Mr. Bryan, the candidate of the Democrats for the American
Presidency, evidently thinks that Anti-Imperialism is the surest card to Way. He refuses to conceal his personal conviction that silver ought to be made by law exchange- able with gold at a ratio of 1 to 16, but he declares that his immediate purpose is to combat Imperialism as a policy. That is to say, he will, if elected, convene Congress and request the Houses to declare that as soon as a stable government can be established in the Philippines the Filipinos shall be declared independent, as the Cubans also must be. Both will be protected by America "while they are working out their destiny," as Central and South America are protected under the Monroe doctrine. This programme, which is fairly definite, is said to be highly popular, but then those with whom a doctrine is unpopular remain silent until election day. It is very unlikely that any territory for which they have fought will be surrendered by America, and very unlike Americans to acknowledge that a task is too hard for them. It is, moreover, impossible for Mr. Bryan to win without the gold Democrats, and they have not forgotten the speech about the "cross of gold." Should the Democrats by any chance succeed they will find that protecting a Republic and governing a Republic are very much the same thing.
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