Daily Kennebec journal., 1908-06-26
VOICES OF THE PRESS.
The Demagosy Of Bryan.
lNeW York Globe.)

(New York Globe.)
The two proclamatiOnS that Bryan,
through the cOuhtesy of the Associated
Press has spread before the American
people during the last two days show
that he is the same old Bryan. He
has learned nothing from the passing
years nor has he brOadened, as his
apoloeist.s have contended by foreign
travel. What he represented in 1896
and 1900 he msrepresented in 13js. Not
satisfied with having been twice tossed
from the track he is again. With the
discretion of the western bull, seeking
another impact from the locomotive.
He brings forward again the bust
ness disturbing. employment-destro
ing Wagn-lowering, hard-times- breed
iEg political quackcry with which he
has hitherto been identified.
Bryan complains of the Republican
candidate and the Republican platform,
and his complaint against both is that
they do not promise sufficiently to tear
things up. There is not enough pledge
Of earthquake, there is not advertising
enough in inhibition of shooting
Niagara in order to be beaten and
drowned in the rapids. President
Ruoscvelt's administration, he says,
has gone a little way in the right di-
rcction, but it has taken but tiny
step where there should be a great
stride The platform, as far as it goes,
he says is very well-but at best pale
pink, whereas it should be an angry
red. His criticism is not so much
against the incluSions as the omissions.
IN full retreat" shouts Bryan, and
points out that Robert NJ. La Toilette
should have been the candidate on a
platform of the most thoroughgoing La
Toilette kind.
In 1896 Bryan talked silver, hut he
made it clear even then that he re-
garded silverism as but a means to an
end-one comparatively small tenet
of an embracing body of political doc
trine. He advocated the Sacred Ratio
as ne took pains to explain, not be-
cause it was worth much in itself, but
because it was q handy torch with
which to set our business structure
ablazc. What lie wanted was to burn
down The cdfice and trust to luck for
the rebuilding of a better. He was
willing to have the country hungry
for a number of years, and exhorted it
to feed on the hope that under his sys-
tenn some of us would nc longer be
permitted to fatten on all of us He
opposed the gold standard because it
was identified with the existing order
He attacked the courts because they
were a bulwark of the existing order
He stirred up discomfort, aroused dis
content, preached the rightfulness of
free riot all to the same great end
The Republican party has raised the
banner of the Square Deal. Bryanism
stands today, as it did in 1896, TOR the
New Deal--for an insensate, muck
running raid on industry because the
machine we now have is not perfect
and sometimes unjustly snaps off in
diVidual fingers
Two elements of the population, be-
tween them constituting a majority,
should particularly take notice of this
revival of Bryanism-namely. the men
Of business and that great army which
works for wages or small salaries.
Bryan proposes to do what he can to
drive the one class into bankruptcy by
destroying confidence, and to take their
jobs away from the other by putting
fear into the heart Of every enterprise.
Organism, if allowed to gain headway,
VIII produce the same effects in 1908
that it did in 1896. No business man
should delude himself by saying:
bryan can't do any harm this time;
conservative Senate will hold him in
check In the first place, so great is
the present power of the presidency, no
Senate can hold president in check
as to matters of the first consequence;
in the second place, business conditions
are so profoundly affected by senti-
mental and psychological conditions
that the mere election of Bryan would
produce paralysis long before ne was
inaugurated and had a chance to issue
an executive order or to reorganize the
Supreme Court.
The same danger that menaces the
business man menaces in equal or
greater degree tile wage worker and
saiary Garner. The prosperity of one
| means jobs and better wages for the
other. Their interests are united by a
bond that all Bryan's demagogy can't
unite. Neither business man nor work.
ing man can afford to be Indifferent
with the same old Bryan with the same
old attack on fundamental things roar
ing up and down the country. The
business man who allows his prejudice
against Theodore Roosevelt to bias his