New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1915-06-09

with credit its delicate and exacting duties
He was himself dimly aware that he was
tempting fate. But he trusted TO luck to
escape any exposure of his incapaci'y.
He hoped to pull through with the aid OF
others. if no serious complications ii fer
eign relations should arise. That he con-
sidcred the post as a sinecure was proved
by the stipulation which he confessed to
making before assuming it. When CEN
sured by the newspapers for accepting
multifarious lecture engagements. most OF
them out of keeping with the dignity Of
his position. he defended himself by say
ing that il was understood that he was
TO be allowed to exc out his salary by
continuing to be topiner on the Chau-
tauqua circuits.
A man with such a chcaply commercial
conception of the post held by so long a
line or American statesmen was by nature
DISQUALIFIED for it. But there were two
added disoualifcations in Mr.. Bryan's
case. He entered the State Department
with a sort of coarse contempt for its ira
ditions and its work. He sadly miscon-
ceived the qualities needed in the men
who we're to represent the government
abroad. He undervalued the usefulness
to the country Of trained, experienced dip
lomats. and his first impulse on acquiring
power was 10 use the foreign service to
pay off political debts. He treated ap-
continents solely as party patronage, and
searched the department register high and
low TO find places-even places in Santo
Domingo. the salaries attached to which
we're pavable out Of the Dominican Gus
toms-to bestow on deserving Democrats"
Moreover. in so far as Mr.. Bryan's ac-
tivities directly affected the conduct OF
foreign relations. he cut loose from the
ideas and policies on which American
diplomacy had previously been based. He
introduced a new personal system of his
own under which foreign relations were to
be vastly simplifed and diplomacy itself
was to become lost art, a vanished pro-
fession.
In trying to enforce on this country and
on other countries the principle Of I'M
qualified and unlimited arbitration he lost
sight Of all the realities which still govern
the attitude Of nations toward one another.
He forgot-and perhaps he had too much
announcement at the first from Mr.. Will
son in forgetting-that the foreign policy
of the United States has been a continuous
growth. a plan Of action based on long
matured conceptions of national interest
and national destiny.
Making fetiches of peace, good will and
the avoidance Of friction. he committed the
department, so far as he ever succeeded
in controlling it, to a programme Of utopi-
anism. in which no allowance was made
for the unreadiness Of the rest of the
world to live up TO these altruistic ideals.
Fate is kind to some men; unkind to
others. 1t is the tragedy Of Mr.. Bryan's
career that when ne took long chance
fortune frowned upon him. Seeking con-
ISOLATION for three defeats for the Presi-
dencv in an office which other defeated
Presidential aspirants have filled with dis
tinction-Calhoun, Clay, Webster, Seward
and Blaine among them-he experienced
only disappointment and disllluslon
Chance put on him tasks for which he
had no training and to which he was not
equal. His failure should serve as a
warning 10 Presidents tempted in the fut-
ure to dispose of the Secretaryship OF
State merely as a party consolation prize
1t is far too great ard too vital an Office &c
/ be given away in payment of political
debt. The next Secretary of State should
not be a politician. He should be a states
and be one first, last
and all the time.