Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1899-08-12
DEFEAT OF BRYAN
Significance and Scope Of Coming
Saratoga Conference.
TIE EFFORT 70 GAIN RECRUITS
Secret Organization of Men Op-
posed to the Nebraskan.
LEADERS OF THE MOVEMENT

| Information received here indicates that
| the Saratoga conference of anti-Bryan peo-
! pie is more significant and has better
| prospect of accomplishing something than
| is generally supposed. There is no probable
| lty that the conference set for the 10Th of
| this month will be attended by any except
we1l-known antf-Bryan people, but the real
work of the anti-Bryan leaders is being
| done now in connection with what is SEEM
| ingly but the preliminary consultation. Mr.
German, Mr.. Harrity and Mr.. Whitney I'M
derstand very we'll that Bryan's nominal
ton can be defeated, if at all, only through
the agency of men who are now and have
been from the first identified with the Bry-
an wing of the party. Therefore, while the
men talked OF in connection with the Sara
toga pow-wow and who do the talking are
conspicuous anti-Bryan men, those who
are depended on for results are men sup
POSED to be loyal to Bryan, and who will
be Kept carefully in the background
long as possible. Men occupying this posi-
ton are being secretly organized, and it is
lnt1mated that some of great influence
WITHIN the Bryan ranks are party to the
plans. Men like Bankhead, who are already
more than under suspicion by the Bryan
people, may go openly to Saratoga, while
others, it is said, will go there by proxy
or slip IN secretly in person and get away
without being identified. However provin-
clal may be the methods of Croker and the
Iammany leaders, German and Harrity are
past masters in the art of dealing with. the
mere politicians in all parts of the country
and know pretty well what men to APP
proach with plan of the sort they pro-
pose, and know we'll how to approach them.
They are inviting a good many men to meet
them in Saratoga who are not suspected
of being opposed to Bryan, and some of
them certainly are accepting the invitation.
Must Keep Under, Cover.
1t is said that such of these men as
fall i'll with the plan are given their in
structions and sent forth, with admonitions
to keep under cover and get control of the
party organization in their respective sec
tions as far as possible. They are not ex-
pected to participate in the conference of
the 18th nor to be known at all in the
movement against Bryan. The advertised
conference, which they will not figure in,
Will serve merely to cover up their tracks
and be a cloak for the real work that is
being done. The plan thus far is disclosed
by Bryan men who have been approached
under the impression that they might be
led to participate in the move
How successful these efforts have been
or how promising of success cannot, of
course, be known except to the men at the
head of the movement, since they do not
disclose to one convert what another con-
vert is doing, but upon what is developed
at this series of secret interviews will de-
pend whether4or not effort to control
the next democratic national convention
Will be persisted in by the anti-Bryan peo-
pie
Some of the Bryan men profess to believe
that Messrs. Whitney, German and Harri-
ty-Fiarrity being really the active man
cannot make any progress except among
those possessing sort of influence who
will go into the movement for what they
can make out of it, and that the uIshot of
all their scheming will be the purchase of
a lot of broken-down politicians and the
liftinS of the mortgages off of some I'M
profitable country newspaper properties
But the fact that man who aspires to the
democratic nomination for the speakership
of the House should deem 1t wise to respond
to a call to Saratoga would seem to be sig
nlficant of greater strength in the move
ment. The secrecy surrounding it is calcu-
lated. too, to make the Bryan politicians
suspicious of each other and to confuse
their council
Question Bryan's Party Loyalty.
In addition to the attempt to influence
southern men against Bryan by recalling
that he did not vote for Crisp for Sneaker
because he was a southern man, they are
attacking Bryan's party loyalty on the
ground that he is alleged to have proposed
the formation OF a new party when Cleve-
land secured the repeal of the Sherman
law. The argument sought to be enforced
by these two citations is that if BRYAN
should be elected he would not recognize
the southern leaders and would NOT he
bound by democratic traditions, but would
advance the populistic interests south east
and west.
Back of the Van Wyck talk with which
new recruits are greeted, those who enter
into the game find that more serious con-
sderation is being given to the discussion
of Pattison's availability as a rival candi-
date to Bryan.
One of the results of the knowledge on
the part of organs sincere supporters that
some of those on whom they previously
relied have been won over is a suspicion
and uncertainty as to men whom they have
to trust.
OF Missouri in contrivng to get the con-
troll of the Bryan national committee into
his own hands, with the fact that he par
ticiDated in conference with the New
York and Brooklyn leaders some months
ago in New York eXcites in the minds of
some feeling of anxiety lest there might
be some connection between that earlier
and apparently less significant conference
and the one now in progress.
A Disturbing Thought.
This thought is very disturbing. Should
there be any warrant for the suspicion
if it may yet be said to amount to a sus-
picion-the affairs of the Bryan organiza-
ton would be in a terrible tangle Both
Bryan and Senator Jones have great con-
tidence in Stone.
1t was somewhere near the first of last
January that Stone met McIaughIin and
Croker in New York, and ii was said at
that time that Mclaughlin, particularly
wanted Stone to be q candidate against
Bryan on account of Stone being an ex-
pansionist The assumption at the time
was that Stone did not consent to this
proposition, though his relations are said
to be very friendly with Mclaughlin. His
greater activity In the council of the demo-
cratic national committee began from that
time, however and it is since then that
he has been working persistently toward
some definite end of his own, which has
resulted now In his working himself into
PRACTICAL control Of the Bryan organiza-
ton . -
TRUSTED OFFICER DEAD.