The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-07-12
PARKER IS
A WINNER
BOurke Cochran Won to
Nominee.
CONFIDENT OF SUCCESS
Judge Gained What Managers
Surrendered.
Message to Convention In Opinion Of
New York Orator Makes DEM
Ocratic Candidate More
Available Than
Cleveland.

Press today received the following
communication from Bourke Cochran,
dated Indianapolis. July 10, explaining
his declination to address the National
Democratic Convention at st. Louis:
i left st. Louis yesterday at 12:45
o'clock because as matters stood, 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 Conven-
tion that Judge Parker had in my opin-
ion the faintest prospect of success I
have made 1t rule never to say on a
public platform anything that I would
not repeat in the witness chair. could
not prophesy victory and l would not
foretell defeat. Silence was therefore
the only course open and the best way
to pursue it was by absence.
When l reached indianapolis l was
handed a telegram from Charles +.
Murphy informing me of Judge Par
ker's message to Governor Sheehan
and urging me to return Immediately.
I'm an instant the whole situation
was changed. The prospect which had
been black with signs of disaster at
once became splendid with promises of
victory. For many months l had been
preaching that the success of the Dem
ocratic Party this year involved the
continuance of constitutional govern
ment in this country. This view was
expressed in the resolution submitted
to the State Convention last April by
the Tammany members and / think 1t
is shared by every thoughtful man In
the country. The one thing absolutely
essential to Democratic success iS
leader.
Till now no one possessing any
thing like availability was conspicu-
GUS except Mr.. Cleveland. To him
there !. were weighty objections. His
age Is advanced. Many politicians be-
lfeve there is a widespread objection
to giving any man. however wise or
virtuous, more than two terms In the
Presidency The antagonisms which he
has provoked are numerous and bitter
Still his running qualities were so ex-
cellent that the delegates from the city
of New York urged his nomination as
the only one that furnished the slight
est hone even of an exciting contest.
To bring this about and to secure an
uneouivocal acknowledgment that the
money question was settled. were the
two objects to which the Tammany del
egation confined the efforts or its mem
bers.
"It appeared quite early that the first
of these was wholly impossible. To
accomplish the second we felt 1t was
on1v necessary that the delegates from
all the doubtful States should demand
n firmly as a condition absolutely nee
essorv to success At the meeting or
the New York delegation on TUESDAY
morning a resolution to this erect Oh
fered by me was suppressed as par
liamentary manoeuvre. AFTER II hao
been agreed by the leaders to eliminate
oil reference to the money question:
again moved that the New YORK DEL
eeation offer as amendment In the CON
yention the financial plank submitted
", Senator TIlll to the Committee on
Resolutions, but the motion was re-
iected by a vote of so to % of the del
egates. .os +bs
nomination of Judge Parker, who was
without any record on the coihase
question except that he had voted
twice for Mr.. Bryan. seemed to pre-
clude the slightest hope that he would
receive even as many electoral votes
"a Mr.. Bryan polled in 1900. But this
very pussillanimity of his managers,
which led them to surrender their own
convictions and to stihe every at
tempt of the New York city delegates
even to voice the opinions of their
constituents on this momentous ques-
opportunity which he has improved de-
cisively. 1t has revealed him to the
people of this country almost in an
instant as a great leader, the greatest
of this generation. an honest mantle
most impressive in displaying that
virtue that I have ever known either
through experience or reading, a cour-
ageous man-of such incomparable
courage that he was willing to throw
away not merely the hope or prospect
of nomination, but an actual nomina-
ton for the presidency rather than to
stoop to an evasion or equlVocatlon on
q matter of principle.
AZ, who had left st. Louis before the
final adjournment as the only way to
avoid being placed in position where
/ must have told the convention that
Judge Parker could not, in my opin-
ion, escape crushing defeat, on the
receipt of Mr.. Murphy's message at
once ordered a special train and hast
ened back, because 1 then felt free to
tell the members. If they still desired
to hear from me, that on the new plat
form which he himself made Judge
Parker would be Overwhelmingly
elected.
when my train arrived at O'CLOCK
in the morning, the convention had
completed its work, but If | had been
present 1 could not have made sim
gle suggestion which would have been
an Improvement on its course. Indeed,
the admirable temper displayed by the
men who at first blush might have
considered themselves belittled or ag-
grieved by the singularly Independent
course of their candidate is one of the
most suspicious features under which
the campaign opens"