The Washington times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1902-1939, 1925-02-23
WOODROW WILSON

piness, all these deep, unvoiced
yearnings for social justice that
were in the air Of the era
grappled with mems conscience
in the hall that hot summer day
and slowly, surely drew them to
a political expression Of the vi.
sion of the hours.
The Death Struggle.
Colonel Harvey is authority
for this sidelight on the conven-
ton. Before the last session OF
the Baltimore convention, in the
morning, Harvey went by ap-
pointment to Bryan's room.
The two men stood in the bath
room, each with foot on the
tub, and Bryan proposed to Col
onel Harvey that he pass the
word to the friends of Clark to
propose the adjournment of the
convention for thirty days. when
the deadlock might be broken,
which, otherwise, might be broken
by the nomination Of Wilson on
the forty-fourth ballot.
Bryan, according to the Harvey
Interpretation of the story, felt
that with Clark exposed as the
Tammany candidate and Wilson
cut down at the height Of his
strength, Bryan would be the
nominee of the convention. Louis
Seibold, reporter for the World,
said that short time after this
bathroom discussion, Bryan met
Seibold and told Seibold the con.
vention would adjourn for thirty
days. Bryan was expected, as
a Wilson leader, to support the
Clark adjournment motion. Dur
ing the preliminaries Of the day,
Bryan kept his eye on Harvey
in the press box. Harvey did
not pass the tip
The BIOw-Off
Between the roll-calls the ex-
element was SO powerful that
it was expressed in silence. The
forty.fifth ballot registered: Clark
BOG, Wilson 633. Clark's forty.
sixth ballot began. Then the con-
vention realized that it was about
to see the rise of a new dynasty.
Cleveland had passed with Parker.
Bryan's star was setting. Sen.
ator Bankhead, of Alabama, rose>
before the roll-call started and
withdrew the name Of Under
wood. Senator Stone, of Missouri,
the floor leader for Champ Clark,
released the delegates that had
been pledged to Clark. The an
nouncement was followed by ter
rifle applause-hysterical.
The convention knew that the
death struggle was done. Fitz-
gerald, of New York, an old
campaigner who had been the
floor leader of Tammany, rose
to move that the roll-call be
omitted and that Wilson be
nominated by reclamation. An
other outburst of frenzied APP
plause arose. Senator Reed, Of
Missouri. objected because Mis-
souri, wanted to vote for Clark on
the last ballot. The call of the
roll began.
Senator Harmon's name was
withdrawn. State after State fell
into line for Wilson. At the end
Of the ballot, Clark had 81 votes;
"a from California, from
Florida, 2 from Louisiana, Sc
from Missouri where Clark's men
went down unconquered, 6 from
Nevada, from New Jersey
the Jim-Jims who had left Wilson
early in the balloting--1 from
Ohio. and from the District OF
Columbia. Wilson polled $50
votes--more- than Sthe necessary
two thirds.
Release From the Cabinet.
Upon the assumption OF the
presidency, Wilson discovered that
patronage irked him. He all but
farmed the appointment OF his
Cabinet to Colonel House, Joseph
Tumulty, James Kerney. and a
few other friends. Always patron
age was to Woodrow Wilson a
left-handed job at most, when he
did it badly, he did not seem to
care, and often he did it badly.
The appointment Of Bryan in
his Cabinet came, they say,
against the instructive Judge
ment of Mrs. Wilson. Her
intellect rejected the Bryan type.
She feared his blunders OF
intelligence while she trusted his
essential goodness.
But the President felt that
Bryan, with all his faults. in the
Cabinet. where the President
could minimize those faults, would
be of less danger to the
administration than Bryan, with
all his strength, outside the Cab
met, where Wilson could not com.
mand him.
In 1915 began the two years
of correspondence between Presi-
dent Wilson and the German
Government which eliminated in
Americas entrance into the world
war.
During the first year and a half
Of that correspondence, the pc
riod which affected the campaign
of 1916. it WAS apparent that our
Government. under the leader.
ship of Wilson. was trying, with
a patience which seemed petit.
logging to those who saw the
hope Of the world in allied vic
tory, to live peaceably with the
Christian virtues in the world
infested with paranoiac at
large.
Nation Behind Him.
Yet because there is bred in
us the deep respect for those vir.
tues which give us some small
right to be called a Christian
nation. America followed Wilson.
sometimes in doubt, often gPunlb.
ling, but in the end, faithfully
1t was in those day of note
writing that America came to
realize the power that rested in
their leaders, words; not fully,
but slowly did that realization
come.
During the wear 1915 and in the