American Comment on Mr. Bryan’s Resignation

The New York Times of June 14, 1915, presented the following condensed quotations condemning unsparingly Mr. Bryan's retirement from the Secretaryship of State, gathered from newspapers throughout the United States, and classified according to their professions of political faith:

DEMOCRATIC NEWSPAPERS.

From The New York World.

Unspeakable treachery, not only to the President, but to the nation.

From The Buffalo Enquirer.

If Mr. Bryan goes on, he will share the detestation of the most despised character in American history.

From The Buffalo Courier.

The new note to Germany puts Emperor William and former Secretary Bryan in the same hole.

From The Utica Observer.

He turns tail in the face of a crisis and seeks refuge by counseling dishonor.

From The Louisville Courier-Journal, (Henry Watterson.)

Treason to the country, treachery to his party and its official head.

From The Portland (Me.) Eastern Argus.

Bryan's announced campaign has something of the character of submarine warfare.

From The Helena (Mon.) Independent.

As much mistaken in this instance as in years gone by.

From The Lexington (Ky.) Herald.

His propaganda is designed and intended "to defeat the measures of the Government of the United States" in violation of Section 5, [of the law of treason.]

From The Mobile Register.

If Germany is misled into actions still further violative of our rights, the resultant hostility will be very largely attributable to Mr. Bryan.

From The Columbia (S.C.) State.

The President's clear head may now be trusted the more that his methods of thinking are relieved of opposition in the Cabinet.

From The Montgomery Advertiser.

He will go back to his first love, agitation.

From The Richmond Times-Dispatch.

Wilson, not Bryan, strikes the note to which the hearts of the American people respond.

From The Savannah News.

The people are following the President and not Mr. Bryan.

From The Austin (Texas) Statesman.

Mr. Bryan's diplomacy has not been of the type that has inspired the confidence of the American people.

From The Charleston News and Courier.

The bald and ugly fact will remain—he deserted his chief and his Government in the midst of an international crisis.

From The Memphis Commercial-Appeal.

Mr. Bryan's views, turned into a national policy, would mean national suicide.

From The Brooklyn Eagle.

An obstacle has seen fit to remove itself; it has substituted harmony for discordance.

From The Boston Post.

Mr. Bryan has shabbily infringed that good American doctrine that politics should end at the water's edge.

From The Baltimore Sun.

The Germans torpedo one "Nebraskan." Oh, for a "Busy Bertha" that could effectually dispose of the other one!

From The Charlotte Observer.

The country simply was afraid of him.

From The Cleveland Plain Dealer.

He is a preacher of disloyalty.

From The Chattanooga Times.

The reason given for his resignation ... approximates disloyalty, if nothing else; a monstrous statement.

From The New Orleans Times-Picayune.

His voluntary resignation will give satisfaction.

REPUBLICAN NEWSPAPERS.

From The New York Tribune.

A man with such a cheaply commercial conception of the post held by so long a line of American statesmen was by nature disqualified for it.

From The New York Globe.

Instead of promoting a peaceful settlement, Mr. Bryan practically throws his influence in the other balance.

From The Syracuse Post-Standard.

Billy Sunday in the wrong niche.

From The Rochester Post-Express.

Amazement and contempt for him grow.

From The Pittsburgh Gazette Times.

He has not filled the place with dignity, ability, or satisfaction, nor yet with fidelity; a cheap imitation.

From The Pittsburgh Chronicle Telegraph.

The peace-piffle and grape-juice statesman.

From The Philadelphia Inquirer.

A peace-at-any-price man.

From The Wilkes-Barre Record.

An amazing, an astounding blunder.

From The Cincinnati Commercial Tribune.

The seriousness of the situation is all that prevents Mr. Bryan's foreign policy from being laughable.

From The Baltimore American.

The country wants no more vapid theorizing; it wants no more Bryanism.

From The Hartford Courant.

Those newspapers that said Mr. Bryan was in bad taste made a slight mistake. He is a bad taste.

From The Augusta (Me.) Kennebec Journal.

Impossible for a man of Mr. Bryan's ability and love of the limelight to remain longer wholly obscure in this national crisis.

From The Portsmouth (N.H.) Chronicle.

Childish policies and small politics, even if the Nobel Peace Prize is at stake, must not be considered by an American statesman.

From The Portland (Me.) Press.

There was nothing to do but get out and shut up.

From The Paterson Press.

He has dealt his country a stunning blow.

From The Lincoln (Neb.) State Journal.

It is characteristic of Mr. Bryan to shut his eyes to arguments and facts when he reaches the ecstacy of sentimental conviction.

From The Omaha Bee.

His action may have a weakening effect on our position.

From The Nebraska City (Neb.) Press.

Knowing his disposition to watch out for the main chance ... that Mr. Bryan will be a candidate for the Senate from Nebraska is almost a foregone conclusion.

From The Topeka Capital.

Represents only the personal idiosyncrasies of William J. Bryan.

From The Milwaukee Sentinel.

Calculated to create prejudice and misgiving against the American note and to mislead foreign opinion.

From The St. Louis Globe-Democrat.

Mr. Bryan could have found no better way of causing the President embarrassment at this crisis.

From The Minneapolis Tribune.

President Wilson has had his own way in State Department affairs, to the minimization of Secretary Bryan, almost at times to the point of humiliation.

From The Seattle Post-Intelligencer.

A pacifist temporarily bereft of reason and lost to sense of patriotic duty; a misplaced figurehead.

From The Portland Oregonian.

The archpriest of the peace-at-any-price party ... a poor staff to lean upon.

From The Albany Knickerbocker-Press.

Mr. Bryan must Chautauquahoot, as the rooster must crow.

From The Scranton Republican.

Prompt acceptance of his resignation was the proper thing.

From The Los Angeles Times.

The inefficiency and ineptness of the Secretary of State have been a reproach to the country.

From The Wilmington (Del.) News.

Far better if Mr. Bryan had retired long ago.

From The St. Paul Pioneer Press.

His retirement was merely a matter of time.

PROGRESSIVE NEWSPAPERS.

From The New York Press.

A sorry misfit in our Government—mortifyingly, dangerously so.

From The Boston Journal.

He appoints himself, though now a private citizen, the director of the nation.

From The Washington Times.

The only person who has been talking war and giving out the impression that he thought this note meant war.

INDEPENDENT NEWSPAPERS.

From The New York Evening Post.

How far he will carry his treachery by actual machinations against Mr. Wilson remains to be seen.

From The New York Sun.

Sulked and ran away when honor and patriotism should have kept him at his post.

From The New York Herald.

His convictions are all wrong; his retirement should be heartily welcomed by the country.

From The Philadelphia Public Ledger.

How much longer, as Cicero asked Catiline, does he intend to abuse our patience?

From The Pittsburgh Dispatch.

Bryan's obsession by the peace-at-any-price propaganda bordered on the fanatical.

From The Baltimore News.

A surrender to opportunism such as calls for a nation's contempt.

From The Chicago Herald.

As a private citizen he will be less a menace to the peace of the nation than he has been as Secretary of State.

From The Denver Post.

His services can be most satisfactorily dispensed with.

From The Kansas City Star.

Has not impressed the country as a practical man in dealing with large affairs.

From The Toledo Times.

He should support the President.

From The Terre Haute Star.

Now free to pursue the prohibition propaganda.

From The Newark (N.J.) Star.

The statement [Bryan's] is simply an effort to corral for himself a large voting element in the population.

From The Newark Evening News.

His narrow vision has overcome him.

From The Boston Traveler.

If war does come Mr. Bryan will be the one American held most responsible for the trouble.

From The Boston Globe.

Mr. Wilson has been relieved of one of his many problems.

From The Boston Herald.

Is certainly not inspired by a sense of loyalty to the party or the country.

From The Lowell Courier-Citizen.

Lagged superfluous on a stage in which he played no part beyond that of an amanuensis, and hardly even that.

From The Manchester (N.H.) Union.

Should mark the end of Bryanism in American politics.

From The Providence Journal.

He has bowed himself into oblivion.

GERMAN-AMERICAN PRESS.

Under the caption, "He Kept His Vow," the evening edition of the New-Yorker Staats-Zeitung, which for months had been referring to Secretary Bryan as "Secretary Bryan Stumping," as opposed to "Secretary Lansing Acting," said on June 9:

As unreservedly as we believe that he [Mr. Bryan] is sacrificing high office to a principle—something that seems to be incomprehensible not alone to American politicians; readily as we pay him tribute that a man in public life has again had the courage to act, despite the machinations of editorial offices, pulpits, and the counting rooms of money agents; clearly as we see again his latest act, the old Bryan, who can sacrifice nothing to utilitarianism, everything to an idea, no matter how fantastic it may be, nevertheless it must not be left unmentioned that his exit out of the Wilson Cabinet was under all circumstances only a question of time. Bryan may want to be a candidate in 1916, a rival of Wilson; there may be a political motive at the bottom of the dramatically staged resignation; the fact remains that two hard heads, Wilson and Bryan, could not permanently agree. One had to yield; one had to go. Just as Bismarck had to go when Wilhelm II. felt himself safe in the saddle, so Bryan had to yield as soon as Woodrow Wilson himself took the reins, all the reins, into his hand.

Whether the departure of Bryan will exercise great influence on the course of events, so far as relations with Germany are concerned, is an open question. At all events, the peace party in Congress and in the country as a whole has found a leader who is a fighter, who today still has a large following in Congress and out of it. And in Congress, through the masses, the question must finally be decided. Meanwhile, is it to be assumed without further ado that President Wilson himself stands diametrically opposed to the peace views of Bryan? We do not believe that. We are even today still of the opinion that Wilson desires war with Germany as little as does Bryan, the friend of peace, who has just let his deeds follow his words.

From the St. Paul Daily Volks Zeitung.

Bryan's stand for fair play forces his resignation. Bryan's resignation at this critical moment is the greatest service the Commoner has ever rendered his country, because it has aroused the people to see the danger of the foreign policy now pursued by the President.

From the Minneapolis Freie Presse Herold.

It is evident that Mr. Bryan, believing that Wilson and Roosevelt will be the next Presidential nominees, now sees the opportunity to secure the German vote for himself, but Mr. Bryan's hypocrisy will fool no one, particularly the Germans.

From Alex E. Oberlander, Editor the Syracuse Union.

Mr. Bryan will be a greater power for peace out of the Cabinet than in it. As a member of the Cabinet diplomacy muzzled him, but now as a private citizen he can and will be outspoken, and his voice for peace will carry far more weight than the manufacturers of war munitions, Wall Street, would-be Generals, Colonels, and Captains, and the jingo press.

From Paul F. Mueller, Editor Abendpost of Chicago.

The people will choose Mr. Bryan's side if the President persists on a way which may lead to war and must lead to dishonor.

From Horace L. Brand, Publisher Illinois Staats-Zeitung.

Mr. Bryan will have the support of all sane Americans on any reasonable proposition which will keep this country out of war. Mr. Bryan, with all his faults, evidently has his principles.

From the Waechter und Anzeiger of Cleveland, Ohio.

He would not be a man had he signed the death warrant for what he regarded as the crowning deed and success of his life's work. And, because this was asked of him, many a person will say the Scotch in the President's veins did not deny itself in the manner which compelled Mr. Bryan's resignation, although keeping up the appearance that it came of Bryan's own free will because of a disagreement over principles.

From the Colorado Herald of Denver.

Bryan's resignation comes as the biggest surprise of the year to all those of pro-German proclivities who were heretofore laboring under the impression that Bryan represented the spirit in the Cabinet that savored of anything but a square deal for Germany.

From the Illinois Staats-Zeitung of Chicago.

Mr. William Jennings Bryan, by his resignation and by his reasons of his resignation, caused us fear that President Wilson's second note to Germany would be full of thunder and lightning, and would lead at best to a severance of the diplomatic relations between the two countries, the friendship of which grew almost to be a tradition.

Our surprise is just as great as it is pleasant. The note of the President is in its tone sound and friendly, and excludes the possibility of hostilities. Germany, though she had many reasons to complain about a hostile disposition on the part of the people, the press, and the Government of the United States, will readily admit that our Government is in duty bound to protect American lives and American property, even though she should have been justified in torpedoing the Lusitania. President Wilson seems to be willing to admit such justification and invites Germany to submit her evidence. This means an invitation to further negotiations, to which President Wilson was apparently opposed in his first note.

From Charles Neumeyer, Editor the Louisville Anzeiger.

It is inexplicable why Bryan could reconcile the signing of the first note, which was of a much more assertive tone, with his sentiments and principles, and then refuse his assent to this one, characterized by dignified friendliness. Mr. Bryan must either have become extremely touchy and particular over night, or somebody must have been fooling somebody else. At any rate, the American note is a guarantee of continued peace as to the issues now pending.