The National tribune. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1877-1917, 1908-07-16
WASHINGTON c, THURSDAY

| Committee. has many friends on the
old scommitteeg which was. dominated
by Parker men. at voted unanimous
ly to seat the lEuffeyites.
The Hsyan s8team Roller.
But the Credentials Committee was
composed of aalarge majority of Bryan
i men. 1t was claimed that this COM
mittee set out to undo the Hon. Guffey,
whether or mol Mr.. Bryan was known
to be DESTROYS of drumming him out
fcf the National Committee and from
the Democratic leadership in the Key
stone State. The Colonel has many
large business affiliations and, justly
or unjustly. is frequently referred to as
Standard Oil MN. He and Mr..
Bryan had, just previous to the meet
ing of the convention. some very hot
correspondents about a donation of
stained glass windows for the new
/ Bryan residence at Fairview. 1t is
4 claimed that Mr.. Bryan first accepted
the windows as objects of friendship
and personal regard, but. as soon as
the matter reached the public and be-
came 4 matter of comment, wrote to
4 Guffey asking that a. bill for. the WIN
dows be sent him. This made Col.
4 Guffey hot indeed, and he wrote back
some very tart words. Mr.. Bryan also
made n biting speech at Fairview to a
|
Guffey should be excluded from leader
4 ship This was made the subject of
a ringing statement by Col. Guffey dur
ing the convention, in which he said
Mr. Bryan was willing to associate with
him in previous campaigns and to APP
prove of him, as one of two or three
prominent financial angels for the 1896
and 1900 PRESIDENTIAL campaigns.
Nevertheless and Notwithstanding
the Bryan Committee on Credentials
ran the steam roller over Col. Guffey,
refused to seat his contrasting delegates
from Pennsylvania, seated the contest
ants, which made Bryan majority in
the Pennsylvania delegation of 6S, and
assured the election of some other than
Col. Guffey as National Committeeman
from Pennsylvania. irt.r"-' noe
4 All the other contests before the Gre
dentials Committee were fixed up so
4 that there were no minority, report.
Col. Guffey. however, was determined
to fight to the court of last resort and
carried his quarrel to the floor of the
convention. The appeals not to do so
i for the sake of harmony awaited moth
ing.
And so a grea. fight was expected
on the floor. Col Guffey promised to
| pull the roof of the convention hall
! down. IL he could. Several States
where conservative Democrats are in
the saddle took up ais quarrel and for
a while it looked as tho there would
be lively times indeed. They chose
I.orators at an indignation meeting, and
it was thought for a while that these
| orators, headed by Senator John w.
/ Daniel. of Virginia. would Just go in
and make the fur fly.
! Nothing of the kind happened The
Guffey fight was pulled off in an order
ly manner. The steam roller was run
over him again and, of course, there
4 was nothing else to do but to acquiesce.
Mr.. Bryan had the convention under
perfect control. The majority and mi
nority reports were presented i'm cour-
teous, but emphatic language. Twelve
or 10 members of the committee OF
over so stood with Guffey. An hour
was agreed upon for debate, and the
Bryanites saw to it that they had the
| closing. The discussion was chiefly
about matter of fact and not particu-
-larly Interesting details touching the
| Philadelphia primaries. Some spice
was added in declarations about Re
publicans being ruag in by the .Guffey-
| ties. Then whoa Gov Haskell, of
Oklahoma, came to make the closing
d. speech, he touched 'em up a little
about Standard Oh and Standard Oil
influences. There was a little kissing
in the galleries tIIereat, but the Gov
ernor said it was just the kind of a
sound he had often heard coming out
of pipe line. which made the multi
tudes roar with delight. The. Guffey-
ties had no chance "to get back" and
the vote was taken. Guffey lost by a
big vote and the delegates and specta-
| tors filed out of the hall about mid
night somewhat disappointed.
The action created some gore spots
among the Eastern Democrats, which
tprobably will not be healed soon. How
| ever, 1t is well known nowadays how
little sympathy a business man gets
when he is associated with such an I'M
popular corporation as the Standard
Oil Company.
| .-- Hobson md His wnf Scare. le'
h., There was little sother excitement
that same evening. Representative
| Richmond Pearson Hobson, of Ala
bama,n the great advocate of prepare
ton for a war with Japan, was invited
to the platform to make a speech. The
| convention was opposed to that from
the very start and plainly voted the
proposition down, but the Temporary
Chairman. Ex-Representative Theo-
dore A. Bell, of California, generously
| decided the matter in the affirmative
and Hobson got the floor.
He could not have carried away a
very emphatic opinion of the Demo-
| cratic friendlness for building a big
navy with which to fight the Japanese.
The delegates and the spectators boot
ed at his talk about prospects of war
i and at one stage the hero of Santiago
j was roundly Kissed. This made him
a little angry and he launched into
| fiercer talk than ever There was such
hubbub that he was soon unable to
| be heard. He got a chance to say that
j President Roosevelt recently told him
there was every prospect of a war with
! Japan, but that made the audience boot
4 all the more derisively.
When finally he was forced to con-
clude, Chairman Bell dealt him hard
blow by announcing to the convention
! that, while he came from the Pacific
Coast, he did not feel that there was
any occasion for him to enlist at pres
ent.
Accordingly the first night session,
4 with such spectacular surroundings,
was not without keen interest 1t
whetted the appetites of the breezy
Western convention goers for more
night sessions and for more exciting
scenes. They had to wait but "a hours
before they got their fill of it.
- Bryan was nominated for the Presi-
i dency at the Thursday night session.
1t was really the big session of tie
Iconyention altho the prolonged Bryan
demonstration that night was not as
extended as the prolonged and record
breaking Bryan demonstration of
Wednesday night, which was followed
by the spectacular but somewhat dis
! appointing Guffey 1out-throw.
i When the muititudes set toward the
convention hall Thursday evening, fol-