Evening star., 1919-12-28
Special Dispatch to The Star.

Special Dispatch to The Star.
OMAHA, December 27.-That Old
DR.. Bryan should declare himself in
on the case again and insist on TAX
ing full charge of the patient Is not
an occasion for special surprise in
Nebraska The home folks long ago
learned not to be surprised at any
thing he does, and his immediate fol, j.,
lowing goes thumbs up or thumbs
down, as he says. and without asking
questions
They recall how he came to the
front in 1896, when. = the democratic
party was in much the same predica- :
ment it is today-without leader
and without policy; it's rank and
file divorced from allegiance to Gro
yer Cleveland and it's sachems look
ing forty ways for Sunday in search
of way out. He did not win the
first battle. nor the second. nor the
third, but he did reorganize the party.
give it life and courage and put It
into the running. from which 1T
emerged victorious In 1912.
Faithful DO Not Forget.
These same faithful have not for
gotten how he electrified the Chicago
convention, dominated the Kansas
City gathering bobbed up again quite
serenely at ST. Louis in 1904, four
years later acquiesced in the nomi-
nation of Alton B. Parker and then
fixed him much as Joab did unto
his meteoric display at Baltimore.
where he stood the convention on it's
head day after day. until he had
nodded it to his liking and gave it
Woodrow Wilson and platform.
His extraordinary performance in
casting Tammany over the transom
at this conclave-a sort of Homeric
revenge for what Tapmany did to
him previopsly-is relished out this
way as is nothing else in his career.
st. Louis. of course, was mortgaged,
and all the peerless leader could do
was to accept the plaudits. take the
Wilsonian dogma and go forth to
pursue his way ahead of the water
wagon, which has now become the
national highway.
With this record Of indubitable per-
formance behind him, and yet in the
full strength of his vigorous man
hood, Nebraskans see nothing at all
wonderful or amazing in the return
to leadership Of the commoner. They
are more concerned over his recon-
ciliation with Hitchcock. although
they recognize in it matter of ex-
pediency alone, in which the two
leaders share.
Thirty Years Ago.
To get proper perspective on the
Bryan Hitchcock relations it is nee
eSSdEy 10 turn DdCk thirty years.
Bryan was then young and literally
,, unknown attorney at Lincoln. Hitch
cock had but u short time before closed
his law Office and was engaged in the
publication of a newspaper. In 1890
Nebraska was riven from it's repub-
lican moorings, and has been more or
less adrift >ever since. The populist
party. then the Farmers Alliance, was
just coming to be recognized as a
factor; prohibition was an issue, and
a lot of republican skulduggery in
to be suspected if not actually estab-
lished. Hitchcock had. not gotten far
enough from his republican antece-
dents to label himself a democrat, and
so proclaimed his paper to be ''inde-
, pendent"
One of his bright young reporters,
since more or less known to fame and
national democratic councils. Richard
Lee Metcalfe. spied out William Jen-
over the door in his Lincoln law Office
and he was nominated for Congress
from the first Nebraska district. at
that time including both Omaha and
Lincoln. The silver tongue won the
day, and the Bryan path to glory
stretched out before him. OF course,
Hitchcock's paper shared in the tri-
| umph and it's stock began to look up
In 1895, when Mr.. Bryan retired
selected his successor, he became the
editor of the Hitchcock journal. and
| soon gave the lie to it's declaration OF
| being IAN independent journal by
devoting 1t to his new gospel of de-
mocracy It was from his editorial
desk in 1896 that Mr.. Bryan went to
the convention at Chicago. from which