Perth Amboy evening news., 1923-02-12
PRESIDENTIAL POSSIBIL TIES
CONTINUED BY HASKIN
Daily Letter by Frederic j. Haskin

WASHINGTON, Feb. $50 long
| as he lives, Willyum Jennins Bryun,
as he is pronounced where he Is
most beloved, will probably be a
Democratic presidential possibility.
He became that almost three de-
cades ago and in all these years
when he has not been running for
the big job, he has been running the
rarty, which amounts practically to
the same thing.
Always he has been in the ace
or all conditioned and nicely
| groomed to make the start, If &C.
casion or necessity arise. To para
| phrase his own words OIL al historic
occasion, whatever they may say of
him, they cannot say he has not
tried, they cannot say he has ever
quit!
other aspirants have always had
to reckon with him. Either they
/ have had to beat him, or they have
had to overcome his opposition. The
fact that he has been three times
defeated at the polls has not served
to eliminate him, and when the con-
test of 1924 is at it's height, it will
be found that he Is still a factor.
AT least it will be evidenced that he
has not lost his voice or wavered
in his fixed determination not to let
his party go wrong, il he can help
1t.
Facetiously disposed persons as
severate that Mr.. Bryan not only is
a prospective candidate, but has
| picked out a brand new paramount
issue-"Was Darwin right or
wrong?" They point put that the
Bryan candidacy and paramount is
sues have always gone and in hand
hand, so TO speak, and they say 1t
is extremely significant that he
should have realized the question of
the DarWinian theory at this juno
ture in national and world affairs.
The country was startled when Mr..
BRYAN took occasion to declare un-
e~quivocally that Darwin was wrong.
Il may be dumfounded to ind that
he has made III question a. presl-
Dental issue.
1t is an important question.
Moreover, it has many of the es-
sentials of a desirable campaign. Is
sue. 1t is debatable. Already n
fires of controversy have started
and are raging hot and furious.
People can and will argue about it
until they grow apoplectic n un-
til family ties are broken and life
Il lOIlE LLlGAAl9A4AR2
of facts or what can be made to
/ appear as facts a be marshaled
on both sides and the Imagination
can run riot.
Lends Itself to Oratory
It lends itself readily to oratory.
What subject could be so susceptible
of phrasing, or so adapted
to the delicate embr oidering of the
artist in words? Who so dumb that
| he could not be stirred to fervid
fights of eloquence as he oontem-
plates the progress of humankind
| along the corridors of time? What
| proVokes man to such profound
emotions as aspersions upon his an
cestry?
Then, too, it can be made so mag
| %nifcenEly, so Overwhelmingly para
mount, 1t is not to be confused or
confounded with other issues. 1t
has nothing whatever to do with
| the league of nations, the tarin, the
European debt, industrial problems,
the Ku Klux Khan or prohibition.
| Wet or dry, as it were, man either
has or he has not eVoluted, and
that goes for all the other more or
less perplexing and irritating ques-
tons of the hour. Logically the
thing to do is to settle the one big
question and let the others slide.
Last of all, and this is wherein 1t
| commends itself to politicians and
Statesmen. alike, IL 1t is made the
paramount issue of the campaign
and nothing need be done about it
after the election. There will be
no platform promises difficult or m
POSSIBLE of fulfillment. Indeed, the
platforms might well be delightfully."-
brief and to the point, for all that
would be really necessary would be
for one party to affirm its accept
ance, while the other asserted its
rejection OF the Darwinian theory,
and this might be accomplished by
a single explosive word, did" or
didn't" Carrying the election
would settle everything for the
time being. at least, since manifestly
legislation would not be required to
put the Darwinian theory into OPP
Grafton or to abolish it.
OF course, II it should come to
pass that a Darwin president were
elected. while the anti-Darwinites
captured control OF Congress, there
might be complications. In such
| circumstances almost anything
might happen, for 1t must be re-
membered that only one small letter
marks the difference between eyo-