The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1907-04-22

DdIIlcS IDe pdSI le"
years, confusion has obtained to SO great
an extent that it is difficult to tell
when a man is q Rcpublican-whcn a
Democrat
1t is probable that the words Radical
and Liberal and Tory and Conservative
are more expressive than the words Re
publican and Democrat. And Judged
by the test of Radical vs. Conservative
the test applied to the two great par
ties of Great Britain-Wiliam Jennings
Bryan is probably the Conservative
while Theodore Roosevelt is the Rad
ical. In all of his public career it
would appear rs though Bryan has
cnunciated only one radical idea and
that is the Government ownership of
railways, while President Roosevelt has
new radical idea for every day of the
year. Upon finance, upon all of the IS
sues of the day, no matter whether men
may have liked it or not, Bryan has
been the conservative-the one to stand
by the old order of things and against
the new-while Mckinley and Roosc-
Welt have favored changes-have ia
vored the change of the country from
the double standard, which il pos
scssed, to the single standard, which it
did not posscss-have favored the estab-
lishmcnt of colonial policy at the very
time that Bryan was making opposi-
tion TO Imperialism the paramount plank
IN his platfcrm. 1t is a funny condi-
ton of affairs. but the radicals are sup
porting Bryan upon the theory that
they are getting a radical while they
are IN reality getting a man who is con
soTvatlve almost TO the point Of bour-
bonlsm. On the other hand, the con
servativos Of the Cleveland and Parker
type hate Bryan as the devil is said
TO hate holy water. They profess to
| believe that he is an anarchist and a
nihlllst and that he would destroy the
existing order of things
II the truth were known today BRYAN
is probably not candidate for Presi-
dent of the United States, and if he
can dodge the nomination he will prob
ably DO so. And yet every conservative
IN the country is arming himself To
prevent the oncoming of Bryan---to pre-
vent the next National Democratic CON
ventlon from falling into his hands
Bfyan himself is probably not aware
OF the fact that he is conservative
II asked TO do so he would probably
honestly group himself as radical
And yet every move that the man
makes Is move of the ultra-conserva-
1--WE sort. lf he ever makes an attack
upon any one, Republican or Democrat.
it is an attack with quotation marks
around IT. In other words, he might
quote Lincoln to show the falsty of
Roosevelt s position, but he would not
Ge likely TO exchange personalities with
roosevelt himself, or indulge in per
sonal denunciation. More likely he
would quote from one of Roosevelt s
former addresses to show the absurdity
u the present Roosevelt position.
Roosevelt Is Restless.
On the other hand a restless love of
cnange mas been a marked characteris.
nc or President Roosevelt. He has
peen changing positions all his life. and
IS IN that respect typical illustration
OF the rolling stone. Roosevelt is a
man VINO VIII STRAIN point TO tell the
people anything that is in his favor
This was illustrated by the manner in
winch he brought out his letter to Con.
gresham Sherman bearing upon the
Hartman proposition. To trained
student of politics it would appear as
though the President had written this
letter to Sherman q number of months
ago: tearing that Hartman was pre-.
parlng 10 explode a bomb, and there.
iore eelioerately planning to put his
pest loot forward so far as the pub.
he IS concerned. On the other hand
Bryan is often rather Indifferent as to
what the public will or will not think
provided that he first is convinced that
he is on the right track When a
friend remonstrated with Bryan be.
cause he had never brought the truths
In connection with the famous Bennett
Will case to the front-told Mr.. BRYAN
that he had never made it plain TO the
American people that he had told the
widow of Philo S. Bennett that he
would never accept one dollar of Mr.
Bennett $ money during her Lifetime
without her conseDt-that all that he
was hghting for, was to see that the
bequests of dead friend went to-
wards lectures and college scholarships
dead man-that Mr.. BRYAN could not be
blamed If he would only let the people
know, that he personally was not
striving for one dollar of the dead
man s money, Mr., BRYAN said thai
while it was the truth that he occu
pied this position, that he did not think
that 1T mattered much whether his enc
mics attacked him along those lines OF
not-tbat those who wished TO believe
that he was money grabbing man
anxious to turn this matter to his own
personal benefits, would believe it any
how, while his friends would know and
understand the spirit behind it all any
how. In all this, Mr., Bryan, too, alp
peared to appreciate the inutility OF
telling the truth.
Leaders Contrasted
In many other ways Mr. Bryan would
appear TO be the direct antitbesis of
Roosevelt and for these and many othc,
reasons it would appear to be difficult
for these two men TO get together. Take
the mere matter of military prestige
pomp and power. Roosevelt IS best
friends say that while he will never de
liberately do anything To bring on g
war. while his efforts have been foI
peace, as demonstrated ut the time OF
the war between Russia and Japan anG
the more recent trouble with Japan oycl
the school question in California. never
theess he would rather head largo
army in the feld than do anything elst
in the world. On the other hand
though Bryan organized "A regiment dur
ing the Spanish American war, his writ
ings and his speeches before peace com
missions and that sort of thing give
every indication that he would heartily
favor disarmameut-the problem which
is attracting so much attention through,
out the old world just at the present
time.
And yet. in spite Of all these things