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The Commoner
vol. is, iro, 2
10
A Generous Estimate
TIME IS VINDICATING MR. BIIYAN
From The Albany, N. Y., Times-Union.
Ono can not holp wondering how lion. WI1-.
Ham Jonnlngs Bryan viowa the many activities
and achlovomonta which ho urged with such
fervency and heard bo viciously criticised as
dfingorous and socialistic.
Note that silver has reached a point where
the slxtoon to ono ratio has been about achieved.
It worked out automatically, but the condition
Is here. This must bo pleasing to the demo
cratic war horse.
The oloction of United States senators by the
peoplo was one of his hopes. His enemies and
the interests that could control legislatures
callod It a "hobby;" but It won. The senate Is
today a body as responsive to the will of the
pooplo as the house of representatives.
Railroads under control of, and operated by,
the government! With what umazomont were
Mr. Bryan's opinions on this subject vlowod by
his critics! There was something about the
suggestion horrible to contemplate, and how
the solf-Btylod "big folks" did Hay the Nobras
kau and cause him to loso votes on account of
his advocacy of this principle! But the govern
ment is doing just what Mr. Bryan said it
should do and not a fow people believe that
what is found good in war time will be contin
ued aftor peaco has come.
Thon woman suffrago has carried in many
states and an amondmont to the federal consti
tution making the condition national is now
ponding. Romoraber how long it was that Mr.
Bryan was ono of tho fow statesmen of national
influonco that advocatod the ballot for women?
Tho incomo tax was a hobby that ho did urge
with onorgy and consistency. Ho proved to tho
satisfaction of most peoplo that It was the fair
est tax that could bo levied. And he fought
with espocial emphasis demanding the tax on
corporations. The tax law so far as these items
are concorned followed closely on tho lines of
Mr. Bryan's "hobby."
"Tho initiative and referendum" was u prin
ciple that his traducers delighted to parade as
a conspicuous horror in Mr. Bryan's gallery of
hobbles. But how it has won and is winning!
Even staid and conservative Massachusetts is
soriously considering tho matter of trusting the
pooplo to tho oxtont of adopting tho initiative
and referendum as a part of its organic law.
And ho dared to take a position in favor of
prohibition dared to do this when told over
and over again that tho stand would forever kill
him politically.. Yet prohibition has made tre
mendous strides since that day and many little
timo serving politicians who bent their efforts
to holp tho enemies of prohibition when the
enemies didn't need their help are now catching
on in favor of prohibition after the federal
amondmont making a national "bone dry" pro
vision has passod tho house of represent
atives. This must make Mr. Bryan smile
ono of thoso broad smiles with which the car
toon makers familiarized tho nation when Mr.
Bryan was advocating so many unpopular things
that have since not only became popular hut
havo been made parts of the law 'and facts of
the land.
Thoso a.ro only some of Mr. Bryan's "hob
bies." There are othors and each ono Is worth
a smile and each ono gets it from the people
Who stood by Mr. Bryan and believed in the
practicability of most of the1 measures lie ad
vocatod and had tho fullest confidence in his
honesty of purposo and great ability as shown
in every ono of them. '
Mr. Bryan has a "hobby" now, and he Is most
ably, eloquently and vigorously urging it hir
present -hobby" is that individual opinion o"s
to whether or not this country should go into
tho conflict was permissible till war was SS
clared, and aftor that there is no chance or V
cuso for divisions. The act of the imUon was'
the act of all tho people and the only way to
&3SS 1? r lB eive "G Pridonyt tbu
.,.uu ouiuiu ui me entire nation. MavhP n
year or two after tho war Is over the orfifes JJ
' "tby"ratooaU WU1 CatCh U1 wlth W th!t
, Mr. Bryan's "hobbies" have won and n.nj,,
winning has again shown that however right a
statesman may bo his being too far ahww i S i i
time is liable to be a WndrSncot?iBilh Immediate
efforts greater than tho errors of another. Mr.
Bryan has been completely vindicated and may
bo he may yet bo president and maybe not. If
he Is not he will occupy a place in that galaxy
of statesmen greater than mere presidents, who
have left tho impress of greatness on the records
of thoir country like Webster, Clay, Calhoun and
others who developed great ideas as they passed'
along. Every school boy and school girl is fa
miliar with tho names of Daniel Webster and
Henry Clay, yet how few of them can tell the
names of the presidents of the United States.'f
Yes, time Is vindicating Mr. Bryan and he will
loom large in history when many of the men
who beat him in political battles are buried- be
neath the dust of oblivion.
WILLIAM J. BRYAN, PAST AND PRESENT
Richmond, Va., Times-Dispatch, Jan. 6, 1918.
Whatever may be your attitude toward Wil
liam J. Bryan; whatever may be your estimate
of his intellectual capacity, you must grant him
a large measure of satisfaction as he contem
plates the present state of national politics. Dis
appointed though he may be that he has never
achieved the presidency, he remains the most
successful political theorist in the country, and
the most farseeing statesman.
This comment is inspired by the recent act of
President Wilson in taking over the railroads of
the country, the first direct step toward govern
ment ownership of the American transportation
sysftm. This is the last of the original Bryan
policies to be put into practice. His champion
ship of such a measure twelve years ago brought
upon him national ridicule and no doubt cost
him the presidential nomination in 1904. But
he has lived to .see almost the whole body of
the American people acquiesce in a move that
may lead eventually to government ownership
of railroads. ,
This is not all. For more than twenty years
Bryan has been preaching prohibition. Like
most dry leaders, however, he began with the
advocacy of local option, then progressed to
state-wide prohibition, finally coming out boldly
for a nation-wide ban against liquor. Today
a nation.-wide "prohibition amendment has
passed through the initial stage and has been
placed before the states for ratification.
Monetary reform was aiiother Bryanism. The
old slxteen-to-one plan went overboard, of
course, but It was only one number on the Bryan
financial program. The decentralization of mon
etary control, with elasticity in the currency,
was the basis of the Bryan theory. Now the
federal reserve system, carrying Into effect those
two fundamental policies, has been given to the
country by a union of republican and democratic
votes. There Is not a man with two good eyes,
in the broad land, who would seriously propose
the repeal of this law.
Direct election of United States senators was
demanded by Bryan long before his own party
was willing to support such a project. But lie
was not deterred. He first went out to convert
democrats to his convictions' upon this issue
and, having won his party over to it, he has
fan ? Pvilege of seeing-enough republiqans
tail Into line to pass the amendment throuck
congress and make possible its ratification by
more than three-fourths of the state legislatures.
The same is true of the income tax amendment
to the constitution, another Bryan policy
As said before, the Commoner may never be
president ofthe United States;, but' in the, deep"
recesses of his heart he may agree with many
of his intense admirers that there is, -after" all,.
public office?0 Sat,Bfyhlg in public servl than.
THE NATION'S WORST ENEMY
One of the greatest English-Canadian manu
facturers gave as the main cause of the war
the failure of English Industrial production To
keep up with the efficiency of German industry
sail "iTourVr0 been necessary? ife
said, if our English masses would snenii m!
money for food and clothing and i 5 e
drink, They would soon get fnto a dlLS
Physically and mentally, that would SnaM " "em
to successfully compete with German aohripS
and German efficiency" -then wniH sobriety
ment. he added, "and tola war Zl Id have ll"
unnecessary." uum Ilttve been
of the causes tor thi var ZS'i0", vaia
fact, before then,, oXs "J "t V l '
set down "Drink" asofce of -the factor. . But
we are not concerned any more with the
"causes" of the war. What we are concerned in
is its ending. And we are concerned with ev
erything that has to do with the efficiency of
the Allied armies. ' 'v-
And here we. find tho drink' question again
taking first place! -, ..:, v -
According to a London dispatch dated Jan
uary 11, increases in the amount of "grain are
being allowed English brewers! The"people of
the United States are asked to save grain to give
the English people and the English soldiers in
creased facilities for getting drunfcl-
Arthur Mee, the noted English publisher,
says: "Not for one hour has the -full strength
of Britain been turned against; hert enemies,
From the first day of this war, while our, .mighty
allies have been striking 'down th,enoes within
their gates, Britain haa let this -trade .rstalk
through her streets, serving, the .kaiser's pur
poses, and paying the government,- a, million
pounds a week for the right to do 4tt''1
In Arthur Mee's pamphlet, "Tho Fiddlers','
thereis a sickening collection, of fa.cts abpijt the
crime and 'disease and disastrous . weakening of
British soldiery as a result of the untrammeled
traffic. And yet there are alleged ' patriots in
the United States who call the prohibition lobby
at Washington an obstacle to the -prosecution of
the war!
Willing to let our grain go to the brewers and
distillers of Europe, willing to turn our young
men into association with British troops that are
permitted to Jiavo their booze at the front and
debauchery in their camps, the liquor people of
the United States are more despicable enemies
than are any foreign foes, and they should be
fought with greater vigor.
So long as the United States permits the ex
port of grain and sugar for use in the. manufac
ture of liquor in Europe, just so long aro the
authorities responsible for this business lend
ing aid and comfort to the kaiser. And from
one end of the United States to the otherf this
truth should- be told. Miami, Ma., Metropolis.
Complaint is being made by some of the town
folks that the exemption boards- of -Nebraska are
placing all of the young- men from the farms in
a class where they are unlikely to be called for
service if the war ends this year. The fact that
the country needs experienced men on the farms
as badly as it does trained soldiers in the
trenches would justify an intelligent discrimina
tion of that sort. Besides, with the coal short
age causing most of the town poolhalls to close
early in the evening, some place for theslackers
ought to be found.
There would be general approval of a con
servation program that would put the ban on
meatless arguments in congressional discussions
and encourage heatless debates.
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BRYAK HELLO? HERE COMES THE WORLD!
St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
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