The sun., 1901-01-04
WASHINGTON LETTER.
Special Correspondent to The Sun,


Washington, Jan. 1.-Judging from
the talk one hears among Congressman
the movement to dispose Mr.. Bryan
from the leadership Of the party is grow
ing steadily. 1t is freely asserted that
the opposition to him now includes SO
large a proportion of the National Com
mittee, that trouble is certain at its meet
ing here this month. Unusual feeling has
been aroused by Mr.. Bryan's intimation
in his recent speech that he might again
be candidate, this having angered men
who think that he has had his share
Of the chances and has made mess of
them on both occasions.
These men declare that he can blame
no one but himself for his defeats. No
candidate, they say, has ever had more
weight in shaping the issues on which he
proposed to run than Bryan, and no can.
didate has been more insistent in de-
manding that the party platform con.
form to his individual ideas. 1t is no.
torious that Bryan ran his own campaign
managed his own fight, pitched his own
battle, and the anti-Bryan Democrats
now insist that he must accept the full
| responsibility of the result. If the elec
| ti0h had been close in the pivotal states
which determined the result, most Demo
cratic politicians would have claimed that
their defeat was due to the greatly super
ior financial resources of their adversar
les. The defeat was so overwhelming
however, as to leave no doubt that it was
caused by the candidate more than by
any other one cause.
| The election returns of 1900 show that
he lost both in the popular and the elec
toral votes, as compared with 1885, AL
though quite number of Influential
editors and others came to his support
he must have lost heavily among the vot
rrs generally. Another interesting fact
which is emphasized by the anti-Bryar
wing of the democratic party is that he
ran behind the Democratic State or Con.
gressional ticket in the few states in
which the Democrats carried. This is
especially true in the Southern States
Bryal's loss of his own State, which
went Republican this year against E
Democratic majority of 14,0O0 in 1897
does not help his candidacy, and it is re
sarded as somewhat cheeky that Ii,
should even hint at the likelihood of cir
cumstances again bringing him the Presi
Dental nomination.
The disposition among the leadin,
Democrats now is to find some other can
iidate than Bryan. This will not be Mr.
lCleveland, however, who having broker
his long period of ''innocuous desuetude,
now seems unable to cease from tn,
'pernicious activity" with which he give
out interviews and letters. His brcakin,
Silence at the moment when the Demo
cratic party is suffering the depression o
ldefeat, is regarded as warranting the as
sumption that he is still ambitious, an,
that his inordinate self-esteem, inflame,
by the flattery Of those who have al
ways assembled about him, has led hin
to believe that there is a call for him t,
emerge from his medations and lead til,
way to new light.
There is no disposition shown here
however, to accept his leadership or t,
coneede that there is any possibility O
the party ever again taxing up with him
1t is pointed out that the conditions a.
to party organization render it impossibl,
for him and his friends to acquire con