New-York tribune., 1907-06-21
"WRAT Is 4 DEMOCRATw

We have always taken a lively interest in
| the efforts of our neighbor The New York
| World" to solve the conundrum. "What is a
| DemocratF That is an inquiry which might be
profitably undertaken by the Association for the
| Advancement of Science or by the Society for
| Psychical Research. The obscurit1es of the
subject pronounced and the testimony
| offered by experts is so conflicting that the
| average investigator is tempted TO abandon the
quest as hopeless. 1t Is to-day a far cry from
that happy era IN which statesman could
ticket himself securely for front seat on the
Democratic band wagon by simply saying Il
am a Democrat" There are so many imlta-
ton Democratic trademarks nowadays that no
one passes muster unChallenged, and label
which is considered good in Oklahoma or Lin
coin, Neb., or Louisville, Ky, some other
happy hunting ground of pure Democracy, may
be rejected as the speciouS cover Of a base
adulterant in contemporaries experiment
station in Park Row. But Truth is worth pur-
suing for her own sake even if she tries to
drown herself at the bottom of a darkling well,
and we congratulate our neighbor on the scicn-
tifc zeal and persistence with which ii is seek
ing TO standardize the Democratic label and TO
prove TO a muddled and skeptical generation
what an unsophisticated smon-pure and corr
fed Democrat is.
We sympathize with The World" in It's dis
appointment at the contribution to its guessing
match just made by investigator who may
be fairly classified the greatest Of living
Democrats" The Hon. William J. Bryan ought
to know-if anybody knows-what current
Democracy means. He has dominated the
Democratic party for the last eleven years. mas
been its Presidential candidate twice within
that period and is by general admission its
only available national leader. He has heard
THE Worlds" appeals for scientific enlighten-
ment and has written an opinion Intended to
be authoritative and decisive. Yet we find II.
as The World finds it. as non-illuminating as
a DelphiC cryptogram What is q Democrat In
this year of grace 1907? That is the question
propounded TO Mr.. Bryan. and he answers it by
telling us what Democrat was hundred years
ago Democrat we learn, is An anti-aristo-
crat believer in the rule Of the majority.
Hamilton and the Federalists. Mr.. Bryan says,
! We're aristocrats and onbelievers in popular
rule. The Democratic party was created to
crush aristocratic ideas, and its members are
TO be distinguished by their devotion to the
doctrine that under a democratic form of gov
ernment the minority must submit 10 the Will
of the majority.
Hamilton is dead and so is the Federalist
party; and the mysterious "aristocrats" who
still insist on the perpetuatiOn of minority rule
are hard TO catch and identify. We have an idea
that II all the Democrats in this country mean
! ing by that the voters who believe In demo
! cratic government-had supported Mr.. Bryan
| in 1896 or 1900 he would have been the unani-
J nous choice of the Electoral College. There are
many Democrats, therefore, under the Bryan
definition. who do not know that they are
Democrats. or at least do not realize ii sutfi-
cientiy 10 vote the Democratic ticket. Mr.. Bryan
hints indeed that the believers in majority rule
are only halfway Democrats. and that the real
Democrats are those who prefer to see majority
rule applied by the direct rather than by the rep
resentative method. Yet probably not one Dem
ocrat In ten at the present time Is in the least
concerned about substituting the initiative and
referendum for the process OF law-making by
delegate agents Such definitions as Mr.. Bryans
are therefore, scholastic and fanciful. They do
not clear up in the least the contradictions OF
principle daily put forward by leaders who
claim To be Democrats. nor do they open the
way to any helpful understanding Of those di-
vergent views. The term Democrat stands, in
fact for nothing fixed and tangible. 1t is an
outworn symbol and those who use 1t use II
without any clear appreciation either Of what
it denotes to-day or Of what 1t long ago ceased
to denote "The World" is undismayed how
ever. 1t will keep on asking, more or less hope
fully, What is a DemOcratT