The Glasgow courier. [volume] (Glasgow, Mont.) 1913-current, 1920-03-26
DEMOCRAT HOPE SLIGHT
FOR CAMPAIGN OF 1920
Leaders Dismayed by Divisions in
Ranks and Explanation of Their
Broken Promises.

Washington, March 20.-lt is no eX-
aggeration to say that the democratic
leaders in congress face the election
of 1920 with CONSERVATION and dismay
and that they regard their chance in
the contest as a forlorn hope.
Since the Jackson Day banquet there
has been an open split in the party
ranks between President Wilson, with
his exaction of an unamended treaty
on the one hand, and William Jennings
Bryan, with his acceptance of the COM
nonsense attitude of the republicans
of the senate, on the other. This has
become wider with Bryan's repeated
eXhortations for immediate peace and
the Presidents rejection of all COM
promises which would Americanize the
league of nations.
Now there is a new rift in the dem
ocratic lutte. Governor Edwards of
New Jersey, elected on a promise to
nullify the eighteenth amendment to
the constitution prohibiting the sale of
Intoxicating liquor, declares he will
carry his fight to the San Francisco
convention. Bryan, n of the earliest
advocates of prohibition and the I'M
restricted use of grape juice, insists
he will meet Edwards on that issue.
Consequently, while the republicans
have accepted the new situation Gre
ated by the ratification of the eight
zenith amendment by the necessary sc
of the states and have placed upon the
statute books the Volstead law to en-
force it, democrats are wrangling over
the n~iceties of states rights and per-
sonal liberty.
The democratic troubles in which
Bryan plays a conspicuous part, do
not end here. The party is split on
the issue of government ownership of
railroads and other utilities. Federal
ownership of the interstate lines and
state ownership of the intrastate lines
will cure many ills, he believes. In
the general idea he is joined by Will
liam Randolph Hearst. But there are
other and more conservative democrat
leaders who will not join them. They
are bitterly opposed to any such idea.
Of course, they recognize the POSSIBLE
ity of getting the votes of some Of the
advocates of the Plumb plan, which is
regarded as purely socialistic, but they
do not intend that the party shall be
~socialized more than it already is. And
so the fight is on.
Other burdens rest heavily upon the
party leaders. One of them is the nee
essity of explaining why they used the
shibboleth of THANK God for Wilson
he kept US out Of war;" in the cam
paign of 1916, and why Wilson 1919
shouted at audiences On his western
trip that the league of nations would
prevent all future wars. Another is
the amusement, excited by Attorney
General Palmer's insistence that he
will reduce the cost of living, in view
OF d constant TeCOTu OI DuIlCollDG
promises in this respect during ten
years. Another is the enormous waste
and extravaganza involved in the con-
duct of the war. Another is the gen.
eral incompetency and incoherency in
a. one-man administration. Spacious
broken promises to labor in regard to
the use of the injunction in disputes
and failure to permit collective bar
gaining in the postoffice and railroad
departments are other heavy burdens
which have to be carried.
Bryan seems possibility because he
is dry, a pacifist, a suffragist and
a public ownership But woman
suffrage and prohibition are here, and
pacifism and socialism do not appeal.
cd not appeal to the electorate. And,
besides, Bryan has been defeated three
times already. Edwards seems I'M
likely as a candidate because he stands
for refusal to accept the law the states
have accepted. McAdoo favors gov
eminent railroad control and seems
too much like a residuary legatee.