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The Commoner.
VOLUME 7, NUMBER 52
THE NEW YORK WORLD'S
FOR 1908
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Tho Now York World calls upon the demo
cratic party to nominate for president In 1908
Governor John A. Johnson of Minnesota. The
World's Johnson' hoom was Introduced by a
statement written by Governor Johnson and
telegraphed to the World as follows:
"The commercial and industrial develop
ment of this country has reached a point where
the proper adjustment of right has become the
question of tho hour. Tho present unrest of
our people is evidence of the determination
shared by all that the fundamental principles of
this government shall be maintained. These
include the dignity of labor, equality before the
law, the equal enforcement of the laws and en
tiro absence of special privileges. Great corpor
ations, especially those exercising atK least some
of the powers of government, must come to the
realization that they are as amenable to the
law as is tho Individual citizen. The trust prob
lem is still to bo solved; but, while searching
for the complete remedy, we can at least with
draw from their grasp the special privileges they
have enjoyed under a high protective tariff. It
must be apparent that our present tariff, while
mainly responsible for the existence of the trusts,
is, in addition, a tax upon the masses 'for the
benefit of the few. The farming of taxes in
France, before the revolution, was no more in
iquitous than is our present tariff system. 1908
will be a memorable year for the struggle of
equal rights and American ideals; the year will
see tariff reform accomplished, or well under
way, for if the present congress does not at
the present session make substantial reductions
the people in November will elect those pledged
so to do."
One of the World's ardent supporters is J.
C. Hemphill, 'editor of the 'Charleston (S. C.)
News and Courier, and long one of Mr. Bryan's
most bitter assailants. Mr. Hemphill telegraphed
to the World this statement:
"John A. Johnson's declaration in the
World rings like the blast of a trumpet. There
is no mistaking where he stands. He has struck
the keynote of the next national campaign and
chosen the gr6und upon which the fight between
the people and predatory wealth and power must
be fought. While the president and his backers
are dodging the only real issue of the next cam
paign, and while Mr. Bryan and his followers
are speaking in riddles about the issue of the
campaign, this strong, true man from the far
northwest gives the command upon the only
issue on which the democratic party can go to
battle. Johnson's voice rises above the clamor
and confusion of tongues, the mean, little pol
itics of present-day leaders, the cheap deceptions
of demagogues and the dishonest plans of Mr.
Roosevelt and his supporters for delay in right
Ine a Kreat national wrong and challenges the
t)jjiheHiy to war. He has made the issue of the
next presidential campaign, and there is none
uui uo uj ltjuu me uemouratic party to Victory.
Will Mr. Bryan Btand aside? Not if he can help
it. But the fate .of the party is in the hands of
the party. It is Bryan and defeat; it is Johnson
and victory."
The Kansas City Post, a paper that has
long shown marked hostility to Mr. Bryan, cor
dially approves the World's suggestion and in a
threo column editorial printed on its flrht page,
says:
"John A. Johnson, governor of Minnesota
and aspirant for the democratic presidential
nomination, has given 'to tho country his views
on the tariff. His utterances ring with the
spirit of true democracy and show splendid
grasp of the most troublous problem that has
ever beset the American people. They have
been well received by the democratic press
throughout the country and especially in the east
and south. Mr. Bryan has been twice nominated
for the presidency and twice defeated. Say
what you will, there is a lack of enthusiasm and
fighting force with a loser for a leader. This
sentiment is ingrained in human nature, and no
amount of oratory or bombast can eradicate
it. It has been said of Mr. Bryan that he is
'glorious in defeat,' and it is true, but democracy
is tired Mt ,its place in the 'also ran class. One
modest victory is more to be desired than a score
of thumplngs tind maulings, however superbly
they may have been received. Isn't it time to
withdraw our heads from the clouds and look
conditions fairly and squarely in the face? Tho
cry of tho politicians is that Mr. Bryan is the
only man who can restore tho old-timo damn-
I. cratlc majority. If this Is true, by all the gods
ut once, iei u do Mr. Bryan and gag every
mouth that would dare suggest another name.
But can he do it? His past performances offer
but scant earnest for the future. Prior to the
recent .election in Kentucky, Mr. Bryan went to
the front in that state for the democratic ticket.
The people listened and applauded, but the re
sults fail to show that they did much else. Ken
tucky is in the republican column today. If
he could not save Kentucky, normally demo
cratic, what could he hope to accomplish in New
York, Ohio, Indiana or New Jersey, not to men
tion such states as Minnesota and Wisconsin?
The Post is committed to no man for the dem
ocratic nomination. Johnson, Harmon, Gray,
Hoke Smith, Culberson, these and a dozen others
that might be named are all of presidential size.
But in the name of common sense, let calm rea
son and judgment have an inning. Democracy
should adopt a strong, unassailable platform,
based on democratic principles, and find a man
to fit it. Any other course must and will be
suicidal."
the Richmond (Va.) Times-Dlspatch print
ed this leading editorial:
"A northern democrat, whose name has
been mentioned prominently in connection with
the presidential nomination, recently said to a
Virginia democrat that the forthcoming action
of the Denver convention was already 'cut and
dried.' By this he meant,, of course, that Wil
liam J. Bryan vwas already nominated; and it
goes without saying that the platform will be
agreeable to Mr. Bryan. There are those who
say that Mr. Bryan will defer to the wishes of
the convention, but that Is not Mr. Bryan's
political habit. In 1900 he gave notice in ad
vance that he would not accept the nomination
unless the platform should contain a free silver
plank, and all the. pleading of the leaders who
saw him in person did not move him from that
position. But no matter what sort of a plat
form the Denver convention may promulgate, if'
Mr. Bryan is the nominee voters will read into
it the pet doctrines of that distinguished gen
tleman. A party platform, no matter how well
it may be worded and phrased, is an inanimate
thing; it is the candidate who gives it life. If
Mr. Bryan is nominated, his record will be the
platform, and he could not get away from it if
he would; and he would not If he could, for
Mr. Bryan is no recanter. What of the result?
Twice has Mr. Bryan asked the people of the
United States to elect him to the presidency,
and twice has he been defeated. Is he more
popular now than he was in 1896, or in 1900?
Read the view, published elsewhere, of Mr. L. J.
Coppage, a former Virginian, now residing at
Crawfordsville, Ind.: 'The possibility of a na
tional democratic success,' says he, 'depends on
the support of the Independent or conservative
vote In the doubtful states of the north or middle
west. The party has gained no national election
since the war, except by the jaid of a large vote
from this element. Very true, Cleveland won in
1892 because he carried the solid south, the
democratic states of the north and the doubtful
states of the west. Bryan carried some western
states which Cleveland did not carry, but he lost
the states whose votes counted and he lost the
democratic states oi the north. We do not see
how it is possible for him to do better in 1908.
As Mr. Coppage again says, 'with Bryan as the
candidate and with the doubtful or objectionable
things for which he stands in the platform, the
republican majorities of 1896 and 1900 will be
duplicated, and the democratic party further
discredited. Similar warnings come from all
parts of the country. Many even of Mr. Bryan's
devoted followera have no hope of his election;
and still the cry is Bryan and bust. Very well.
If It must be, let Mr. Bryan again put, his un
paralleled popularity to the test and finish up
the work of destruction which' was begun in
1896, and let the party make its sacrifice in
his behalf complete." '
The Washington correspondent for the
Minneapolis Journal, who has all along kept
in close touch with any sentiment hostile to Mr.
Bryan sent under date of January 1 the follow
ing dispatch to his newspaper:
"The 'secret of the New York World's in
terest in Governor Johnson of Minnesota, as a
presidential candidate, is to be found in v the
fact that the democrats of that state are strong
ly anti-Bryan. They bolted him openly in 1896,.
Tammany leading the wy, and they gave him
but perfunctory support in 1900. Today they
are prepared to do all that they can to prevent
his nomination at Denver, and perhaps Champ
Clark is not far wrong when he says that they
will again make sure that the electoral vote is
given to a republican if Bryan should be nom
inated this year.
"As an outward and visible sign of this
inward and virulent dislike for Bryan, witness
the effort made in Itfew York to bring Lieutenant
Governor Chanler to the front. That effort lias
not been an unqualified success, for a variety
of reasons, chief among them being the fact
that Chanler is merely a rich man's son, with
out a record in public life, and made lieutenant
governor through one of the accidents always
happening in politics. Still, he is a pretty good
fellow, as good fellows go, and it might be a
good thing to put him on the tail of the ticket,
provided some strong" western man can be found
to head it.
"That strong western man, in the opinion
of the anti-Bryan democrats of New York, is
Governor Johnson, and hence the support which
he is receiving in that state, regardless of Chan
ler. The World, in working up a Johnson move
ment, is merely reflectingthe prevailing demo
cratic opinion of that state, nothing more and
nothing less, for it Is realized that no democrat
can go into the White House without the New
York electoral vote. That vote Bryan, it is con
ceded, can not hope to get, but Johnson might
get it, with Chanler's help in second place on
the ticket.
"The World played up Governor Johnson's
letter very prominently in its Sunday paper,
and printed it again Monday morning in con
nection with the several columns of Interviews
secured by wire from prominent democrats.
The World in its queries asking for the inter
views called attention to the Johnson statement
of Sunday morning, and asked that the replies
be directed to that statement. The editor of
the News and Courier of Charleston, S. C, was
the only one interviewed who came out openly
against Bryan and in favor of Johnson, but all
of them said they agreed with Johnson that the
chief issue of the campaign should be the tariff.
"This New" York support comes to 'Governor
Johnson without solicitation. Indeed, he did not
even suspect that it was coming. Tho World,
and the democrats behind it, do not care for
Johnson aside from the fact that he seems avail
able for the purposes of a fight against Bryan
in the convention. They would take up another
man as readily as they have taken up Johnson
should such a man possess the advantages which
Johnson possesses. Mr. D'Autremont of Duluth
and his supporters, will probably not agree with
this statement, but that does not mean that
the statement is not absolutely true.
"For more than a year the anti-Bryan men
of the democracy have been looking fpr some
Moses to lead them out of bondage to Bryan.
For a long time it seemed that the search would
be fruitless, and it is too early to say now that
it is to be successful; but the discovery of Gov
ernor Johnson brings the first suggestion of
hope. That there will be an effort on the part
of the anti-Bryan men to unite on Johnson, pro
vided he should be willing, seems now to be
apparent. How it will result nobody knows,
nor can know for the present. The Bryan
strength in the convention will come from 'the
old free-silver states of the Rocky mountains,
from the southwest, and from scattering states
in the great middle west, The anti-Bryan
strength is in New England, some of the old
middle states, and-presumably in the states of
the old south, along the south Atlantic and gulf;
coasts. The question of crystallizing that op
position and putting It irito working shape is,
one involving many difficulties. The task, how
ever, is not insuperable. Everything will de
pend'on the way in which the case Js, managed
on the energy and skill with which the anti
Bryan people get to work.
"The fight, as was pointed out in these
dispatches on Sunday, will be for unlnstructed
delegations from all these anti-Bryan centers,
and. should it result in preventing Bryan from
having a majority of the Denver convention then
the way .will be open for Governor Johnson or
for some other man who is supposed-to be con
servative in principles. There has been more
or less talk of Judge Gray of Delaware, of
former Secretary Olney and of other men who
were closely identified with the Cleveland wing
of the party during Cleveland's second adminis
tration. None of these men, however, can be
nominated, in the opinion of men here who are
trying to keep in touch with the situation, for
they stand so close to Cleveland as to draw all
the fire that would be directed against that
gentleman himself were he a candidate. In
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