The Birmingham age-herald., 1904-02-29
Ex-Gov. Johnston Not a Candi-
 date for Convention
PRESIDENTIAL NOMINATION
Former Governor Discusses Demo. cratic Situation-opposed to cleve- land and Thinks 1t Would be un-
 wise to Nominate Mir. Bryan.

announced yesterday that he would not be a candidate for delegate to the demo- cratic national convention. He is not Tn politics at present, but as in former days 1 takes great interest in party affairs. In talking yesterday in response to an inquiry as to whether or not he would be a candidate for delegate to the na- tional convention he said:
 q am not candidate nor do care to l be a delegate to the national convention. | I do not think any one should be sent as delegate who could not be depended upon to give his cordial support to the nominees. Having always done this' suppose I would again, but there might be a nomination made that would make this very disagreeable and unpleasant duty to me.
 MT. Bryan.
 'I have the highest respect and esteem for Mr. Bryan. l think him one or the purest of men and the ablest and most patriotic democrat now living. believe were he president that we should have splendid administration of our affairs
 one that would protect the honor of our government, strengthen it's position amongst the nations of the earth as standing first and all the time for jus tice. liberty and humanity, putting aside all thirst for conquest and dominion and l greed, and making the United States loved at home and revered abroad. Yet do not think it would be wise to nom- mate MT. Bryan because there are some | democrats who think that he would so | revolutionize existing conditions as to bring disaster, and the desertion of these from our ranks would probably mean failure, and doubtless for this reason | Mir Bryan has renounced any aspiration for the nomination. MT. Bryan has no doubt been led by unjust and malicious attacks, abuse and misrepresentation, and the apprehension that there was a de- terrnined effort to repudiate the funda- mental doctrines of our party, to take the stump and express his views in foreible language. I am inclined to think that other methods might have been more available.
 MT. Cleveland.
 "The very apprehension that there is some serious effort to secure the nomi- nation of MT. Cleveland makes many loyal democrats almost despair or sue cess It seems to me that the ueiHocIdlC | party is in a very sad situation If it can not find standard bearer who has al- ways been faithful not only to the prin- ciples, but to the organization of the | party If it could even be imagined that | the rank and file of our party could Tor get that MT. Cleveland knifed our regular | nominated candidates, both in 1896 and 1900. they could never forget that by his want of tact, his incapable leadership and | his stubborn refusal to accept advice from the ablest democrats during his last term as president, a victorious, united and aggressive party was driven in disgrace from power and public conf- dence, though he succeeded in forcing | his policies to be enacted into law.
 As I understand it, MT. Bryan is not urging the reaffirmation of the Kansas City platform in order to commit the democratic party to the free coinage of silver at 16 to 1 or any other ratio, but to have it stand for the doctrines there- | in announced and a sufficient circulating medium to meet the demands of business. I do not suppose that any thoughtful democrat ever stood for free coinage ex- | cept as a means to an end. None cared | particularly that we should have two money metals, but that there should be enough primary money in circulation and | existence to preserve the level of prices | and fair reward for honest labor. The | greatly increased and still increasing pro- | duction of gold, and the hundreds of mill | lions of dollars brought into the United | States by the balance of trade in the past | few years has largely supplied the dem 1 ocratic demand for increased circulation, | enhanced the value of labor and property | and thus indicated the democratic conten- tion that no prosperity can exist without a sufficient circulating medium.
 MT. Shepherd.
 l tfYac have baan o,,otad fo,arfno | the nomination of MT. Shepherd of New l York, and whilst l have very high | opinion of his character and ability I am l satisfied that his opposition to the cleo l tion of the democratic ticket in the city 1 of New York in the recent election will | take him from the list of available can didates. I think it would be a somewhat arduous task to those of us who have always given active support to our can didates to convince the rank and fife of l our party that it was their duty to put aside preferences they might have held l to support nominee for president not | entirely to their liking, if that nominee should by his own conduct in the past | have maintained the doctrine that the l nominee should be opposed if he did not measure up in every particular to the l standards of fitness of the elector. It seem sto me that in order to win this 1 year. we shall need to get the vote of l mental principles of our party, and for | this reason it would be extremely unwlse to nominate any gentleman whose party loyalty is in question who has alien- ated the respect and confidence of any considerable number of democrats. The loss of few votes in any one state might be fatal to our success.
 The Delegates.
 T think the delegates to the conven- ton should go unlnstructed and without | any such bias would prevent them from making such choice as upon consul tation with representative democrats | from all the states would seem best to in- sure success. Considering that less than one-fifteenth of the democrats of Ala | bama followed the advice of Mr. Cleye- 1 land in 1S96 it would certainly be a cu- | rious spectacle to see the other fourteen | ffteenths this year making up a delega- tion to represent them taken from this minority I think every reasonable ef | fort should be made to forget past diff l ferences and to unite all democrats. hut l think 1t would be disastrous to deliver the organization into the hands of gen tlemen who seem not to feel bound by | the action of the party
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