The Montgomery advertiser., 1907-04-07

Nashville Banner.
Mr.. Bryan has never receded posi-
lively from any position he once took
on a public question. He found a
plausible but Illogical way to account
for his discredited prophecies of 1895
with the '.quantitive theory of money"
concerning the l6 to 1 proposition he
will, if pressed for an opinion, insist
that 1t is right in an academic sense
and is the condition TO which the
Just after the disastrous close of
the Parker campaign, and the collapse
of the safe and sane" policy, Mr..
Bryan felt himself to be the logical
tered Democracy. He cast about for
new Issue and proclaimed with the voice
of one speaking with authority a creed
he called radical and progressive" the
chief feature of which was Government
ownership of trunk line railroads.
When he came back from his tour of
the world he made speech at Madison
Square Garden. and this doctrine was
national Democracy was not Favorable
and Southern dissent to the proposition
now visikly weakened IN his attitude,
yields. The following editorial ar
ticle from The Commoner Of recent
date explains his present position:
1T is part of wisdom to look ahead,
insist upon the doing of anything be-
fore the people are ready for It, Mr..
Bryan said on August 30 last that he
regarded Government ownership as the
ton. but he was careful to say that
he did not know that the country was
ready for 1t or that a majority OF the
Democrats favored II. Mr.. Bryan has
ship upon the country. and he would
be powerless to force Government own
ership upon the country against the
VIII OF the people, even If he desired
1t will be readily acknowledged that
Mr.. Bryan is not an autocrat, and
would not be II he were President. but
nevertheless his political opinions and
be considered If he IS to be presiden-
tiaI candidate
When Mr. BRYAN first promulgated
this idea he meant to make II what he
In the next presidential campaign. but
issues are not made to order. They
grow or arise from unforeseen conting-
encies in the progress of events. When
Mr. Roosevelt and Mr.. Root had not
assailed State rights as a myth. The
California Incident had not taken place
and 1t was not proposed to concentrate
inRton.
The strong probabilities are that the
Roosevelt faction will triumph in the
next national Republican convention.
successor, and the keynote of the cam
paign will be a Government license for
all corporations, law that will take
them entirety from under, State control.
This Will preeipitate the issue of
States rights. The question raised in
California Is also far from being set
tied. Mr.. Roosevelt will very likely
urge as a declaration in the next Re-
nlaffnrF0 fOh Of hn
ton by treaty power to override State
and municipal regulations. These
things will renew the old issues of
States rights, and naturally the South
and the Democratic Party must take
but one side.
Government ownership of railroads,
be 1t immediate or ultimate. would
have the strongest possible tendency
to Capitalization. 1t would be an an
omaly for the Democratic Party to go
into the campaign as the champion of
the States rights idea fighting the
tendency to Capitalization, with the
chief promulgator of the idea of Gov
eminent ownership of railroads as Its
leader.
Mr.. Bryan has also given his acqui-
sition to the Beveridge child labor bill.
and some years ago he made a speech
before a trust congress in Chicago in
which he proposed a remedy not I'M
like the Federal license law which the
Roosevelt influence will inject into the
next campaign. Mr.. Bryan Is In no re-
spect the ideal champion of States
rights. His idea has been to establish
"a progressive and radical Democracy
and he has never given much time to
defending the old party tenets. Since
Mr. Roosevelt has made the Republican
Party radical. Mr.. Bryan's idea seems
radical still. Hence his theory of Gov
eminent ownership of railroads He
seems now to recognize the fact that
1t will not At as the paramount issue
of the next presidential campaign ON.