Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1903-12-30
OEMocaAnc CONVENTION Of lac4.
All Eyes are on us--The Factions will Mako
q Strong Fight.

ou0n0 figbt.
Now that the Republicans have
decided upon the time and place of
their national convention, attention
is attracted to the meeting of the
Democratic national cdmmittee.
which is to take place in this CITY
next month for q like purpose. There
is every reason to believe that the
considerations which led to the selec-
tion of Chicago as the convention
city by the Republicans will have
weight with the Democrats. In fact
the most important question which
the Democratic committeeman will
decide will be the date of the conyen-
tion. There is quite sentimentfn
favor of fixing the date early in June
and before the Republican conyen-
tion, in order to avoid placing the
Democrats in the position of assum-
ing the defensive. 1t is said, however,
that the unvaryiDg practice has been
to allow the party in power to hold
the first convention, make it's nomina-
tlons and adopt it's platform, the
opposing party waiting until this
work has been accomplished. What
ever course is pursued, the fact
remains that the convention will be
well worth attending. Its first roll
call will be series of tributes to
favorite sons. twill be the beginning
of great battle for the nomination.
: National conventions during the
past twenty years, with the exception
OF the Democratic gathering at
Chicago in 1896, have been rather
tame affairs. The nomination of Nc
Kinley at st. Louis in that year was
foregone conclusion long before the
chairman raped the assembled
delegates to order, while at Phiadel-
phia and Kansas City in 1900 the
nomination of M, Kinley and Bryan
was absolutely assured. At Chicago
next year, wnen the Republicans
meet in national convention, they
will merely ratify the now assured
denomination of President Roosevelt.
and there will be little more than n
ripple of interest as to the candidate
for the second place upon the ticket.
With the Democrats, however, the
conditions will be vastly different.
Not only will there be battle royal
between aspirants for the nomination,
but there will be contest even more
spirited and more bitter for the sue
cess of differing policies and princi-
pies. On the one hand, will be BRYAN
and his followers, who will insist
upon resurrecting the corpse of the
sacred ratio of 16 to l and reviyiDy
all the other defeated issues; while
on the other hand, there will be the
conservative Democrats, who want
to bring the party back to it's old lines,
and who know, from sad experience,
that there is no other pathway to
success. Everything will depend in
the outcome of the convention upon
the result of this struggle to dominate
the party. And until thetrend of the
convention is known, it will be almost
impossible to predict the successful
candidate.
1t is said that Bryan will help Mr..
Hearst in return for the support
given by the latter to Bryan in 1896,
when Mr.. Hearst's paper was the
only one in the east to stand by the
Democratic nominee. Mr.. Bryan,
just before he left for Europe, made
it known that he would be in the
next Democratic convention, and
that he would fight, first of all, to
prevent the nomination of either
ex-President Cleveland or Senator
German. AS Mr.. Cleveland has
positively withdrawn, Mr.. German
is the only remaining target for Mr..
Bryan's revenge.