Birmingham state herald., 1896-07-23
BRYAN ON TIE FIRST That's the Claim of. the Steering
 Committee. FIGURES TO SHOW FOR II Mir. SewaIl Will Not Be So Fortunate-A Southern PopuIist Will Get the Sec
 ond Place.

St. Louis, July 23.-The Bryan steering committee found last night that a suf- ficient number of votes are pledged to their candidate to insure his nomination by the populists on the first ballot. The following vote, showing the Bryan strength by states, was furnished the Southern Associated Press at midnight as transcript of their official poll Ala bama 42, Arkansas 8, California 45, Della ware 3, Georgia 5, Illinois 42, Iowa 27, Kentucky 6, Maine 5, Massachusetts 10, Missouri 8, Nebraska 57, New York 39, North Dakota 12, Oregon IT, Rhode Is- land ?, Tennessee 15, Vermont 8, Oklaho- ma 9, Wisconsin Il, Indian territory 5, South Dakota IF, New Mexico 2, Arizona 2, Connecticut 55, Florida z, Idaho ', In- diana 15, Kansas 92, Maryland 8, Montana Il, Nevada ', New Jersey Il, North Caro- lima 20, Ohio 2S, Pennsylvania S6, South Carolina 10, Virginia 42, West Virginia G., Wyoming ', District of Columbia 4, Utah 5. Total, TOT.
 This estimate is held to be very con- servative and it is thought that it under estimates the Bryan strength by at least 100 voteS As the total number of dele gates in attendance will not exceed 1900, it will be seen by the foregoing figures that Mr~Bryan will have clear major ity of 100 at least. Some of the 'enthusi- Gstic Bryan men believe that when the opposition discovers him to be in the lead their strength will rapidly diminish and that before the close of the first bal lot his nomination will be practically unanimous.
 It must not be inferred from this, how ever, that MT. Sewall of Maine will share in this triumph. The Sewall men admit that the great preponderance of senti- ment among the delegates is unfriendly to MT. Sewall and that some other gen. tleman will be selected for second place. This will probably be a southern man, in- asmuch as the opposition to Bryan is mainly confined to the delegates from that section, and this means will be ta- ken to make their disappointment less keen.
 When the convention is brought face to face with the question of nomina- tion the curious anamaly will be presented of the convention taking a vote on vice president first if the present programme is carried out. This concession will also be made by the Bryan men, who appre- ciate the fact that the opposition to Bryan is such that some advantage may be taken of them if the proceedings fol- low the regular channel and the head of the ticket be voted for first.
 MT. Bailey of Kansas, who is one of the active young men about the Bryan head quarters, was asked last night if any considerable number of delegates would bolt Bryan's nomination. Mir. Bailey re- piled that in his judgment the number would be inconsiderable. "We have pos tive assurance from the Texas delega- tion," he said, that they will not bolt We regard this as significant, because the Texans have been the very head and front of the opposition. If they are sat- isfied with Bryan and a southern popu- list in the second place, there will be no trouble with the other states. We are confident of a. happy solution of what promised to be an embarrassing prob lem"
 Would not such a ticket complicate the vote in the electoral college in the event that Major Mckinley is defeated?"
 That can be easily arranged. It is after all a mere matter of detail with which we need not concern ourselves at present."