Indiana daily times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1914-1922, 1920-06-09
BRYAN SAYS NO
MAN IN G.. @. P.
RACEQUALIFIES
Not One of Candidates So Far
Meets Needs of Party,
He Declares.
SEEMS LIKE A MORGUE
By WILLIAM JENNINGS BRYAN.

me for their disappointment.
The old convention isn't what it used
to be, if I am able to compare this with
. former ones.
The pep is lacking.
There are no shouting paraders. no
marchers singing the praises Of their
heroes.
"The frost is on the (politiean
pumpkin and the folders in the shock"
The headquarters are manned and
womaned with workers
You can have a button for the asking,
and the literary department is abundant
" furnished with printed information.
Likenesses Of aspiring statesmen and
near statesmen adorn the walls Of the re-
spective headquarters and occasionally
overflow into adjoining corridors.
Groups of the curious move about
through the halls, eager to see the
prominent men of whom they have read
but the atmosphere isn't charged with
confidence and the visitors are not vocal
with expressions of loyalty to the party
or devotion to those who have entered
the lists.
The reason is not difficult to find.
The friends Of the leading men are be-
ginning to realize, even II they do not
admit. the hopelessness of agreement upon
any of the men prominently mentioned
1t is not necessary to scrutintZe the
daily reports from the committee or to
speculate upon the seating or unseating
of delegates.
There are the usual scandals from the
southern states, but these have required
so regularly as to excite no surprise and
little comment.
NO CANDIDATE NEAR
ENOUGH TO CAUSE STIR.
No candidate comes near enough to the
required number Of votes to make the
action Of the national committee or OF
the credentials committee a matter OF
moment.
Consider the leading candidates: Gen.
Wood has the best organized political
machine.
According to the evidence presented to
the investigating committee he has oy
far the largest campaign fund.
The primaries showed that he had a
national following, that Is, friends In
every state.
He is not a favorite son candidate; he
went at the business Of securing the pres
: idential nomination as earnestly as ne
has gone about other business
Gen. Wood is a strong man; he has his
. views on public questions and he ex-
nresses himself with vigor, but has been
handicapped from the beginning by the
fact that he is a professional soldler'
The objection is so strong In the
minds Of a great multitude that no per-
sonaI virtues can overcome 1t.
The reaction against militarism 10 In
full swing and grows stronger day by
day.
That he recognizes this change in SEN
timeut is evident from the fact that MS
managers do not stress universal mill
tary training.
He has been one of the foremost cham
pions Of 4 compulsory system under
which every young man would be com
PEELED to devote a certain period OF time
to military training
WHAT CONGRESS DID
To THE MEASURE.
The policy had ardent supporters In
congress.
The house committee was about to re-
port a bill when a democratic caucus
registered a protest by a vote Of 100 to
II.
a 1t became evident that the democratic
vote with the addition of protesting re-
publlcans could defeat the measure, and
1t was abandoned.
Afterwards the military affairs com
mittee Of the senate reported a COM
pulsory training bill which the chair
man assured the senate would not re-
Quire an appropriation Of more than
seven hundred millions.
poll Of the senate showed nearly oil
the democrats and many Of the rapub-
1icans against the bill.
4 voluntary training system was sub
stiruted, and this was stricken out Of
the bill: in conference.
The desire to have our nation lead the
world toward universal peace is very
strong, and a professional soldier would
in the opinion of many misrepresent the
nation before the world.
The investigations have also embar-
raised Gen Wood
Regardless OF any questions affecting
the nature of the expenditures, the
amount itself would prove a great han
dicap IN the campaign.
The friends of Senator johnson have
spoken very emphatically on the sub
5sot, and the feeling is shared by ali
who are not personally attached to u
money-supported candidacy.
It ig abhorrent to the patriotic senti-
ment - the country to encourage the
idee Npat a poor man is by his very
poverty disqualified for this high posi-
ton.
The 4nen who give their lives to pub
lie service do not as a rule make for
tunes; neither do they attach to them
selves friends Of great wealth if they
champion the cause of the plain people.
Some way will be devised by which
presidential aspirants viii be placed up
on an approximate equality irrespective
OF their own wealth or the wealth o.
their trends
Until that time large expenditures
will be deemed Z liability rather than
an asset.
AND THEN TAKE
GOV. LOWDEN.
Gov. Lowden has won many friends
by his administration
He has not only pleased the business
element by his methods, but he has
gratihed the temperance element by sign
ing an enforcement law quite as drastic
as the Volstead act
He has the hacking of the old guard
and probably would be more accepta bic
to the conservative element of the party
than any other candidate, but this is
the greatest weakness.
The johnson following is so great and
his demonstrated strength so apparent
that the convention will hardly dare to
nominate a man so closely identified by
his corporate connections with big bust
The Investigation of campaign funds
has embarrassed Gov. Lowden about as
much as it has Gen. Wood.
While the total sum spent in his be
half is not as great as that expended by
the Wood managers, 1t is probably near
" as great per capita for the area COW
cred.
1t is true that more than three-fourths
Z OF the Lowden fund was supplied by him
self and members of his family, but the
sum invested by him in the presidentiou