New-York tribune., 1907-04-16
AN ILLUmINATIYq ANSWER.

Senator Isidor Rayner at the $40 Jefferson
dinner on Saturday night made a rather Orac-
ular but on the whole not an inappropriate
answer TO THE New York Worlds despairing
query, What is a DemOcrat?'' To express his
meaning picturesquely the Maryland statesman
borrowed phrase from IagO. Othello's ancient
Il am not what I am" said that pre-JefersO-
nian philosopher and man Of action taking look
into his inner consciousness. Democracy said
its expOunder OF Saturday night, lis not exactly
what it processes to be-" Reducing this some
what Hegelan dialectic to plain terms, Demo
crat Is not believer In what he seems to be
lieve in and not an assailant Of what he seems
70 be assailing. He is the agent of impulses
which he does not understand and the victim of
emotions which he cannot interpret. He is
navigator trying 70 sail without a chart, or
which comes to the same thing-with a chart
printed in an unintelligible language. He is
ike Tennysons infant crying in the night
An infant crying for the light
And with no language but a cry.
What he says about things past current or
future he hardly understands himself, and he
will not greatly blame those who listen 10 him
for showing a similar lack Of understanding
Mr.. Rayner's frank and highly plausible dag
nOsis ought to be helpful 20 all Democrats now
worrying about their inability TO see anything
alike through the same pair Of glasses Accord
ing 10 the Rayner hypothesis. JeffersOns birth
day fell twelve days too late on the political
calendar. In this particular year of grace It
should have been celebrated on April l. and then
the little pleasantries in which Democratic lead
ers are indulging at one anOther's expense would
have been taken in a more apprecative and
amiable spirit. If it had been generally recog-
nized that the Hon. John Temple Graves's
speech at Chattanooga was only a duly licensed
I
storms" In the highest JeffersOnian circles would
have been avoided. II it had been understood
that the OratOry at the $40 jefferson dinner was
10 be Of the cap and bells variety only, no one
would have been mystified by the fact that the
Maryland Senator at stage Of the proceed
ings bore testimony TO "the great and wonderful
resources OF the President bis commanding
ability, his intense and ardent patriotism, the
marvellous success OF his undertakings and his
phenomenal popularity with the people," and
that fifteen minutes later another orator wrvlv
dismissed the President as "a constructive
statesman by profession, a destructive politi-
"cian in practice; in seeming a chivalric Or
"iandO. In fact a BOmbastes FuriOso." With
this rule OF the feast better advertised II would
also have been easy to explain why at the 81
Jefferson dinner the latest Democratic candidate
for Governor In this state genlally described the
Democratic party as "Oscillating between each
extreme without pride or prejudice, conscience
NOr conviction" and blandly announced that no
had arranged receivership (incorporated) for
an organization which no longer represented a
single one of the principles TO exploit which il
was founded.
The air has. in fact, been greatly cleared by
Senator Rayner's announcement. II every Dem
oerat is compelled TO confess with Iago, "I am
not what am" II no Democrat really knows
where he stands or what he stands for. IL can
be of little use for statesmen TO lose their TEN.
pers over differences Of opinion or exchanges of
| eplthets within the Democratic ranks Worda