Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 40, Number 30, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 December 1907 — Bryan and His Party. [ARTICLE]

Bryan and His Party.

t .Senator Daniel was not happy In expression when he charged Bryan with trying to be bigger than his party. It would be more correct to say that Bryan trimmed the Democratic party to his capacity and then swallowed it To-day he controls what is left of the party as absolutely as if he were king. There are a few, lamentably few, Democrats who, like Daniel, have the nerve To stand up before the Great Commoner and speak their minds, but ’most of them permit him to do as he will and blindly follow whereve- he may lead. .... The “Peerless One’’ might find obstacles in hiff’p’ath If the men who still cal} themselves ? Democrats, although opposed to Bryan, could join hands with the many thousands whom Bryan has driven out of the fold, and make Intelligent warfare on him, but most of these apostates have formed new and lasting alliances. In the absence of any possible succor from the outside, the small minority of Democrats find little to encourage then), and indeed they appear to have arrived at the conviction /hat Bryanism is a disease which can be destroyed only by its own activities. They hope it will wear itself out. Meantime they must conserve their energies and abide the day when, puhged of Bryanism,. the Democratic party can be restored to its former proud - prest 1 ge.— - 7 That the old leaders despair of accomplishing anything pext year is proved by the attitude of Senator Daniel. Henry Watterson and others. They realize that except Mr. Bryan takes a positive stand against his own nomination. there will be no opposition worthy of name. He has declared that he will not seek the nomination, but will let the Democrats decide. Yet he knows, as every other politician knows, that hisfriends, who are in absolute control of the party machinery, ai*e quietly planning his nomination, and that while This 'condition exists there can be only one outcome.

If Mr. Bryan was less an egotist, he might lie accused of playing the “dog-in-the-manger” act. But we are firmly of the opinion that he regards himself as the man of the hour. He sees signs in' the political heavens that no other man sees. He has been industriously preparing himself for the battle. - He has been “tfying on” issues to learn how the people.would take them. Immediately on his return from Europe, io proposed that the government should own the interstate railroads and the ; States the intrastate railroads. Obviously he intended this for the lever whereby to lift himself into the high seat which he h.as so Ion" coveted. But Theßiebpie protested. Even the rank and file of his own party rejected the proposition with vehemence. And Mr. Bryan very promptly pigeon-holed it, . showing that he had not advanced it from principle’s sake, but rather for the same reason that an old and experienced fisherman will try new bait when the old bait Tails. Since then he has been proceeding more cautiously, feeling bis way lest he again stumble, but always keeping the goal in sight. It may be that his. whole program is tentative, and that at the last moment he may retire from the held. It is not impossible that the moth-eaten creed he has recently promulgated, touching tariff, trusts and finance) is merely one of convenience to carry him along until such time as he may ’arrive at a decision as to his candidacy, but if this is the situation it' means that Mr. Bryan nas no hope of winning unless the financial sky is overcast and industrial depression ■rives the masses to follow strange In that event, the country may ?.e treated to another dose of free silver argument, for Mr. Bryan has never repented of that Ijeresy.—Toledo Blade.

li>Oß a Stand-Pat Year. Under existing conditions in the money market apd in the industrial world what would be thought of the man who, having the power to do it. should bring about an all-round reduction of the tariff? He would be denounced on all sides as an enemy of his country. Yet the "stand-patters” have been abused like pickpockets for remonstrating against a tariff disturbance that would unfailingly unsettle business. From present appearances likely to be a stand-pat year. 1 —■ /•' How Lubur In Protected, It is true that the tariff is not a direct tax upon imported labor, but it is a tiwe on the imported products of laIsor. While the tax does not touch the immigrant laborer as he sets fopt on our shores, the fact remains that this laborer must live here in order to make his labor competitive with the exist-, lug la or supply. He must live witii r.s and live as we live; must liecome a liberal consumer of what other labor produces. That is where the tariff protects) labor.- - We Are a Nation. The wholp .uuitldariff agitation has I ecu carried on aßyngusectfongl lines, one section hoping to benefit at/ the expense of some other section—agitation in favor of reducing the duties on some other section’s products while retaining -i our own —and demagogues fit their ap- ' peals to whatever sectiijp they happen to be located in. It behooves us to realise that we are a and that we'stand or fall all together.—Cedar Rapids Republican.