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The Commoner,
VOLUME 8, NUMBER
4
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I
IS
SOME ECHOES OF THE LATE UNPLEASANTNESS
Things Significant and Insignificant But All Interesting
AS Mil. MURPHY SEES IT
(From the New York Times.)
Tammany Leader Charles F. Murphy let ,
it ho plainly understood yesterday that ho had
no apologies to mako for the serious defection
from William J. Bryan which the returnB plainly
showed to exist in tho Tammany ranks. Ac
cording to a friend of tho Tammany chieftain,
whoso statement was evidently inspired, Mr.
Murphy told the Nebraskan outright on his first
campaign tour through this state not to pin his
faith too strongly to Tammany's performances -on
election day.
Whilo Mr. Murphy and Tammany leaders
who visited the Wigwam yesterday joined in a
concert of lamentation over the deplorable
growth of independent voting, some of the wise
ones found it difficult to keep their faces straight
at the plaintive cry of independence. Among
these latter thoro was no effort made to conceal
the fact that the Taft-Chanler business men's
league with its secret backing -was carefully
nursed along by some one high up in the coun
cils of Tammany hall, and that it was the me
dium by -which no end of vote swapping went
on. Mr. Murphy vigorously denied that he had
been a paTty to any swapping of votes, or that
any practices of that kind had been carried on
-with tho connivance of his district leaders or
of organization men.
i-.'i Tho days of dGais 0f that kind are past,"
grim the' Tammany chieftain with dignity. "I
-might intimate that tho figures handed in to
'me by tho district leaders clearly foreshadowed
& poor showing for Mr. Bryan, though I had no
idea he would run as' badly as ho did." ' (
Mr. Murphy declined to give out the lead
ers' forecast of the Bryan Vote, qn the ground
'that the figures had;been submitted confiden
tially. ' "What do you think ahout the governor's
re-election?"
"I don't see that any comment is necessary,"
: said Mc. Murphy. "He was swept into office on
a' Taf t landslide. That should be plain to every
body." Mr. "Murphy was asked what he thought of
the outlook for the mayoralty election, in view
of tho poor showing of Tammany hall in tho
election just over.
"Oh' said Mr. Murphy, "Tammany will be.
all right when we come around, to that. We
won't be idle from now until then. We have
our faces set toward the future always, espe
cially when there is a city election close at
hand." ' . '
In accordance with its policy to
"hew to the line, let the chips fall where
they may," The. Commoner prints on this
page a number of articles of particular
interest at this time. Some of them are .
bitter denunciations of Mr. Bryan but
tho publication of these is deemed neces-
sary in order that Commoner readers
may be accurately informed upon every
.phase of the political question as it
effects the United States of America.
man.whoTan more than 100,000 ahead of Bryan
In his state is John A. Johnson, of Minnesota.
Had the Denver convention nominated
Johnson he would have carried his own state,
Ohio, Indiana, tho Dakotas, Wisconsin and Mich
igan, and above all, New York state.
Johnson's was a' ,new personality a mag
netic one not dented with the scars of past
defeats not bruised hy the avalanche of bal
lots which had twice engulfed Bryan, not the
ass. But the westerners at Denver wanted the
stuffed prophet of Fairview. They had their
wish. Havirig had their own way, it is be hoped
that sanity will now return to them- that the
mesmeric passes of the Lincolnite have lost their
strength that they will heed political reason,
rather than Bectional enthusiasm based upon .a
total misconception of what the people want
and whom they will not take at any time, place
or on any terms.
In Minnesota, in Ohio, in Indiana, in Colo
rado, tho state ticket ran ahead of Bryan by
pluralities of all kinds and sizes. Had Johnson
headed the ticket, Chanler would have been
elected in "New York, Rohertson in Connecticut,
and Missouri would not have gone republican.
But be that as it may, Bryan is down and
out a hitter taste alone remaining and if the
campaign of 1908 was productive of nothing else
than the elimination of the worst curse, that
ever, befell the party, then all democrats can
say "thank God!"
"THE WORST CURSE THAT EVER BEFELL
THE PARTY"
The Tammany Times, published by the
Tammany Publishing Company of New York,
devotes much of a recent issue to the denuncia
tion of Mr. Bryan. The following is the lead
ing editorial in the Tammany Times:
Another presidential election has passed
into history and for the fourth time in succes
sion, the democratic party has been over
whelmed. The results of last Tuesday's disas
ter are not due to any shortcoming on the part
of the democracy they are due solely to tho
incubus of Bryan and Bryanism.
The, man from Xiincoln the greatest mis
leader In the history of the party proved too
great a handicap for tho patient democratic
donkey. He the ass, not Bryan, could not
carry Bryan's past his present and the possi
bility of his future. He Bryan, not tho ass
could not gain the confidence of the business
people he could not get their-votes, nor those
of the laboring element, nor of the negroes, nor
those of the unemployed.
And now that he Bryan, not tho ass is
eliminated from the possibility of another nom
ination, it behooves the democracy to turn to
some other man-v-to a real leader to some
"' ono whose love of country and party outweighs
his deslro to lecture at so much per. At the
game time, the party owes thanks to him
Bryan again, not tho ass for unifying it
solidifying it Immutably on ono question that
It .must be rid now and forever of Bryan him
self. On that ono point .all democrats agree.
' Tho .man to whom all democrats now turn r
the man to whom they look to. lead them unit
of rtae wilderneB of -republican pluralitiesthe
A NEGRO'S TRIBUTE
To the TUditor of the Houston Post: The old
adage, "history repeats itself," is aB true today
as it was ages ago; and is as applicable. to the
democratic national defeat of November 3, 1908,
as it was to the overthrow of the ancient Phoeni
cians, by their more powerful brethren, the
Persians.
History tells one sad but truthful story, and
at various epochs in a nation's history, this story
is silently, but vividly rehearsed to the very
great discomfiture of a nation, and to the dis
commodity of a nation's unborn posterity.
This story is as old as the agesj yet so very
new, until the sound of Its recent rehearsal still
lives on our ears. And its meaning, like the
mental concept of an oyer present object, is in
tho full view of our over wakeful mental horizon.
So new, until we still hear the echo of the
mighty voice of tho millions who uttered it.
The meaning of this story is the same at all
times, under all conditions and to all people and
nations. It is the indisputable twice- four is
eight' in tho careers of the greatest of mortals.
When told to the Athenians in the over
throw of the constitution of Solon by Pisistra
tus, when told to the Romans in the assassina
tion of Tiberius in the Forum.
When told to the French in the defeat of
Napoleon at Waterloo, when told to the British
in the expulsion ..of John Wilkes -from the Eng
lish parliament, when told to this. Amerlean-na-'
tlon in tho defeat of the illustrious Henry day.
who declared he'd- rather be right than presi
dent, and when told to this greatest nation of
all earth on November 3 in the defeat of Wil
liam Jennings Bryan, its meaning was clearly
tho same; untarnished, unchanged.
It meant the same to the Athenians it
meant the same to the Romans, it meant 'the
same to tho French, it meant the same to the
British, and it meant the same to this American
nation.
Its meaning is, and always has been and
forever will be, that tho man, who by reason
of his great intellectuality and natural endow-
.ments, combined with his. great forethought and
divine inspiration, works out problems, advances
Ideas, develops unexplored fields of reason and
human endeavor, commands positions before un
heard of in the name of God and humanity, and
thereby, breathes,, lives, thinks and moves in an
age many years in advance of his present gen
eration, can never realize the heights of his own
personal ambition nor rise in the fullness of
his glory to his proper sphere at the hands of
a people who are so very much less progressive
in thought.
The American political sun, William Jen
nings Bryan, whose Joshua will forever bo tho
American democracy, will never set. Because,
like the prophet of old, this nation will in tho
very near future command Hie principles which
lead to Bryan's defeat, to stand upright in tho
political horizon until the mighty battle between
the people and the trusts be forever ended in
the name pf an oppressed and outraged populace.
This will not end the story with all its
magic, but unveiled of its certain mystery, it
will tell the same old truth, that, as Romanism
lives, as Britishism lives, and as Americanism
lives, so Bryanism will live ever widening and
growing in strength and beauty, until it becomes
the pride of the nation, and William Jennings
Bryan will again and forever appear in tho
galaxy of public opinion, not as a defeated can
didate, but as a living undying statesman, the
victim of three defeats, but the champion of the
-people's cause.
CHARLES FLEETWODD SMITH, ,
Principal of Hollywood School.
-Houston, Texas.
NEITHER NEW NOR TRUE
It is very easy for a newspaper to adopt a
motto, but most of those that do find it difficult
to live up to it. The Louisville (Ky.) Evening
Post uses this motto: "If new and true, not
otherwise." In a recent editorial discussion of
.senatorial possibilities it refers to Mr. Bryan
and the Nebraska senatorship and says:
"Nebraska, iSj under anything like normal
conditions, a rock-ribbed republican state. Mr.
Bryan carried the state by a small plurality in
IS 9 6 but lost it by an even larger plurality in
1900."
The last sentence of that quotation con
tains two statements that are neither new nor
true. Mr. Bryan carried Nebraska in 189 G by
a plurality of 13,576 and a majority of 9,498.
In 1900 he lost Nebraska by a plurality of 7,822,
and a majority of 3,374. Mr. Bryan's 189G
plurality was not "small" in comparison with
the total vote, and he did not lose it by "an
even larger plurality" in 1900.
The Louisville Evening Post should either
revise its motto or study up on "truth" and
"news."
(-)
MUSIO TO THE EARS
Normal precinct, the city of Lincoln,
tho county of Lancaster, the First con-
gressional district of Nebraska, tho state
of Nebraska- 'Tis sweet to hear tho
watch dog's, honest bark bay sweetest
. -welcome as wo tlraw near home."
e19
6 5 fc v
IN THE PHILIPPINES
The' -readers - of The Commoner will bo
.pleased to know that on election-day the Amer
icans in Iloilo, Philippine Islands,-expressed their
preference respecting-presidential nominees. Mr.
Bryan -received seventy-three votps to nineteen
cast for Mr. Taf t, and yet the republican papers
insist that Mr. Taft's Philippine policies are sat
isfactory. i?4 w1 -w t
A PRIVATE AFFAIR
The New YoTk World is unkind enough W
,say: ".Sincerely .believing that Mr. Tafts re-
Jigion is;. Mr. Taft's . own . private affair, m
Roosevelt . proceeds to discuss it .to the exien
of-a'-column." ..