The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1912-07-09

How fatal one mistake sometimes is
to the plans of great enterprises! Had
Champ Clark listened to the appeal of
w m. j. Bryan, as Woodrow Wilson did,
in the matter of the election of a Pro-
gressiye Democrat as temporary chair
man Of the Baltimore convention,
Clark, and not Wilson, might today be
the Democratic nominee for the presi
dency Not that majority of Demo-
Gratis throughout the country wanted
Clark-because they did not-but be-
cause, having always been regarded as
a Progressive and having in the con-
Vention larger number of delegates
than any other candidate, his nomina-
ton, except for the opposition of Mr..
Bryan, must have been the inevitable
result. Mr.. Clark Is a good and q
great man, but at the crucial time he
failed to measure up to the standard
of present day Demo cracy as demand
ed by the majority of Democrats every
where and in thus failing he lost the
nomination by great political party
for the highest office in the greatest
government in the world.
The Baltimore convention affords
material for many columns of news
paper literature, some of which has
already been written and much Of
which will be written before the cam
ing time for the delegates-and an ex-
pensive time as well-and found little
opportunity to write anything for the
readers of The Journal The excellent
service of the Associated Press, how
ever, covered all of the routine and
important details of the convention,
and l shall only write now a few ran
dom impressions of the great gather
ing which may be of interest to The
Journals friends oyer the state. Judge
Griggs and myself spent today, the
Fourth of July, in Washington, visited
Mt Vernon in the morning, saw
burlesque ball game between New York
and Washington this afternoon, and
have just got in from Witnessing the
Tomorrow we shall visit the capitol
building and try to see how the senate
and the house do business, and then
we shall leave for home.
1t became early apparent in the work
of the convention that a deadlock for
the nomination was almost certain.
Clark and Wilson were of course the
favorites though 1T early developed,
after the temporary Craftsmanship
fight, that Clark could never secure a
two thirds majority. The nomination
therefore turned on the ability of the
friends of Woodrow Wilson to bring
the convention over to him or on some
dark horse in the person of eandi-
date who could harmonic the con-
tending interests. Governor Harmon
never had a look in. He was not in
sympathy with the militant policies
which now control the Democratic
party. Governor Foss and Governor
Marshall were both regarded simply as
dark horses who had little chance of
landing even though the deadlock pre-
vented the nomination of either of the
two leading candidates Mr.. Under
wood of course never had the slightest
prospect of nomination and of the 100
delegates, more or less, who continued
to vote for him on As ballots 1 do not
suppose that ten of them, after they
had looked over the situation at Bal
timore seriously believed that he
would be nominated. But Underwood
is nevertheless of presidential tim
Der and 1 believe the future has much
in store for him.
The temporary craftsmanship fight,
and the speeches made then and sub
sequently by Mr.. Bryan are respon-
sible for the ultimate result. The con-
vention was not Bryan gathering.
The vote on temporary chairman indi-
Gated that. Mr.. Bryan knew that he
could not be elected chairman. He got
more votes than I expected he would
get. His friends among the delegates
were in the minority. But the chair
manship fight, the election of Judge
Parker, discredited and mistrusted as
he was by the party at large, the vic
tory of Tammany and the Reactionary
element when the party. itself is Pro-
gressive, and the speeches and resolu-
tfons of Mr.. Bryan stirred the Democ-
racy of the country as nothing had
done in almost a generation. The re-
suit was that the delegates began to
hear from the folks back home" and
every telegram contained the same de-
mand-stand by Bryan, repudiate the
Ryan Murphy Belmont influence, and
give us a Progressive platform and
Progressive candidate. That candidate
of course was Woodrow Wilson, be-
cause no other man before the conven-
ton so dove tailed into the situation
and so answered the demand of the
home folks as did he. In fact, the
home folks" were not slow to say
that Wilson was the man whom they