New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1901-06-28
THE DFvOCR4TJc LEADERSHIP.


Colonel Bryan's recent announcement through
THE Buffalo Times that he is not candidate
for any office will be sadly msconstrued if
il is taken by discontinued Eastern or Southern
Democrats as an abdication of party leadership.
Talk of a reorganization of party forces which
should wrest control from the Western and
Southwestern Radicals and FusOnists and vest
il in the old line leaders of the East and South
undoubtedly prompted the Presidential candi-
date of 1896 and 1900 to give fair notice that
his own ambitions and interests will have 10 be
reckoned with in any changes of programme at
TEMPTED three wears hence Colonel Bryan's re-
fusal TO consider himself a candidate for third
nomination is in no sense absolute or final. On
the contrary il discloses fixed purpose on his
part 10 defeat all interference with the condi-
tons which forced his selection by the last two
Presidential conventions, and which would
make his candidacy equally logical and plausi-
bic in 1904.
Little comfort can be found by the conserva-
tive leaders who are trying to relegate Colonel
Bryan to the rear rank in his mere admission
that he is mot only not a candidate for any
office" but has no candidate in mind for any
office" For he couples with his colorless disa-
vOwal this spirited rebuke to the critics who are
demanding his retirement:
Those who argue from the standpoint Of ex-
pediency will not have influence with the voters,
because no can say what is eXpedient The
Democratic party stands for definite, positive
principles. and unless l mistake the sentiments
Of the masses, the voters will insist upon adher-
ing to these principles in spite Of the threats OF
the reorganzers.
In other but scarcely palmer words the
Democratic party stands for Organism. and
what filter exponent OF Organism than Bryan
himself could be imagined or wished for?
There can be no doubt that the Nebraska lead
er's political authority has been seriously
shaken by his two successive and crushing de
feats. His unsuccessful fight against a Demo
cratic Mayoralty candidate In St Louis last
spring proved that his appeals had lost some Of
the former power either TO charm or to terrOrize
even in a State devoted to his personal fort
unes as Missouri. Other signs of partial eclipse
have not been wanting-not the least of them
the suggestion the other day by a Southern
Representative, Mr.. Gaines, Of Tennessee, that
the time had come for the Democratic
party to look below Mason and Dixon's line for
Presidential candidate. Were the South not
an inert passive force in national politics
blindly accepting any ideas or leadership duly
stamped Democratc-such n suggestion
might actually threaten the balance of forces to
which Colonel Bryan and the Western and
Southwestern radicals owe their present lease
of power. But the South-as is evidenced by
the course Of its leaders in the last two Con
gresses-does not really know what IT wants in
politics; nor is il prepared TO offer any pro-
gramme which will conciliate and realign the
elements driven into revolt by the campaigns of
1896 and 1900 With no acceptable substitute
yet in sight. the Democratic managers who are
dreaming of reorganization should be very
chary about proclaiming a vacancy in party
leadership. Certainly the sign Leader Want
ed" will not be hung out so long as the Ne
braska Orator has voice 10 protest against the
''eXpediency" of his own election