The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1904-04-06
more than creed and more than profes

more than creed and more than profess
| sion.
| This 1896 experience proved exceedingly
! fortunate, financially as well as polite
ally. for Mr.. Hearst. His New York
| journal had opposed free silver and spoken
of it a menace to democracy: but when
! free silver triumphed, he turned il with
| all possible enthusiasm to the support of
the Bryan ticket. This brought him thous-
ands of newspaper patrons who wanted
regularity" and there never has been
a party bolt in this country In which the
detection of newspapers from their ordin-
airy allegiance was not fourfold that OF
the voting and newspaper-buying public.
So il proved in 1886. Every democratic
newspaper in Chicago bolted the Bryan
nomination and yet very considerable
percentage of its voters walked UP to the
polls and marked the regularity" ticket,
indicating that they would have preferred
to read regular newspapers. The situa-
ton was the same In many other cities.
Mr.. Hearst thus repeated the financial
harvest which the conscientousness of the
other newspaper proprietors threw into
his path. Four years later many of the
democratic papers had come to see the
financial cost of boiling a ticket and so
fell into line for Bryan. In the improb-
able event of Hearsts nomination this
year they will be confronted with a still
more serious problem, involving as IL
would. the strength of rival newspapers.
The suggestion is not without some
show Of plausibIity that the entire Hearst
boom has been financed and conducted
in order to increase the circulation and
influence of his newspapers. 1t has been
asserted that every dollar spent in build
ing up boom for the presidency comes
back four-fold to the owner of a news
paper. Should he be nominated and cleo
ted to the presidency, a public calamity
rather outside the range of human proba-
bilty. the country would be treated to
the spectacle of series of presidential
newspapers scattered over the country;
their utterances on public questions might
reasonably be regarded semi official"
Foreigners who came to the United
States from monarchial countries would
have thrust before their eyes I'm all the
leading cities newspaper which they
would be told belonged to the head of
the republic and reflected his ideas OF
journalistic taste as well as his aspirs
tons on national questions. 1t would Be
a new kind Of court circular.
For the last year In this city there have
been plenty Of persons TO insist that Mr..
Hearst would be the next Democratic
nominee for presidency. but such predic-
tons have been steadily laughed aside
Today similar predictions are regular
ly pronounced by serious-minded people
as fimsy. There is too much sense left
in the democratic party to do such a
thing The southern democrats are con-
servative and want TO win They will find
some way of snufhng him out. These are
the reasons commonly assigned for heliev-
ing that the Hearst movement need not
be feared. However. as convention after
convention is held, he is gathering In
surprisingly large number Of delegates
and from this, time forth his candidacy
will have TO be closely watched. AZ
Senator Clay said in letter 70 a friend.
which he did not expect would be made
public. the nomination Of Hearst would
spoil any chances the democratic party
might have for the next twenty years.