The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1908-10-18

| asses a considerable proportion or
the business interests of the country
| were on CleveIands side. In those
days the majority of the solid, sub
stantial, well-balanced and public
spirited citizens voted the republican
| ticket. But Cleveland obtained enough
of that element to give him the vic
/ tory in two canvasses, by the aid of
| the solid south. Even Cleveland,
| however, was to a large degree the
creature of series of accidents. The
Blaine-Arthur-C onkling feud gave him
| a chance to carry the state of New
| York for governor in 1888 by a larger
| majority than had ever been rolled
up for that office in any state along
to that time. That made him the
logical candidate for president in 1854.
and the continuance of the feud, with
the Intervention Of several other ad-
verse factors gave him the election.
| If Edmunds, Sherman Or any one OF
half a dozen other prominent re-
| publicans who could be named had
| been selected for the candidacy in
1884 instead of Blaine the republicans
would probably have carried the coun-
ytr and the democratic interregnum of
1850 and of 1s93-97 would never
have taken place.
| The people have no confidence
either in the ability or the sincerity
of the present democratic party. The
men who are at the head of that party
in these days are as hostile to all
the things for which Cleveland stood
as they are to the republican policy,
If Cleveland were alive today, and
was urging the election of Taft as
he would be if he were here, Bryan
would assail him more fiercely than
he assails the president or the presi-
Dental candidate. In life Cleveland
was denounced by Bryan as a bunco
steere. Bryan has no more love for
Clevelandism, or Tildenism, or JEFF
fersonism now than he had when he
was denouncing Cleveland on the
stump in 1896, or than he had when
he was attacking Jeffersonian doc
trines in that canvass and in 1900.
Even many of the democrats who
like Bryan, and who favor his poll
cies, would have no confidence in
Bryan's sincerity in pushing them II
he should be elected. Bryan's per-
sonal popularity seems to be as great
as it was in 1895 and 1900. His meet.
fngs now, as in those campaigns, at
tract large numbers of persons. But
it is evident that they go to hear him
out of curiosity. Most of his auditors
1t Is safe to say, will vote against
him as they did in his previous cam.
paigns. AS a presidential possibility
Bryan is out of the reckoning. The
country will never intrust power into
the hands of any such visionary ant
impracticable. Not one of his de-
structive policies in 19OS-his bank
ing blind pool. his patent device FOL
trust regulation, his scheme to revise
the tariff by annihilating it, and hi.
other absurd propositions-have beer
thought out carefully by him. H,
seized them because he imagined the!
would have superficial attraction TO
thoughtless or dishonest persons. JUS
as he proposed in 1896 and 1900 t.
cut the wages and the debts of tn,
people in two. Hundreds of thou
sands Of the persons who vote TO
him on November would vote agains
him If they thought he had the faint
est chance of victory The demo
Gratis have as much interest as tn
republicans in having their countr
prosperous at home and respecte
abroad, but under the regime of tn
Bryanite reactionaries and destruc
tionists it could neither be prosperou
nor resnected