For four years the official commander-in-chief, the standard-bearer of National Democracy is Tom Taggart, the gambling-hell man of French Lick Springs, Indiana!
Commenting upon the campaign, The Independent, of New York, says that Mr. Bryan gave his support to the Democratic ticket, but took back nothing which he had said about Parker. The Independent is mistaken. Bryan changed his position so often and so fast that Dr. Holt evidently failed to keep up.
In that special-car trip of his through Indiana, Mr. Bryan’s evolutionary process developed him into a Parker champion, who saw in the Esopus man “The Moses of Democracy,” one whose “ideals” were the same as Bryan’s “ideals,” one whose candidacy enlisted Bryan’s support as cordially as though Bryan “had framed the platform and selected the nominee.” Oh, yes, that was about what he said, Dr. Holt.
And when he had finished saying it twenty-two times per day, the Indiana voter girded up his trousers, trekked to the polls, and voted for Roosevelt.
To W. J. B.
Would you be so kind as to tell us when and where you will & commence to reorganize the Democratic party? You promised to begin “immediately after the election.” What is your construction of the word “immediately”? And what did you really mean by “reorganize”?
Your party is fully organized from top to bottom—from Tom Taggart, the gambling-hell man, down to Pat McCarren, the Standard Oil lobbyist. How can you reorganize a party so thoroughly organized? You can’t do it, you are not trying to do it, and you must have known all along that you couldn’t do it.
Watch out, William! The people have loved you and believed in you, but your course in the last campaign has shaken your popularity to its very foundations. Beware how you trifle with the radicals. If you want to come with us, come and be done with it. If you want to go to the Belmonts and Taggarts, go and be done with it.