The Chanute times. [volume] (Chanute, Kan.) 1897-1913, 1908-07-03
BRYAN'S RADICALlSw

Cuult peOpIc are IuCllUbu W UtlI6Ye
that Mr.. Bryan will make d better
race this year than he did in his
former campaigns fer the presidency,
They argue that President R.osevelJ' y
radical policies have made Bryan's
radicalism resPectable-that is to say,
that the country at large has become
accu stoned to radical IDEAS and that
the business men have lost their
former dlstrast and fears at the
thought of radical In the presi d en-
tial chair. Those who entertain this
opinion even go so far as to say that
By contrast with the Roosevelt
policies Bryan's ideas arc really
conservative and less likely to create
q disturbance Ia the Industrial world
than a continuation OF the policies of
the last four years.
But these people forget the essen
tial difference between the radicalism
Of Bryan and that OF the present
administration. For example, In re-
spact to the trusts, Pesident Roose-
welt advocates regulation while Bryan
would destroy them, root and branch.
WhatsYer tho consequences may haye
been, the presidents policies were
intended to conserve and preserve the
good that is In these necessary
instruments Of modern Industry, and
10 destroy only the evil features OF
the system of great combinations III
capital In trade. Doubtless nobody
was more surprised-and chagrlnef-
than Mr.. Roosevelt was when the
late panic brought him up with
severe jolt and he found that there
was y screw loose somewhere which
spoiled the practical application OF
his theories. On the other hand, Nh.
Bryan 10 an iconoclast ia the fullest
sense Of the term. His was no enpt,
boast when he declared on his return
trem his worlds tour that he was
more Of radical than ever. In the
presidential Office he would bend ever,
energy toward the absolute destruc
ton of the trusts, and In that term
would be included all great combina
tons In trade. He Is just Ingenious
enough aud ignorant enough of the
underlying principles Of fiuanoe and
business in general to believe that
he could substitute federal statutes
for tn. natural laws VI trade and
commerce.
The business men OF the country
fear Bryan As a president just as much
today-and with as much or greater
cause-as they did In 1895 when nine
t'nths Of the Democrats who we're
,nen Of large affairs left their party
bsc ause they feared that his election
woald bring on u panic. MANY pro
fsssiVnal men, 800, who Dad loved and
revsred Democracy all Their lives, who
repudistsd Bryan's financial and
pUlitical hsresles IN 1895, will be quite
~ strongly oppose to his still more
radical Views Of today, his advocacy
Of government ownership, initistivs
and referendum, aRti.InjuRction and
rthsr Soclalistie and Populistic fads
lad vagaries. II Bryan's radicallsm
VAS 30 be feared In 1895, when IT
elated almost solely to the financial
question, 1t Is ten times mere to be
AIRED now when II has multiplied
tsslf intO q dozen other forms, quite
~ unsound and even more dangerous.
No, President Roosevelt has not
uade Bryan's radicslism respectable.
In RooseyslL's case 1t might justly be
pleaded that he dldn't know the guu
vas loaded; 10 Brysn's, it would be n
deliberate, preneditated assault with
ntent to kill. Ia the presidential
chair Bryan would bring about an
Industrial-and probably social
.stsclvsm compared with which the
Roosevelt panic WAS but a passing
zephyr, ~ evanescent and transitery
Is soap bubble Kansas City
Journal.