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About The commoner. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-1923 | View Entire Issue (Aug. 30, 1912)
7; AUGUST 30, 111 The Commoner. imagination of tho "interests" had been stimu lated. They had begun to see things at night. Mr. Bryan said "Boo!" Mr. Bryan said "Boo!" when ho attacked the choice of Parker as temporary chairman. The convention elected Parker, and Parker, much, to the delight of the commonor, made his in augural address, supposed to bo tho keynote of tho convention, a lurid attack on Mr. Roosevelt. Had Mr. Roosevelt been tho one thing in the world dangerous to a democracy, Mr. Parker could not have advertised it 'better. Childlike innocence was never like this! Ollle James at tacked somebody. "Who? Mr. Roosevelt. Ora tors rose and fell in philippic frenzy. Directed against the menace of Mr, Taft? No, Mr. Taft's name was mentioned so seldom, and when with so kindly an indulgence, that it might well have embarrassed Mrs. Taft, who came over from "Washington one day to sit in the gallery; the man attacked was Roosevelt! Mr. Bryan said "Boo!" when he refused the chairmanahip of the committee on resolutions a sop thrown to him and told the committee that he could, if not pleased with the progres sivencss of the platform, take his objections to the floor of the convention and therefore to the voters of the country. Mr. Bryan "said "Boo!" when he suggested to the resolutions committee that candidates should bo chosen before a platform was adopted. Mr. Bryan said "Boo!" in largo, black-faced typo when he offered to tho delegates a resolu tion which, made the convention declare itself opposed to tho nomination of anyone under obligation to Morgan, Ryan, and Belmont. This time the "gang" was so demoralized that it be gan to vote furiously, hectically, and with almost feminine hysteria against the resolution. Be fore they knew it many went on record as being in favor df nominating a man under obligation to Morgan, Ryan, and Belmont. They voted in anger and begged to change their vote when they 'saw the trap. They had rushed forward to a challenge like wolves, they tumbled back like sheep covered with gooseflesh. The creep of delight which must have traveled up and down Mr. Bryan's spinal column must have made life seem worth all the abuse men have given him. There'they were-Ryan fcnd Murphy and Belmont and" the "gang." It must be 'safd twno other, words will fit it can -not' be held in5 Mr. Bryan had their goat! Mr. Bryan said -"Boo!" when, af ter Mr. Murphy had risen from the "New York delega tion on the tenth ballot and announced a change of eighty-one votes from Harmon to Clark, ho changed his own vote from Clark to Wilson, and took the occasion to explain, in a way that the delegates and the country would' under stand, that no man should be nominated by accepting the support -of the "gang." It is sup posed commonly that Tammany goes to conven tions to get .promises from candidates written if possible. Mr. Clark felt hurt. Ho came over from Washington in the evening. His managers were rushing up and down the corridors of one of the hotels with their wives. The wives cautioned each other in loud whispers not to tell any body. The speaker of the house rehearsed a dramatic speech in a room which had a tran som spilling every word into the hall. Tho scenery had been set to have him appear on the floor of the convention, walk up one of the aisles, and crush the foe. His manager, former Senator Du Bois, evidently believed that this would cause a, stampede but tho convention adjourned before the plan could be put into exe cution. Clark had' come to town; he had pre pared a coup; he had a drama up his sleeve. It ended in a few sticks of newspaper interview! All night long the Clark delegates were "whipped in" and stiffened; they were taught to laate Mr. Bryan. Next day, after- their '(secret" conference held on the roof garden, they walked about the hotel corridors with hol low eyes, and quoted what Mr. Bryan had said about Mr. Clark long ago, or told with trembling lips of how Murphy had once given Bryan all the warmth of his soul, and cried out in agony over the scandal of Mr. Bryan taking money from a newspaper syndicate. They knew him at last wrecker of democracy! He had been stripped of his sheep's clothing traitor to his party! Some of them, lato Monday afternoon, in tho second week of the deadlock, paraded an insult ing banner before him and laid violent hands upon the commoner, from which the police had to rescue him. But Bryan was happy! Friendships broke when Mr. Bryan said "Boo!" The Maryland delegation, with a de fection from Clark, sat with, red-tense or white taut faces, daring not to look at each other lest democratic blood bo shed. Kansas delegates jumped in their chairs as ono man, and as ono man demanded to explain a defection to Wilson, and then demandod tho right not to explain it, arid asked for a roll call, and then did not want one, and talked back to tho chairman, and wero told by tho sorgoant-at-arms that they would bo put out of the armory, and there were shrieks of glee from tho galleries, who hoped it would happen, but knew that it would not. John B. Stanchfield of New York, defondlng some part, or all, of tho Now York delegation, added to tho brilliance by. another fling at Mr. Roosevelt, tho defeated candidate for the nomination of tho Chicago coliseum, with whom ho accused Bryan of being in league, a phrase which is con ventionally used in connection with a person older, if not so distinguished in ovil doing as Mr. Roosevelt. Mr. Bryan had said "Boo!" And they sent for extra detachments of police! Mr. Bryan's "Boo!" made dologatcs loap out of their sleep when they found time for any with a shriek. Mr. Bryan was bound the country should know what went on in tho democratic convention; in the process of accomplishing this he made a monkey of it. The "Boo!" made tho conven tion do every last thing which a democratic con vention should not do. The convention attacked Roosevelt instead of Taft. That lot tho cat out. At the name of a Third Party (capital T, capital P) it almost leaped from its shoes. It was so disturbed by tho "Boo!" that it allowed Charlie Murphy to slip into the family group, just as tho bulb was pressed, and then to appear in the center of tho picture of tho harmonious family democracy beside such men as Thomas Jeffer son, Andrew Jackson, Grovor Cleveland, and August Belmont. The effect of the "Boo!" in the midst of delegates who, in spite of his title to the honor, had formally rejected his leader ship even as a chairman. He was no longer tho man who by oratory swayed a gathering off its feet; he was no longer a man who had the emo tional following of his party. Hisses greeted him. Hate looked at him out of the eyes of those who saw in him an, obstacle. Yet from first to last, sitting in the seat of a delegate with his palm-leaf fail, without a tremor in his finger .throughout the,' long and fierce battle, with a little of his consciousness of power play ing tit the corners of his mouth, and with the light. springing up in his eyes as tho few who came to greet him touched his shoulder, Mr. Bryan was the figure of a master. A seasoned veteran, or perhaps an inspired genius, he rose occasionally and punctuated the course of the democratic convention without a mistake of strategy. When the power of the people was needed, Bryan called aloud. His voice then be came the voice of a magician! Those who hated him feared him; those who feared him hated him; those who reviled him reviled a figure of stone. For some understandings ho was too large. Men of small motives, small manners, and small morals not only do not understand men larger than they. They can not under stand such men. The second significant thing about the con vention was its nominee. Wilson is 'fifty-six years old. Ho has spent a lifetime in teaching; he is the "schoolmaster" that they call him. But that in itself is signifi cant. A man who has been but three years in politics is a new kind of candidate for the presi dency! With this fact one may be startled and anxious, or with this fact one may be Inspired and hopeful. It depends upon Wilson. Tho rank and file of democracy wanted him. They believed him efficient. He had a short record, but they liked it. That was the final significant and vital thing about the struggle in Baltimore. Tho nomina tion was made by pressure from without. Until the convention met many of tho rank and file and many of the delegates who represented them did not know that after all' Woodrow Wilson was the man they wanted. They learned it little by little; they found expression for the Idea; they forced their point. Wilson's fight before the convention was. won not by revolution; it was won by evolution. In It, demonstrations and sensations did not count. Votes came in ones and twos, then in dozen lots at last the avalanche. Whatever Mr. Bryan thought of it, he had beaten the "gang" to a frazzle, and he still wore the smile of the sphinx. THE TWO PLATFORMS To the editor of the Philadelphia Public Ledger: Sir In the interest of Intellectual probity permit a comment on, "The TWo Plat forms on tho Tariff." Tho "republican" is inado by its beneficiaries. The "democratic" by those who say that tho "tax on 'woolens' is collected at tho druggist's and tho undertaker's." Tho "democratic" rests oh the dictum of Locky: "That Incroaso of taxation is a corres ponding restriction of liberty." As to tho "re publican it is a fundamental principle of jun tico that one can not be Judge, advocate and jury in his own case. Yet Root, the lawyer, violated this when ho co-operatod on tho republi can committee with Lippltt, the Rhode Island manufacturer. Root, shielding himself, perhaps, behind a lawyer's technical ignoranco of politi cal economy, Ignored the cauKo of our present buslncBS "unrest," that a tariff makes tho gov ernment a party to a' commercial contract. Lippltt, the Honutor-BiiccosBor to the arch priest of protection, Aldrich, Is truo to his kind; for ho "wroto tho 'cotton' clause in the AldrichPayno tariff," and by an "additional thread" added largely to tho duty on the "present clothing" of the working classes. Penrose is spokesman for the "woolen men," who have substituted bayonets for "soup kitch ens." Ono asks, if at tho "torrapin supper," probably paid for out of profits from selling water to thirsty chlldron In tho mills, thor blazed on tho wall: "Mono, mono, tekol up harsin,", or, tho later command: "Forbid them not." Tho "republican" platform, Hko protectionist Franco, proclaims: "Liberty, equality, frator nity;" but it Is "Liberty to die; equality in misery, and commingling in tho grave." The "democratic" platform proclaims, with Lord Derby: "I was born a free man, and, by God, a free man I will dio." ONE OF THE PEOPLE, Atlantic City, July 4, 1912. GOOI NEWS FROM NEW YORK Rochester, N. Y., August 24. The demo cratic perioral committpo of Monroe county (Rochester) met today to deslgnato candidates for county officers and delegates to tho state convention, subject to the action of tho primaries to bo hold Septombor 17. Tho progressive ele ment of the party, opposed to tho one-man pdwer of Charles F. Murphy, was in full control of the meeting. A test vote on a Murphy and an anti Murphy candidate resulted in tho defeat of the Murphy-Dix element by 79 to 43. A full county ticket was named and fifteen delegates to tho state convention. George P. Decker, a leading progressive democrat, was named for congress. The committee adopted the following resolu tions ratifying the action of tho Baltimore con vention: Whereas, Tho democratic national convention at Balllmoro lias nominated for president and vice president- those distinguished democratic gover nors, Woodrow Wilson of New Jersey and Thomas Riley Marshall of. Indiana, whoso progressive ad mlnlHtratlbns of tho affairs of their respective states, iiavo drawn tho attention and won the approval' of the entire nation, and, Whereaty, Tho national convention, when present ing to the voters of the union these eminent repre sentatives of tho progressive sentiment of the time, also adopted a clear, definite and comprehensive declaration of tho progressive principles upon which the democratic party invites support. Resolved, That the democratic party of Monroe county hero represented through its regular party organization, Indorses and ratifies tho nominations of Wilson and Marshall, approves tho platform of political' 'principles adopted at Baltimore and pledges to such candidates and platform Its loyal, earnest and vigilant support; and, Resolvtid", That tho democratic party of Monroe county, through this organization, congratulates William Jennings Bryan upon tho signal service which It was his privilege to perform for the party and tho nation, In leading tho fight at Balti more to separate the democratic party from all possible cbntrol or influence by corrupt bosses and special interests, and that it also congratulates James A. O'Gorman, senator from Now York, upon his part In tho same invaluable service, and. Resolved, That tho democratic party of Monroe urges upon tho democracy of the entire stato of New York tho necessity at this crisis la tho party's affairs in the stato of nominating a state ticket and adopting a platform which shall bo in har mony with the leadership of Woodrow Wilson and William J. Bryan and shall express tho same pro gress in stato affairs which the national demo cratic party has shown in the nation. The name of ex-Congressman James S. Havens, who won the memorable fight for con gress two years ago in this district against George rW. Aldridge, was Indorsed as Monroo county's.candidato for governor to succeed John A. Dlx., The names of Wilson, Bryan and Havens wero greeted with enthusiastic demonstrations. 1 4' m