Omaha daily bee., 1908-10-18
SOUNDS LIKE OLD TIMES.

SOUNDS LIKE OLD TIMES.
Concluding his three days cultiva-
ton OF his home state, william ].
Bryan has given out this statement
through the press associations:
Ny trip throughout the state was not
planned because there was any doubt about
Nebraska. IL wa because these Nebraska
democrats have been so loyal to me that l
was not willing TO let the campaign pass
without visiting them. The trip. however,
has led us TO raise our estimates on the
size of the majority Nebraska will give.
In no campaign in this state have 1 en-
countered such large and enthusiastic au-
diences.
This has a familiar ring which
sounds very much like old times. Mr..
Bryan and his political mouthpieces in
Nebraska have been accustomed to in
dulge in this sort of talk as a harmless
pastime on the eve of every election.
On November 8, 1900, the day before
the balloting, Mr.. Bryan is quoted by
the democratic World-Herald as saying
publicly:
The fight has been made and won. Money
and coercion robbed us of a victory in 1896,
but 1 believe they will be powerless to
change the result this time.
The next day he discovered that he
had been beaten worse than ever be-
fore. In the same issue of the same
paper Mr.. Bryan's special plenipoten-
tiary, Jim" Dahlman, is reported to
have declared:
From the talks 1 have had with the dem
ocratic leaders in the state of New York
I am satisfied that we will carry the state
by at least $4,000. The enthusiasm in the
state of New York is greater than anything
we have ever had in Nebraska. Ny judy
ment is that we will carry New York,
New Jersey, Maryland, Kentucky and In
diana
The lesson of 1900 was evidently
poorly learned. Mr.. Bryan in 1904
made a special trip through Nebraska
just before election appealing to his
friends to vote for Judge Parker,
whom he had previously denounced as
a Wall street tool. He tried to i'm
press his hearers with his own conf
dence in Parker's success and in re-
Spouse to his pleas So 1921 votes out of
a total Of $4,000 in Nebraska were
cast for Parker, leaving him only
$4,000 behind Roosevelt.
The next year Mr.. Bryan's caution
led him to let his brother-in-law, as
chairman of the democratic state COM
mittee, speak for him. In the World
Herald November 4, 1905, may be
found this proclamation from Brother
in-Law "Tom,' based on observation
from another rear-end tout of Ne
braska by Mr.. Bryan:
You may say that we expect to win this
year. Our committee is not giving out any
figures because figures only represent the
guess of the party giving them. But we
expect to win because the people of all po.
litical parties throughout the state believe
that the declaration Of the republican party
In its platform doesn't mean anything.
One year later found Mr.. Bryan
touring Nebraska once more after his
return from his triumphal round-the-
world trip and once more greeted by
greater crowds and greater enthusiasm
than ever, under whose spell Brother
in-Law tom" once more proclaims
through the same World-Herald OF
November 8, 1906:
You may say the democratic and populisI
state ticket will be elected. You may alsc
say that we will elect a majority of the
legislature and that our prospects in the
congressional districts are very encourag
ing. 1 make this statement advisedly anC
1 base It upon two things: First. the re
publicans admit that we will win, and, sec
ond, the figures show 1t.
Last year Mr.. Bryan made another
whirlwind fight across Nebraska, max
ing a speech depicted by the World
Herald as "his masterpiece" before
audiences that had to be warned t.
keep quiet for fear of breaking dow
the crowded galleries. Once mort
Brother-in-Law Tom came to tn,
front as the official forecaster In thi
modest item, under date of Novembe,
4, 1907:
Chairman Allen for the democrats sal,
the fusion tick would win. He gave n
figures.
Mr.. Bryan has by his own persona
efforts carried Nebraska in his before
election claims annually for fusion 70
the last eight years. only to wake u
the day after to face a substantial re
publican majority.