The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1912-07-08
The Battle at Baltimore

TO the Editor of The Age Herald:
am not politician nor keen 10
become politician, but | desire to
congratulate Mr.. Hugh Roberts on his
dramatic story of Mr. Bryans dom
nation at Baltimore Also I desire
now that local ambitions have given
way to party necessities, to congrat-
ulate the democrats on their deliver
ance from the fate of the republicans,
who, at Chicago. went over bodily TO
the money trust" | enclose herewith
the story told by Graphic" editor Of
the Chicago Advance. perhaps the
brightest religious journal in this
country. Graphic" represents a very
large plumber of churches and min
listers who are better citizens than
party followers. and who arc sick of
voting for men nominated by the men
who are chiefly ingenious in their own
sordid interests. which they persuade
themselves are the interests of Amer
lean commerce. We refuse to believe
that Mr.. Underwood could have secured
the support of Ryan and Belmont. Ger
tainly Woodrow Wilson did not. And
he Is the nominee. GEORGE EAyES.
Birmingham. July 7, 1912
DIR. Eaves encloses the following from
the Chicago Advance under the cap
ton, 1.-THE Battle at Chicago" by
GRAPHIC:
Bryan is a fighter, but is he a gem
eralN
Before answering this question let
us look the field over at Baltimore.
In the center was the New York dele
cation. There were 30 members In IL
and they represented the greatest
state in the Union, or that Is what
they were alleged to be there for. But
they were absolutely in the hands of
one man, Murphy the Tammany chief.
and Murphy represented the interests
which center in Wall street. The dem
ocracy Of the Empire state meant Muir
ply, and Murphy meant all that the
progressive movement of the times op-
poses. To see him casting the vote of
this state every time the roll was called
as If 1t belonged to him and to him
only was enough to stir the blood of
any leader of the people, and Bryan is
a peoples leader. 1t was more than he
could stand His great addresses at
religious gatherings reveal sense OF
Righteousness and belief in God like
that of the old prophets He believes
that God Is in the world and that the
voice of the people is the voice of God.
or II not that, yet that the welfare
of tho people IL the VIII of God. His
struggle with the powerful agents OF
special privileges and representatives
of plutocracy remind one of the Elitahs
and Isaiahs and Jeremiahs In their
conflicts with the kings and courtiers
who stood for idolatry and heather
alliances. 1t was brave, 1t was heroic
But was 1t good generalship? Prophets
are not politicians. Can Bryan be both an
old-time prophet and a modern political
leader, with Boss Murphy, Boss Sullivan
and a Baltimore convention as material
to work upon? 1t Is a hard question to
answer Certainly it is easier to say.
LET him be the prophet, whatever be-
comes of the leadership" He has not
failed In the struggle TO appeal to the
moral sense of the nation, whether he
has appealed to its Judgment or not
No one will say that he not moral
hero But many may say that he could
been less offensive, less revolutionary
more skillful. that he did not need to
make his attacks on the Tammany crowd
and its Wall street allies quite so direct
But we are bound to admit that there
was much coming to that crowd from
William Jennings Bryan. He had seen
them come into one convention after an
other to fix the nomination, and then go
home to work for the election OF the
other man. He had seen them leave the
Denver convention, which nominated