Arizona republican., 1914-09-04
Mir. Wilson and the Second Term


 The announcement coming from Vice President Marshall that President Wilson will be candi- date for renomination may be regarded in spired. will generally be welcomed by democrats, for whether the president is strong in his party he year ago. he is still by far it's most popular member, and it's unquestioned leader. There is no doubt that he will occupy that posi- ton at the end of his present term.
 But would like to hear what MT. Bryan thinks of the vice presidents announcement. If he should criticise it, his criticism would openly be confined to the second term as a violation of the Baltimore platform, which we may regard as the Fourteen Commandments. the first of which enjoined a tariff for revenue only the ground that protective tariff is unconstitutional. The last enjoined opposition the trusts, to the Aldrich currency bill and the usurpation of state func- tions by federal power.
 The Seventh democratic Commandment like the seventh of the Decalogue, prohibited in the democratic view, a particularly offensive crime against God and man. It committed the democratic party to a single term for the president and to the adoption of amendment to the constitution limiting the occupancy of the presidency to single term. In the probable view of Mir Bryan this is the most sacred and binding of all the democratic commandments much more so than that one com
  for American ships in the coastwse trade That broken, not only with the consent of Mir. Bryan, but with his abored for breaking it. The Seventh democratic Commandment, however. is another matter. It is of personal concern to MT. Bryan and his friends Whether not he pected to succeed MT. Wilson the presidential nomination, Mir Bryan's numerous followers have expected it and have been urging it. If Mir Wilson should step aside. Bryan would probably be the nominee
 But we do not think he could be elected In his office of secretary he has strength. He has demonstrated lack of capacity. It has been forced upon the people that he is enter tainer rather than a constructive statesman. MT Wilson has exhibited qualities of leadership that have relegated MT. Bryan to the ranks from which he surprisingly emerged eighteen years ago. From premier he has been placed in group of secondary leaders
 His elevation to the secretaryship has been fatal It threw him into the shadow of MT. Will He has not shown the ability to render him. self luminous in that obscurity. As private citi he might have retained at least portion of that unique leadership he enjoyed so long, whether candidate private citizen
 As to the Seventh democratic Commandment. there is other which might have been broken with good for breaking it. It is a senseless plank intended for vote catching, an appeal to the ignorant and minimizing. It pro- posed, in platform which was apparently de- signed to give to the people the greatest freedom of action, to rob them the right to elect the whom they might believe to be the best, to the highest office in the land. It was an insult the intelligence of the majority of American voters and it proposed to incorporate that insult into the constitution of the United States and pending such incorporation to impose the insult a party declaration.