Morris tribune., 1909-08-28
HARMONY OR WHAT?

pu bl1shed last friday
eMr. Bryan and Gov. Johnson of Minnesota
are being billed close together in the Chau-
tauqua days. Sometimes, when two circuses
are running close together on the same lines,
or parallel lines, there is cut in prices but no
cut rates have yet been announced by Demo-
cratic showmen this year. Sunday, while Mr.
Bryan was speaking in Pana, ILL.,, Gov. Johnson
was speaking in Shelbyville not many miles
away as the crow flies, and as the Big -Four
Railroad runs That is, or once was, demo-
cratic section of Illinois, and it would be inter
esting to know whether the Democrat who is
never defeated or the one who is never elected
drew the larger audience. In the absence of
turnstile statistics, all we may do is speculate,
and even this not possible until lately. Not
until after Mr.. Bryans third defeat and Gov.
Johnsons third election in Republican state,
was it possible to inquire whether the winner
could be drawing card as against the loser in
Democratic party of the country where the
Democrats have seemed to like losing better
than winning, and where they flourish better
out than in.
"There may be further opportunities for
getting something like exact data on this i'm
portant point. The Bryan and Johnson
itineraries continue, for the present, to run
close together. From Pana Mr. Bryan jumped
to Des Moines and from She1byvil1e Gov. John
son jumped to Fort Dodge, Ia. It is a farther
cry from Fort Dodge to Des Moines than from
Pana to Shelbyville. The Des Moines River
covers a hundred miles in it's little snakelike
windings between them and nobody could
make the distance less than ninety miles
ahorse or afoot And the intervening spaces
still filled with Republicans thickly as
the land between Shelbyville and Pana was
once filled with Democrats. Republicans may
be more willing to pay their money to see a
Democratic winner than Democrats are,
particularly in Iowa, where such winners are
scarce and are regarded as curiosities. The
point is that, since Bryan and Johnson are
trailing each other closely they just
now, it is worth knowing which of them is
drawing most. This point sticks, in spite of
the fact that on the surface, they are not run
ming in opposition.
"The surface view presented itself at the
Union Station in ST. Louis Sunday night. The
two great Democrats met there by chance, each
on his way from Illinois to fill his Iowa engage
meHL bryan Sldppeu TIE governor Ol
Minnesota on the back, in hearty, old fashion
ed, Democratic way, and the governor of Min
nesota turning around quickly, cried out,
Hello" in the cordial manner which used to
Democrats when they were unit
in thinking that the surest way of fooling the
most of the people the most of the time was
with the tariff question. 1t at became
evident that these old-tme Democratic modes |
of salutation significant. They TO reboded
an effort to return to the tariff question the
paramount issue of coming campaigns. The |
country has been advised that there has been |
bad blood between Bryan and Johnson, as be-
tween every other two Democrats of high rank |
who might be named. Mr. Bryan has given |
to expressions which have left no |
doubt as to his resentment of the Mnnesotan's |
winning streak and of his permitting the use
of his name in connection with the Denver
last year. But, in plain view of an |
opportunity for getting back to another tariff !,
mpaign, with all of it's possibilities for bede-
Wiling the public mind, his desire for harmony |
overcame him and he slapped johnson the
back-the high sign of Democratic fellowship. |
johnson responded in kind, and in jiffy there |
was reporter on hand taking down the pre-
dictions of a restored party harmony and of
Democratic tidal wave next year and in 1912. |
They LETT together in stateroom for Des |
Moines, both seeing the wave, but each, no |
r;5 i+c