Macon beacon. [volume] (Macon, Miss.) 1859-1995, 1915-06-18
Mr.. BRYAN's INCONSISTENCY.

resignation by other written documents as well as
word-ofmouth announcements.
This he has deemed necessary to justify the course
he pursued in quitting the cabinet council Of MI.
Wilson when the music in the air took on a strain more
martial than pleasing to the distinguished disciple Of
the Prince of Peace.
The defense he makes of his action and attitude
is, to be sure, adroit.
Indeed, were it not C~unningly devised, plausibly
presented and well-calculated to catch the ear and
please the fancy Of a large body of easy-goine people,
it would be wanting in the Attic style for which Mr..
Bryan is far more conspicuous than he is for the
soundness of his views as a statesman and the accu-
racy of his predictions as a political prophet.
In our expression Of views, opinions and conclu-
sions, utterly at variance with some of those to which
Mr.. Bryan gives ~utterance, the BEECoN does not wish
to detract from or abate one jOt or title Of its tribute
to the intellectual gifts and attachments and moral
worth Of that eminent character among the men of
nationwide fame who yet are upon the earth,
We deem it not inconsistent with a high regard for
Mr.. Bryan's mental qualities and accomplishments
and entirely legitimate. to say that, like most men who
write with the fuency. ease and grace that he does and
have the gift Of e~loquence that he has-men who can
discuss off-hand as many various questions and SUBJ
jects as he can, and do it always entertaininely. as he
does-cannot resist the temptation to get into print
cannot resist the temptation to talk, and, Welding to
such temptation, to air his views and get into the lime
light :meteorically as often as Mr.. Bryan does, he
makes mistakes.
The man who says as much, and has his saw as
often as Mr.. Bryan, would be something more than a
mortal and little less than an angel, if he did not, now
and then, say and do irrelevant things, and, perhaps
too, pertinent things it would be better to leave unsaid
and undone.
The withdrawal Of Mr.. Bryan from the Official
family of the President at this particular time is. in
the opinion of the BEACON, untimely, to say the yer,
least of it.
The time for Mr.. Bryan to resign was when the
note of May Is, after the t~orpedoing and sinking o.
the L~usitania, was sent.
Having helped to prepare, and having siened
sealed and caused to be delivered that note withou
protest, if we may 50 say, he became committed to it
contents, and ought, by every rule of consistency anf
righteous conduct, to stand by it.
In that note there is a distinct proposition laif
before the Imperial German Government. which W,
{ may ~concisely express by saying it is a clearly defined
= unequivocal declaration that that Government woult
be held to a strict accountability for such acts on tn,
. part OF her naval authorities as violate the neutra
{ rights of American citizens. and in that direction I'll,
,, United States would take any steps it might be neces
sary to take to safeguard American lives and properl,
and to secure to American citizens the full eniovmen,
of their acknowledged rights on the high seas"
To that proposition Mr.. Bryan, when he signed tn,
note and sent it on its destined way, fairly and full,
. committed himself, and. as a manly man. not Given +,
! doing vain things or pleading the Baby act, he shoult
stand by it.
But that. 1t seems, he refuses to do. and tn wiz
, endorsement for his action he is. it seems to us
making specious pleas not fully warranted by the ron
ditions.
For his declension to stand now with the Proc;
l dent, we can see no decent excuse or honorable iust;
= hcanon' without admitting, which w do not, that
: cinzen may abandon the cause of his country in tn,
I hour of her peril and excuse himself therefor on III,
ground that the course she is pursuing is contrary I,
: MS own conscientious scruples, when the yerv cours,
she Is following is the one he helped to plan and mar
y out Tor her, mat IS precisely what Mr.. BRYAN has done
u he did it without so much as entering anv authentic
! authorized, timely protest against the course when h
9 had all the available knowledge desirable and ever,
" opportunity needed to voice his scruples when thu
voyage OF the Ship of State was decided upon-ir
: fact' at the time the seas were being charted and tn,
y route over which she must travel to escape the dan
gers OF the stormy waters, was being determined.
MI. Bryan's statement, issued June 10th ITO III,
american reople'' will not creditably stand a clos,
! analysis IL does not ring true, and to that extent i
f unworthy Oh It's author. Ii is evasive, in way, for Mi
i Irtr1r I1o, ~A e y
bryan goes Out OF the way to lug in a bit of fin,
. rhetoric about force and war-about the old system o
war and the new system of negotiation, in which h
: : gives us a s%plendidly composed lay sermon. concudin,