, 1906-09-10
BRYAN'S STRENGTH.

date of his party for the campaign of
1908. Today they are extremely doubt
full whether he can be considered a
possibility. The change of heart is
entirely due to his speech Upon govern
ment ownership of railroads. Some as.
sumo TO believe hat his views have
no particular significance and that they
will be ignored, but this attitude can
not be adhered to by the democratic
| party. His homecoming speech vas
the foreword of the campaign. 1t was
un~questionably his purpose to outline
the issues of the campaign, and as he
absolutely dictates not only the candt-
dates of the party, but the platform as
we'll, unless he changes his mind, gov
eminent ownership of railroads will be
a part n parcel of the democratic
platform in 1908,
In referring to MI. Bryan's ideas the
New York World says they are frank
ly preposterous' and the Philadelphia
Ledger says he has arrayed himself in
the fantastic outfit of state socialism"
The same paper says 1t is no longer
enough TO regulate and restrain monop-
olies, they must be abolished alto
gether by the remedy of government
ownership and operation" In analyz-
ing the Bryan plan, the New York
World (dem.) says:
There are now Upward of 212,349
miles of railroads in this country to be
acquired by the national and state
governments If the people should ever
follow Mr.. Bryan in his wild leap into
state socialism. The total assets of
these railroads are placed at S15,495,-
100000. Their gross earnings for
1904 were 1897, 62S,71S and the OPP
Grating expenses 81, 33S,3SS,6S6. 1t
will be noticed that the gross earnings
of these 1920 companies are equal to
the total appropriations of two billion
dollar congresses
"These railroads have 1921 ISL stock
holders, to say nothing of the bondhold-
ers. One single road, the Pennsylvan-
Ia, has 44,175 stockholders; another.
4 abe Santa Fe, has 1888, and n third,
the Union Pacific, has 1926. Incl
dentally, these roads carry Upward OF
715,000,000 passengers every year and
haul more than 1,275, 900, 900 tons of
freight. 1t requires a little matter of
1,2S6,000 employees TO do this work.
Rather a big business to turn over to
u group or any number of groups of
professional politicians, is it not? Mr..
Bryan cites the railroads of Germany
as proof that his experiment ought to
be successful in the United States.
The total railroad mileage in the Ger
man empire is 34.016. Three states
Pennsylvania Illinois and Texas-have
as many miles of ROAD as the kaiser's
whole empire. Some of his friends
point to the example of New Zealand.
If all the railroads of Australasia were
added to all the railroads of Europe
the total would still be less than that
of the United States. AS for the Ger
man railroads, they are not owned and
managed by the government in my
sense in which the people of the Unit
government ownership. While the
roads are operated by the German
states, these states are practically pri-
vate corporations so far as the railroad
business is concerned. No question
of railroad policy is determined by pop
ular suffrage or party conventions or
political leaders. The railroads are
outside the entire realm of partizan
politics. They are not controlled by
politicians, they are not operated by
politicians they are not affected by
campaign considerations"
The World wonders whether Tom"
Taggart or "Gumshoe Bill" Stone, or
the Hon. George Fred Williams would
be secretary of railroads in Mr.. Bry-
ms cabinet, charged with the trifing
duty of %supplanting such men as
James ]. Hill, A. j. Cassat, and E. H.
Hartman"
The New York Sun, the Evening
Post and almost all the other leading
democratic papers criticise his speech
in unmeasused terms, leaving him lit
tie or no newspaper support for his
policy in the east.
Bryan is unfortunate in his politi-
cal utterances-eyen more so than
Hancock, who declared the tariff a
local issue to be ignored in a national
campaign. In the most fippant man
ner Mr.. Bryan presents a great nation
al issue, minus the details. A trife
like working out the details of how
the government is to raise the fifteen
or twenty billions of dollars necessary
to purchase the railroads is hardly
worth while. Leave such matters to
the petty financiers.
In a single speech he has made his
chances for the presidency mighty
slim.
Word from Douglas is to the effect
that the people in control Of the state