The Birmingham age-herald., 1904-07-12
BOURKE COCHRAN
 VERY CONFIDENT Parker's Telegram Changed Whole Aspect of Case THINKS ELEc TON ASSURED Action In Sending Message Showed Him to Be a Man of Convictions
 Who Is Willing to Stand
 By Them.
THINKS ELEC CTION ASSURED

New York, July 1.-The Associated Press today received the following com munication from Bourke Cochran dated Indianapolis, July 10, explaining his decli- nation to address the national democratic convention at St Louis:
 T left St. Louis yesterday at 12:45 o'clock because as matters stood 1 did not want to be in the convention when nominations for vice president were reached.
 Calls for me to make a speech which had been made repeatedly on prior days, would very likely be renewed at the final session. and at the time 1 could not truthfully assure the convention that Judge Parker had in my opinion the faintest prospect of success. 1 have made 1t rule never to say on a public platform anything that I would not re- peat in the witness chair l could not prophecy victory and I would not foretell defeat. Silence was therefore the only course open and the best way to pursue 1t was by absence.
 Receives Telegram From Murphy.
 
 handed a telegram from Charles r. Murphy informing me of Judge Parker's message to Governor Sheehan and urging me to return immediately.
 Tn an instant the whole situatoa was changed. The prospect which hau- been black with signs of disaster at once be- came splendid with promises of victory. For many months 1 had been preaching that the success of the democratic party | this year involved the continuance of con- 1 stitutional government in this country. i This view was expressed in the resolution | submitted to the state convention last April hy the Tammany members and 1 think it is shared by every thoughtful man in the country. The one thing absolutely essen;lal to democratic success is leader.
 Objections to MT. Cleveland.
 Iii now no one possessing anything like availability was conspicuous except | Mr. leyeland To him there were waishty objections. His age Is advanced Many politicians believe there is a wide spread objection to giving any man, how l ever wise or virtuous, more than two terms in the presidency. The antagon- l ,sn,s which he has provoked are numerous and titter. Still his running qualities were | SD excellent that the delegates from the ely Of New York urged his nomination as the only one that furnished the slightest hope even of an exciting contest. To bring this about and to secure an unequi- vocal acknowledgement that the money question was settled. were the two ob- 1eets to wlich the Tammany delegation confined tine efferots of it's members
 Tt apeared quite early that the first Of these wholly impossible. To accom- plish the second we felt it was only nec- essary that the delegates from all the doubtful states should demand it firmly as condition absolutely necessary to success At the meeting of the New York delegation on Tuesday morning a resolu- ton to this effect offered by me was suppressed as q parliamentary maneuver After It had been agreed by the leaders | to eliminate all reference to the money l question: l again moved that the New York delegation offer as an amendment 1 in the convention the financial plank sub mitted by Senator Hill to the committee l on resolutions. but the motion was re- jected by vote of % to 2S of the dele l gates.
 Shown Himself Great Man. l "Uuder these circumstances the nomi- nation of Judge Parker, who was without | any record on the coinage question except that he had voted twice for MT. Bryan, seemed to preclude the slightest hope l that he would receive even as many cleo 1 toral votes as Mir. Bryan boiled in 1900 l But this very pusillanmity of his mana gers, which led them to surrender their own convictions and to stihe every at | tempt of the New York city delegates 1 even to voice the opinions of their con l stituents on this momentous question fur nished Judge Parker with an opportunity which he has proved decisvely. It has 1 revealed him to the people of this country | almost in an instant as a great leader | the greatest of this generation, an honest man-the most impressive in displaying that virtue that I have ever known either through experience or reading. a courage ous man-of such incomparabe courage that he was willing to throw away not merely the hope or prospect of nomina- tion, but an actual nomination for the presidency rather than to stoop to an eva sion or equivocaton on matter of prfn- ciple
 Changed Entire Aspect.
 "I. who had left St. Louis before the final adjournment as the only way to avoid being placed in a position where I must have told the convention that Judge Parker could not In my opinion. escape crushing defeat, on the receipt of MT. Murphy's message at once ordered | special train and hastened back because | l then felt free to tell the members, if they still desired to hear from me that on the new platform which he himself made | Judge Parker would be overwhelmingly elected.
 'When my train arrived at o'clock | in the morning. the convention had com pleted it's work, but if I had been pres 1 ent I could not have made a single sug- l gestion which would have been an inn provement on it's course. Indeed. the ad- mirable temper displayed by the men who at first blush might have considered them selves belittled or aggrieved by the sin 1 gularly independent course of their can l didate is one of the most suspicious fea lures under which the campaign opens.'