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About The commoner. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-1923 | View Entire Issue (Sept. 13, 1912)
jj,kJ jm&m-m i BBPTBMBER 13, 1912 The Commoner. 13 3IR. BRYAN'S SINCERITY Editorial in Baltimore Sun: Dis cussion of Mr. Bryan and tho part he played in tho Baltimore conven tion still rageB. Some with whom tho wish is father to tho thought, or who hope to mako him such by assuming that ho is, say that tho Nebra3kan left tho convention a disgraced and dis credited and disappointed man. He betrayed his friend Clark and ho tried to betray his friend Wilson, they argue. Ho never was sincerely for the latter, they hold, but worked all the time to bring about a situa tion which would cause the nomina tion of himself. Those who want to believe that will doubtless keep on doing so. It is a thing that can not be disproved any more than it can be proved. You can not dig into a man's mind to find what causes him to say and to do this or that thing. A man's motives are unknown to himself alone and can only bo guessed by others. But this much is certain, that Bryan's whole course in the convention is explain able on the theory that he was abso lutely sincere in all that ho did, sin cere and patriotic, and those who wish to believe in his sincerity and patriotism, and his wisdom too, will not be made doubters by anything which ho did at Baltimore. As to his behavior with reference to Mr. Clark, the facts are very simple. He withdrew his support from Mr.' Clark, but not until Mr. Clark had withdrawn his support from tho people in their fight against the bosses. The more you think of it the more admirable, considered simply as a strategic move, appears Mr. Bryan's action in making an issue of the selection of Parker for temporary chairman. That move separated the sheep from the goats. It showed who stood with the bosses and who against them. Wbodrow Wilson is the amateur in politics and Clark the ex perienced hand, but Wilson showed here a greater political sense than did the speaker of the house, for he realized that the line of battle was forming. Mr. Clark, as we have said before, made no corrupt alliance with the bosses, but he failed to ap preciate the fact that his support of their candidate for temporary chair man, in itself, ranged himself with them in the public mind. Had he joined with Bryan and Wilson .In their fight on Parker the outcome of the balloting for president might have been different. As it was, ho became an impossibility as a presidential candidate the moment tho temporary chairman was selected. So much for Mr. Bryan's attitude toward Mr. Clark. As far as his atti tude toward Mr. Wilson is concerned, this much can be said: that if his one object after the elimination of Mr. Clark had been to secure Mr. Wil eon's nomination, he conld not have worked more effectively to that end than he did. His assault on Morgan, Ryan and Belmont did at least two things: it made Bryan himself Im possible as a candidate and it like wise eliminated Harmon, Underwood and any other candidate who would have been especially acceptable to Tammany and Wall street. It left really, alone of all tho available candidates, Woodrow Wilson. Mr. Bryan's actions on that afternoon "when his enemies were throwing at him questions intended to force him to declare whether or not ho would "bolt" the party also worked in Wil son's interest. 80 did his declara tion, which many thought spelled treason to the New Jersey man, that he would accept certain compromise candidates whom he named. Mr. Bryan Is too shrewd a politcian not to have known that none of the jaedlocritiea whom he mentioned could possibly have secured the domination, that the suggestion of them must inevitably havo dirocted attention to himself, and it is oaoy to believe that he appreciated how quickly the spectre of himsolf onco more as tho nominee would turn the thoughts of his enemies back to Wil son. In all of hiB acts in tho con vention Mr. Bryan had to remember that he must keep ever In sight of his foes tho possibility both of his bolting and his becoming an activo candidate for the nomination with out really meaning to do either. How well ho did that tho history of tho convention tells. Ho was the big figure of the con vention. Ho dominated tho proceed ings. In his valedictory utterance there he made a profound impres sion with his words: "I have never advocated a man except with gladnesB, and I havo never opposed a man except in sad ness. If I havo enemies in this coun try, thoso who are my enemies havo a monopoly of hatred. There is not one single human being for whom I feel a hatred, nor is there one Ameri can citizen, in my own party or in any other, that I would oppose for anything except I believed that in not opposing him I was surrender ing the interests of my country, which I hold above any person." To those who wish to believe in tho literal truth of this declaration, nothing which ho did at Baltimore Bhould interposo an objection. !M "LET THE PEOPLE RULE That was a most sensible sugges tion made by James N. Miller of Wichita, a veteran of tho civil war and a republican of nearly half a century's standing, calling the atten tion of Governor Stubbs to tho fact that ho, Stubbs, received 1,216 fewor votes for United States senator in tho recent primaries than his opponent, Charles Curtis, and telling tho minority candidate to vindicate his reiterated doctrine of majority rule by retiring from the contest instead of seeking to force himself upon tho people by a technicality. But tho good advice will not be heeded. Mr. White, national committeeman, has a great deal to say about the "minority republicans" and what they should do in tho way of taking seats in the rear. That is supposed to be good progressive doctrine. Tho progressives base tho whole Roose velt case on tho claim that Roosevelt was "fairly nominated" at Chicago; that "a majority" of the people who voted on the rival claims of Roose velt and Taft in the primaries had declared for tho former; that Taft had a numerical majority only by "overriding the wishes" of the people who had expressed their profernco for somebody else. But what about the technical numerical majority of Governor Stubbs in the matter of legislative districts, as distinguished from a substantial repudiation by the people at large? If Taft should have "retired" because on the face of tho returns from sundry "primary states" he was a minority candidate, why ought not Stubbs to retire as tho un disputed minority candidate for United States senator from Kansas. Mr. Miller calls upon the gover nor to do "the manly and proper thing." Such a call to the firing line of duty should be superfluous. The governor always does tho proper and manly thing when it suits his con venience or his interest. But when it does not, it avails nothing to point out to him that only two or every three republicans in the state voted at the primary and that less than one of these two that is to say, loss than one-third of the republican vot ers of the state voted for Stubbs. The governor's mind is open to no such arguments, however fair and logical they may be. Mr. Stubbs does not need to he told that be is endangering the sne cess of the republican legislative amd county tickets by his candidacy. Ho knows that as well as anybody, and, of course, tho right and coimlstent thing for him to do would be to gracefully rotlro from tho contest, now that he has boon given a 1,2 1 C adverse majority hint that ho is not wanted. He might run as the candi date of some othor party ho really belongs to tho progressive organiza tion, that is bitterly opposed to the "rotten husk" republican party. How anybody with self-respect who preaches tho "rule of the peoplo" can persist in being tho candidato of a party that has repudiated him by a majority vote may puzzle some but not this Kansas governor. Retire? Of course Stubbs will retire when ho Is forced to but not before. Kansas City Journal. A FRANK STATEMENT Columbia (S. C.) State: Hero is a letter written by Woodrow Wilson to his friend, Prof. R. N. Dabnoy, of tho University of "Virginia: "My Dear Heath: Wo did not hnvo a chance when I was with you to have our talk out about tho initia tive referendum and recall; it may bo worth while, therefore, in view of tho importance of tho subject, for me to summarize somowhat more formally what I said to you in scraps. "In tho first placo, with regard to my own state of mind, I surrendered to tho facts, as every candid man must. My whole prepossession my whole reasoning was against theso things. But when I came into con tact with candid, honest, public spirited men who could speak (with regard, for example, to Oregon) from personal observation and experience, they floored mo flat with their narra tion of what had actually happened. I found in the men who advocated theso things, who had put them into operation, and who had accomplished things by them, not critics or oppo nents of representative government, but men who were eager to restoro it whero it had been lost, and who had taken successfully taken these means to recover for tho people what they had unquestionably lost control of their own affairs. "In short, they were not trying to change our institutions. Tho initia tive, referendum and recall wore to their eyes (as they are to mine) merely moans to an end that end being the restoration of the control of public opinion. Where opinion already controls, whero there is now actual genuine representative gov ernment, as I believe there is In Vir ginia and in the south in general, they are not necessary. Each state must judge for itself. I do not see how it could be made a subject of na tional policy. Tho people will, In my opinion, demand these measures only whero they are manifestly necessary to take legislation and tho control of administrative action away from special, hopelessly intrenched in terests. "The recall of judges I am abso lutely against, and always have been, It is a remedy for a symptom, not for a disease the disease being the control of the system by Influences which general opinion has ceased to control. "It is interesting me very much to find that even In Oregon literally no one thought of these now methods of action as a substitute for repre sentative Institutions, but only as a means of stimulation and control. They are as devoted to the idea of our representative Institutions as we are and are bent upon realizing these ideals in practice. That is their conscious object. "As for the recall, it is seldom used outside the municipalities. I do not remember an instance of its use on a state officer. It is merely 'a gun behind the door.' Faithfully yours. WOODROW WILSON." ,fSSSlfffnsri n n I S.! r"J. Wl - Til -- aa .-aBaaaaasBaaaS tin 11 1 m jMimiiHi ffTi f fw K8V3a54af Ve AVXu . ir 1 fir -yvaBfl Good for One Dollar This If an offor aevermade before, and never to be made again. Wo wnnt you to send for our Pall Home Lovers' Bargain Book beforo you do any (all buying. So we offer you thin: If you write tin beforo October 1 we wilt mall you tlio Bargain Honk free. And we -will send with it a Dollar Certificate. This will bo good for $1 on any order for $20 or over. Or for 50 cent on n J10 order. It is nood for ono-tblrU your first payment. 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