Evening Republican, Volume 23, Number 133, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 2 June 1920 — WILL SPANK WILLIE BRYAN [ARTICLE]

WILL SPANK WILLIE BRYAN

‘MA’ DEMOCRACY TO TAKE HIM TO WOODSHED AT SAN FRANCISCO. Washington, D. C., June I.— (Special).—Take it from the Wilson Democrats, who are rallying around the flag of administration loyalty— William Jennings Bryan has about as much chance at the San Francisco convention as an American has in Mexico. “Get Bryan and get him quick,” is the order that has gone out from the mobilized Wilson forces, who are determined to obliterate him. There is every indication that they have control of the convention machinery and the staff officers are said to have the word from the commander in chief to let Bryan have both barrels, one loaded for his opposition to the president’s peace treaty policy and the other for his insistence upon stirring up another fuss over the dead and gone demon rum. Plans for the Bryan taking- off are known to have been the subject of grave discussion at the cabinet meeting today, with the president one of the interested participants. After the cabinet session, devoted, it is said, almost exclusively to politics and the issues involved, no admissions were made. But when the word of what happened had been passed along from the staff to the line officers,-a well defined idea of what Bryan has coming to him at the Golden Gate was garnered for publication. According to the accounts of the preparedness measures undertaken by the administration generals, the sharpshooters have all been assigned to their pillboxes and the “Fritzie boy” from the Platte is doomed as soon as he sticks his head above the anti-administration trenches. As some of Bryan’s most vehement Democratic opponents have put it, in discussing the forthcoming tragedy confidentially, the former secretary of state is going to be crucified on his cross of treaty ratification with, reservations and buried- with his “dry” crown of thorns jammed down hard on his own brow.

Following his conference yesterday with Homer Cummings, Democratic'' national chairman and keynoter for the convention, the president took the cabinet members into his confidence today on the political phase of things as he sees it. The determination that there shall be no deviation from the Wilson policy of insistence upon treaty ratification without nullifying reservations was declared to have met with unanimous cabinet approval. The determination also that the liquor issue should be left alone also was approved, perhaps not unanimously, but overwhelmingly. Secretary Daniels, it is believed, would be satisfied to have the party incorporate Bryan’s dry enforcement plank in the platform, but the “more practical minded” members of the cabinet think tt~ would-J»~ w let the subject alone on the theory that the issue is settled once for all, and there is no use rubbing it in on the poor “wets.” The cabinet, it is understood, did not talk about candidates, but it is generally understood that President Wilson’s name will not be presented to the convention as a candidate for .the nomination. What is wanted is a good Wilson Democrat who will stand out boldly for ratification of the peace treaty and league covenant in the fight before the people over that issue in the campaign. The convention plans call for a great Wilsonian demonstration, Chairman Cummings’ keynote speech is to be a tribute to the president, 1 the like. of which has not been sounded in American political forums in many years. The president will be pictured as a martyr to the cause of world democracy and peace, being cruelly persecuted by political enemies.