The daily Gate City and constitution-Democrat. (Keokuk, Iowa) 1916-1922, 1920-06-30


SAN FRANCISCO, June 30.-With-
in forty-eight hours William j. Bryan
will have been crushed by the ad-
ministration tank that is rnmbling
across the democratic battlefield here
today or he will have climbed to the
drivers seat, according to every indi-
cation on the various fronts.
The fight between Bryan and
President Wilson for control of the
democratic convention became more
intense today with the report that
Secretary of State Colby. represent,
ing the president, is working for a
damp plank in the platform.
The Wilson and Bryan forces al,
ready are engaged in a bitter strife
over. the question of whether the
convention shall endorse the league
of nations. But even the league Is
overshadowed in BryaIa's estimation
by the wet-dry issue.
The report that Colby seeks wet
plank is based on the impression that
the administration favors mod1fica-
ton of the Volstead act. 1t will be
recalled that Wilson vetoed the war
time prohibition law.
Colby is on the subcommittee
which is actually drafting platform
planks, while Bryan is not. There
fore the latter is expected to save
most of his ammunition for the open
fight which is looked for on the con.
vention floor when the platform
comes up for approval there.
Many conflicting reports were in
circulation today shortly before the
subcommittee met at $3.50 a. m. to
resume work on the platform.
Chairman Carter Glass fatty de-
MED a widespread report that the
subcommittee had rejected a wet
plank, 6 to ).
Glass said that no vote had been
taken and no decisions had been
reached at the session, which broke
up at 2 a. m. .
Another rumor was that a plank
calling for repeal Of the prohibition
had been voted down,
and another that the majority Of the
members We're against
taking a definite stand for either the
vets or drys. .
Bryan is waging the fight Of his
life On the liquor issue, it is ap-
parent that he has chance to win.
but on the league issue it looks as
if he had his back to the wall.
Administration forces are not con-
sidering a compromise with the Ne
braskan, firmly believing they can
beat him in the committee and on the
floor. Bryan's direct challenge to
Wilson on the league issue, delivered
in his speech at the Jackson banquet
in Washington last January, has not
been forgotten. The Wilson leaders
evidently want to eliminate him
from politics and are determined to
annihilate him in the present en-
counter as punishment for attempting
to seize party control from the presi-
dent in the opinion Of Bryan's
friends.
If Bryan is decisivelX beaten in the
liquor fight, his opponents will feel
that he has been definitely crushed
This, they hold, would
obliterate all chances Of Bryan influ-
encing the presidential nomination or
holding a veto power over any candi-
date. Should Bryan prove victor in
the liquor fight after a spectacular
contest. there is no doubt that he
would be the biggest single figure in
the convention and the party and
that his advice on the nomination
would be sought. There even We're
rumors of a Bryan boom in that
event. After having captured the
convention on the wet-dry issue. the
comm oner, it is predicted, would op-
pose nomination Of McAdoc, Cox or
Palmer.
The nine members of the sub-com-
mittee of the resolutions committee
who have the drafting Of the plat
form in their hands slept late this
morning, resting from their midnight
labors. AS the hour approached for
the morning meeting, attaches on
guard at the doors of the commit
teemen's hotel quarters said none OF
them had arisen.
The subcommittee may work all
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