Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1908-03-28
HOPELESS OF SUCCESS
Think Nebraskan Leader Best Fitted
to Bear Defeat.
FIGHT FOR LATIMER'S SEAT
Contest Will Continue Until August
81, When Voters Will Elk
press Their Preferences.
BY WILLIAM F. CURTIS.
Special Correspondence of The Star and the
Chicago Record Herald.

| Chicago Record-Herad
CHARLESTON. March 20. 1908.
We are in favor of the nomination of
| Mr.. Bryan this time and next time and
| every other old time. SO long as there Is
| no danger of his election" said one of the
most prominent democratic editors in the
| south. in reply to an inquiry And that is
| the sentiment that | have found every
where l have been in the south-a general
| Indifference about the democratic nominee
because of a conviction that the republi-
can candidate for President is certain to
be elected
The Charleston News and Courier
which is the oldest and one of the most
influential democratic newspapers in the
south-there are no republican newspa-
pers-seldom refers to Bryan with even
ordinary respect. | find paragraph this
morning in the editorial column suggest
ing that the from New York to Paris
automobile racers will confer a great IA
vor on the entire democratic speaking
people of the country if they will pick
up William Jennings Bryan while passing
through the state of Nebraska and drop
him somewhere in the neighborhood of
the north pole And when I asked the
editor why his paper does not approve of
the peerless one he replied:
Because we do not consider him good
democrat and because we do not believe
he can be elected. He doesn't believe 1t
himself
DO you think that any democrat could
be elected President of the United
States?'
ANY sound genuine democrat can
but Bryan will lose Maryland Kentucky
and Missouri. But we'd just as soon have
Bryan defeated as anybody. He is used
to it,.
General Indifference.
The democratic convention for South
Carolina has not been called. but it will
indorse Bryan, and will perhaps, in
struct for him, although nobody of intel
ligence down here considers his election
a possibility. There is general in
difference to the subject An attempt has
been made to stir up sentiment in favor
of Gov. johnson of Minnesota, but it has
not been successful. 1t has also been
suggested that Mr.. Bryan should be re-
CURED to express himself plainly upon
the race question before he receives an
other Endorsement from the south 1t
has been asserted that his views are
very !ibel Al concerning the negro. and
that Mrs Bryan. who is woman of
great intelligence and has a powerful in
fuence over her husband is not in SYM
pathy with the attitude of the white
women of the south. But even that does
not awaken any particular interest. be
cause, as l have said. no one expects
him to be elected.
Nobody down here takes any notice
of the threat in the Ohio platform to re-
duce representation. That bugaboo
doesn't scare anybody any longer" was
the reply of a leading democrat to my in
quiry. The proposition has come up so
many times and in so many different
forms in Congress and has been treated
with such Indifference that we do not
give it a moments consideration. 1t
was introduced in the Ohio platform as
an offset to Secretary Taft's action in
regard to the colored troops at Browns
vile. and has no further significance
Foraker has immortalized himself among
the negroes of Ohio as we'll as the entire
south by his championship of the COL
ored troops. They have elevated him to
the rank of a demi-god, and he stands
second only after Abraham Lincoln and
John Brown. No planks in any state
difference now. although the delegates
from South Carolina to the republican
national convention will vote for Taft"
Overthrow of the Aristocrats.
Frank b. Gary. the new senator from
South Carolina. who has just been elect
ed to complete the term of. the late Mr..
Latimer. whici. expires March l. 1909.
con es from a very large and influential
family and claims descent from Robert
Bruce. John Knox and John Wither-
spoon. Senator Gary's father was a
phi. sician in Abbeville county, in the
northwestern part of the state. and he
Is n nephew of the late Gen. Mart Gary,
picturesque character of the secession
and reconstruction periods. who was a
major general Of cavalry in Wade Hamp-
tons Legion. a brilliant soldier, reck-
less leader and a hard fighter. He was
famous for his profanity and his un-
governable temper There was no fiercer
fire eater in all the south. and he was
mixed up in a dozen duels
After the overthrow of the republican
gov eminent in this state and the eS-
Establishment of what was known as the
Hampton Oligarchy" Gen. Gary quar-
relied with his former commander be-
cause he did not receive the political