The Montgomery advertiser., 1907-07-28

N '. Evening Post.
 The boldest act of cowardfce ever heard of" Such was the characterize ton of ono of the Duke of Welling- tons announcements of Government policy. It might with double force pc applied to Mr. Bryans reputation, on Saturday. of his own pet issue or 10v. ernment ownership of raiiloaoA Tut forward by him inconsiderateiy year ago; clung to obstinately Tor tme: in the face of protests by iHnuehtla!. ! mon of his party; latterly, qualfned ana minimized; MT. Bryan has now discov- cred that 1t Is unpopular and IS ln- turing his chances as a candidate Tor the Presidency, therefore he cooly de- clares that there is no desire any where to make Government owner ship an issue in 190S." Self-stultinca- tion could hardly be more complete.
 Moreover. MT. Bryan may attempt to run away from his issues. but 1t will not abandon him. Where thou goest, will go" In q word, he cannot free himself from whatever discredtt at taches to him for having rashly raised . controversy on Q subject which he had not studied. and from the political to retreat The thing is impossible Suppose him the Democrat nominee, and the issue would be thrust In his face from every stump in the land. His party would have to bear the Odium: just as 1t suffered in 1900 from the odium of his egregious blunder about silver in 1Sse. That cause. too, he has now dropped. But what does he imag. inc the country thinks of a statesman who obligingly discards one conviction after another, as if they were so many worn-out gloves? There is . difference between political opportunism and mere demagogue's shiftinesa If Mir. Bryan's aim was to demonstrate to his party and to the country that he is a fighty man, unstable in ell his ways. with an enormous capacity for stirring up aEi- tation but with the smallest faculty for using 1t to the good of the com- monwealth. he could not have gone to work moro successfully than by emit ting this last uncertain sound on bis the commander in q state of confusion and panic What can be expected Of the troops7
 The Republicans may we'll excIain: 'The Lord hath delivered this Philis- tine into our hands" For MT. Bryan lays down . plan of campaign which is absolutely hopeless. He Is stoutiy mission on his lips. all the time. that regulation is bound to fail. He is for determining "the real value" of the Iailways-an abstraction as deep as any conception of the Nominalist 6choolmen-and for preventing over- charges and over-capitalization alike: but he states in the same breath that this is merely by way of experiment, to prove that he is right, that regula. tion ts certain to break down. and that we shall have to come to his ultimate solution of Government ownership Fancy an election contested on such lines! Bryan will appeal to the voters to put him in power to do-what? Why. something which he admits is wholly impracticable and barren. which will do them not a particle of good, leaving them, in fact, worse off than before! Nothing like that has ever been known in our political his- tory. We have had fictitious issues, and candidates running on false pretences: but we have never yet had a man standing for the Presidency who frankly announced that the thing he promised to do he could not do. and that it would neither benefit nor satis- fly the country if he could! When MT Bryan talks thus of his ultimate" sol- ution,it ought to make 1t certain that his party should tsink of him only as an ultimate candi6ate-ultimate in the sense that he could be only the last desperate resort.
 As a matter of fact, 1t is plain that the Democratic party Is doing a great deal of thinking about the desirability of taking .next year some candidate other than Mir. Bryan. He has been generally and tacitly regarded as in- evitable. but is he? Very likely he is