The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1920-02-13
SENATOR HITCHCOCK
A CANDIDATE
Some Cabinet Members Put
Him Out to Check Bryan
Influence
PROHIBITION
is EMBARRASSING
Democratic Party Does Not Want to
Estrange Wet Forces of the East -
Bryan Has Already Tackled Hitch
cock in Nebraska.

WASHINGTON, Feb. Moves are
being made by the administration to off
set the influence of William j. BRYAN
within the Democratic party and to min
imize as much as possible whatever of
prestige Mr.. Bryan may seek to gain as
a dictator of party policies. Nothing
could be more unwelcome, for example,
than Mr.. Bryan's embarrassing cham
pionship of prohibition law enforcement,
when the Democratic managers are doing
all in their power to hold in line some of
the eastern strongholds which have be
come very mucr endangered by the opera
tion of the dry laws.
The sudden entry of Senator Gilbert
NJ. Hitchcock of Nebraska to the list of
presidential candidates represents one of
the schemes contemplated by prominent
Democrats for taking Mr.. Bryan down a
little and holding him in a safe place
1t is reported that Senator Carter Glass
| of Virginia and Secretary of the Navy
Josephus Daniels are largely responsible
for inducing Mr.. Hitchcock to permit the
ident in his own state.
| Mr.. Bryan intends to make himself
| felt in the San Francisco convention and
to dictate such a platform as win be
| pleasing to him, whether the vets and
the opponents of government ownership
| like it or not The Democratic party as
a whole is wet rather than dry. particu-
larly in the East, and the administration
never has committed itself to any pro-
gram of government ownership of public
utilities. If Bryan goes to San Francisco
as a delegate at large from Nebraska. he
will have standing in the convention
second to that of no other person. If
however, he is not allowed to go as a
delegate he must gain admission through
a proxy, and his position would be much
weaker if he were compelled to edge in
that way than if he could enter as one of
the chosen representatives of the state of
Nebraska.
Senator Hitchcock and Mr. Bryan have
been plitical enemies for a great many
years, and while Bryan happens to be
riding in the same boat with Hitchcock
on the issue of treaty ratification, the
relations between the two gentlemen are
no more cordial than before BRYAN has
forced the fighting in Nebraska by start
| ing to unseat Arthur j. Mullen, a Hitch
cock man. as a member of the Democrat ic
national committee. He has chosen W
| III. Thompson as his own candidate. while
the Hitchcock men will support Mr.. Null
len for reelection Now Hitchcock has
started to play a stronger game than was
originally planned and will ask the vo-
tiers of Nebraska to supnort him as a can
didate for president. This action draws
tho lines very clearly. leaving Hitchcock
fighting on one side and Bryan on the
other, with the political control of the
state the prize for which they are con
tending
incidentally, the activity of some of the
Wilson cabinet in encouraging the can.
didacy of Senator Hitchcock may be in.
terpreted also as notification that Pres
ident Wilson will not ask the Democratic
convention to nominate. him for a third
term.