The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1904-01-15
On the Thorny Path.

On the Thorny Path.
Colonel John w. Forney, ~that liable
editor of the elder day, was in the
habit of referring in every CONVERSE
ton to my two newspapers, both
daily Mr.. William H. Hearst, when
ne gets his ST. Louis organ running,
can go Forney two better, and, about
the time the cads begin to write spring
poetry, he will be heard abiding con-
stantly to my four newspapers, all
daily"
The Hearst boom, supported GER
talnly by four Hearst organs, with a
big fortune back of them, Is under
taken on the belief of it's author that
In this commercial age, If money can
buy a United States senatorship, there
is no reason why any American citi-
zen with big purse and flinty
cheek cannot buy the presidential
nomination at least. Mr.. Hearst rec
ognizes the soundness Of Lincoln's
phrase, "You can fool some of the
people all the time, etc., and he wants
democratic nomination or swing a
vote which will give him controlling
voice in the last decisive call of the
states.
1t is only to be hoped that Mr..
Hearsts presidential aspirations will
not assume permanency and become
an intolerable bore and nuisance.
| Hearst is too Inexperienced to be
warned by the failure of Bryan to
get the prize, altho twice warned
with more or less enthusiasm by his
| party.
The history of presidential aspir-
ants during the nineteenth century
is not very encouraging for such per-
sons who indulge in White House
hopes in these latter days. Clay be-
gan his fight for the presidency lin
1924 and kept it up until 1S4S, when
he, and Webster, who had long been
an aspirant also, had their hopes
A blasted by the, nomination and cleo,
ton by the wings of General Taylor
Such gifted men as Clay and Webster
WHY So11IA11Ol11y OppOoCu ny 1llSdl
plots of cliques. When Clay's outlook
was brightest, in 1914, Birney's, lib
erty party candidacy drew off enough
whig votes in New York to give Polk
the presidency. ..-. -. .-Ss i,
| Nobody thought of such thing as
in 1852, when such men as Stepher
A. Douglas and Marcy were available
Blaine's' case is among the notice.
able cases of disappointed aspirations
especially as he finally became the
K nominee of his party for the presi
dency in 1884 and went down before
the first victory shouts the democrat:
had recorded in a presidential cleo
ton for tWenty-eight years. Blaine
was even more popular than was Clay
during his great struggle for the frs
place. No man was ever nominated
in such a brilliant and eloquen
speech as that made by Ingersol
when he nominated Blaine at the ma
tional republican convention in 1876
But it did not help him.
Curiously enough, it was Genera
Tyner who defeated him, as he had
grudge against Blaine because whel
the latter was speaker of the hous
, he failed to make Tyner chairman
of a certain committee after promisin,
l to give him the position. Tyner in
duced the Indiana delegation, which
: was pledged to Blaine, to swing owe
to the comparatively obscure Hayes
2 AS a matter of historic fact, presi
dency-seeking is generally a very un
satisfactory business. The annals o
the quest are full of disappointment
heartburnings, jealousies, conspiracies
shattered dreams. The dark hors
has won the prize just often enough
to generate the ambition Of man
citizens, to put up lightning rods an
: look for a stimulating shock. Hears
is constructing rather expensive roc