Newspaper Page Text
THE JEFFERSONIAN
Vol. 111. No. 28.
Wm. J. ‘Bryan Analyzed: Life for July
And now for a merry shelling of the woods.
The best feature of these articles is that no
one is expected to guide them, pay heed to
them, or in any fashion allow them to show
him his road. The worst is—and this is one
of the drawbacks to a monthly magazine,
incident to its out-getting—that I must do
much of my work with blinders on. When
you read this, the Republican Convention,
with the ticket it is to construct, will be an
old familiar story. As I sit writing, that con
vention and its ticket-to-be are still waiting
in the vestibule of time.
The Denver convention of the Democrats is
under way. Os the latter, by every present
sign and hill-top signal smoke, I am driven to
believe that the nominational outcome will be
Mr. Bryan. For myself, I would sooner see the
ticket led by Governor Johnson. I think the
latter would make a better, stronger, cleaner
candidate than Mr. Bryan; and, if elected,
give American mankind a better, stronger,
cleaner administration of its White House
affairs. Also I believe most fondly that Mr.
Johnson could defeat —for example—Mr. Taft,
defeat any save Mr. Roosevelt. And I do not
believe Mr. Bryan capable of any such vic
torious finale. However, I am not so vain as
to fancy that the Democrats will pay partic
ular attention to either my preferences, my
views, or my reasons for the hopes within me.
They never have. Which is to my credit, con
sidering their record for the twenty years last
past—being as far as I date back.
Has Amply Shown His Courage, Honesty
and Brains.
Why should I perfer Mr. Johnson to Mr.
Bryan? Six months ago I told what I knew
and why I knew it, what I thought and why
I thought it, of the Minnesota gentleman. I
have neither room nor wish to run a character
sketch of him here. He can carry his State.
By the argument which gives him Minnesota,
he might—and I think would —carry the Da
katos and Wisconsin, besides slashing the op
position to the heart in lowa, Illinois, and
Michigan. Always, to be sure, assuming that
the opposition did not head its ticket with
Mr. Roosevelt.
Mr. Johnson has given evidence of being a
man among sterling men. The Swede is as
naturally a Republican as the Irishman is a
Democrat. Os Swede blood, and therefore an
instinctive Republican, Mr. Johnson for tariff
reasons becomes a Democrat. That shows him
possessed of initiative, of original power, of
ability to do his own thinking. His region
is hopelessly Republican when he unites him
self with the Democrats. Which is sure proof
that he was not led by self-interest, nor seek-
A Weekly Paper Edited by TH OS. E. WATSON and J. D. WATSON.
Atlanta, Ga., Thursday, July 9, 1908.
ing to advance his own fortunes of politics.
Also, it demonstrates his courage. Likewise
his honesty. What more should you look for
in your candidate —aside from some hopeful
chances of success —than courage, honesty and
brians?
When Mr. Johnson was voting the Demo
crat ticket in the teeth of friends and neigh
bors and self-interest in 1892, what was Mr.
Bryan’s position? He was in full cry behind
Mr. Weaver and the Populist ticket. His en
vironment was Populist. His State wont Pop
ulist; and he —going with it —came to Con
gress a Populist. Later, he even considered
whether or no he should stump Virginia for
the Populists against Mr. 0 ’Ferrell, the guber
natorial candidate-to-be of the Democrats.
He decided against this last step; not for a
Democratic but a Bryan reason.
Mr. Johnson Never Hesitates to Stem a
Current.
Mr. Bryan was a Democrat in Congress.
Also the Democrats were a majority in Con
gress. Had the Populists had the House up
perhand, he would have been with Mr. Watson
and the Sockless One from Kansas. A Pop
ulist in Nebraska, he became a Democrat in
Washington. He was ever careful to go with
the current, remembering there is more water
down stream than up. Mr. Johnson has not
hesitated to stem a current, defy an environ
ment.
Being of the Ways and Means, Mr. Bryan,
behind locked committee doors, was the quiet
champion of the Oxnards, and did what he
might to further the tariff efforts of the su
gar trust. He was more than half-afraid to
be for an income tax, lest the money thereby
set flowing’ into the coffers of government
should militate against what revenue argu
ment was being used to push forward the < ».v
nard-Havemeyer plans. XVhen the tariff bill
went to the Senate, he stood for weeks on end
behind Mr. Allen, Populist from Nebraska,
holding him solidly for Sugar through scores
of roll calls. The sugar trust went winning
its Senate way by a Bryan-controlled, Allen
built majority of one. What lay behind Mr.
Bryan’s quiet championship of the Oxnards ?
He wanted to get a sugar boost up the Senate
stairs. The Oxnards were a power with the
Nebraska legislature; they and sugar wo ild
have a deal to do in selecting the next senator
from that state.
As. evincing the selfish peculiarities of 1 is
democracy, Mr. Bryan came nomination hunt
ing to St. Louis in 1896, when the Silver Re
publicans, with Mr. Teller Mr. Dubois,
walked out of the Republican convention. It
was understood that the bolter# would put a
ticket in the field, with Mr. Teller at the
top. Mr. Bryan came asking the second place;
he wanted to make it (( Teller and Bryan.”
The bolters in the eleventh hour decided to
name no ticket, and Mr. Bryan’s bolting-am
bitions were postponed. A month went by,
the Chicago unexpected happened, and he was
hoisted to the shoulders of Democracy as its
candidate for the presidency. He has ever
since clung there like the Old Man of the
Sea.
Does any one suppose Mr. Bryan was hot
for a Parker triumph in 1904?—and doing
his best to throw a convention switch for Sil
ver! Is he for Silver now, when Mr. Parker
is disposed of and he himself expects confi
dent nomination? And if he isn’t, why isn’t
he? He insisted in 1896 that Silver wasn’t
a question of finance but of morals. Can a
moral question die? Gan it became a question
of expediency? Mr. Bryan, after his cam
paign of 1896, published “The First Battle.”
Was the adjective a mistake? Has he aban
doned that war —that sacred moral Silver war?
Mr. Hearst is an idolater in politics. He is
his own idol, and kneels ever at the shrine of
self. Mr. Bryan is also an idolater of self.
But there is a difference. Mr. Hearst is a
fanatic; Mr. Bryan does not go that far. Mr.
Bryan makes a cult of Mr. Bryan; but were
he to lose faith in Mr. Bryan he would not
burn himself at the stake. Under similar in
fidel circumstances, Mr. Hearst would bitterly
order his own auto de fe, and pile the fagots
high.
Deny Mr. Bryan as a deity to Mr. Bryan,
and he will read yon out of the fold with bell,
book and candle.
The Government’s Importance to the Indi
vidual.
It is growing more and more difficult to com
pel an American to attend to his politics in
person. His political idleness arises from
this, that with the swelling census of the coun
try he feels of less and less account. He re
flects that your mere voter is swamped in a
population of eighty millions, owning but one
twentieth the weight that was his in a day of
Jefferson, and when the nation counted but
four millions on its muster rolls.
Your duty-shirking American is right, so
far as he seeks to measure his dwindling im
portance to Government. But he should
back into an inference that is wholly wrong.
He should remember that, while his import
ance to Government has diminished, not a
shaving has been planed from the importance
of Government to him. The citizen, when
there are eighty millions for a population, is
(Continued on Page Five.)
Price Five Cents.