Jasper County Democrat, Volume 23, Number 64, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 November 1920 — W. J. BRYAN WANTS WILSON TO QUIT [ARTICLE]

W . J. BRYAN WANTS WILSON TO QUIT

Would Have Marshall Appoint Harding Secretary of State and Then Quit. SENATOR WOULD BE IN DEC. 1 Nebraskan Then Says President-Elect Could Speed Up Actual Legislation Under the Republican Regime. Chicago, Nov. 5. —William J. Bryan, who arrived in Chicago on a speaking tour, issued a statement calling on President Wilson to resign at once, yielding the' presidency to Vice President Marshall with the understanding that Senator Harding be made secretary of state. Then, Mr. Bryan said, Marshall should resign December 1, leaving the presidency to Harding, who would succeed as secretary of state. Harding then could carry though a definite plan for peace, Bryan declared. Would Speed Legislation. The Commoner’s suggestion . for Wilson's resignation'was not made in a spirit of anger or recrimination, but for the purpose of speeding up as rapidly as possible actual legislation under the Republican regime. It would prevent the long delay between now and March 4. “The Democratic party -needs reorganization by Democrats.’ continued Mr. Bryan. “This landslide was the result not of Democratic but of Wilson policies.” Bryan Expected Vote Result. .The conversation was then turned upon the significance of the events which have just occurred politically. Mr. Aryan's aplomb seemed to have been in no way shattered. Mr. Bryan expected It. He came 2,000 miles from his winter home in Florida to cast his vote in Nebraska for Gov. -Cox. But it seemed to be merely a gesture —Mr. Bryan casting his vote for Gov. Cfk did not feel the tires of righteousness roaring in his heart. “I made no speeches in the campaign,” He said. “For the first time In forty years I made* no political speeches during a presidential campaign. I could not explain why theh. My reasons would be construed as arguments against the candidate. I will tell now. My speeches would not have fitted into the plan of campaign. The San Francisco convention, I thought, ignored tile most important issues. I knew after the convention, and Wrote of it, that the Democrats would not carry a single northern state. The party has become a party of evaders and not crusader?. I could not enter into a joint debate with Gov. Cox while ostensibly campaigning for him. I was silent.” Sees New Democracy. a

A pensive memory this, and Mr. Bryan sighed. But the verbal fast is now broken and Mr. Bryan, his voice freshened by its rest, launched into sentences that stirred, with emotion and power. The Democratic party would rise’from the ashes of defeat. The great vote for Hardiplg had been not so much of a confidence in the ‘‘reactionary Republicdiis” as a vole of protest against a Wilsonized Democracy that had “trafficked with Wall street, flirted with the horror of propaganda and sent delegates? to San francisco whose catechism began, The chief object of man is to glorify the* president and obey his commandments.’ ’’ ' B * Ms. Bryan then spent-a half hour in detail what, he termed Gov. Cox’s campaign inconsistencies—his appeal for the dry vote in the west, the wet vote in the east; his Stand against reaction in the west; ills traffic with Wall street iff the «ast; his deliberate support of the IPresJdent’s stubborn accusations against such men aS Taft and Hoover. And then, after he- had talked for an hour touching upon as many topics as could be hurled at him by the Inierylewr. Mr. Bryan concluded with

a heroic forecast: The Democrats were not down. The Innate progressivism of the Democratic party would assemble around its standards once more the hosts of reform and wisdom. And Mr. Bryan would not be surprised to see the country go as overwhelmingly Democratic in 1924 as it went Republican in 1920. With a final smile Mr. Bryan spread the poultice over the bruised body of his party. “After thirty years in politics I have seen both defeats and victories pass away,” he said. “And there was a wise ancient over whose door it was written: This, too, shall pass away.’ ” An<| Mr. Bryan, eying the latest newspaper headlines, recounting the recent landslide, set his unconquerable lips firmly and added, “and It shall.”