Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1913-03-19
BRYAN SEEKING WESTERN IDEAS ON TARIFF REVISION

going the rounds since before inau-
guration, are based on the idea that
Mr.. Wilson and Mr. Bryan will be
rival candidates for the presidential
nomination in 1916. 1t has been said
and printed that already the secre-
tary of state is paving the way to
advancing his own interests and his
own nomination by putting his
friends into important positions.
AS a matter of fact, Mr.. Bryan has
been fully alive to the danger of
misunderstanding growing out of this
sort of stories, since he accepted a
place in the Wilson cabinet, and has
taken unusual pains to avoid putting
himself in a position where he could
be misunderstood as doing anything
likely to be considered as actuated
by personal motives. Instead of
pushing his own friends for diplo-
matte places, he has agreed to the
selection of some of his personal
enemies, and has discouraged per-
sonal friends from seeking recogni-
ton. While recommendations have
come from him and from other cabi-
net officers, it may be said quite pos
itively that the President has made
every appointment that has been
made to date-not only formally made
the appointment. but actually con-
sidered and passed on the merits of
the appointee.
In the case of Mr.. Bryan, / hap
pen to know that he even asked the
approval of the President to his Sc
lection of a private secretary, al
:. though the man he picked for the
place had for many years served him
in that capacity in his own cam
paigns, and was at one time en-
gagged to marry his daughter.
~
Old-time army bureaucrats sat up
in amazement when Mr.. Garrison, the
new secretary of war, proposed the
other day to hold weekly cabinet
meetings for a general discussion of
department affairs which heretofore
have been guarded sacredly as be-
| longing exclusively to the bureaus
| in which they are treated. The sec
retary's latest proposal of revising
and undermining the attitude of the
government towards enlisted soldiers,
however, has actually dazed the
bureaucrats and the martinets who
have given up the idea that war dis
cipline must at all times be main
tanned in the army. In suggesting
| that deserters in time of peace should
| be regarded as merely guilty of a
misdemeanor, instead of being treated
as criminals, the secretary has out
ragged the ethics of the army, and
has started a discussion which is like
ly to be fruitful sourse of dis
agreement for a long time. The new
secretary recognizes that when an
enlisted man takes the oath of allie
glance and agrees to serve certain
period, discipline can hardly be en-
forced unless there is some way of
holding him to his oath and agree
| ment.
He admits that it will hardly do to
regard a soldier merely as an en-
ployee who may quit his job at any
time, but his idea is to moderate the
severity of the present army law
that man that leaves the army for
other employment, in time of peace,
is as much a traitor as one who
deserts in time of war. The govern
ment has spent large sums of money
in tracking down and imprisoning
deserters from the army and navy,
and has ruined the lives of hun
dreds of enlisted men and their fam