The L'Anse sentinel. (L'Anse, L.S., Mich.) 18??-current, 1899-05-13
BRYAN OR " BUST.
Inside Facts Concerning the Jones'
Bryan Conferences.
Pressure on Bryan to Gust AItgeid-
Jones Files TO Europe for a Rest
Sam Cook I'm Danger-The st.
Louis Two Dollar Dinner.


What will he do next?" 10 the question
of democrats in general, and OF Illinois
democrats In particular. concerning John
p. Altgeld. Democratic leaders Of this
city and state, and most of those so fire.
quently to be met here from all parts or
the country, are at a loss to know whether
Altgeld will stay In the party and hope
against hope to retrieve his lost leadership,
or whether he will go cut and train with
the new party which the Joneses and Pin
grees are to get up at Buffalo. The i'm
preston of most of them Is that Altgeld's
deserton would destroy whatever chance
OF success the democrats might have In
the next campaign. Next to Bryan, there
Is no man in the democratic party of the
present day with so large following.
The National Committee.
Events are conspiring to force Altgeld
out of the democratic party. There Is
story behind the recent visit OF Bryan to
Senator Jones. the chairman of the ma
tional democratic committee, which rests
upon the fact that the Fryantes are in
large majority in that body, and In
position to dictate its course. Stories have
come out of the east to he effect that
the anti-Bryanites in the committee have
decided to reorganize the committee and
put in the place OF Senator Jones as chair
man somebody who would use the machine
against Bryan's denomination. The
Bryanites can control more than two
thirds OF the men now In the committee,
and 1t Is the Bryanites who have threat
ened to reorganize the committee and leave
Senator Jones out OF the chair. That is
as near as the eastern story has got to
the truth OF the situation In the national
democratic committee.
Immediately after the triumph of Har-
rison and the elimination of Altgeld in
the Chicago municipal campaign, the
braves nj Chicago
many began clamor for either the de-
struction of the committee on ways and
means, of which Altgeld is a member. or
Altgelds removal from that committee.
Tom Gahan. power behind the Harrison
throne and the Illinois member o. the ma
tional democratic committee, was a lead
err of this demand. which. however, he in
spired rather than expressed. Gahan has
always resented the appointment of Alt
geld in preference to himself as the resi-
dent member of the committee He, and
the Harrison machine with him, have re-
garded that act of gross discrimination as
being conclusive of Chairman Jones alli-
ance with Altgeld against Harrison. and
indirectly against Bryan, Jones and Alt
geld serving each others ends in the ar
rangement. AS the committee got to work,
and the municipal campaign progressed,
II became clearer that the committee was
TO be used in more ways than one to Gerve
the purposes of the men controlling ii.
vi lillS more VIII uOuDtleSS De maze known
in course of time The official announce
ment of the committees support of Altgeld
In the closing days of the struggle was
not, therefore, surprise to the machine
leaders. although they were hardly pre-
pared for such bold and defiant avowal
of such an unprecedented action in party
organization.
The demand for radical action came to
Bryan as the one most interested, as we'll
as the one who had standing with the
national committee, enabling him to bring
1t TO the work of either disbanding the COM
mittee of ways and means or getting Alt
geld out OF 1t. At first this demand in
cluded such sweeping reorganization as
would put Jones out of the Craftsmanship
OF the main body, but Bryan, in the con-
ference where this was proposed. pointed
out that 1t would be unfortunate for the
party in accentuating the too general opin-
ion that IL already has more feuds than
II can well carry. He answered the asser-
ton that Jones would use the committee
against him as he had used it against Har-
rison with the statement that Jones could
be brought to a realizing sense of his po-
sition without going to the extremity OF
making an open breach. He had, he said.
never failed to maintain friendly personal
relations with the national chairman, as
he had with Altgeld. 1t might become nee
essary to terminate such relations, but
there was no necessity of doing II until 1t
was no longer unavoidable.
An interesting piece of inside history Is
that after Bryan had taken this attitude
he was brought TO abandon II through rep
reservations of how powerful Altgeld
might become as a disturber in the next
state convention and the next national
democratic convention If he Is left I'm
position of authority in the party orgari-
cation and work Once out of all official
or prominent personal connection with the
national committee, the machine leaders
said to Bryan, Altgeld would become a
quantity easy to deal with. If left in such
connections he might even unseat Bryan
delegation from Illinois.
Bryan Goes to Jones.
Bryan has been long convinced Of the
loyalty OF Harrison and his men. with
few other men, thoroughly conversant with
democratic politics, he felt that the defeat
of Harrison would be a calamity to him.
The sense of personal obligation he felt to
the machine, added to the representations
OF what menace to the Bryan programme
Altgeld might become If left in prominent
position. brought him to the point of un-
dertaking to at least get assurances from
Chairman Jones that neither the national
democratic committee nor the ways and
means committee, of which Altgeld Is
part, should be used against him or against
his friends. for large part of the Har-
rison dread Is that the ghost of Altgeld
will appear on the Illinois hastings next
year as an Independent candidate for gov
ernor. Bryan appears not to have liked
overmuch this attitude of tentative hos
tility to Altgeld, but he was given to I'M
derstand, and certainly had every reason
to believe, that Altgeld had abandoned
him.
1t is understood here that Jones denied
when the complaints of Gahan and the
other Chicago democrats were made
known to him through Bryan, that the
ways and means committee had been or
ganized for or against any candidate or
candidates, and insisted that IL IL had been
40 used 1t was without any authority of
his. This admission Bryan is understood
20 have used as an argument for the re-
organization of the committee, on a basis
of an entirely new membership, at least
as to those members over whose appoint
ment or removal any friction has arisen.
He made an emphatic protest against the
treatment accorded to "Coin" Harvey,
which, he understood, was administered
as u punishment to Harvey for no greater
offe nse than failing to oppose the nominee
of q democratic convention. Bryan did
not insist upon the reappointment of Har-
fey, but he urged the reorganization Of
the committee In a way to remove every
source of personal feeling and promote
the ends Of party harmony.
Jones. who Is so far out OF touch with
things that he was actually expecting, UNI
til the day of election. that Harrison would
be defeated, met the advances Of Bryan
more patiently than had been expected
TN Il. "a