New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1907-07-24
THE FOUNDING IN POLITICS.
If l was so soon 10 be done for.
l wonder What l WAS hegun for


Such must be the lament of the Hon. William
J. Bryan's eleven months offspring government
ownership and operation Of the railroads.
now left after the heartless Roman fashion,
founding on the public highway. Mr.. Bryan
has enjoyed certain measure Of popular sym
patty a statesman whose raiment has
habit of finding its way TO other peoples
clotheslines. He poses as the hard luck in
ventOr Of political novelties which other
statesmen hold patents and collect royalties.
Yet now, IN panic lest no crafty rival should be
tempted to kidnap the latest product Of his
political fancy, he unceremoniously deposits that
tender infant where 1t viii be surest to attract
the attention Of the hungry child catcher.
The editor of The Commoner" is not an
adept at this method Of wedding out the
nursery and he betrays n lamentable awk-
wardneSs in stocking and dropping the basket
AS Senator Benjamin r. Tillman said the other
day in Cincinnati, according to dispatches from
that city, Mr. Bryan docs not seem to possess
the fine tactful judgment" This is the just
estimate Of an expert; for Mr.. TilIman frankly
comedies that he himself is not a paragon of
tact and not long ago Tuefully promised his
colleagues in the Senate that he would never
again give free rein to his capacity as
humorst, since his "humOr" was not rccog
nized at anything like its face value by those
at whose expense it was fabricated. Mr.. Bryan
clearly lacks the ability to retrieve his errors
or to gain strength while confessng weakness.
He is too seIf-conscious and too intent on
squaring every present thought or utterance
with every past thought or utterance to succeed
in any lght-hearted attempt to readjust his
opinions. He will not let the dead past bury It's
dead. He insists that the funeral exercises
shall be supplemented with an Grafton proving
that, after all, there has been no occasion for
a funeral.
For ourselves, we like Mr.. Bryan better In his
old heroic vein, spurning the very suggestion
that his ideas were mortal and pcrshable He
did not drop the free coinage issue after a brief
filtration of eleven months That issue was
fought out in one losing Presidential election.
But because 1t lost in 1895 Mr. Bryan did not
feel called on to abandon IT, He had it revital-
lied for his second Presidential canvass in 1900
and successfully struggled against what at
first seemed hopeless odds to prevent its re-
pudiation in the Democratic national platform
Of 1904. Free silver coinage Is still officially
one Of the chief doctrines Of the Democratic
faith; and Mr.. Bryan seldom loses an oppor-
tunity to defend the rejected policy of silver
imitation on the ground that it would have ac-
complished what has been otherwise accom-
plshed by the enormous increase in the worlds
production Of gold. Why shouldn't he have
gone along similarly advocating government
ownership and operation Of the railroads and
claiming incidentally the credit for the public
benefits ensuing from government regulation,
on the ground that if the programme of owner
ship and operation had had a chance 1t would
have worked at least equally well? We prefer
the old Bryan to the new Bryan-the fearless
logician who hewed to the lire and did not care
who borrowed his tools 10 the anxious politician
who is eager to disembarrass himself Of an issue
which he still believes in, but which, he is
afraid, is not popular enough to pay.