Arizona republican., 1900-11-18
THE "OLD MAN OF THE SEA

A few months after the election of
 1896, a writer in the New York World
 charged that shrewd politicians in the
 republican party were seheming to
 have Mr Bryan made the demo- ! cratic nominee for president in 1900. Tt is the belief of these politicians, ''
 said the World writer. that the defeat of Mir. Bryan at the recent cleo ion | foreshadOws an even worse defeat four
 years hence if he can he forced upon | the democratic party again with rot ten money platform. And, further
 more, MT. Bryan is lending his best eff ] forts to the aims of these republican i politicians, for already he is a candi-
 date for the nomination for president
 in l900''
 l It scarcely is true that republican | politicians schemed for the renamin:I- | ton of MT. Bryan, though no one will | deny that the whole republican party | took great satisfaction in the dicta- torlal leadership of the democratic ! party. After the ballots were counted | in 1896 it became as sure as anything could be that the American people would never vote for an adninistra- ton pledged to overthrow the gold standard Every republican felt that if free silver could not carry at a time when the proStrate condition of the country had made many voters an easy prey to financial and C:her Sophis- tries, il certainly could not carry when times were good and the public mind in sane condition. But despite the se- cret satisfaction felt in Mir. Bryans | leadership there certainly was no con spiracy among republican politicians to force MT. Bryan for the second time upon the democratic party.
 As matter of fact, easy to be seen. MT Bryan made himself the inevitable democratic nominee for president in l9OO, and no one can fail to recognize the fine skill and courage with which he did it. Every presidential election previous to that of 1896 had been fol- lowed by period of Quiescence during which the parties took their bearing s. and through which they gradually dc- veloped the public mind and worked up the issues upon which to fight the next election. But MT. Bryan allowed his party no interval in which to consider anything. The day after the election of 1896 found him i'll the campaign just as vigorously as ever. He kept on the stump and declared everywhere that the democratic party had been wholly right, that its platform was the wis dom of ages and that the fight must be continued as i. had been begun. Thus he kept the issues on which the democratic party had gone down to de- feat under constant fire from the re- publican enemy. The democratic jour nals and leaders couldn't very well ad- init that their platform anl their can diGate had been all wrong, and they were forced much against their better judgment to follow MT. Bryan MT. Bryan never allowed his party an op- portunity for reorgdniZing itself He never permitted the discussion of an
 issue until he himself had thrown it out or made it an inallenab.c part of democratic doctrine. Thus We find him fastening the dogma of anti-eX- pansion upon the party when every democratic tradition was agalrss: it and when a majority of his followers were actually in favor of expansion It will be remembered that almost be- fore the facts were known to the public Mir, Bryan was out with his pr0pa- ganda. making 1t necessary that tha democratic party should repudiate him or the policy of territorial grow th. Never before in the history Of the American republic had there been such consummate skill and courage shown by a politician in shaping T great party To his own ends.
 And it is beginning to look as though Mir. Bryan will attempt the same tac- tics in regard to the election of 1904 He is talking now just as he talked af- ter his defeat in 1896. We are dafeat- ed." he said in a card to the public last Thursday. but not discoura ged, and the fight must go On." Again. in re- fusins an offer of a place on the cdi- tOrial staff of a Denver paper. he said: ''I shall remain here, and in the future as in the past, defend with my tongue and pen the principles which I believe to be right and the policies I believe to be wise" Which probably means that MT. Bryan will attempt to continue the campaign just as he carried it on dur ing the months before the election. Ami it means, also. that the democratic party must get quick action in separat- ing itself from his leadership. or he will attempt to dictate to it in 1904 as he did in 1900.-k1nS1S CitV JOurn91