The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 18??-1935, 1906-06-15
FINGER OF DESTINY
POINTS TO BRYAN,
Courier ournal.)

|
There is good reason for the belle
that, long before the assembling Of
the National Democratic Convention
of 1908, William Jennings Bryan will
have been put in nomination by States
enough in their separate and several
Conventions to leave to the larger
body only the business of confirming
an already agreed candidate, the Sc
lecting of his yoke mate and the build
ing of Platform.
In this there appears a certain in.
stinct of the people which often baf.
fies the best laid plans of the most
far-seejng statesmen and astute pc Ii
for-seeing statesmen and astute poll
That which is about to happen to
Mr.. Bryan happened to Mr.. Tilden.
Rejected by the party leaders in 1880,
when the issue of the Old Ticket
would have swept the country, his
unanimous acceptance came too late
in 1884. The Sage of Greystone had
grown old and infirm, and could not
avail himself of the glory that at
! length was his. He lived, however,
! long enough to witness the triumph
of the cause (which was dear to his
heart in the person of nominee put
forward by himself and his immediate
friends.
Mr.. Bryan is more fortunate than
Mr., Tilden. He carries no disabilities
| He has survived the crudities and
hysteria of the ill-starred campaign of
1896. Though he went to a dwindling
instead of a rising vote in 1900, he
held his organization and following in
tact. The end of the campaign of
1904 saw him the one king-pin erect
and standing; and since then it must
be conceded that he has carried him
self with prudence and aplomb, init
mating to thoughtful observers the
growing, rather than the waning, man.
The Nebraskan is at the height of
his powers. If the party cannot be
united on him, upon whom else? There
is a living hope among the Democratic
rank-and-file that we can carry the
next election and latent fear that
the chance of doing so may be blighted
by possible factionism, muddled by
misleading influences, perhaps by cor
rupt and corrupting influences. These
Democrats refuse to take two bites
at a cherry. Mr.. Bryan is as good
now as he will be two years hence.
They intend to say so. They do not
intend to wait What he will most
need will be moral support, and this
they mean to heap up in sufficient
measure and in advance. AS a con-
sequence each State, at least in the
West and South which meets in Con-
vention for any purpose from now on
ward will follow the lead of Missouri,
Arkansas and Indiana, naming him as
the standard-bearer for 1908.
So much for the more or less super
fetal and party aspects of the case.
But, behind them and below them,
there lie, yet half-hidden, forces i'm
measurable and momentous. The peo-
pie have lost the control of their Gov
eminent, and they begin to feel it, to
see it, to know it. The Free Silver
emotion, for it was little else, was
merely the manifestation of a distem-
per of whose real nature and extent, in
1896, the country was not fully advised. |
Something allied it. 1t cried aloud, !
and, in answer to it's cry, various doc
tors appeared; many of them empiri-
cists, most of them strangers, but all |
of them urging a nostrum which, as /
everybody ought now to realize, was /
not a remedy at all
If Mr.. Bryan had been elected in !
1896 and the Free Silver cure-all could |
have been tried 1t would have brought |
no relief. On the contrary it would |
have resulted in overwhelming disap-
pointment and reaction. Just as the
trend of modern thought had set
against slavery the middle of the
last century had the same trend
set against the double standard at the
close of It, Slavery had become i'm
possible and it went it's way. Free