The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1916-12-14
BRYAN BELIEVES
HE'LL BE PARTY
CHOICE IN 1920
Wants to Be Named By Demo
Gratis On Top of Moral Wave.

w jiiIdH y. bryan Is SecFeIely nursing
the hope that political events will so
shape themselves in the next four
years that the Democratic in 1920 will
demand him as its nominee. Mr.. Bry-
an S friends are insistent that the Com
moner has no intention of announcing
himself as an active candidate. He
wants the nomination to come to him
on top of great moral wave. That
moral wave, he thinks, will be pro-
hibition.
But although Mr.. Bryan will not be
an active candidate, according to his
friends, in the shaping of political
policies in the next few years he eX-
poets to take leading part, with the
result, his friends believe, that the
nomination four years hence will come
to him as the protagonist of the prin
ciples which at that time will be upper
most in the minds of the people.
With the removal of Woodrow Will
son from the Democratic list of avail
able Presidential candidate. Mr.. Bryan
has suddenly come to the fore again.
and the possibility of his assuming his
old familiar role Is agitatlng many
Democrats here. The preliminaries of
preconvention Presidential battle are
always laid shortly after Presidential
election. Although there are others
who are supposed to be nursing similar
hopes to Mr.. Bryan's, the latter has
taken time by the forelock and already
announced a political platform which
has caused even conservative Demo-
Gratis to sit up and take notice. Sever
al things have combined as a result of
the recent election to bring Mr.. Bryan
once more to the fore and to cause
many to doubt that he is to remain in
the class of political has beens "
They are:
Q) The astonishing spread of the
prohibition movement with which Mr..
Bryan years ago conspicuously iden-
lllICd IlliiSSll uillll llC 10 uOW tue iCdOCI
of those seeking to make the question a
great political issue; (2) the increase
in political power of Western States and
the demonstration that these States IN
combination with the South. and border
states can defeat the East; g. the
suffrage movement, which has en-
franchised more than 1900, 600 women
voters in thirteen States, giving them
the balance of power in, those States
and which by 1920 may control several
more States; ca the Progressive move
ment, of which Mr.. Bryan's followers
contend he was the earliest apostle and
which, they assert. now plainly domi-
mates the country in striking contrast
to the conditions prevailing when Mr.
BRYAN ran before.
All of these circumstances, even in
the opinion of many conservatives.
plainly differentiate political conditions
today from what they were when Mr..
Bryan met his disastrous defeats.
There are many men in the Democratic
party in and out of Congress who have
never got over their devotion to Mr..
Bryan. There has been among them
since election noticeable recrude
sence of former homes.
And there is every reason to believe
hot +hoia lopInr oh il }ha,,o A
though new leader may appear in the
next four years, the only one at present
whom they have to fear seems to be
Champ Clark, Speaker Clark would
like to be nominated next time. Speak
er Clark S friends have not overlooked
single point. They were busy even
before the election. They reasoned
that whether President Wilson was re-
elected or not, Speaker Clark would be
formidable candidate if he permitted
his name to be used. They assumed
that if Mr.. Wilson were reelected he
would not seek a third term. They
did not expect him to seek sec
ond term in view of the Baltimore
platform.
Speaker Clark will be 70 years old in
March. 1920. He will have attained
the allotted age of three score and
ten" before the next national Demo.
cratic convention meets. But the
Speaker is in excellent health, and his
friends believe he will be physically fit
four years from now.
William R. Hearst is credited with
being active in the Clark movement.
1t has even been suggested by some OF
the Clark adherents that the ticket
might be made to read CLARK and
Hearst" 1t is commonly accepted
here that Mr.. Hearst's money and his
advertising facilities will be behind the
Clark movement. Speaker Clark de-
clines to discuss the possibility of his
being a candidate for President four
years from now. He is leaving the
matter entirely in the hands of his
friends. But it is generally understood
in the Congressional circle that if any
one thing were calculated to inspire the
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