The Mena weekly star. (Mena, Ark.) 1904-1977, 1920-07-08
DEMOCRATS REJECT
BONE DRY PLANK
Nebraskan's Prohi Plank Overwhelm-
ingly Lost After Exciting Fight
wet" Plank Also Rejected and
Liquor Question Ignored.

Auditorium, San Francisco, July 2.
2Decling 20 include in its platform
any reference to the prohibition ssue,
the Democratic national convention
rejected today the bone dry plank,
fathered BIZ William Jennings Bryan,
an the cider, wines and beer plank
presented BY the New York delegtion.
The vote against Bryan's plank was
929h noes TO 1857 yeas.
AS state after state announced a
majority against the dry plank, there
was repeated cheering and announc-
ment of the result of the ballot was
the signal for renewed Notification
by all those who had hoped to see the
Nebraskan turned down by the con-
vention.
Auditorium, San Francisco, July
William ]. Bryan, with one of his
old time speeches in support of a
bone-dry plaak for the Democratic
platform, turned the convention al
most upside down late this afternoon
with the magnetism and force of his
oratory and started one of the great
est, noisiest demonstrations that the
assembly yet had seen.
When Bryan had concluded his re-
ply to the advocates of wet plank,
the demonstration cut loose on the
floor and, wholly unaided by the band
or organ or any of the other instru-
mentaIities which had been effectively
used to keep other demonstrations go
ing, it proceeded spontaneously and
resisted all efforts 10 get the conven-
tion back to order.
Bryan, standing smiling in the lime
light, at the edge of the speakers
platform and with tears of emotion
coursing down his checks, reviewed
a procession of prohibition enthusiasts
who tore up state standards and start
ed moving column of delegates
about the hall.
There was one fight over whether
state standard should go in the
demonstration, a particularly spectac-
ular battle ragged round possession Of
the California standard, where, when
Mrs. Georgia G. Ormsby of Oakland.
attempted to carry the standard into
the demonstration, men attempted to
prevent 1t. Among them was an as
sistant sergant-at-arms, Francis J..
Heney Mrs. Ormsby's followers
p0unced on the man and threw him in
to the crowd All that remained of
the standard when the wreckage was
cleared away was a tattered part of
OF the pasteboard top, which once had
borne the letters of the states name.
Alabama's standard suffered a similar
fate and the bits were triumphantly
borne about the hall by the prohibit
ticn forces.
During the demonstration someone
bore the standard of Bryan's home
state to the platform, and reaching
out, Bryan lifted it high above the
rest. while the crowd roared.
William J. Bryan had presented his
bon S-dify plank and from the New
York delegation w. Bourke Cochran
had offered plank providing for
home consumption of cider, light
wines and beer. The time was appor-
toned between the sides by suspen-
sion Of the rules and the convention
went to the fight.
Behind Bryan, proposing his bone
dry plank, and Cochran, proposing his
moist one, stood the administration
forces to ask the convention to
ignore the question entirely, as had
been done In the platform as present
ed by the resolutions committee.
Bryan. showing the old-time fire of
his oratory, fairly leaped in the front
of the platform to take up the battle
he has fought so long and with liberal
quotations from Scripture, lambasted
the liquor interests in his regular fash
ion. Richmond, Pearson Hobson and
Mrs. Peter Olensen of Minnesota also
spoke for bone dry plank.
Mrs Peter Olensen of Minnesota
was the next speaker to be called by
Mr.. Bryan in support of his program
She said she spoke in the name of
the motherhood of Amrica in support
meg the dry declaration.
II am told" she said, that some
where in a lodge room in this building
there Is coffin. I wonder whether
that coffin is prepared for the liquor
interests or for the Democratic party.
For II you put in this wet plank, you
might just as well get the coffin
ready
Sir Oliver Lodge recently has pas
sed over this country" she continued,
holding communication with depart
ed spirits But from the smell OF the
breaths Of some of the men I've met
here In San Francisco, / think they
have been In communication with the
ghosts. to have been holding converse
with John Barleycorn."
Let 1t never be said," she cried,
that the Democratic party thinks
more Of its chances than of the chill
or the land God speed the right"
God speed the right" repeated
Mr. Cochran. arising to reply. with
that invocation the last speaker con-
o1uded and with that invocation |
begin. We have heard aa great
deal here that was highly inter
esting and picturesque and extrava-
CANT But 1t is peculiar thing In his
tory that most of what is bad has been
conceived by people who were good,
BY ilEdigested efforts to coerce peo-
pie in their daily lives.
Il am opposed to the word prohibi-
tion. abhor it. It is the word you Will
find chalked up in all penitentiaries
IL It Is necessary to have prohibition
and to force the people to do what
they do not want to do, then | say
they are not fit for self-government
and are ready for submission to a
monarchy The question is whether In
an effort to uproot fancied evil, we
are going. to overturn the whole sys'
tenn aud foundation of government.
H6bitual Constipation Cured
AZ 81 IN 4 to 81 DAYS