The Washington herald. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1906-1939, 1915-04-22
A Rebuke from the Premier.

Secretary Bryan's rebuke to Admiral Peary Il
severe and may have been justified by the strair
of our foreign relations. Admiral Peary, in al
| address predicted that within years the
/ United States would absorb the North American
continent. Mr.. Bryan in charge of our foreign re-
| lations rebuked the admiral in the Commoner
1 Why the Commoner? Is it the official organ OF
the government the State Department? If the
prediction called for rebuke from the Secretary
| of State, why was it not addressed to the admiral
signed by the Secretary of State, and given to the
public in official way? Mr.. Bryan says: "Such
| 4 prediction from obscure man would be fool
ish from in his position it is little less than
| a crime" That is severe whether true or not
| Mr.. Bryan may know OF conditions in Mexico,
Central America and Canada which make such pre-
dctions dangerous mschevous.
The rebuke does show that Mr. Bryan Sec
rotary of State is more watchful and sensitive
the careless utterances of others than he
was private citizen is his own
declarations and predictions. What merry row
there would have been in 1896 if Secretary OlneY
had rebuked William Jennings Bryan for some
of his denunciatons of Lombard Street gold-bugs
controlling the medium of exchange in the
United States when he was insisting on the free
and unlimited coinage of silver at the ratio of
sixteen to without waiting for the aid or con-
sent of any other nation Mr.. Bryan was not then
obscure; he was a candidate for President. Or
suppose Secretary John Hay had administered a
public rebuke to Mr.. Bryan in 1900 for some of
the things he said about imperialism in the Philip
pines, where we had delicate international prob
lem on our hands, Wouldn't Mr. Bryan have
made political capital out of such rebuke? There
might have been rebukes given In 1905 and even
since that time, if there had been in
the State Department who would read Mr. Bryan's
utterances critically as Mr.. Bryan reads the
utterances of Admiral Pcary. Take only his cele-
brated letter in behalf OF deserving Democrats
and have it signed by other official less con-
spicuous than Mr.. Bryan. VIVA, an opportunity
there for rebukc in Mr.. Bryans best and most
forcble English, for attempting to find patronage
in foreign country temporarily occupying the
position of ward to the United States whose reve-
nues to be absorbed in providing salaries for
deserving Democrats.
Mr.. Bryan has made some predictions in the
Commoncr and on the platform that do not
exactly gee with the plans and predictions of the
President. He has told the Democrats what the
party must do and become to be saved and these
admontions and predictions do not harmonic
with those of President Wilson. Has Mr.. Bryan
been rebuked? 1t may be there was a covert re-
bukc in the Presidents speech in New York
Tuesday, when he said: Not the talkativc man,
not the partisan man. not the man that rcmcm-
bcrs first that he is Republican or Democrat
or that his parents were German or English, but
who remembers first that the whole destiny of
modern affairs ccntcrs largely upon his being an
American first OF ALL We wonder If marked
copy of that address was sent to the Secretary
of State.