New-York tribune., 1909-12-20
THING 4 ST4TE.

Mr. Bryan shows stanch political
courage in going into the strongest
Democratic state in the Union and warn
ing the Democrats there that they will
have TO change their views on tariff
taxation. unless they want to organize
themselves into a sort Of Texas De
'-mocracy different from the Democracy
"Of the nation" Ihe Texas Democrats
are self-willed and independent. They
have opposed the national party on more
than one issue. They repudiated in 1898
the "anti-imperialistic" demand that the
United States should not retain pos
session of the Philippines, just as two
years before they had adopted platform
censuring the SD Congress for passing
the Wilson German law. declaring that
the free raw material idea. carried to
extremes in the House draft of that
measure, was perniciOus and un-Demo-
cratic. The tariff plank of the platform
of 1896 has never been modified. and
Senator Bailey, who has repeatedly at
tackled the Cleveland Wilson Bryan
theory of free raw materials as hum
buggery not 10 be taken seriously by
Democrats. has defended his course by
saying that he was only carrying out
the instructions given him by the party
in his state.
In Houston a week ago Mr.. Bryan
described the Bailey policy of taxing
raw materials whenever the manufact-
ured articles into which they enter are
taxed as a survival of Rand llism. He
said-justly enOugh-that if tariff taxes
are TO be lowered beginning must Oe
made somewhere, and that the easiest
way TO begin is TO take duties off raw
materials, thus cutting away also the
compensatory duties on the manufact-
ures into which the raw materials enter.
According TO the Bailey view, he pointed
out, il is more important that raw ma
terials should be taxed than that re-
ductiOns of any sort should be made,
and he cited Senator McEnery, Of Louis
lana, who calls himself a Protectionist
Democrat. as the outspOken and logical
exponent OF the doctrine which Mr..
Bailey has been championing by indi-
rection. Mr.. Bryan asserted that those
doctrines would never be allowed 10
creep into a Democratic national plat
form and that its advocates would he
OstraciZed and disciplined. as the Ran
dallites were. He made this prediction
Il shall live TO see the day when there
will he no Protectionist Democrat in
the State of Texas"
Mr. Bailey is young Will he recant "
cmigrate? Will the heresv which he
has embraced be stamped out in Mr..
Bryan's lifetime? Our buOyant contem-
porary The Houston Post" which is
hoping against hope for some miracle
which viii result in the redistribution
Of the pOstoffices among the hungry and
thirsty Texas Democrats. fears that Mr..
Bryan Is oversanguine. II minimizeS
his capacity TO evangelize Texas when
il says:
Mr.. Bryan is always plausible. but no
student can ponder his Houston tariff
speech without reaching the conclusion
that il strikingly resembles the descrip-
tion some one made Of the Platte River
when he said il was about a thousand
miles long and six inches deep.
And again:
We assume that Mr.. Bryan is so con-
stituted that he cannot see he is a pro-
motor Of strife rather than Of concord
We suppose that he cannot see that the
greater part Of the inconsiderable SYM
pathy he commands in Texas at this
time is due not primarily 10 affection
for him. but To the belief that his activ-
ity in Texas is aimed personally at one
OF our Senators, who. we are frank to
say. IS entirely beyond the range of Mr.
Bryan's powers Of annihilatiOn.
Mr. Rryans range as an annhilator
is. however. not TO be Sneezed IT. He
has applied the steam roller 10 Demo
cratic statesmen more potent and prom
iSing than Mr. Bailey. ana the debiIi-
tated Texan Superman may not escape.
/ The country viii watch the clash with
interest Texas Democrats viii evi-
dently soon have to choose between
bpir4o ,,rotact ionists ~, bai,o, GOOD