MAY 29, 190t
namo and prestige of the stato bo restored, bjr
assurance of honesty end efficiency.
"Tho movement of public sentiment has
beon for many years constant In ho direction
of democratic ideals. Tho opposition reluctant
ly and for tha most part Insufficiently yielded
a seeming assent to. the demands insistently
voiced In many platforms of our party. Scarce
ly a principle which has formed tho basis of
our recent party utterances remains unappro
priated to some extent by the republican leaders.
We demand that sincerity be obtained in theso
efforts by entrusting them to those who believe
in the underlying principles which must bo rec
ognized before effective legislation can be en
acted. "The leader who more than any other has
exemplified in his life and utterances the spirit
of tho new movement, who Las borne reproach
with patience and has grown with the changing
demands of the times still maintains his caroer
with an ever-increasing popular approval and to
no other of the numerous eminent democrats
available could expect such an Im
portant accession of independent admirers as
will flock to his standard. The tariff still re
mains unrevised; trusts have not been in any
very important way interfered with; the mon
eyed interests are still pampered and made the
recipients of the public bounty; public service
corporations are still arrogant and assuming,
confident of their control of every branch of the
government; taxation is unequal and excessive
and a government of tho people, for the people
and by tho people is but a mocking by-word.
Only democratic suggestions are available for
positive relief and those advanced by our leader
are being met by an ever-increasing measure
of popular approval. Under these circum
stances we instruct our delegates to the national
convention to vote as a unit and work for tho
nomination of William J. Bryan of Nebraska,
until he shall be declared the nominee of tho
party."
The Commoner.
PENNSYLVANIA'S DELEGATES
The Philadelphia North American prints a
dispatch from Harrisburg from which the fol
lowing is taken: James Kerr, chairman of the
campaign committee of the Bryan Democratic
League, said tonight: "The results of today's
convention most surely emphasize the necessity
for the reorganization of the democratic party
in the state of Pennsylvania. The expressed will
of a large majority of the voters in the state
was overturned and repudiated by delegates en
trusted as representatives of those voters by the
methods of the leaders in control of the party
machinery through practices that were corrupt
to say the least. While the action of today's
convention only affects four of the sixty-eight
delegates from the state of Pennsylvania to the
democratic convention at Denver, the will of
the people has been defeated, and these politi
cal leaders whocpare responsible will be called
upon to answer ifor their betrayaJL of the trust
imposed in them. Notwithstanding the action
of today's convention, fifty-two of the delegates
selected on the 11th of April last are committed
to Mr. Bryan, whose nomination is a foregone
conclusion."
MR. BRYAN IN NEBRASKA
Mr. Bryan will pay a visit to a number of
Nebraska towns between May 29 and June 3.
The schedule has been arranged in the following
order:
May 29 Norfolk, Pierce, Creighton, Verdi
gris, Bonesteel.
May 30 Spencer, O'Neill, Long Pine, Ains-.
worth.
May 31 Valentine.
June 1 Chadron, Crawford, Hemingford,
Alliance.
June 2 Bridgeport, Minatare, Scotts Bluff,,'
Deering, Harrisburg, Kimball, Sidney.
June 3 North Platte, Lexington.
PENNSYLVANIA DEMOCRATS
Many have done excellently, but none have
made a braver fight than the Pennsylvania dem
ocrats, who have met and conquered the con
solidated forces of predatory wealth. But the
victory was won at the primaries, not at a state
convention.
&rt ff tt tJ
WHERE?
Now that Alabama and Michigan have act
ed to what states will those anxious guardians
of democracy, the New York Sun and the New
York World turn for relief from the rule of tho
majority?
"The Old Ship is Leaking"
The Sioux City (Iowa) Journal rron.1 in
greatly distressed because of some things Gov
ernor Cummins has said. Tho Journal points
out that tho Iowa republican state convention
adopted resolutions declaring for Mr. Taf t. Tho
Journal adds:
Governor Cummins left Des Moines for tho
east the evening of convention day without mak
ing public expression concerning tho action of
the convention with reforence to tho Taft can
didacy. In Now York on the 20th of March, tho
Iowa governor gave an interview to a reporter
for tho New York Times, and the interview ap
peared in tho issue of that newspaper on tho
morning of the 21st of March. Tho governor
was quoted as follows:
Before he attended the dinner of the
Iowa society laBt night Governor Cummins
gave a short talk to . reporters. Ho be
lieves Taft will bo nominated and henco
that Bryan will have a good chance of elec
tion. On this point the Iowa governor said:
"Bryan and Taft will be the candidates,
and the fight will be very, very close."
"Why do you believe that?"
"Because of certain recognized weak
nesses of the secretary of war as a candi
date. I d. not care to tell in detail what I
consider them to be, but it Is a fact that
there are certain elements in his career
which weaken him as a candidate.
.'Taffs principal strength Is that tho
people believe that he will continue tho
policies of the Roosevelt administration.
They are taking him because Roosevelt is
for him."
For the last month or more the governoi
has been speaking perseveringly, making two
or three speeches a day, but it has not beon
publicly reported that he has taken occasion
to endorse the action of the republicans of his
state with reference to the Taft candidacy, al
though the Taft candidacy has constantly shown
growing strength among republicans tho country
over, until now it is well nigh conceded on all
sides that he will be nominated by tho Chicago
convention on the first ballot, if not by accla
mation. Why tho governor thus stands aloof from
the expressions of the republican party, with
the republicans of his own state in the leader
ship with the republicans of Ohio, is a matter
open to conjecture.
In what was known as tho Williams state
ment, made on the 7th of January, said to rep
resent the views of the governor, it was declared:
The sole reason the progressives have
not already lined up for Taft is that they
have been led to believe that Roosevelt
and the Taft managers have relied upon
the standpat element In the state to secure
the delegation. Some of the bitterest and
most unreasoning of the standpat leaders,
men who have been doing everything pos
sible to discredit Taft and the whole Roose
velt administration and who have sanctioned
open bolting of the party in Iowa to defeat
progressive principles, have made pretense
of being for Taft so that in case Taft Is the
favorite they will be in the lead. This is
distasteful to the progressives. The latter
do not want to give Taft the delegation if
thereby they help some of the discredited
standpat leaders to gain a temporary victory
in Iowa.
And again:
The Taft managers Bhould give confi
dential and reliable assurance, in some
way, to leading progressives of Iowa that as
president Taft will not be as bullheaded
pardon the word as has Roosevelt been,
but will recognize the progressive move
ment In Iowa and treat it as it deserves.
The Des Moines Register and Leader, when
it came to speak of the Williams statement, said
it was a fair statement of the feeling as it ex
isted at the time the statement was made. Has
the feeling changed since that time? It may
be true it has rather been heightened. Tho
New York interview with the governor indicates
in the Hawkeye State
no abatement. His avoidanco of national ques
tions In his campaign speeches in support of his
candidacy for tho Unitod Statos sonato does not
Indicate Increasing enthusiasm as tho dato of tho
Chicago convention draws near.
Tho Des Moines Registor and Leader, In its
issue of tho 14th Inst., had this to say:
Mr. Bryan has tho talont and tho pur-
pose to definitely align tho democratic party
with the progressive policies inaugurated
by President Roosovolt. Every speech ho
has made for several years has clearly indi
cated his aim. Ho has banked on tho ability
of the standpat forces in tho republican-
?raoiy i I)U" ,?fck ,n eomo (1ero at least
from Roosovoltfsm, and to turn tho party
leadership at somo angle away from tho
things tho president has aimed to accom-
Mr. Bryan would have two great par
ties, the democratic progressive and radical,
tho republican reactionary and consorva-
i m Xt. 1B wlth thlB In viow that ho has
deliberately praised tho president, and at
the same time driven tho corporate wealth
of tho east away from himself. There can
bo no doubt that ho made his government
ownership speech in Now York for tho ex-
press purpose of offending tho corporations.
u, i WU ?ot d0 to tenoro tho sagacity of
this leadership, oven though in tho first
battlo under it tho democratic party should
bo disastrously defeated. If Mr. Bryan
can turn republicanism over to tho conserv
ative wealth of tho country it will make lit
tle difference where tho popular vote goes
at this time. He will havo drawn a lino that
in tho end will vindicate his judgment.
From tho day in which his opponents accept '
his gauge of battlo the reallignment of
political parties, so often predicted, will
havo begun.
It will not do to overlook tho fact that
Secretary Taft's candidacy will In several
incidental ways assist Mr. Bryan in his
purpose. How far union labor will go In
its opposition to the secretary can not bo
known. But the more unfriendliness of
labor will afford Mr. Bryan an opening ho
well knows how to utilize. Again, tho
opposition of many influential negroes, and
race irritation over the Brownsville affair,
for tho first time since tho war, will glvo
a democratic leader an opportunity to ap
peal to the colored voter. Each of theso
will materially contribute to the effective
ness of a campaign for tho masses against
tho classes.
The reader can hardly escape the ImpHca
tion involved in the above statement. Tho rela
tion to the governor's expression in New York
on tho 20th of March is sufficiently obvious with
out a diagram.
On tho 8th of this month tho Sioux City
Tribune, the governor's representative in north
western Iowa said:
As the Tribune sees conditions it is a
contest of fundamental principles of govern
ment, one side presenting, under thin dis
guises, tho old, old struggle of privilege,
over seeking advantages for itself at tho
common cost through control of govern
ment, and on the other the equally old re
sistance to privilege by tho individual mak
ing an effort to take from privilege tho
power it has surreptitiously got and trans
mute It into freedom for the mass.
Tho Tribune just now, never having pro
fessed the republican faith, Is able to go be- ,
yond the governor and beyond the Register and
Leader. The Tribune feels free to say that
"party lines are demolished, wiped away in this
great contest, even if party names survive." But
is the same Idea the starting point with each?
Is It possible that Iowa Is to be made con
spicuous in presenting to the American peoplo
William Jennings Bryan as the man to main
tain and further the policies of the present ad
ministration as "the democratic-progressive"
candidate? Sioux City, la., (rep.) Journal.
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