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The Commoner
VOLUME 10, NUMBER 31
10
H
The Passing of Bryan
Mil. BRYAN'S ELIMINATION
It is manifestly unfair to Colonel
Bryan to declaro that ho has been
eliminated by the democrats of Ne
braska. That being true, it is also
manifestly unfair to state that ho
is no longor with influence among
tho democrats of other states. Our
own opinion is that Colonel Bryan
is still tho strongest personality in
tho democratic party, and that he
can today count more partisan
friends than any other democrat in
the laud. What would bo true to
state at this time is that the demo
crats of Nebraska have eliminated
an issue for which Colonol Bryan
stood at their state convention. It
must bo admittod, however, that the
issue 1b a moral, rather than a po
litical one, so that it is impossible
to form any conception of how the
democrats of Nebraska or any other
state feel regarding Colonol Bryan
when it comes to purely democratic
principles.
That Colonel Bryan will be a can
didate for the democratic presiden
tial nomination in 1912 seems hardly
possible at this time, but no intelli
gent man, romeraboring tho history
of tho past twelve years, doubts for
a moment that ho can, if he desires,
oxort much influence in tho selection
of whoever that candidato is. Per
sonally, no democrat since the days
of Jefferson or Tildon has had so
strong a' hold upon the hearts of
so many democratic voters as Colonel
Bryan, and to argue that this has
all been lost simply because he stood
for county option before tho Nebras
ka state, convention, is the rankest
sort of, nonsense. Cdlonel Bryan still
has friends and influence, and it is a
sure guess that ho will make both
those friends and that influence felt
when it comes to selecting tho noxt
presidential candidate for his party.
St. Louis, Mo., Gazette.
BRYAN STRIKES BACK
Although the Nebraska democratic
convention deposed Bryan, tempora
rily at least, from leadership in his
party in his state, he remains in the
fight as a private. In tho conven
tion he denounced some of his dem
ocratic enemies as "political assas
sins," and gave praise to the county
option republicans. That Issue was
overwhelmingly beaten by the demo
crats, but Bryan continues his fight
for it. He urges his friends to sup
port county option candidates in
every legislative district. During
the campaign he will take the stump
for them.
Bryan does not say that he will
support republican option nominees
in preference to democratic antis,
but his words create the impression
among his democratic enemies that
he will. He wants both parties to
put up candidates who are pledged
to that issue, so that, in any event,
it may capture the next legislature.
There is a strong probability that
Bryan will succeed in that endeavor.
As the republican state convention
favored option it is reasonable to
presume that a large majority of the
men whom the republicans will
choose to the legislature will sup
port a' measure on that line. Bryan's
influence will very likely secure the
election of many democratic option-
ists.
that that policy will have a majority
in tho coming session.
There is nothing radical in county
option. It means home rule for
every community, a .thing which dem
ocrats have pretended all along to
favor on every question. There were
enough hypocrites and anti-Bryanites
in the recent democratic convention,
however, to defeat that idea. The
average intelligent outsider will be
likely to believe that the sentiment
against option is largely a sham,
worked up to depose Bryan. Every
body in Nebraska knew long before
the delegates to the convention were
selected that Bryan would champion
option. Therefore his democratic
enemies used that issue as a club
with which to hit him. They
planned to do this early enough to
discredit him at home and give a
chance to his rivals abroad to work
up a movement against him in the
convention of 1912. His democratic
enemies, it will be remembered, tri
umphed in the St. Louis convention
of 1904. They nominated a Cleveland-Harmon
man named Parker,
and Bryan, in that convention, told
what the voters would do to Parker
in November. Let the anti-Bryanites
beware of the ides of June or July
of 1912. Bryan will be in the con
vention at that time, and he knows
what he will be there for. St. Louis
Globe-Democrat.
NEBRASKA DEMOCRATS
The much advertised Grand Island
convention ;having come and gone,
we may now measure it with some
degree of accuracy as to what it was,
what it did and what results are
to bo expected from it.
From first to last it was a fight
over the liquor question. If was
on the one hand an attack and on
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Address all Order to The Commoner, Lincoln, Nebr,
right of the brewers to dictate the
party politics, to use the party in
defense of their business, forced the
convention into the attitude of a
jury before which the saloon system
was on trial.
The great jury of nearly a thou
sand men were to decide whether
the democratic party in Nebraska
should put itself in the attitude of
defending the brewers or whether it
should leave them open to the attack
of whatever proportion of the people
are wanting to vote them out of the
towns and villages. Declaring ve
hemently with every breath that the
liquor question was not a political
issue, the convention itself, in every
thing It did from start to finish,
proved that there was no other issue
there except the one question, the
right of the farmers to vote the sa
loon business up or down. Evrv
shrewd move made in the arrange
ment of the unfair anti-Bryan pro
gram, every struggle against the un
fair program, every speech and everv
motion pro or con was in effect either
an attack or a defense of the
brewers.
"They can't put you in jail for
that offense," said the lawyer to the
man behind the bars. "But I am In
jail," answered tho prisoner. And
so it was at Grand Island. The liquor
question was mere overshadowing
every other issue and every man of
the several thousands gathered in
and around the big tent knew it and
felt the tremendous force of it.
It was not only the boldest and
most powerful convention ever as
sembled in Nebraska, but was hard
faced and cruel in its treatment of
Mr. Bryan. It had tho right to vote
him down, which it did. It had the
right to choose its attitude either
for or againBt county option. It was
its business to reject Mr. Bryan's
advice and to turn from his leader
ship to that of Hitchcock or Shallen
berger, if it wanted to, hut it had no
right to tolerate tho bitter personal
assault made by some of the speak
ers on Mr. Bryan. In punishing
him it helped to make permanent the
bitterness that now splits the party
and threatens its defeat. Bad feel
ing between the factions is more irre
concilable and more permanently
fixed since the convention than be
fore. Conventions ought to heal old
wounds. But this Grand Island con
vention made opportunity for bitter
debate and hard words that will not
be soon forgotten.
It seems as if Mr. Bryan's attacks
on the brewers should have been an
swered by the defense of the brewers
if any defense or answer was neces
sary. But to answer his attack on
the brewers, by attacking him per
sonally and holding him lip to tho
scorn and ridicule of the party and
the public, must react in his favor
and make the party appear as if it
was under control of the. brewery
influence. There is plenty of room
for honest differences of opinion and
for fair and tolerant discussion on
the county option question. But
there is nothing in Mr. Bryan's atti
tude nor in all his past history as a
great party leader to justify the per
sonal assault upon him by the speak
ers who were cheered in the assaults
at the Grand Island convention.
The new leadership of the party is
of men who have secretly chafed at
Mr. Bryan's domination. "Whether
they believe they can do more for
the party than he has done tiiay well
be doubted.
On the olJ issues that Mr. Bryan
has had tb meet,
publican as low's!
force, by compelling faith in himself
as a Christian citizen and a patriot
all the time, has kept it a "doubtful
state." The first move of the new '
leaders is one ' that substitutes ex
pediency for principle. It lowers
therefore, the party standing" and di-' '
mlnlshes ltd JChanceiofMwInhfng.r Mf ,l
the party wins 'upon the i expedient it
still has no1 issue and no ultimate
hope of succeeding. If they do not
believe they can do better for the
party than Bryan has done then their
intrusion is party disloyalty and they
stand impeached already. Sioux
City, Iowa, Tribune.
sl Nebraska 'Is as re
ira. Bryan, by sheer
BRYAN NOT ELIMINATED
Defeat Is not a new experience for
Williani Jennings Bryan. He has
been beaten on several notable occa
sions and has survived. There is no
reason, therefore, for assuming that
he will be immedately eliminated
from politics on account of the re
pudiation of his county option plan
by the democratic convention in Ne
braska. Theoretically, of course, he
has been deprived of party leadership
in. his home state. A leader, as the
word is used politically, is one who
accomplishes his purpose by the con
trol of votes and power in his party,
and when the boss loses such control
or power he is popularly presumed
to have been displaced. This the
ory, however, does not always work
out in practice; more than one "dead-and-buried"
politician has pried the
lid off his coffin and resumed his seat
in party councils.
Bryan has been a leader in Ne
braska' for twenty years. He could
not have retained his political
strength if the rank and file of his
party had not had confidence in him.
He could not have gained the con
fidence of the rank and file and held
It for so many years if he had not
been sincere that is, of course, un
less he were a corruptionist, and
no one will lay a charge such as that
at Bryan's door. The Nebraskan be
lieves thoroughly in the principles
he advocates. He has been mistaken
sometimes, but he has been honestly
mistaken. He believed in the prin
ciple which he attempted to induce
the democrats of Nebraska to in
dorse, and at almost any other time'
I that principle would have received
s
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