The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1910-06-30
MARYLAND DEMOCRACY.

MAXI LAND UEMUCKAC1.
The Maryland oracles have spoken.
The Senior and Junior Senators from
this state have scanned the political
horizon and from their lips have fallen
prophecies and dicta. Democrats in
Maryland and and elsewhere can now
let the campaign bands play and the red
lights burn. Chairman Murray Vandi-
yer, of the state central committee,
can complacently tackle the herculean
task of formulating platform on which
his party's candidates can stand, a task
rendered necessary by the introduction
of direct primaries and the consequent
abolition of convention, which, in former
times, adopted if they did not frame
platforms. General Vandiver's job will
be an easy one, for Senators Rayner
and Smith have sounded the tocsin and
all that General Vandiver will have to
do is use the scissors and paste pot.
For once Messrs. Rayner and Smith
are in accord: They agree that a Dem
ocratic statesman named William Jen-
nings Bryan must HE himself into the
back ground and stay there They also
agree that the tariff must furnish the
clarion cry of the Democrats in the con-
gressional campaign this year, as well
as in the presidential campaign two
years hence. They also agree that the
so-called Republican extravaganza is an
awful thing which must be checked and
curbed. They do not go into details in
exhibiting their Indignation, nor do they
give yea and nav votes on several ex-
pendltures which, perhaps. would reveal
the presence of several Democratic
hands in the Pork Barrel"
1t is with rate and exuberant nerve
that Messrs. Rayner and Smith read
Mr.. Bryan out of the Democratic party.
Senator Smith is little more consider
ate of the Peerless One" than is his
colleague, for he confesses that the
Nebraskan is factor in the Democratic
party who must be reckoned with. Mr..
Rayner, while PROCESSING the highest
admiration for Mr.. Bryan as a citizen,
and even going so far as to say that he
that he has many of Mr.. Roosevelt's
qualities at the same time consigns him
to utter and absolute political inactivity
in naming the next Democratic presi-
Dental candidate and in framing the
next Democratic national platform.
Of course, MIR. Bryan himself has not
been consulted on the important person
al question whether he will be lifted
bodily from the Democratic party and
tossed into Nebraska sagebrush. Nor
have the few millions Of Democrats who
for years have so strenuously hurrahed
for INN that they threatened to slip the
larynXes Of their throats, been consult
ed, If we remember rightly, Demo-
Gratis Of the type of Mr. Ravner and
Of Mr.. Smith succeeded in nominating
Judge Alton c. Parker for president in
st. Louis in 1904, Again. if we remem-
Der rightly, the aforesaid Judge Parker
as a presidential candidate made one Of
the most sorry spcctacles ever witness
ed in American agHtcal history He
was far outc'a-=eI by Mr.. Bryan as a
vote-getter. Mr. Bryan had twice been
defeated for pre- ident, but he was at
least good second Judge Parker was
left at the post.
If Messrs. Ragner and Smiths want
to put the moose around their necks in
Maryland by urging the tariff as the
paramount issue in the campaign well,
that, too, is ,helr affair not the Repub-
leans Certainly Mr.. Rayner ought 70
have q recollection Of his fate in 1888
when ne was a candidate for reelection
to Congress in the Fourth district, and
when he nightly grew eloquent over
the tariff He was defeated. Both
Senators Rayner and Smith ought to
recall the effect Of tariff agitation IN
their party in Maryland in years gone
by. In 1855, when the tariff was show
ed to the front, Mr. Cleveland's MAORI
ty in Maryland Of II, lis in 1884, dwin-
died to s, l82, In the First district Mr.
Gibson plurality of l, ISL in 1886 fell to
4S2, and so it was all over the state. In
1892 the Democrats made the tariff their
paramount issue, and won, not because
Of any intrinsic merit of the issue, but
because it was agitated in false light
The result was disastrous. Mr.. Nc
Kinley swept Maryland in 1896, and
again in 1900. Only the aid of the Viii
son Ballot Law have the Democrats had
a peep in a the presidential elections
in Maryland 1892,