The National tribune., 1908-08-20
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STIFFEN1NG UP.


be catapulted into the campaign speed
| lily as possible.
The Republicans intend to pamphlet
eer Bryan to the country, as he was in
1895 and 1900. They will try to fix
| in the public eye the old Bryan, rather
than the new Bryan. The utterance of
the prominent boiling Democrats of
1896 and 1900, who have now come
back to the fold, are being resurrected.
The country will be flooded with these
remarks and speeches to the confusion
| both of Bryan and of his new Demo-
cratic friends.
Editor Henry Watterson, now jealous
| for Bryan's election. will be forcibly
| reminded of his former opinions of the
Nebraskan. In parallel columns with
the editorials he is writing nowadays,
the 1896 editorials, written when he
was absent in Europe, present a strik-
ing contrast. One of a considerable
! number of these 1896 editorials from
the Courier-J ournal, which have al
| ready been put into print for use as a
pamphlet, reads:
1.-The Democratic Party seems threat
| ened with engulfment in a deluge of
populism and anarchy. Swayed back
ward and forward by the latest utter
ances of ridiculous oratory, they ended
by making a platform which is in itself
an insult to every Democrat, and
placed upon that platform a fire-eating
Populist, whose chief merit is a ca
pacity for arousing similar people by
inflammatory rhetoric"
Bryan's record as Congressman has
been thoroly culled in previous Presi-
Dental campaigns The Republican
searchers have little work in that direc-
ton except to dig up the old PAM
phlets and gather whatever may now be
available for use. National Chairman
Hitchcock will utilize to the utmost the
opportunities for fighting the Demo-
cratic candidate by these means of
publicity. The material will not only
be published in pamphlet form but it
will be sent around to weekly and adily
newspapers turnout all the doubtful
States.
The Democratic workers, on the
other hand, are cropping thru great vol
umes of the Congressional Record to
find out exactly what Vice Presidential
Candidate Sherman has said and done
during the 10 years he has been Rep
resentative in Congress. They are in
high jinks over the material they have
found. 1t will make one of the impor-
tant Democratic campaign documents.
Mr.. Sherman comes from strong Re-
publican district and was never much
disturbed by the hostility of labor
unions. He voted against many, prob
ably nearly all, the labor measures
that came before the House and was
always on the watch tower to help his
chief Uncle Joe" Cannon "do things"
to the labor lieutenants around the
Capitol. The organizations of railroad
employees are understood to have spe-
cial grievances against Mr.. Sherman
because of conduct that hey interpreted
as proof of his friendship for the great
transportation lines.
Looking Up Kern.
AS Democratic Vice Presidential
Candidate Kern has had no public ser
vice in Washington the Republicans
have to search his record elsewhere.
That is being done in Indiana. especial
ly at Indianapolis.
The Democrats propose to be no
more sparing of ex-Secretary Taft
than the Republicans are of Mr.. Bryan.
The searchers have been turned loose
in the accessible. Government records.
Mr.. Tafts speeches since he entered
the Cabinet have already been search
ed and certain passages about the ne
groes, the Lily White Republicans in
the South prohibition, Gen. Grant, and
other topics are already being distrlb-
uted. Before the campaign progresses
far there will probably be a Democratic
pamphlet on Mr.. Taft's appointment
OF local judges in the Philippines. Ma
terial has been gathered to show that
he utilized the judiciary in handy
fashion to execute his ideas of gov
eminent in the Philippines.
Much of this prospective publicity
will be entirely outside OF the campaign
text books. Those volumes, packed
from cover to cover with material for
the edifcation and instruction of cam
paign speakers, will be out in the
course of two or three weeks.