WW1!!
The Commoner
JANUARY, 1922
, (C
. W
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Credit for Mr. Bryan's Treaty Plan
(By Charles J. Rosebaiilt, inJNew .York Times,
Dec. 25, 1921.)
It would be far from true to say that William
Jennings Bryan lias missed popularity or1 that ho
Jas not had a large following at any time since
he sprang into the limelight 'way back in '03.
Yet there can be no doubt that he failed to get
his full meed of applause on certain occasions.
Anybody who will turn back to Bryan's plan to .
nrovent wars, during his torm as Secretary of
State, for instance, will have toi admit that, tak
ing the country as 'a whole, there5 was1 nothing
like the enthusiasm which the apostles of peace
are able to raise today with only a fraction of
original thinking and hard work ;contributed
by the Great Commoner. ,
In fact, it must bo. allowed that a, not incon
siderable portion bf our population was inclined
to regard his efforts for peace the permanent
peace which is the shibboleth of the leading
statesmen of the world today with levity and a
large degree of contempt. Yet the tundament-'
als for which the Conference for the Limitation
of Armament has been" striving" are contained
in the treaties of Arbitration negotiated by Mr. -Bryan.
. , . . '- '
Being a real, genuine; - dyeuMn-the-wool Good
Man always does raise UP.' a crop of belligerent
critics. That is why philanthropy is one of the
most thankless avocations in the whole gamut
of industries. Everybody looked up to Andrew
Carnegie with-respect jmtil he was seized with
that fatal ddsire'to sow libraries "around the
world. The man who could draw a. quarter of a
billion out of a crowd headed by 'J. P. Morgan '
was voted a real "feller." Even those: who had
not approved of the doinlgs in the Homestead
strike were willing -to let' bygones ha bygones.
But those libraries with the name iCarnegio on
the pediments! And, as if he had been obstin
ately set upon defying popular judgineuts, he;
goes on to Hero Funds, "and Peace Foundations.
Who remained after that- to do him honor?
Richard Henry Stoddard, the poet, went so far
as to write some vicious doggqrel in which there
was the threat that Andrew Carnegie, if he .
didn't watch out, Would-findhis head "done up
in arni-kee." It must have, taken bitter indig
nation to utter a rhyme quite so atrocious, and
yet the Iron Master contributed to the support
of the Authors' Club and left a fund for unfoiS
tunate writers. T '
At the height of his oil-stained career John D.'
Rockefeller has never hounded as when he or
ganized the Rbckefeller Foundation fo? the im
provement of the world, with its subsidfary, the
wonder-working Rockefeller' Institute. If he had
clung to his millions and posed only as a golf
expert, he would by this time have only the ad
miration of a public Which worships success.
Even Nathan Straus, 'now universally" accepted,
as the man who forced the adoption 6f pasteur-"
ization, was excoriated while he was devoting"
his money and his energies to saving babies:
very likely posterity Will be raising' monuments
to these men; it is only dead philanthropists
who have no enemies. Even Mr. Bryan may
come into his own in the distant future.
Certainly doubt, suspicion and downright de
nunciation have dogged his foot steps thus- far.
Nothing that he did escaped the sneers and flings
of his critics. Even the printing of his hymn in
The Commoner (Nov. 6, 1908) was not allowed
to pass without a taunt. The refrain
'I'll go where you want me to go, dear Lord,
Over mountain or plain or sea; ,
, ,say wllat you Want me to say, dear Lordv,.u
ii he what you want me to beT
Produced this public sneer:- ".Can it be that the
good Lord wants him to go up Salt River?"
"id he devote himself to the candidacy of
wuson up jumps a prominent New Jersey Demo-.
Si this cry of treachery: "Bryan is play-
Brv a srSndmther game, and working for
m n is ior no one elso in particular, be
cause he is for himself in parficulaj,"
BRYAN AND WILSON
Even in Europe the bark'ng is kept up. -An
emment English writer, who is an expert on
American affairs, while admitting that Bryan.
SrodnnfVi"tUeS' ? lllmuP as an uncouth
Hnrf f ?p,an uncul.tIvated farming community,
a sort of Ploughboy of the Western World.
hti , i?f acouso? f bGing a vaudevillian, using
?p?frMia0Pat0irIcal gifts t0 mak0 mony ror him
self while posing as an unselfish devotee of the
STSS? gu?' Se could not earn his ltvI"S as
a lawyer, it is alleged, and made a fortune out
?LvamiPaigtn sPe?cnes- So vicious are the at
tacks that he feels compelled to defend himsoif '
publicly, and The Lincoln News of Nov. 7, 1899,
devoted cdnsiderable space to ah "authorized de
fense," in which he declared that he "never got
a 5-cent piece" for hitf campaign speeches, 'and'
even paid' his own hotel bills and railroad faro1, '
except when ho rode in the special trains pro
vided by the campaign Committee. Thdre' was a '
frank statement of his earnings as a- lawyer,
showing a minimum of $70 in 1883, his first
year", and a maximum of $1,998.28 in 1889. lie
had refused several offers from corporations of
$26,000 a year after the campaign of '9G, though
he was far from rich. j
Many will remember that Mr. Wilson wrote
to Adrian1 SI. Joline in 1907, "Would that we
could do sdhiething, at once dignified arid effoc- v
tive, to knock Mr. Bryan, once for all,' into aJ
cocked hat". Henry Watterson called him
"Bryan the'Destructionfst," of "malevolent dis-T
position" and "judgments radically infirm," and
charged that he was "spoiled by adulation,' yet J
of medium talents, confusing his resentment and'
his conviction in an effort to keep himself at
the" front of ( the scene and to retain the appear
ance of leadership at 'whatever cost, regardless
of consequence's." ' '
. THAT .-GRAPE JUICE BUSINESS
Yet all this time Mr. Bryan was makingjpro-H
nouncements on various public questions which
his friends i alleged were afterwards adopted by
other politicians and statesmen, launched as
their own original contributions, and acclaimed
by the great majority of their countrymen. It
was just blamed hard luck, they insisted, which
had robbed their iiero of his just reward. If
he had not been so consistently good, he would
have been appreciated.
There Wds one time when it looked as though
Bryan had overcome even that liandicap. When
he returned from his trip around the world in'
1906 it Iobked as though he might have almost'
anything for the asking. The critics were silent
and ready to turn somersaults. Not' that- they
loved Bryan now, but that they hated Roosevelt
so intensely. They feigned to see Bryan con
verted to sanity, which was another word for
conservatism. Had he been content to remain
-silent then, he might have had their support.
Perhaps the historian of the future will credit
him With self-denying sincerity for the speech
at Madison Square Garden where he flaunted
the would-be converts by declaring for govern
ment ownership and operation of the railroads.
Of course, there was always that grape juice
business. There is no use denying that a lot
of us were plainly disgusted when that was put
over. There was a stain upon his character
which neither time nor the waters of Jordan carl
wash out for a considerable number of unadulter
ated Americans. Even convincing proof that he
was the original peace god won't bring them to
bend the knee. For them, though he may have
sought to banish war, he also did his level worst
to banish joy. And many, looking at the gray
skies which now hang over the land of the free
and the brave, clench their fists and hiss at the
effigy of William Jennings. To that grape juice
do" they trace the present triumph of the Eigh
teenth Amendment.
But let us be serious. With all the world
minus the irreconcilobles huzzaing for the
work being done for the abolition of war, It is
only historical justice to trace back to the first
American who definitely did something decisive
1n that direction, and there can be -no doubt that
Bryan was the man.
MODEL TREATY OF ARBITRATION
"As early as 1906 ho made a public declaration .
on the subject which attracted universal atten
tion To be sure, militarists, statesmen, politi
cians and even the man in the street were then
-".
moved to mirth and scoffing, as has already lio&n
.said. But, then, such is almost always the lo
or.prophets and roformors. If any great number
ware convinced of the wisdom of what they have
to -offer they wouldn't bo needed. In 1906 the
subject of -war h'Adniy,an acadomic interest for
most peoplo anywhere. In theso United States .
people could not have boon hired to sit through
a discussion of it. If ono's neighbor at dlnnor
had brought it up, ho would havo boon sot down
as a bore or a crank, and avoided ever after,
though ho had the fire of Kossuth and the elo
quenco of Webster. Liko the prophet of woo in
Dunsany's play, ho would havo been s'mply out
of the picture.
On July 24, 1906, the publicists composing the.
so-called Brussels Commission of the Congress
of the Interparliamentary Union for tho Promo
tion of International Arbitration, then in public
session at London with tho objoct of drawing, a"
model treaty of arbitration, adopted unanimous-..
ly an amendment proposed by Bryan, which road
as follows: "If a disagreement should arise bp
tween the contracting parties, which is not one .
io uo suomiuou to arbitration, thoy shall not ro .
sort to any act of hostility before separately' or"
jointly inviting, as me cause may necessitate, the
formation of an international commission vt in!t
quiry or modlation on tho part of orto or more"
friendly powers. This requisition will take place0'
if necessary according to Article 8 of ThlT Hague
Convention for tho peaceful settlement of inter- a
national conflicts." , ,
" Here was tho fundamental idea of tho present -
treaty on tho Pacific islands; Hostilities'' Wore
to bo held up until friends could intervene with
conciliatory counsel. That would givo t'mo for
cooling off and a chance to bring tho htft-Ueadif "
to the round table. Bryan's argument oil this
occasion aroused enthusiasm fh even tho cynical.
old diplomats. Pointing his flngor at a paintings
illustrating tho death of Adm'ral Nelson, the ..
orator exclaimed with dramatic fervor: "There
is as much inspiration in a noble life- as Jn, a
heroic death." Great sensation and delegates
rushing up to clasp tho hand of the proclaijmanf,
of this noble sentiment. The keynote of 'his ;
speech was the refrain that only upon the found- .
aticn of the brotherhood of man could- perma
nent peace bo established.
Continuously from that day forward Bryan
was fighting against the "agitators of war.'SAn-r j
other Don Quixote fighting of the wlndmlllsl'ta
seemed to many of his countrymen, but rldiculo
did not affect him. As Secretary of S.tate .In
1913 he launched attacks upon tho makers, of ,
arms and armaments and charged that .morey
was being spent in one country to stir up feellng
in another. . ,
HIS ARBITRATION TREATIES
, )
Every nerve was strained to remove tbointor
national situations which might lead .to wir, x
Through his influence tho United States was no .
only the first country to recognize the, Ohlnes.9 '
Republic, but tried to get the concerted reepgni-'.
tion of all nations through notifying the dlplo-
matic representatives at Washington of Amer-'
ica's purpose. In 1914 he came out for. the re
peal of the law exempting American vessels
from paying Paiiama Canal tolls, on tha ground
that this violated our understanding with Great '
Britain, and in the same year, ho arranged the-
treaty with Colombia to heal the wound 6ver
Panama. Although defeated theii, a" 'similar"
treaty has been adopted since. ' "l-
But it was in his arbitration treaties ' that
Bryan reached the climax of his ambition in' this
direction, and it is these which now ra'ay'be' in
voked to prove the claim of hjs friends that 'he '
was the first to attempt to put into practical '
effect the ideas which are now finding uuiversal -acceptance.
On May 10, 1913, Bryan fepoke vat
a great banquet at tho Hotel Astor tendered to
delegates to the international conference for for-'
mulating suitable plans for tho celebration of
the signing of the Treaty of Ghent and the one
hundredth anniversary of peace among the
English-speaking nations. Joseph H. Choate pre-'
sided and many distinguished statesmen wore -present.
Said Bryan: "Two weeks ago I sum--moned
representatives of thirty-six nations to ex-
press our willingness to enter into an agree
ment that there should be no war, no declara
tion of war and no commencement of hostilities
until the question in dispute has been investi
Continued on Page 7
Progressive Democratic candidates should be selected for the positions of gpr r
enior and state and legislative positions in states holding elections this year!
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