The Irish standard., 1908-12-05

Only a ground-swel, nothing short
of tidal-wave, could suffice the Dem.
ocrats. The shoe of want did not pinch
hard enough, the voice Of discomfort
was not loud enough to reach that
monster without a head. who is hard
to arouse, bu1 when aroused, sweeps all
before him. Thus much is history.
Touching the future, it is too early to
conjecture.
Both Mr.. Mclean and Col Harvey
seem to lose sight of everything ex-
cept the personality of one man. Mr..
bryan. Col, Harvey will abuse Mr.
Roosevelt, like a pickpocket. and Mr.
Mclean will extol him to the skies;
neither of them will hold him answer
able, whilst both turn themselves loose
upon every utterance of NJ. Bryan
through twelve years of inaamed and
unbroken agitation. Why is this?
Let us agree that Mr.. Bryan has
talked too much and too well. Let us
also remember that the agitator rarely
reaps other rewards for his eloquence,
his ardor aud his endurance than pop
ularity and applause; that Lincoln not
Seward, or Chase, and still less Carl
son, OF Phillips, or Greeley. was chosen
by Heaven to save the Union and de-
stroy Slavery; that letter beat Clay
that a sentence beat Blaine; in short
that there was no escape for Mr..
Bryan from ten years of incessant
newspaper writing and platform
sIeaking. Yet all these years he was
the Voice Of popular aspiration
which may not have known precisely
what it wanted but was conscious Of
serious shortcoming in the Government
OF the country. However ignorant, or
mistaken, this popular aspiration will
always have to be reckoned with.
Mr.. Bryan's following is a credit,
not discredit to him. It's fidelity to
him is credit, not a discredit to it.
Neither he, nor it. should be wantonly
assailed. Like the Roosevelt follow
ing, the Bryan following savors over
much of heroworship; yet. neverthe-
less it remains force, and it may be
made force for good if taken Alright.
u is certainly not sagacious leadership
i'll Col Harvey and Mr.. McLean-sup-
posing that they care anything about
leadership-thus early to begin an
Anti-Bryan Crusade. No matter how
such a Crusade terminated, Mr.. Bryan
would have everything to gain, and
nothing to lcse, by reason Of it. If it
should be persisted in It could only
tend toward an accentuation Of the
differences already existing between
the Democrats, so-called, of the East,
and the Democrats, so-called, of the
West and South, by no means SO
"thinkless" as Col Harvey fancies
them.
There was nothing especially the
matter with the last National Demo-
cratic platform. Neither the. Repub-
lican, nor the Democratic platform
had very much to do with the result
Mr.. Bryan's "dogmas' have sprung
mcasurably out of the trend of Demo
cratic, thought from time immemorial.
The one issue in Jefferson's day, in
Jackson's day, in Tilden's day, in
Cleveland's day, was the many against
privilege; the people against the plu-
tocracy Why bubble over incidents,
wholly personal. and details mainly
academic?
The old Wings went down under
Webster and Clay. Maybe they talked
too much and too well. The modern
Democrats have gone down under
Cleveland and Bryan. The two wore the
same clothes: rode the same horse, but
seemed to face in opposite directions
What does this prove? 1t proves that
the last Century Constitutional Gov
eminent laid in personal liberty was
the dominating principle, and that in
this Century the Almighty Dollar.
seeking Markets, is the dominating
principle.
The Chicago Citizen of the 2stn ult.
gives full verbatim report of Bourke