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About The commoner. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-1923 | View Entire Issue (July 26, 1912)
MJiiw.'jfii')iw-iiiiik4'w4 r "'C T '!"' " -" VFT 6 The Commoner; I a- v c i T t n i M F Vf 1K Press Opinion on Governor Wilsons Nomination Now York World: Woodrow Wilson will bo the next prosidont of tho United States. But ho will bq more than that. Ho will bo tho first president of tho United States in a generation to go into office owing favors to nobody except the American people and under obligations to nothing excopt tho general welfare. No political boss brought about his nomination. No politi cal macbino carried his candidacy to victory. No coterie of Wall street financiers provided tho money to financo his campaign. He has no debt to pay to corrupt politics or to corrupt business. Ho was nominated by tho irresistible force of public- opinion, and by that alone. He stands before the country a free man. Now York Press: The nomination of Wood row Wilson, in our judgment, is the most judi cious tho democrats could have made. By all practical tests ho was their best chance, and thoy took it. If Mr. Roosevelt makes an aggres sive campaign as a candidate on a third ticket Mr. Wilson would naturally havo a hotter chance to hold progressive democrats from going to tho colonel than any other man who was promi nont in the canvass for tho Baltimore nomina tion. In force of appeal to radicals of his party probably only William Jennings Bryan could surpass Wilson. This is not to say that Roose velt could not take democratic radicals away from Wilson. It is our opinion that ho could that he could take them away from Bryan him self. But to count Bryan out as having been a possibility this year we think Wilson would loso to Roosevelt, if tho colonel should run, fewer democrats than any other man ever con sidered by tho Baltimoro convention from first to last. Hartford Courant: To hundreds of thousands of democrats of a different kind the old fashioned kind this success of Mr. Bryan's doc trines and Mr. Bryan's man at Baltimoro is not merely disappointing and unwelcome, but alarming. Thoy see in it a calamity to the party and an ugly menace to tho country. Wo think wo know what most of them will do ? when November comes around. Mr. Taft stands Immovably for tho constitution and the laws. Ho stands for tho important, essential things Dr. Woodrow Wilson stood for before his sudden conversion to radicalism. And Mr. Taft is the only candidato who does stand for them; and tho other name of Mr. Taft this year is the re publican party; and wo are only making a plain statement of fact when we say to conservative citizens this year what Frederick Douglass used to say to other citizens in other years. Tho republican party is the ship; all else is tho sea. Boston Post: Tho next president of tho United States was named by the democratic convention at Baltimore, and his naming was mado unanimous. He is known the country over as Woodrow Wilson, and he will bo known In history, we fully believe, as one of the very groat American chief executives. The democ racy has risen to its finest opportunity in the finest way. It has chosen as its leader, after long and earnest deliberation, a man of great ability; of sane progresiveness; of genuine faith In the people; of strong magnetism; of splendid campaigning powers; of honor and honesty, and, most happily, with a record for accomplish--ments in the public interest second to that of no statesman in this country. Now York Sun: The three concrete facts of importance that emerge from the prolonged chaos at Baltimore are, first, the nomination of the candidate really desired by the majority of the party; secondly, the displacement of Col. Bryan of Nebraska as the principal figure in tho party's affairs ,artd, thirdly, a new alignment of tho democracy as the representative of politi cal ideals and purposes widoly differing from those which have constituted its historic posi tion. No candidato of any party since politics ; began over won in convention his nomination ! more fairly and honorably than Governor ' Woodrow Wilson. He is nominated, if ever a candidate for president was, for the sole reason I that ho is tho choice of a majority of tho demo crats of tho United States. f Now York Herald: Hats off to the governor! e.ftaB won and only congratulations will gp to lm today. HJ work is cut out for him. Ho may not know it; but ho is "on his way," and that way is tho way of a radical of tho radicals. During the preliminary campaign ho was a conservative-radical in tho east. But he was a radical-radical in the west, and but for tho west ho would not have been nominated at Baltimore. Henceforth tho chips must fly even over tho fence into the backyards of the "interests." There must be no cuddling up to Mr. Ryan or Mr. Belmont or Mr. Morgan. There must be no olive branches to Col. Harvey or Col. Watter son or those other colonels in tho army of publi cists who havo so arduously striven to carry the party's burdens and write the party's pro clamations. Governor Wilson was nominated not on the strength of tho speeches he made in the east, but of those ho made in Texas and .Other wild and wo lly states, where his ideas fairly sizzled. The conservatives took him on his merits as a radical-radical, and they of course are prepared to step aside. Boston Advertiser: Whether such a man will make tho strongest possible candidate for presi dent may be a matter for doubt. The ' wide spread belief in the instability of Wilsdn Is a thing with which the democrats must surely reckon, In their coming campaign. His sud den repudiation of the support of tho very in terests which brought him into politics, which made him governor of New Jersey, and which launched him as a candidate for the democratic nomination, created a notably unfavorable opinion against him. His past writings show him as occupying positions wholly irreconcilable with those which he now avows, on current poli tical issues. Albany Journal: Of the candidates that havo been in the running, Woodrow Wilson is nearest like. Mrv Bryan.. Therefore Mr. Bryan's sup port would naturally have gone to him in the first place if the Nebraskan had been willing that anyone but himself should be nominated. The deadlock might have developed in any case Mr. Bryan's maneuvering made it certain. And ho could havo but one object in working to pro duce it, which was to create a condition that would precipitate a stampede of which he would become the beneficiary. As it is, his plan has failed. He has succeeded only in so dividing his party against itself that a coming together of the factions is out of the question. Boston Globe: Woodrow Wilson fits the era No better choice could have been made. He was the logical selection. His opinions are well known, his qualifications are explicit, his charac ter is unassailable, and his achievements such as warrant his promotion to the office of presi dent of the United States. Boston Journal: Bryan, by sheer force of strategy and by daily demonstration of the crookedness within the party, dictated the nomi nation. In the very act ho showed the danger Sritw nB l?T refoiLms t0 a bdy so poisoned with corruption. The demonstration was nation-wide. It is one the people have learned word by word. The nominee himself has had a marvelous career in politics. Two short years ago the head of a university; Immediately after, the head of a great state government, follow ing a campaign in which he won his own fight against the New Jersey machine, and now, by virtue of his fight against the bosses in New JnS!JSn? yihe graCe of Bryan's backing, the nominee for the presidency. It is the most strik ng rise in politics since Bryan made him self the nominee, sixteen years ago. Rutland Daily Herald: The fact, recognized bv lor Thn dyAi?tt thG lgiC f the ttion called L T inatIon f a mau wh0- while com manding the respect and confidence of conser vative democrats, might be expected to attract the radical element in his party. Woodrow Wilson meets both requirements. His record as governor of New Jersey is an asset. In Re spect to character, ability and training he measures up to the office for which he has been nominated. It is a pleasure to say in this con nection, that the Vermont delegates seemed alive like Wilson. Aside from two or three ballots cast for the New England candidates, which was the natural and proper thing to do from the standpoint of local feeling, they .were consistent JVilson men throughout tho cont;e3t. , J , New York Tribune: As a scholar and man of .Jn&eJJectuaV estivations Mr. . Wilson . measures VOLUME 12, NUMBER 29 - well up to tho personal standards sets for Ameri can presidents. But his long detachment from actual" politics may prove embarrassing to him as a candidate. As an' historian it may not havo seriously damaged him to advocate the free in troduction of Chines cheap labor and to exalt the Chinaman above the immigrant from Poland, Hungary or Italy. But as a candidate for office his historical indiscretions will leave many stings. Lowell Courier-Citizen: In Woodrow Wilson tho democratic party has nominated unquestion ably tho strongest candidato that offered. No other nomination' was so certain to take the wind out of the Roosevelt sails. No other could have been similarly satisfactory to the sanely progres sive element in the party itself. In selecting him the party has chosen with wisdom far surpass ing its usual record; and, unless signs change totally between now and November the pros pects for a democratic victory- are flattering. From what one hears casually from republicans including not only many who were for Roose velt, but also many who were bitterly against him it may be said without fear of overstate ment that probably no democratic candidato ever nominated has stood so "good a show of attracting republican votes. New York Press: Woodrow Wilson is a free trader. He is the sort of free trader" that, if able to put cherished views into actual practice, could be the most dangerous of all to American industries and American wage-earners. Tho scholastic free trader. The academic free trader. The sentimental free trader. The proposition in a book applying to things that do not exist, to men that do not live, is as clear as daylight to the scholastic free trader, the free trader who never had to make an article and sell it against the article made by somebody else. New York Times: In the nomination of Woodrow Wilson the democratic party regains its ancient estate of worth, of dignity, of power. It escapes the thralldom of little men and ignoble leaders. It takes as its chief a man of that man like quality which befits the presidential' office. The nomination of Governor Wilson will unite the party. There is not a democrat who can find a sbund and sufficient reason for withholding his vote from such a candidate. Search for' "tho taints and blemishes, the imprints of subser viency to the selfish and the predatory, of which we have heard so much, and you will not find one of them upon Governor Wilson. No bargain or understanding with Mr. Murphy or with Wall street, nor with any interest, brought about his nomination. He does not owe his nomi nation to Mr. Bryan, nor will he be in the slightest degree under Mr. Bryan's control or guidance; he is too firm, too self-reliant, some would say too obstinate. We believe Mr. Wil son's nomination to be in the highest degree fortunate for the country. It invites, we may almost say it commands, the return of pros perity. It bids our half-famished industries take their fill of the vitalizing nourishment of acti vity. It quickens the sluggish currents of trade and enterprise. It does these beneficent things, first, because in the last three months we have cast out so many devils, and second, because whatever may befall on election day, a gentle man will be in the White House during the next four years, a man of sanity and balance, a man sincerely desiring the welfare of the American people, a man of sobriety and principle, not a savage or a visionary. It Is the ideal condition, with a candidate on either side under whose ad ministration tho country would be content. New York Evening Post: His nomination falls happily, it comes to him with his party united, and is received with the most gratifying tokens of good-will even from those who havo been politically hostile to him. That it means a vivifying of the democratic party, a campaign conducted with dignity and on a ,high intellec tual level, and, in case Wilson is elected, some tn ng like a new era in our politics, is univer sal y agreed. To have got such a felicitous ending to the long hurly-burly at Baltimore, is EftA0 onlyJfor Voicing, but for renewing Slv S S S?0d Senso of the American people. Ki?! struggle naught availeth when our lSJ? widemocy delights to honor a man like Woodrow Wilson. REAL MEAN in JSS' ?fyS ,that "Mr- 6ryan succeeded ? ?PSnf,the doraocratic national conven mo " ( v Bal1t.imore) which began in harmony, r!L t ', U as ral mean of Mr. Bryan to SirA111 harmony-disturbing resolution against Morgan, Ryan and Belmont, " .v.a'w " -b9rs$jmmmimh . 4 fc.ii tA