OFFICE AFTER LONG YEARS

Evening Post, Volume LXXXV, Issue 57, 8 March 1913, Page 4

OFFICE AFTER LONG YEARS

The outstanding fact about the Hew Cabinet of Mr. Woodrow Wilson, the re-cently-installed President of tile United States, ia that it includes Mr. \V. J. Bryan as Secretary of State. No eooiipiwas President Wilson elected than speculation was afoot as to what ho would do with the thrice'defeated Democratic candidate in former Presidential fights. Among "Btand'pat" or nomprogrefisive politicians, the question wbb cynically asked whether the one-time advocate of free silver would do the Democrats less harm inside the Cabinet than outside it. One critic who thought that inside would be the proper place for Mr. Bryan defended this opinion on the ground that loyalty to his chief would tie the at'cu'radical's hands, and that this might be "a firiit late way to chloroform him." As Secretary of State, the responsibilities of foreign policy would, it was suggested, monopolise even the Bryanite energies and prevent his encroachment on currency matters and economic spheres where he might over-turn things. Another critic, less hopeful, feared that inside the Cabinet the owner of the silver tongue would insist upon dominating the President or alternatively of heading a mutiny 5 and that outside the. Cabinet he would Btill endeavour to be, through newspaper avenues, a dictator. Mr. Hearst, of yeliow press fame, was one of those who professed to see real merit in a Wilson-Bryan partnership. "The i great need of this country," said Mr. Hearst, "is judicious radicalism, and a combination might be exceedingly ad' visable in which Mr. Wilson would furnish the judgment and Mr. Bryan the vadicalism." Nearly six years ago, in 1907, Mr. Wilson in a letter expressed the pious hope that something might be done "to knock Mr. Bryan onco for all into a cocked hat." The man whom lie has now called to his side to act as Secretary of State is the game Mr. Bryan. But it should be explained that in the Democratic Congress at Baltimore last year Mr. Bryan smoothed the way for Mr. Wilson's nomination for the Presidency. In the words of Mr. Wilson himself, Mr. Bryan "net the Democratic party-free at Baltimore," and "I, as a result of the freedom of that convention, was the choice of that convention." Which ho doubt explains' much of what we see to-day. The outside world is interested not only in the question of what effect Mr. j Bryan's radicalism, tempered by Pregi« dent Wilson's judgment, will have on the internal policy of the United States/ jjjit how the new Secretary of State will handle foreign affairs. Hitherto he has been a pronounced anti-Imperial-ist. One matter which American antiImperialism has found objectionable }a the position of the United States in the Philippines. The Democrat platform on which President Wilson was elected favours "en immediate declaration of ,the nation'o purpose to recognise the independence of the Philippine Islands as soon as a stable Government can be established," guaranteeing independence until neutralisation is effected by treaty. In a speech in January President Wilson Baid : "The Philippine Islands are at present our frontier, but I ho'po we presently are to deprive our* selves of that frontier." This is in accord with the Jones Bill, which Mr. Bryan is committed to, and which re« quests the President to open negotiations with foreign nations whereby neutralisation may be secured for the Philippines i provides for a provisional Government in the islands— two Elective Chambers, and a President to be appointed from Washington durihg the probationary period; and contemplates that, after eight years, all that the United State* will retain in the Philippines will be certain naval and coaling bases aiid terminal sites for cables. This Is a reversal of both the Taft and the lloosevelfc policies, and serves as a reminder to the world at large of what may be meant by the appearance, after sixteen years, of a Democratic President and a Democratic, House and Senate. Mr. Bryan's elevation to tho Secretaryship of State was interpreted in advance by the New York World as a blow to "Dollar Diplomacy," and to the millionaires who regard the diplomatic corps as an annexe to the "Four Hundred." As to Mr. Bryan's attitude' to Britain and Britain's Asiatic ally, someone has recalled that his platform in 1900 included a strict exclusion law not only for Chinese but for all Asiatics, and a condemnation of the "ill-concealed Republican alliance with England." But that was about thirteen years ago. Has Mr. I Bryan marched with the times?