; but, so far as I know,
no public word has ever escaped him, which indicates that he has applied
his "ideal of intellectual veracity," "his Gallic instinct for
consistency," to the creed of his own party. When confronted by the
fabric of traditional Jeffersonian Democracy, his mind, like that of so
many other Democrats, is immediately lulled into repose. In one of his
speeches, for instance, he has referred to his party as essentially the
party of "liberal ideas," and he was much praised by the anti-Hearst
newspapers for this consoling description; but it can hardly be
considered as an illustration of Mr. Jerome's "intellectual veracity."
If by "liberal ideas" one means economic and political heresies, such as
nullification, "squatter" sovereignty, secession, free silver, and
occasional projects of repudiation, then, indeed, the Democracy has
been a party of "liberal ideas." But heresies of this kind are not the
expression of liberal thought; they are the result of various phases of
local political and economic discontent. When a group of Democrats
become "liberal," it usually means that they are doing a bad business,
or are suffering from a real or supposed injury. But if by "liberal" we
mean, not merely radical and subversive, but progressive national ideas,
the application of the adjective to the Democratic party is attended
with certain difficulties. In the course of American history what
measure of legislation expressive of a progressive national idea can be
attributed to the Democratic party? At times it has been possessed by
certain revolutionary tendencies; at other times it has been steeped in
Bourbon conservatism. At present it is alternating between one and the
other, according to the needs and opportunities of the immediate
political situation. It is trying to find room within its hospitable
folds for both Alton B. Parker and William J. Bryan, and it has such an
appetite for inconsistencies that it may succeed. But in that event one
would expect some symptoms of uneasiness on the part of a Democratic
reformer with "Gallic clearness and consistency of mind, with an
instinct for consistency, and a hatred of hypocrisy."

V

WILLIAM R. HEARST AS A REFORMER

The truth is that Mr. William R. Hearst offers his countrymen a fair
expression of the kind of "liberal ideas" proper to the creed of
democracy. In respect to patriotism and personal character Mr. Bryan is
a better example of the representative Democrat