these things.
 The chances are that both the friendly and unfriendly critics of MT. Bryan are needlsssly agitated. The incident is not likely to make the diff ference Of one vcre eithe- way v he nominating convention. The trouble is that some people refuse to see that a new era has dawned in American politics and that things are EoJ as they were a generation ago The time was when a personal quarrel between two men might make UT tlLlldk1 d ISSlhtHl. HS of a great man in those days involved in bitterness all his followers, and the bitterness not infreuuently con tinued after the great mans death. The American people are too busy in the Twentieth century, or too en- frightened or too indifferent, to long bother their heads about the hurt vanities or pinched ambitions of their political bosses or office-holders. There used to be a school of politics that consisted merely in smoothing over rough places, pouring oil on water when the wind blew and being care fuI not to hurt anybody's feelings. Some men, even men who aspire to the presidency still play the game in that antiquated way. But MT. Roose- welt doesn't proctice that kind of pol- fries. and MT. Bryan doesn't have to.
 Why. Mr Roosevelt has hurt the feelings and stepped on the toes and pulled the noses of enough party Headers to have everlastingly ruined him if the people had cared picay une at all about 1t. But the people didn't care They were thinking about