The Elk Mountain pilot., 1901-07-30
BRYAN AND THE "oHIo IDEA.v


liam j. Bryan, have set the pace for
the party organization in the other
states of the Union. The Columbus
| platform merely omitted all mention
of the currency question, but the con
vention went on record against Bryan
ism by vote of more than 100 to /,
when an indiscrete friend of Bryan
moved the endorsement of the candi-
date and platform of 1900. The Mem
phis Commercial Appeal says that the
note, or, rather, has recurred to an
old note, unheard for several years.
and that it has presented the matter
with dramatic effect as positive as it
was unexpected. Our contemporary
adds:
The Ohio Democracy records its
weariness of failure and defeat. 1t
turns its back upon free silver as a
dead issue. 1t breaks away from n
leadership which, honorable and well
meaning as it has been. has brought
the Democratic party to n condition of
nerveless disintegration. We have been
told recently that we must go on, ap-
pended to "A corpse, that we must cling
to our defeat as If it were something
holy. that we must continue to fight
for that which the people have twice
pronounced against. even though we
know that other and more disastrous
defeats should follow"
SO also the Boston Post says:
I'm refusing to 'reattirm' the Kan
sas City platform, or to express con-
tnued confidence in Mr.. Bryan, the
Ohio Democrats have set n good ex-
ample to the party throughout the
country. The Democracy has swung
back to the moorings from which it
was cut loose in 1896; 1t is anchored
again to its traditional principles
The Richmond Times, referring to
Bryans recent injunction to elect no
man to committee or convention unless
he is n believer in the Kansas City
platform, declares him to be marl-
plot, and insists that the Ohio Demo
Gratis have given him just rebuke. 1t
says further that
Mr.. Bryan's leadership has not only
been fiat failure, but it has cost the
Democratic party almost its existence.
Mr.. Bryan has done about as much as
any one man could do to disrupt the
party and destroy its organization. 1t
was largely through his influence that
the party formed an alliance with Pop
ulists and Free Silver Republicans,
and it was Mr.. Bryan's idea to drive
away from the party all Democrats
who were opposed to his peculiar doc
trines, and then to form a new party
of all sorts and conditions of men who
believed in Organism"
The Savannah News says that If the
Democrats in the other states will fol-
low the lead of Ohio there will be no
need of talk about party reorganiza-
tion-the reorganization will take place
without any special effort:
The impression seems to be taking
"A firm hold on the Democratic party
that success is not in the direction in
which Mr.. Bryan has been leading,
and that If victory is to be won it
must be with somewhat different is
sues and different leaders.
IF the action of the Ohio Democrats
is any indication of what is going to
take place, the Democratic national
platform of 1901 will not be reaf-
tirmation of the Kansas City platform.
Ii will be different from that platform
in several important particulars-so
different that no Democrat will have
any hesitation in standing upon it,"
The Atlanta Journal considers that
the action of the Ohio Democracy will
have n tremendous effect:
'It will make more certain the re
turn TO Democratic principles and
policies as they We're held and pro-
claimed before the Chicago convention
of 1896. 1t has made doubly sure the
assurance already amply given that
the Democratic party will 90 forth in
1904 with other candidates and n far
different platform than those for
which it invited the support and conf
dence of the country in 1900"
On the same subject the Albany
Argus says:
There will be no violent Ieconstruc-
ton, or disciplining, or reading out of
the party. The Democracy has had
enough of that, and to spare. The par
ty will simply forget some things-it
has forgotten them already, and
learned some others. The process
which might better be called rehabili-
tation than reorganization is quietly
doing its work all over the country,
and the Ohio convention is merely n