Pulitzer_ A Life in Politics, Print, and Power - James McGrath Morris [223]
“I have discovered the secret of Mr. Pulitzer’s opposition to me,” Bryan continued. It had become clear to him when he watched how Pulitzer forced President Cleveland to accept the public sale of bonds. “That is the secret. Mr. Pulitzer and the World can rule Cleveland. They can make him do as they want. But they cannot rule Bryan. They cannot make me bow to their will.” He said he would not be a candidate and would turn down the nomination, clearing one hurdle for Pulitzer’s chosen man, Parker. But he raised another by promising to “resist any attempt to hand the Democratic Party over to the corporations and capitalists as the re-organizers are trying to do.
“I want to be a Cincinnatus, I do not want the cares of millions of dollars,” he said, ending his hours-long meeting with Williams. “Tell Mr. Pulitzer to come out to my farm and I will make a farmer of him. I will show him how to be free from cares and worries about investments, stocks, bonds and guarding accumulations of wealth.”
Toward the end of the interview, Bryan recalled the first time he and Pulitzer met. It was in Washington, after Bryan’s loss in the election of 1896. “He tried to see my face and feel my bumps.” Bryan said. “He felt my chin and jaw and commented on it. Tell him this jaw is stronger and firmer than ever.”
The Republicans enthusiastically gave their nomination to Roosevelt in June 1904 while the Democrats continued to squabble. When the Democratic Party gathered in St. Louis, Bryan’s plans were still undisclosed. If he backed Hearst, who had courageously supported his bids in 1896 and 1900, Bryan could split the convention. It seemed likely that this was his plan. His opening speech drew cheers of “Bryan, Bryan!” and Governor Hill agreed to omit any reference to the gold standard in the platform to appease Bryan’s supporters. As dawn approached, after a long night of speeches, Bryan made his intentions known. He declined to support Hearst and instead seconded the nomination of a free silver candidate. Parker won the nomination on the first ballot and Hearst was left out in the cold.
As the Democrats settled on their nominee, Pulitzer returned to New York from Aix-les-Bains. He sailed home on the Baltic, along with J. P. Morgan, who continued to give him wide berth, especially after suffering through a monthlong rehash of the gold bond affair in the World that May. The articles, which also appeared in 2 million pamphlets, were Pulitzer’s handiwork. As he told his staff, he wanted the history of how Morgan and his cronies “swindled Cleveland, government, nation,” to be told “so that every child can understand.
Pulitzer was elated that his man was the choice of the Democratic convention. But his obsession with cleansing the party of Bryanism soon crippled the nominee’s prospects. William Speer, a reporter for the World, was on leave to serve as Parker’s secretary. Working through Speer, Pulitzer insisted that Parker force the party to swear allegiance to the gold standard. Parker acquiesced and sent a telegram from his Hudson River estate to St. Louis, saying that he regarded the gold standard as sacred and that he would decline the nomination if the party didn’t agree. Riled but exhausted, the delegates complied by giving him the nomination on his terms, and returned home still deeply divided on the currency issue.
Although Bryan and Hearst were beaten and he had his man as the party’s standard-bearer, Pulitzer was not complacent. He knew how to read an electoral map. Parker ran a lackluster campaign, modeled on those of the past, when a candidate did not sully himself with speeches or touring. But Bryan and Roosevelt, with their stirring stump speeches and national tours, had so altered the political landscape that such antiquated