New-York tribune., 1907-01-13
Mr.. WILLI4HS'S DILEMMA.

The movement TO depose John Sharp Will
Jams as Democratic leader in the House of
Representatives may be deprecated i'll some
quarters base ingratitude and malapprecia-
ton of shining merit. Yet behind it there is
q clearly logical motive. We have never failed
10 give Mr.. Williams due credit for many at
tractive qualities Of mind and temperament
He is cultivated. courteous and amiable, and,
when his prejudiees are not touched. clear
thinker and generous opponent. Under his lead
ership the minority in the House has made
much more creditable showing and exercised
more influence on legislation than it did under
the leadership of his immediate predecessors,
Mr.. Richardson and Mr.. Bailey. Mr.. Williams
tightened the rens Of discipline and made the
opposition more formidable and more respecta-
BILE Yet in way he held himself aloof from
the party which he led and set his face against
the forces which since 1886 have revolutionized
the purposes and character of the Democratic
national organization.
Mr. Williams Is at heart a good deal of q
Bourbon. He iaments the passing of the old
regime under which the energies of the party
were exerted to tear down the tariff in the
hope of beneftlng temporarily the agricultural
South and West at the expense of common
national progress. No one rejoiced more than
he when in 1904 the so-called Democratic "con-
servatives'' won their hollow victory at ST.
Louis and nominated Alton B. Parker for the
Presidency on q platform of reaction and
warmed-over Clevelandism. No one has la
bored more earnestly than he TO force other
issues TO the rear and to revive the old contest
between the manufacturing and the planting
and farming interests. In pursuing this policy
Mr. Williams has shut his eyes TO the vital
change IN industrial conditions which has taken
place since 1854 and 1888, as well to the
intrusion of the issues which Mr.. Bryan stands
for inta po1itfpc Ha hnc irial IN
reckon without Mr.. Bryan, and in so doing he
has spoiled his sum. The movement to retire
him is the logical outcome of that papable
miscalcuation.
The Mississippi statesman Is annoyed because
various busybodes are endeavoring TO spread
the impression that he Is working to defeat
Mr.. Bryans nomination in 1908. This, he says,
is an error. He is quite willing TO let Mr..
Bryan have the nomination, after Mr.. Bryan
has revised his Madison Square Garden speech
and recanted his theory that the federal gov
ernment should own and operate the railroads
Mr.. Williams's plan is to have the next ma
tienal convention vote down the idea of fed
eral ownership of railroads, and this idea
down and out of the way, Mr.. Bryan would
"be the strongest candidate for the Presidency"
A brilliant suggestion this, and one quite worthy
of the politicians who nominated Judge Parker!
The Democrats who bolted Mr.. Bryan's noml-
nation i'll 1895 would also have welcomed him
as candidate If lie had only induced the con-
yention to put down and out" the Idea that
the government ought to coin all the silver
offered 1t at twice the market value. But If
twothrds of the delegates to the next Demo
cratic national convention want Mr.. Bryan as
their candidate it is hardly likely that more
than half Of them will vote to eliminate the
issue OIL which he laid most stress in reassum-
ing national leadership last August in Aladi-
son Square Garden. Mr.. Williams may pro-
test that he has neither entered into shall
enter into any antiBryan movement Yet his
policy of following Bryan and repudiating Bry-
snism must sooner or later cost him his posi-
ton and influence as Democratic leader. He
must see that he is in more danger than the
Idea of government ownership OF going down
oud out