Ellsworth American. [volume] (Ellsworth, Me.) 1855-current, 1908-10-14
THE HARM BRYAN
COULD Do If ELECTED
Would Ride His Hobbies Despite
aRepublican Senate and House.
PLAUSIBLE ARGUMENT REFuTED
Substantially the Only Plea offered
in Behalf of the Democratic
Candidate Shown to Be as False
as 1t is Shameless-At Once an
Apology and an Indictment.

One of the most frequent and
seemingly plausible arguments in be-
half of Bryan's candidacy is that as
President of the United States he
could do no harm. because the SEN
ate and the House also, If Republic
can, would prevent him from having
his own way. Would any sane bust
ness man in the United States enter
tain such suggestion? He would
reject 1t Indignantly and rebuke the
person making it. What" he would
exclaim. place an untrustworthy
person In charge of my affairs and
trust to others to see that he is not
allowed to injure me? The very
idea Is an insult to my common
sense,"
Yet day in and day out, in news
paper articles, speeches and talk be-
tween man and man, the argument
we have quoted is applied to the
greatest Office in the United States,
the Office the holder of which pos
sesses more power, for good or ill,
than any king or emperor, and who
can, even by mere utterance, effect
incalculable evil to business interests
throughout the United States. 1t is
substantially the only plea offered in
behalf of Bryan to the business men
of the country, and the persistence
with which it is repeated suggests
that those who present it think 1t is
having some effect, or perhaps
which is more likely--it is the only
plea they dare to present, conscious
as they are of the utter unfitness of
their candidate and of the futility of
seeking to gain support for him on
his merits as public man.
1t is a false plea. as false as it Is
shameless. Bryan in the White
House could be and would be for
four long years the most dangerous
pest and plague the business inter
ests of this nation have ever encoun-
tered The lack of ballast in his po-
litical career up to date, his weather
vane veering to this or that point of
the compass to catch a promising
breeze, his lightning somersaults
from one political hobby to another,
his plagiarism of any novelty that he
thinks may attract the thoughtless-
all these foreshadow the instability
of his course should he achieve the
aim of his ambition and prove the
menace that his very presence in the
White House would be to business
interests.
Neither Senate nor House could
prevent him from doing irremediable
harm, and business men who had
been deceived into accepting him as
harmless would have abundant time
and leisure to repent.
What contrast between the can
didate whose strongest plea is that,
If elected, he would be unable to do
anything very bad because Congress
would not let him, and William H.
Taft, of whom President Mckinley
said, 81 am sending Taft to the Phil
ippines because he is the broadcast
and most unselfishly brave man
know, and because he will carry the
spirit of the Constitution of the Uni
ted States in his very blood''--Taft,
the statesman, held in esteem
throughout the civilized world: the
Just judge and modest. sincere gen.
tleman, full" as one writer de-
scribes him. of the knighthood I'M
der which the honor and strength of
a great nation must be shielded in
1nsidious peace as in open war" No
body suggests that William Fl. Taft
would need a Congress to watch him,
or that any act of his would be a
wrong or a menace to the business
interests of law abiding citizens. No
body has any doubt that Taft as Pres
ident would be guided solely by his
sense of duty. without regard to the
bearing of his acts on his political or
personal fortunes. In brief. NOBODY
would dare to present in behalf of
Taft the plea which is at once an
apology for and an indictment of
Bryan.