The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1896-07-23
.BR|GHIBRYAN OUTLOOK
THOUGH NOTHING Is SURE, THE
OUTLOOK AT LARGE FOR
BRYAN Is BRIGHTER.
BUTLER IS TEMPORARY CHAIRMAN
SELECTED BY THE COMMITTEE.
THE "STRAIGHT-OUTS" WILL
PRESENT KEARBY'S NAME.
some OF THE SHOUTERS ARE WEAKENING.
And Now Talk Compromise, Notably Cy-
clone Davis-A Fierce Fight Pre-
dicted for Today-Vandervort
and Debs are Mentioned by
the "AIiddles" in Connec-
ton With the Pres
idency.
some OF THE SHOUTERS ARE WEAKENING.

idency.
st. Louis. July 21.-The populist and
silver conventions convene tomorrow, the
former in the hall in which the republi-
can national convention was held five
weeks ago and the latter in Music hall,
where Grover Cleveland was renomna-
ted in 1888. Interest in the silver con-
vention has been entirely eclipsed by the
bitter struggle among the populists over
the nomination or endorsement of Bryan.
The program of the silver convention is
cut and dried. There is no division of
sentiment.
Congressman Francis Newlands of Ne
vada will be temporary chairman and
| William p. st. John of New York per-
manent chairman. lney will deliver
their. speeches, platform of single
plan, in favor of free coinage at 16 to
1 will be adopted and the convention
will adjourn.
The populists, on the other hand, are
rent and torn by internal dissensions and
the contending factions will plunge i'm
mediately into fierce and determined
fight, which may be prolonged for four
or five days and which, from present in
dications, will probably result in bolt,
no matter which faction prevails.
| The heterogeneous composition of the
convention, comprising as it does many
whose opinions on all questions seem to
be Numerically opposed and who hold
and advocate those opinions with bull
dog tenacity that neither argument or
persuasion seems able to shake. The
conflicting interests and the conditions
that hedge the situation will stagger the
Oldest political prophet, were he to at
tempt to forecast the result with any
thing like detail.
The Bryan men appear to be in con-
troll and the leaders are confident that
| they are in the majority. Practically
all the trained and experienced generals
are aligned with them; they have the adj
| vice and counsel of Senator Jones and
the shrewd democratic managers, who
are diligently watching every point in
the battle, and they have a thorough or
ganization for systematic and effective
work. Today they were reinforced by
the arrival of Governor Holcombe and
$50 energetic populistic workers from
Nebraska and many from other parts of
the west. They are pressing on the
middle-of-the-road delegates the view
that the situation presents the single
issue, Mckinley or Bryan; that the
western populists insist upon grasping
the opportunity to vote on the silver issue
where their votes will count and their
failure to nominate Bryan will split the
party wide open and cause dissensions
that will never heal. They confront the
southern delegates and scattering squads
from other sections who want to keep
in the middle of the road and have no
truck" as some of them express it,
with other parties. While strong of con-
viction and vociferous in their determi-
nations that they will never surrender,
the of-the-road delegates are
practically a disorganzed crowd. They
keep up a great deal of enthusiasm at
their meetings and loudly claim as high
as 600 majority in the convention. The
hotel corridors ring with the oratory and
applause of their followers, but their
claims of victory can not be argued out
on paper unless in the final contest those
who insist upon compromise should side
with them. In certain quarters, how
ever, they appear to have unquestiona-
bly, gained strength. In Washington
state, for instance, out of seventeen
Bryan men who came in the delegation
they claim to have captured all but two.
They argue that they have disrupted
both the old political parties and with
four more years of old party rule they
will be able to sweep the country. Their
meetings are the feature of the conven-
ton thus far. At the meeting today
some one raised the cry that man
named Silas Ross of Buffalo was here
in the interest of the Republican mana
gers to prevent the endorsement of Bry-
an and a fight was only averted by the
discovery that the man at whom the as
sault was levied was somebody else. Al
together the middle-of the-road men are
making a loud noise which creates an
impression of numbers and strength.
"A few frogs in Il pond" said one of
them, 'can make the night wild with
their believing"
Despite the wild claims of the shouters
it is apparent today that some of their
leaders were weakening. They were
talking in more temperate strain and
were suggesting compromises as the
best way out of tine tange
Cyclone Davis, for instance. pre-
pared a resolution which he said he
would offer. declaring that in order to
defeat Mckinley and the gold stand
ard, the populists should agree upon