ROOSEVELT AND BRYAN

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LI, Issue 72, 14 March 1908, Page 4

ROOSEVELT AND BRYAN

Parties in the United Stales seem to be almost as divided against themselves as. parties in Great Britain. Mr. Bryan s extreme Radicalism lias for many years caused it serious split iu the Democratic ranks, and now the Republicans are ill a like plight. When Congress reassembled in December there was. says Mr. Maurice Lou. ill the .National R«vit'w, to be noted ill the pain ,il the same chastened spirit as penadul the President's messiige. Not only are industrial contraction, crop-failure, aii.l general curtailment of wealth-producing sources. >u lo speak, ill the air. to the detriment, of the party iu power, hut serious dissensions exist within tile party itself. Mr. Roosevelt aud the politicians are. as usual, at covert, if not open, strife. Conservative Republicans and Radical Republicans are actively intriguing against each other for control of the National Convention and of tic: next Presidential nomination. A yenago the party had only contempt for its opponents. A Democratic victory at this year's poll seemd to it too improbable for serious consideration. RcuiiV.icans are talking to-day in a very dill'crent strain. The men who advocate Mr. lioosevelt's nomination say that uulc-s lie is the lleptiblican candidate Mr. liiyan will be elected, while the partisans of other candidates—of Mr. Hughes and -Mr. Taft, for example—admit that the light must be stubliora, with odds too nearly balanced for comfort. "If the Democrats could unite they would," [ thinks Mr. l/iw, " have a magnificent i chance for success, as there exi-ts a great deal of dissatisfaction iu the lle- . publican party." Even Mr. Roosevelt . would receive but lukewarm support | from the Conservative sections it lie were nominated. A nomination of a

protege of his, such as Mr. 'J'att, womd

be still more offensive to the moneyed interests. On the other hand, if til"

Roosevelt influence is defeated in the convention, the Radical wing may. : n revenge, turn to Bryan, whose Radicalism is beyond question. These odds would make heavily for the Deuiocrais were it not lor the fact that they have even heavier odds to overcome. Mr. Bryan, according to Mr. laiw, will certainly be nominated by the Democratic party, but his nomination will be hateful to those Democrats who correspond to the anti-Roosevelt Republicans. The Conservative Democrat has no love for Mr. Roosevelt, but would probably vote for him as the lesser of two evils, localise the Republican party at heait is more Conservative, and localise Mr. Bryan, if elected, would feel that he owed nothing to the Conservative wing of his party, but everything lo the Radicals. "Given a united party." continues Mr. Low, "Mr. Bryan ought to win, but when n, leading Southern paper says bluntly, 'to nominate liiin would be, simply to throw the election away.' and the New York World, perhaps the leading exponent of Democracy, asks why the South should 'consent to a nomination that will further imperil the very life of their party.' the outlook for harmony is upt hopeful."