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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
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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
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