The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1916-05-19
HAS BRYAN FEVER
Peerless Leaders, Home State
Strenuously Pacific.
Engulfed in Prosperity, So Are
Content With War.
T. R. FAVOR AMONG MASSES
Hitchcock Depends on Pacifists
for Reelection.
Republicans Prefer Hughes or
Fairbanks to the Colonel.
7. R. FAVOR AMONG MASSES
BY WILLIS j. ABBOT.

Omaha, Neb, May 19.-NebraSka
basks in sunny prosperity and content.
The price of cattle and hogs, of corn
and wheat fills the Nebraska mind to
the entire exclusion of any thought
from the Mexican situation, the yell
low peril, or the menace that may fol-
low the end of the European war.
Nine-tenths of the Nebraskans are
! quite content for the war to continue
while it keeps up the demand for their
farm products. They greatly regret
the slaughter of Americans in Mexico,
but are inclined to blame the victims
for having been there at ALL Most
emphatically are they against sending
American soldiers down there to
| avenge the murders already commit
ted, and to give assurance that none
shall be committed in future.
Pacific. But Anti-Bryan.
Nebraska is strenuously pacificist.
1t has just savagely repudiated Bryan
by defeating him as a candidate for
delegate to st. Louis, but it clings to
the shallow Bryan ideas.
I'VE don't want to go to war" is
the patriotic cry of those to whom
you talk of the need of preparedness.
Apparently they do not understand
that war may come to us, that how
ever great our desire for peace, if we
present to the impoverished nations of
| Europe the spectacle of nation su-
perlatively rich and utterly unprotect-
ed we must expect piratical raids upon
our territory.
! The Nebraska farmers wife APP
proves the Il Did Not Raise My Boy
to Be a Soldier" She never stops to
| think that whether raised to be a
| soldier or not, he will be made SOL
! der should the nation be attacked,
and sent against well armed and dis
| clplined men, himself unframed i'll
equipped, helpless victim of mis-
placed confidence.
| Nebraska sees no lesson in the fate
/ of Belgium.
/ Instructed for Cum1nins.
! Such was the substance of the ex-
PLANTATION given me by a member of
| the Nebraska delegation to Chicago
for the lack of Roosevelt sentiment in
TINS state. He is himself a supporter
of Roosevelt. though instructed for
Cummlns, and estimates the number
| OF Roosevelt votes On the delegation
when it shall he freed from its instruc-
tions as seven, but he insisted that the
publlc sentiment in the state is as de-
| scrlbed, and that Henry Ford would
probably get more votes than any
probable Republican nominee.
In this estimate of the Nebraska
temper, the editors of the three Oma-
ha dailies coincide. Mr.. Rosewater of
strenuous effort to hold the Nebraska
delegation for Hughes, rather than
| Roosevelt, for second choice.
| Mr. NeWbranch of the World-Her-
dlo, senator Hltchcock's paper. dis
Germs IN TINS profound anti-war senti-
ment. reason to hope that Wilson NAV
carry the state, despite the great hos
Unity OF the German electorate to him.
Hitchcock a Neutral.
IL Is noteworthy that Senator
| tiltchcock. who is up for reelection
1 despite the earnest effort of BRYAN to
defeat him, is picked by wise observ
ers mere as a winner, despite the ebb
OF Democratic strength in the state.
In the United States senate the SEN
ator has stood for real neutrality. and
hepl hmself clear from any identifi-
cation with the pro-British policy of
the administration. He will receive
the support OF the foes of miIitarism
IN the state, as well as the vote of
those of foreign birth or parentage
who resent the apparent subservience
of the administration to one of the
belligerents alone
It IS quite generally believed that
wilson's defeat and the election of
Hitchcock may both occur
L. II. Sentiment Unoroanized.
There is Roosevelt sentiment anon
the masses, but is not general. is unor.
gained and is little reflected by the
Po1tlclans But, in my judgment, the
HuSneS sentiment is given more voice
by the politicians than his strength
among the people warrant 1t is OBJ
viously the expedient adopted here,
as in other states, by the old line
politicians to defeat Roosevelt The
men who are preaching Hughes most
loudly are not at heart for him. They
would rather have a candidate more
thoroughly identified with the organ
ization. There is, indeed, a well de-
fined suspicion that an understanding
exists by which the Hughes vote shall
be thrown to Fairbanks in the event
the justice proves unavailable. 1 have
heard this rumor in other states, as
well.
1t is quite conceivable that a plat
form may be drawn upon which JUS
tice Hughes will refuse to stand. In
this event the old guard, if still de-
sirous of beating Roosevelt, are re-
ported to be ready to turn to the In
diana man