The citizen. (Frederick City, Md.) 1895-1923, 1908-07-03
WASHINGTON.
Legislative and Cen
eral Topics from
the Capital.
June 81. 1905.

William Jennings Bryan, only the
nominee for second place and the
platform remains to be settled.
and it is a safe prediction, so
great is Mr.. Bryan's control of
his party. that he will as surely
dictate both as did Secretary
Taft dictate the same important
features of the Republican Con.
ventiOD. Already there is small
army of newspaper men at Lin
coin, and some wonderful tales
are flashed over the wires from
the Nebraska metropolis each
morning, most of which will be
taken up by the sober minded
Democrats with a considerable
grain of allowances. For in
stance, one ordinarily reputable
newspaper tells its readers that
MIR. Bryan will not have Gov
ernOr johnson on the ticket under
any circumstances, while another
declares that former Senator
CHARLES Towne, has been chosen
by the Peerless Leader for his
running mate, and another as
Solemnly avows that former Gov
ernOr Douglas, of Massachusetts.
is to be the Vice Presidential
nominee. OF course all this
makes fairly interesting reading,
hut those who know Mr.. Bryan
will not imagine for "a moment
that he is contiding to certain
newspaper correspondents, as
differentiated from the entire
press. these most important pur
poses, nor is it likely that Mr..
Bryan has himself reached any
definite decision so far in ad
vance of the convention.
SO too, i'll the case of the plat.
form. One correspondent grave
ly assures the pnblic that there
will be an anti-injunction plank
in the platform, while another
asserts with equal solemnity that
the anti-injuction plank is al
ready drawn. Still another states
that there will be no free
silver plank. and is in turn
contradlcted by another scribe.
1t is true, however, that when in
New York recently Mr.. Bryan
did say positively that there
would be no free silver plank in
the platform, explaining that
this was not because of any
change in his convictions, but
because of changed conditions
which rendered unnecessary at
this time any relteration of his
we'll known views on this subject.
1t, is a further reasonable as
sumption that the platform will
condemn the shilly-shally fnan-
cial legislation of the Republi-
cans, and the creation of a INA
tional Monetary Commiss 10 NJ
which, from its very composition,
is bound to report to Congress III
favor of only such form of finan-
cial legislation as is satisfactory
to Nelson w. Aldrich, Senior
Sen et0r from Rhode Island, and
his Wall Street friends.
Prominent Democrats who
watched the trend of events at
ChicagO-and among them keenly
observent though unObserved,
was National Chairman Thomas
Taggart-6eclare that never were
the conditions within the Repub-
lican fold better for Democratic
success than they are this year.
The "Old Guard" as the old
Hanna regime is termed, had
radical Rooseveltism showed down
their threats with ramrod so to
speak, and they by no means en-
joyed the process. Speaker Can
non rushed back to Chicago to
try to save the party and espec-
tally his friends from the 'swavs
of radicallsm," as he called it,
which was sweeping the Old
Guard out of places of power,
but even the Speaker and the
powerful influences that he con-
trolls were powerless to stem the
tide, and the anti Injunction
plank, make SHIFT it is true,
but nevertheless a declaration in
favor of an anti injunction law, a
tariff revision plank which made
the old stand patter snort with
rage at other Taft Roosevelt pol
icies were jammed through the
Committee on Resolutions, to the
infinite discomfort of the old line,
hard shell Republicans. What
will be the RESULT The old fell
lows, the men that for years have
protected their favorite indus
tries and have extorted from them
generous campaign funds in re-
turn, will sulk in their tents.
Hartman and the other "Unde
sirable citizens" will lock up
their check books, and it will be
found as difficult to carry Re
! publican election without funds,
as it is for Frenchmen to talk