The Norfolk weekly news-journal., 1907-11-22


nounced willingness to take the nom.
nation II It is offered practically pre-
cludes the selection of anybody else.
With Mr.. Bryan's announcement, print.
ed In another part of this paper. Gov.
ernor Johnson of Minnesota fades
away as one of the probabilities in
the race. And there is nowhere an
other candidate to wrest the coveted
honor from Mr.. Bryan.
For some months there have been
stories going around as to whether
Mr. Bryan would or would not accept
the nomination, or as to whether or
not he would be an active candidate
for the place. And there have been
frequent reports that Mr. Bryan would
consent In the near future, at this
place or that, to make definite state
ment as to his position in the matter.
Once Lincoln was going to have the
honor of hearing the statement. once
1t was Omaha and again Washington
people were to hear the precious
words fall from the Nebraskan's elo-
quent lips. But Mr.. Bryan has swept
all of these fictitious stories aside and,
discriminating in favor of no locality,
has made his announcement through
the press. He has realized the value
Of story for his paper and the Com
moner once again has gained a bit
Of publicity that otherwise would not
have been available.
And, now that the manner of an
nouncement has been determined. the
next most important feature of the in
cident is the fact that Mr. Bryan will
accept. Like Barcus, he is willing to
try, try again. Although he has twice
led the democratic party to ignomin-
ious defeat, he is willing, should the
party's interests demand it, to once
again take up the battle and make
an aggressive campaign Once again
he would cover the country in a speedy
train, delivering democratic doctrine
from the rear platform in an effort to
gain the goal which has twice been
beyond his clutching fingures.
There are number of significant
points in Mr.. Bryan's statement. In
the first place he has apparently laid
aside all of his own pet theories and
is willing to make the race on any
old kind of platform that the con-
vention frames. The rank and file of
the party, he says, are the supreme
court when 1t comes to making the
nomination as well as to framing the
planks in the platform. In other
words he is willing to forget that he
ever launched disastrous govern
ment ownership theory, he is willing
to forget all about free silver, he is
willing to forget anything and every
thing of his own personal views in
order to buckle on the party armor and
venture into the fray at the head of
the army.
Apparently Mr. Bryan has concluded
that he made mistake when return.
ing a year ago from his trip around
the world, he launched in his Madi-
son Square Garden speech that wild
government ownership dream which
at once created such furore among
democrats and republicans alike. And
willing to cover up his own idea in
the matter, he will take the words of
the party as his platform and upon
that platform go into the campaign
In other words, Mr.. Bryan has a.
greed to subordinate his personal self
for the sake Of the nomination. Wheth-
er or not his radical dreams would
stay downed, once he had started his
campaign, is quite another question
and one which need not be given a
prominent place in the Commoner at
this time.
Mr. Bryan, in his statement, both
gives a little ground and indirectly
taps Roger Sullivan on the wrist. For
it was only few days ago that the
Sullivan faction of the Illinois demo-
cratic party wrote letter to the Neb-
raska leader urging him to forget him
self for the time being, to lay aside
his government ownership theory and
get back to the democratic principle
of equal rights for all and special
principles for none" They pointed
out that if his own ideas were car
ried out it would be enough to cause
the shade of Alexander Hamilton to
arise and dance on the grave of
Thomas Jefferson.
And so, apparently as a concession
to the Roger Sullivan faction, Mr..
Bryan has carefully omitted any re-
ference to his own drastic theories,