New-York tribune., 1907-10-08
"lTAJOPTTY RITE"

When Mr.. Bryan attempted TO answer The
| Worlds" popular cOnundrum. What is a Demo-
cratF" he was driven into putting forward the
vague assertion that a Democrat was n person
who believed in majority rule. 1t was the es-
sence of Democracy, he contended, to accept
| and exploit the principle that government
should exist only by the consent of the
governed, and in his Brooklyn speech last spring
in commemOratiOn of Jefferson's birthday he
declared that a Democrat might be pardOned
for embracing any other heresy, but if he de
MED the sanctity of the referendum and the
free expression of the will of the majority he
must be driven from the fold with whips of
scorpions Mr.. Bryan ought therefore, to be
highly interested in the performances of certain
friends of his in the Democratic organization
in Massachusetts, who succeeded last Saturday
in capturing the party machinery and nominal
ing q state ticket by calmly asserting the in
nate inferiOrity of the majority to the enlight-
ened remnant. The misguided majority was
generously permitted by Mr.. Bryans represent
atives to act as a Greek chorus in the back
ground of Sprngield's largest theatre while
the minority favored with tickets for the front
seats, gave an exhibition of government with
out the use of the referendum.
The device applied at Springfield is time
honored one in Jeffersonian circles. 1t consists
vention by the rule of an autocratc chairman
named by a state committee without the con-
sent or concurrence Of thu actual delegates. The
Wlliams-Bartlett forces controlled the state
committee and that sufficient warrant for
them as it has been for Democratic minorities
in many similar cases, to dispense with both
Jeffersons majority rule abstraction and his
manual of parliamentary procedure. Delegates
having the eye and approval Of the temporary
It'll saT- ,r~1,f f1z
those not able TO qualify as sound or trust
worthy had to be content with blue tickets,
good for accommodations in the theatre lobby
or on the sidewalks. Political deliberation in
the parquet being thus tranquillized and ''ac-
celerated" the Bryan managers were enabled
TO secure a handsome, if somewhat hurried, in
dorsement of their plans for administering the
Bay State Democracy.
Mr. Whitney's supporters seem TO have been
somewhat surprised at the "aCceleration" proc
ess OF which they were at once witnesses and
victims. THE Springfield Republican" reports
that the Hon. Josiah Quincy was stirred TO
unwonted warmth by the spectacle. But Mr..
Quincy has had experiences before with rough
house" Democratic methods and can remember
the many historic precedents set by political
porch climbers and window stormers in the
turbulent days of Butlerism and the first
BRYAN Williams era. Why should he or any
body else be "stirred" by a procedure which
Democratic managers seldom scruple to en-
ploy? At the Buffalo convention Of 1906 vic
tory went to the side which organized the com
mittee on credentials. Thereafter, under Sen
ator Grady's direction, no quarter was given to
the anti-Hearst opposition. In Illinois, in 1904,
Mr. Hearst's supporters were in a majority in
the state convention, but "strong-arm' tenn
porary chairman named Quinn held the ma
jority at bay and carried into effect the Will
of q small minority. There are few things
more creditable in Mr.. Bryan's career than
his tooth-and-nail fight at the st. Louis conven-
ton for justice to the suppressed majority in
Illinois The national convention had no de-
sire or intention TO repair the wrong done, but
the Nebraskan's oratory made it vince What
will he do now to rebuke the overZeal of his
Massachusetts friends? Will he stand firm
in his belief that one vote should count as
much as another and that a duly ascertained
majority should always rule? OR will he con-
done the GoebeliZation of the Springfield con-
vention and surrender what he has only re-
Gently exalted as the sole surviving test of
up-to-date Democracy?