KERN’S POSITION AT THE BALTIMORE CONVENTION
Senator Kern had not completely recovered from the strain of the Lorimer
case when he found himself unexpectedly precipitated into the maelstrom
of the Democratic National Convention at Baltimore, unquestionably the
most remarkable assembly of the representatives of any party ever held
in America. There have been many versions of his part in the important
features of the convention, but the strange thing is that there has been
such a general ignorance of the fact that he was in truth one of the
potential figures in that great drama. It is known to all, of course,
that he was the chairman of the committee on Resolutions and Mr. Bryan’s
candidate for the temporary chairmanship, but the circumstances under
which he became the candidate, the importance of his strategy in that
contest, and the fact that but for his dissent his name would have been
presented as a presidential candidate at a time when the convention
seemed hopelessly deadlocked and with the support of a number of the
most potential states, have never figured in the public’s estimate of
his rôle. It is the intention here to relate this story as fully as
possible without unpleasantly affecting
[Illustration: SENATOR KERN WITH HIS FIRST GRANDCHILD, GEORGE B. LAWSON,
JR., AND JULIA KERN LAWSON]
several prominent politicians who are still upon the scene.
I
On the Saturday before the Baltimore convention met Senator Kern, who
had gone to Kerncliffe for a much-needed rest, returned to Washington in
comparative ignorance of the developments in the convention city. The
news that awaited his return was not of a pleasant nature.
The more important news he learned that hot afternoon as he sat in front
of the Congress Hall Hotel was that the National Committee had selected
Alton B. Parker of New York for the temporary chairmanship to deliver
the keynote speech and that this had been challenged by Mr. Bryan, who
had made it quite clear that he would fight. At that time he had no idea
that he would be called upon to play any part in the contest other than
to cast his individual vote in the convention. But there were various
embarrassing angles to the situation thus presented. Many years before
he had formed a personal friendship for Judge Parker and this friendship
had grown with the years. The National Committeeman from Indiana had
voted for Parker, which complicated the situation from the viewpoint of
state politics. He entertained a momentary fear that the prospective
fight might tend to the disruption of the party and the destruction of
its prospects. But at the same time he understood perfectly the motives
actuating Mr. Bryan and sympathized with them. With some forces known to
be reactionary, lining up aggressively behind a man thought by the
masses of the party west of the eastern mountains to be reactionary in
his trend of thought, and with Mr. Bryan sounding the warning that the
selection of that man for the temporary chairmanship would be a triumph
for reaction, Senator Kern instantly knew his position in the fight. It
was not a pleasant one; it came to be a far more important one than is
generally known.
The National Committee had entrusted a sub-committee of eight to select
the temporary chairman and this committee first proffered the position
to Mr. Bryan, who declined, and then to Senator Kern, who refused to
serve. It was the suggestion of both Mr. Bryan and Senator Kern that a
thoroughly progressive Democrat, nationally known as such, should be
chosen. The forces of Champ Clark had a candidate who measured up to the
desired standard in Ollie James of Kentucky, then a member of the house,
and the Wilson forces favored the election of Robert L. Henry, a
representative from Texas, who also harmonized with Mr. Bryan’s idea of
a temporary chairman. When the sub-committee met eight of the sixteen
voted for Parker, three for James, three for Henry, one for Kern and one
for O’Gorman. The one vote cast for Senator Kern was not the vote of
the Indiana member, Mr. Taggart. The Indiana member did not vote for
Kern because the senator had written him personally that he did not
desire the position.
With this vote the fight passed to the full membership of the National
Committee, and Bryan with a vigorous pen began a determined warfare
through the press against the choice of the sub-committee. Realizing the
importance of the issue, the Wilson followers, in view of Mr. Wilson’s
telegram to Bryan accepting the latter’s view of the selection of
Parker, withdrew the candidacy of Henry and went over to James. On the
afternoon of the day before the full committee met in the evening, Bryan
declared through the press that in the event the organization
recommended Parker he would oppose him on the floor of the convention
with another candidate. The issue was clean-cut. That night the full
committee selected Parker by a vote of 32 to 20 for James and 2 for
O’Gorman. The fight was on.
Mr. Bryan did not want to be the candidate against Parker. It was his
plan to serve notice on the rank and file of the party throughout the
country of the reactionary trend of the convention through a powerful
speech he expected to make in presenting the name of his candidate. This
he could not do were he himself the candidate. His first step was to
ask Ollie James to permit the presentation of his name, but having been
the avowed candidate before the committee of the Clark forces, the
managers of the speaker of the house objected to James being a
candidate. He then appealed to Senator O’Gorman, but found that he was
pledged to Parker. Then it was he determined upon presenting the name of
Senator Kern.
There were several reasons bearing on state politics which made the
suggestion distasteful to Kern. He was interested in the nomination of
Governor Marshall for the presidency, and the reasons which impelled the
Clark forces to object to the candidacy of James made the idea
unpleasant to the Indiana senator. All the various reasons were given
Bryan in an effort to dissuade him from his plan to nominate Kern, but
without effect. Meanwhile many of the senator’s friends became concerned
over the proposal. While it did not operate in determining Kern’s state
of mind, some of these friends, anticipating the long deadlock which
occurred in the balloting for the presidency were convinced that should
the convention be forced to go outside the list of avowed candidates no
one would loom so promisingly as the Indiana senator, and they were
anxious to prevent his prominence in connection with a fight. The strain
told physically upon Kern. Many of his friends, and notably Senator Luke
Lea of Tennessee, made frequent efforts to persuade the Nebraskan to
nominate some other man. Mr. Kern himself had but little hope of their
success. The night before the convention met while dining with Lea he
made this clear. The Tennesseean made another trip to Bryan’s room and
brought back the message that the latter had closed the subject with the
remark, “I intend to nominate John to-morrow, and he will have to do
what he thinks best about it.” It was after this that Kern himself made
a last attempt. “He left my room,” writes Mr. Bryan to me, “late the
night before the convention without a positive reply. He urged me to be
a candidate, but did not decide the question whether he would accept.
Next morning I heard a rumor that he might put me in nomination, but I
had explained to him that I wanted to present to the convention the
reasons why Parker should not be nominated and that I could only do that
in a speech presenting the name of some one else. Not hearing directly
from Kern, I presented his name and then he played his part, and it was
a very skilful part.”
For the story of Senator Kern’s part between the time he left Mr.
Bryan’s room late that night and the following morning I am indebted to
Mrs. Kern, who was at the convention. He went directly to his own room
and told Mrs. Kern everything that had transpired. He was so worried
that he slept none that night, and his nervous condition brought on an
illness that made sleep impossible. It was during that restless night
that he planned his part on the morrow, and the first person to learn of
his plans was Mrs. Kern, to whom he detailed his purpose early in the
morning as he was sitting on the edge of his bed drawing on his shoes.
With this exception he gave no indication of his intention. Contrary to
the general assumption at the time that the scene in the convention that
day had been planned by Mr. Bryan, the Commoner knew absolutely nothing
about it until he witnessed it on the platform. “The plan was his own so
far as I know,” Mr. Bryan tells me, “and no actor ever did his work more
perfectly.”
Looking down from the gallery upon the convention that day one could
easily imagine a storm-tossed sea. The excitement was intense. Great
throngs futilely beat against the doors for admission. The day was
intensely warm. The session was rich in the dramatic from the moment the
venerable Cardinal Gibbons in his scarlet robes passed down the center
aisle for the opening invocation until the result of the chairmanship
fight was announced. The feeling on the part of Bryan’s enemies among
the delegates had been intensified during the night, and there was some
concern among the conservative and thoughtful lest the Commoner might be
insulted so flagrantly as to result in a general resentment over the
country.
When the familiar figure of the Commoner appeared in the convention he
was given a remarkable ovation, and when a little later Senator Kern
entered Bryan was given another demonstration. These exhibitions of
devotion did not tend to sweeten the temper of his enemies, and when he
appeared upon the platform to deliver his speech the hiss was not absent
from the general turmoil. Seldom has the great orator appeared so
majestic as he did in this fighting speech. There was something
strangely hard, steel-like, in the man that those who had heard him
frequently on less momentous occasions could not recognize. A more
militant figure never faced a hostile crowd--and there were enough
enemies in the convention to give it the appearance of hostility. Time
and again he was compelled to pause by the hisses and imprecations, but
he stood there immovable like a stonewall waiting for the storm to
subside sufficiently for him to make his voice heard above the din. That
speech made history--more so than the Cross of Gold speech in 1896. With
the general purport of the speech we are not here concerned, for it is
well known. But we are interested that in that portion of the speech
having to do directly with Senator Kern. Here he said:
“It is only fair now that, when the hour of triumph has come, the
song of victory should be sung by one whose heart has been in the
fight. John W. Kern has been faithful every day during these
sixteen years. It has cost him time, it has cost him money, and it
has cost him the wear of body and of mind. He has been giving
freely of all that he had. Four years ago, when the foundation was
laid for the present victory, it was John W. Kern who stood with me
and helped to bring into the campaign the idea of publicity before
the election which has now swept the country until even the
Republican party was compelled by public opinion to give it
unanimous indorsement only a few weeks ago.
“It was John W. Kern who stood with me on that Denver platform that
demanded the election of senators by a direct vote of the people,
when a Republican national convention had turned it down by a vote
of seven to one, and now he is in the United States senate, where
he is measuring up to the high expectations of a great party.
“He helped in the fight for the amendment authorizing an income
tax, and he has lived to see a president who was opposed to us take
that plank out of our platform and put it through the house and
senate and to see thirty-four states of the union ratify it. And
now he is leading the fight in the United States senate to purge
that body of Senator Lorimer, who typifies the supremacy of
corruption in politics.
“What better man could we have to open a convention?
“What better man could we have to represent the spirit of
progressive Democracy?”
As Mr. Bryan was concluding his remarkable speech Senator Kern appeared
upon the platform. No one knew his intent. And when the Commoner sat
down, both cheered and hissed, and Kern claimed the recognition of the
chair, a hush of expectancy fell upon the great convention. Throughout
his speech, in some respects one of the most dramatic and effective ever
delivered at a national convention, he was given the most respectful
attention. Pale and wan from his sleepless night, he looked frail, but
his voice was in excellent condition, and the interest of the delegates
in his message was so intense that little difficulty was found in
hearing him in the most remote portions of the gallery. As he referred
to the time in his youth when, in 1872 he attended a Democratic national
convention in Baltimore and said that the enthusiasm for Democracy in
his young heart then was “no greater than that which glowed in his old
heart now” he made a subtle appeal. His almost affectionate reference to
his personal friendship for Judge Parker predisposed the followers of
the New Yorker to a friendly attitude toward the speaker. And when he
made his dramatic personal appeal to Parker, seated in the New York
delegation, to join with him in the interest of harmony in withdrawing,
and in deciding upon some one of numerous men he mentioned, the scene
was almost theatrical. Here and there were murmurs, and Parker was seen
engaged in earnest, animated conversation with his colleagues. There is
no record of the nature of that conversation. There can be little
doubt, however, that had he been an absolutely free agent at that
moment, with no sense of obligations to those who were supporting him,
he would have responded in the spirit in which the proposition was
submitted. With Kern standing in silence waiting for the hoped-for
answer, with Parker surrounded by gesticulative men, with the convention
growing nervous under the tension, the scene was almost theatrical. And
when, on finding that Parker would not respond, Kern turned to Charles
F. Murphy, the Tammany chief, referring to him as “the leader of the New
York Democracy, who holds that democracy in the hollow of his hand” and
made the appeal to him, it was as though a bomb had been dropped from
the ceiling. Receiving no response from Murphy, who sat in his seat
stolid and unmoved, the attitude of Kern changed instantly from
supplication to defiance, and with the declaration that if the contest
must be “between the people and the powers,” there was but one man to
lead, and withdrew his own name and nominated Bryan it was like the
startling effect of an unexpected thunderbolt. This remarkable speech
follows:
“Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen of the Convention--I desire a hearing
in order that I may state my reason for not desiring to enter the
contest for temporary chairman of this convention. I believe that
by forty years of service to my party I have earned the right to a
hearing at the hands of a Democratic convention. I hail from the
state of Indiana, which will shortly present to this convention for
its consideration the name of one of the best, truest, and most
gallant Democrats on earth, in the person of the Hon. Thomas R.
Marshall, the governor of that state.
“I desire to take no part in this convention that will in any wise
militate against him or against his interests, which all true
Indiana Democrats this day loyally support. I have been for many
years a personal friend of the gentleman who has been named by the
national committee. Many years ago, when Judge Parker and I were
much younger than we are now, we met in a hotel in Europe and
became warm personal friends. That was long before his elevation to
the chief justiceship of the court of appeals of his state. Since
that time I have enjoyed his friendship. He had had mine. I have
accepted the hospitality of his home, and in 1904, when he was a
candidate for the presidential nomination, moved largely by that
personal friendship, I enlisted under his standard for the
nomination long before the convention, and went through that great
battle at St. Louis in his behalf. In that campaign, in response to
a request of Judge Parker personally made to me, I, on account of
my friendship for him, took the standard of a losing cause as
candidate for governor of Indiana, and carried it on to defeat, but
I hope not an inglorious defeat. In 1908 Judge Parker canvassed in
my state for vice-president. Last year when I was a candidate for
the national ticket, on which I was a candidate for the senate, in
the midst of a heated contest, Judge Parker traveled from New York
to Indianapolis to make a speech in my behalf.
“We have been during all these years, and are now, personal
friends. The greatest desire of my heart is the hope of a
Democratic victory. I attended a national convention in Baltimore
in 1872, before I had cast my vote, and my young heart was filled
with no more enthusiasm for success that year than my old heart is
now. I believe that Judge Parker is as earnestly in favor, as
earnestly desirous of Democratic success this year as I am.
“There are only a little over a thousand delegates in this
convention; there are seven million Democrats between the oceans.
There are millions of Democrats scattered from one end of this
country to the other who at this hour are all looking with aching
hearts upon the signs of discord that prevail here when there ought
to be forerunners of victory in the shouts of this convention. Is
there a man here who does not earnestly desire harmony to the end
that there may be victory?
“I am going to appeal now and here for that kind of harmony which
will change the sadness which at this hour exists in millions of
Democratic homes into shouts of joy and gladness.
“My friend, Judge Parker, sits before me in this convention, he
representing the national committee, I representing, not another
faction, thank God, but representing perhaps another section, and
we two men have it within our power to send these words of gladness
flashing throughout the republic. If my friend will join with me
now and here in the selection of a man satisfactory to us both; if
he will stand in this presence with me and agree that that
distinguished New Yorker who has brought more honor to the Empire
state in the United States senate than it has had since the days of
Frederick Kernan--James A. O’Gorman--this discord will cease in a
moment and the great Democratic party will present a united front.
Or if he will agree that that splendid representative from the
state of Texas in that same body, Charles A. Culberson shall
preside, or if he will agree upon that splendid parliamentarian,
Henry D. Clayton of Alabama, or if he will agree upon that young
Tennesseean, whose name is known in every home where chivalry
abides--Luke Lea--this matter will be settled in a moment. Or if he
will agree upon the blue-eyed statesman from Ohio, Governor James
E. Campbell; or if he will agree upon the reformer governor of
Missouri, ex-Governor Folk; or if he will agree on my own
colleague, the stalwart Democrat from Indiana, Benjamin F. Shively,
all this discord will cease.
“Will some one for Judge Parker, will Judge Parker himself, meet me
on this ground and aid in the solution of this problem, a solution
of which means victory to the party and relief to the taxpayers of
the country?
“My fellow Democrats, you will not promote harmony, you will not
point the way to victory, by jeering or deriding the name of the
man who led your fortunes in 1908. You may put him to the wheel,
you may humiliate him here, but in so doing you will bring pain to
the hearts of six million men in America who would gladly die for
him. You may kill him, but you do not commit homicide when you kill
him; you commit suicide.
“My friends, I have submitted a proposition to Judge Parker; I
submit it to the man, the leader of the New York Democracy who
holds that Democracy in the hollow of his hand. What response have
I? (A pause.) If there is to be no response, then let the
responsibility rest where it belongs. If Alton B. Parker will come
here now and join me in this request for harmony, his will be the
most honored of all the names amongst American Democrats.
“If there is to be no response, if the responsibility is to rest
there, if this is to be a contest between the people and the
powers, if it is to be a contest such as has been described, a
contest which I pray God may be averted, then the cause to which I
belong is so great a cause that I am not fit to be its leader. If
my proposition for harmony is to be ignored, and this deplorable
battle is to go on, there is only one man fit to lead the hosts of
progress, and that is the man who has been at the forefront for
sixteen years, the great American tribune, William Jennings Bryan.
If you will have nothing else, if that must be the issue, then the
leader must be worthy of the cause, and that leader must be William
Jennings Bryan.”
As Kern concluded, weak from a sleepless night and an enervating
ailment, a friend took him by the arm and led him, “ashen hued and
sick,” as the press reports described his appearance, from the stage. He
passed within arm’s reach of Bryan, but not a word was exchanged
between the two, nor even a look. The move Kern made was as much of a
surprise to Bryan as to Parker. It was not a prearranged affair. There
was no sharp practice in it. But it was an earnest effort of a loyal
Democrat to pour oil upon the troubled waters and prevent a battle
between members of the same army. As he spoke the expression on Bryan’s
face clearly denoted his surprise. As he proceeded the expression of
surprised anxiety gradually gave way to one of satisfaction and then to
frank admiration. And when he was led from the stage, the Commoner in a
dramatic manner accepted the commission which had been handed back to
him. Had Bryan been a candidate originally the progressives of the
country would not have had the warning of the reactionary plot. Had Kern
remained silent and permitted the convention to vote between himself and
Judge Parker without first submitting his series of compromise
proposals, any of which should have been acceptable, the country might
not have understood that there was a “rule or ruin” policy behind the
men who presented Parker’s name. Thus Kern’s speech was quite as
effective and important as that of Bryan.
Still it was not Senator Kern’s purpose to embarrass Judge Parker, in
whose personal devotion to the party he had the most perfect confidence.
He did entertain the hope that the New York jurist would meet him on
the ground of a general conciliation. But when it became apparent that
Parker was so situated that he could not respond to what must have been
his natural impulse, and Kern made his appeal to Charles F. Murphy it
was not so much with the thought that he might accept as with the
intention to placing the responsibility and giving it “a local
habitation and a name.”
Among Kern’s enemies there was a disposition to disseminate the idea
that his action had compromised his personal popularity. Nothing could
have been farther from the fact. The United Press on the following day
properly gauged the effect when it said that “Kern’s efforts to obtain
harmony in his personal appeal to Parker to withdraw in the interest of
the party has added to his popularity among the men who championed
Parker’s cause.”
That night he saw Bryan for the first time after the late parting of the
night before. Accompanied by Mrs. Kern he called at Bryan’s rooms, where
he found the Commoner in the center of his reception room surrounded by
a crowd. Catching sight of the senator, Bryan broke through the crowd,
his face wreathed in the Bryanic smile, and placing his arm
affectionately about Kern’s shoulders, he said delightedly:
“How did you ever come to think of it? That was the smartest thing you
ever did.”
Mr. Bryan publicly expressed his view of the performance in his
newspaper article of the next morning:
“I think the reader, when he has fully digested this scheme
(Kern’s) will admit that it is about as good an illustration as has
been seen in many a day of the manner in which tact and patriotism
can be combined. After I had put Senator Kern in nomination against
Parker, he took the platform and made a most forcible and eloquent
plea for harmony in the convention. He called attention to the
great issues involved and to the importance of presenting a united
front. He then presented a list of names.... He called upon Parker,
who sat just in front of him, to join him in withdrawing in favor
of any one of these men in order that the convention might operate
without discord. It was a dramatic moment. Such an opportunity
seldom comes to a man. If Parker had accepted it it would have made
him the hero of the convention. There was a stir in his
neighborhood in a moment. The bosses flocked about him, and the
convention looked on in breathless anxiety, but he did not
withdraw. The opportunity passed unimproved. Senator Kern then
appealed to Mr. Murphy to induce Judge Parker to withdraw, but Mr.
Murphy was not in a compromising mood. This was the only thing that
Senator Kern did, the good faith of which could be questioned. I am
afraid that he had no great expectation of melting the stony heart
of the Tammany boss. At any rate nothing came of the generous offer
made by Mr. Kern except that it shifted to the shoulders of Judge
Parker and his supporters entire responsibility for any discord
that might grow out of the contest.”
Such is the true story of Kern’s part in the great fight over the
temporary chairmanship which did more to determine the progressive trend
of the convention than everything else combined. The defeat of Bryan by
a small margin aroused the rank and file of the party everywhere, and
the wires to Baltimore were burdened with thousands of indignant
telegrams of protest which made a profound impression upon the delegates
and made quite impossible a repetition of such a fight, on such an
issue, and with such a result.
II
After the country had been heard from there was a general disposition to
give the progressives the right of way. Ollie James was made permanent
chairman. And Senator Kern was made chairman of the committee on
Resolutions.
When the committee on Resolutions met there was a desire to make Mr.
Bryan its chairman, but he refused to serve in that capacity, desiring a
freer hand to dealing with the convention than would be compatible with
presiding over the deliberations of the committee. It is significant of
Senator Kern’s position in the party at that hour that with Bryan’s
declination the committee turned instantly to him. Partly because of his
physical condition he at first declined, but was finally prevailed upon
to accept. The United Press gave the true reason for his unanimous
selection when it said that “Senator Kern was turned to at once as
representing the progressive Democracy.” It has always been customary
for the committee to report after the nomination of a candidate for
president, but immediately after its organization Mr. Bryan offered a
resolution providing for a report on the platform before the nomination,
and urging as a reason that no man should be nominated who did not
square with the platform of the party. There was some dissent, but the
resolution was passed, and the grind of work began at once and was
incessant until completed. Without detracting from the importance of
numerous members of the committee it is unquestionably true that the
three men who exercised more influence perhaps than any others were
Bryan, Senator O’Gorman and Senator Kern.
The platform agreed upon was one of the most progressive on which any
candidate of any party ever ran and was in complete accord with the
views of its chairman. Senator Kern read the resolutions to the
convention and moved their adoption, and they were accepted without a
contest of any character.
III
It is but proper that Senator Kern’s relation to the presidential
nomination should be disclosed, for his was the name that hovered over
the convention constantly as the most probable compromise selection in
the event of a hopeless deadlock. Because of the persistency of the
“Kern talk” there has been from hostile quarters a tendency to question
his loyalty to the candidacy of Governor Marshall; and during the
prevalence of the talk _The New York World’s_ convention correspondent
attempted to create the impression that the reactionary forces were
working quietly for the nomination of the man who next to Bryan did more
to force the convention into progressive channels than any man in it.
Senator Kern was as loyal as it was possible for man to be to the
candidacy of the Indiana governor. He felt that Mr. Marshall had many
elements of strength and looked upon him as a possible compromise
between the two leading candidates in the event of a deadlock. Under
these circumstances he frowned down any suggestion of his own name as
calculated to weaken the prospects of Indiana’s candidate by casting
suspicion upon the sincerity of Indiana’s support. I had personal
evidence of this of the most positive character.
Several months before the convention, as the number of candidates
multiplied and the possibility of complications developed, a number of
prominent politicians of a Pacific coast state wrote Senator Kern
expressing a desire to launch his candidacy in that state, and to follow
it immediately with the organization of “Kern for President” clubs.
Assuming of course that a letter of such importance should be answered
personally, I placed the letter in his hands. He was seated at his desk
writing, and, as usual, smoking. He read it through carefully, a puzzled
expression on his face, and then with a quizzical smile he handed it
back.
“Aren’t you going to answer it?” he was asked.
By this time he had resumed his writing.
“No--you acknowledge it,” he said, still writing.
“What shall I say?”
“Say that I am not and will not be a candidate; that Indiana has a
candidate and one that would give a good account of himself.” That is
the kind of letter, not even bearing Kern’s signature, that went back to
men of real political potentiality on the Pacific coast. After that many
other people in different parts of the country outside Indiana wrote
along the same line. These letters were always shown Kern, but with the
exception of the first one not one of these was read through to the end,
and in every case a letter similar in character to the one he ordered
written in the first instance was sent. After a while he was clearly
annoyed and disturbed by the suggestion these letters conveyed. He
simply ignored them, refused to seriously consider them, and evidently
preferred not to see them.
In Indiana he had many importunate friends who insisted on making him a
candidate against his will, and with these he dealt directly and always
with the stern injunction that they do absolutely nothing that could
possibly create the impression outside the state that there was any
divided opinion in the state regarding the position the state should
take on the presidency.
This dangling of a possible prize before him was carried to the
convention on the day it met and was never permitted out of his range of
vision up to the very day that Woodrow Wilson was nominated. Mr. Bryan
tells me that one of the reasons given him by Kern for his opposition to
being nominated for the temporary chairmanship was the fact that “he was
embarrassed by the fact that he was being mentioned for the presidency
by men in other delegations” and such prominence as might follow his
nomination for the chairmanship might be falsely interpreted as a bid
for the prize. On the second day of the convention the Associated Press
carried the story that many astute politicians had reached the
conclusion that under the two-thirds rule of Democratic conventions none
of the avowed candidates could be nominated and that “some of the
progressives” had commenced to “test sentiment for Kern” and that the
movement had “gained considerable momentum.” On that day it was a
commonplace comment about the hotel lobbies that the nominee “would be
Wilson or Kern.” And on that day men of much political importance in
other states than Indiana began to interest themselves in “testing
sentiment for Kern.” The theory of these men was that when the
“conservatives” found they could not nominate Clark or Harmon, and the
“progressives” learned they could not nominate Wilson, both elements
would find in Kern the satisfactory way out. And during that time Kern
was importuned, and harassed, every hour of the day, dragged from the
Resolutions committee to meet delegates anxious to vote for him,
followed to his room at night. When the movement reached such
proportions as to seem serious he took the position that as long as
there was any possibility of the nomination of any of the avowed
candidates, and as long as there was any chance of a compromise on
Marshall his name should not under any circumstances appear in the
balloting.
Long before the various candidates had been formally presented to the
convention it required no extraordinary perspicacity on the part of
veterans of national conventions to see that none of the avowed
candidates could or would be nominated without prolonged balloting, and
that there was a strong possibility of a hopeless deadlock. It did not
require many ballots to justify the fear. In the resulting discussion of
a compromise candidate or “dark horse” no name appeared with such
frequency as that of Kern. Although he was constantly holding his
friends in check this did not spare him from the suspicion of some and
the open criticism of others. _The New York World_ sounded a “note of
warning” in a direct charge that “the reactionaries of the convention”
were planning to throw the nomination to Senator Kern to prevent it from
going to Wilson. The absurdity of the assumption that “reactionaries”
would be interested in the nomination of the progressive leader of
Indiana, who had been intimately identified with the reform measures of
Mr. Bryan was not explained. The truth is that the men who were drawn to
the Kern solution of a deadlock were found among members of both wings
of the party. But the men who gave the movement impetus in the beginning
and remained throughout the most faithful to it were progressives of the
most militant stripe. Among them were men whose first choice were
Wilson, Clark, Harmon and Marshall. The Underwood forces alone
contributed no support to the movement. The most active and aggressive
sponsor of the Kern compromise idea in the event the deadlock continued
long enough to engender bitterness was Senator Luke Lea of Tennessee,
whose first choice was Wilson.
The name of Kern appeared for the first time in the balloting on the
third ballot when a delegate from Ohio went to him. After that there was
scarcely a ballot in which he did not appear usually with one vote,
frequently with two and sometimes with more. This was only significant
in that it kept his name constantly before the convention as a way out.
On June 29th, three days before the nomination of Wilson, the Associated
Press carried the story of the “dark horse” talk and said that “the
names of Kern and Gaynor are most frequently mentioned;” and on the same
day the United Press announced that Kern would not be a candidate until
it had been clearly demonstrated that Wilson, Clark or Marshall could
not be nominated, and that Indiana would then lead the way, to be
followed by Illinois.
During these days no man did more to hold the Indiana delegation
together for Marshall than Senator Kern. When on the 29th ballot Major
G. V. Menzies of Indiana broke the solidarity of the delegation by
voting for Kern no man resented it more than the senator, who was more
embarrassed than flattered. To all Indianians who called upon him at his
room with the suggestion that the “time has come to break from
Marshall”--and there were many both on and off the delegation--he
stubbornly refused to listen. The thought behind his uncompromising
attitude was that once the delegation broke away from its instructions
there was no certainty that the majority would not ultimately find their
way into the camp of ultra-conservativism.
Meanwhile he was given to understand that Illinois was ready at any
moment Indiana led the way to transfer her vote to him, and he had good
reasons for assuming that with his consent he could have the support of
Ohio. In the event such a “drive” had been undertaken, assurances were
given by men of potentiality that Michigan would follow and that far
western states such as Colorado and Wyoming would fall in line. It was a
tremendous temptation that was placed before him, and the very
incongruity of the company urging it--progressives and bosses--would
have made it seem to one less astute and less given to analysis as
peculiarly auspicious. The feeling between the followers of the two
leading candidates was hourly intensifying. The delegates were tired,
and many financially embarrassed by the unexpected prolongation of the
convention and were anxious to get away. If at such an hour and under
such circumstances three such states as Indiana, Illinois and Ohio had
bolted toward a dark horse, followed by Michigan and states from the far
west and from the south, it might have resulted in a stampede and his
nomination. It was Kern’s personal opinion that it might result in
throwing the convention into a turmoil of uncertainty out of which
would come the nomination of a reactionary; and such he believed to be
the intent of some who were most insistent on his giving consent. He
refused his consent.
At no time did Mr. Bryan give any encouragement to those who tried to
interest him in Kern as a compromise candidate. This led to the silly
story that the two former running mates had cooled toward one anther
because “Kern had not warmed up to Bryan’s convention propositions.” It
was immediately after this story became current, at a time when there
was much speculation as to whether the convention would be compelled to
adjourn without making a nomination, that Mr. Bryan, in an interview
suggesting possible compromise candidates, named Kern, Ollie James,
Senator O’Gorman and Senator Culbertson as a list from which a selection
might be made. The fact that Kern was first in the list was immediately
seized upon as evidence of Bryan’s partiality to his nomination, and
that same day bets were offered that he would be nominated. Speaking of
Kern, Mr. Bryan said:
“Senator Kern of Indiana already has received the support of nearly
six million and a half of Democrats for the vice-presidency, and
since that time he not only has been elected to the United States
senate, but has distinguished himself among his associates by the
prominent part he has taken. He is the leader of the fight against
Senator Lorimer. If there can be no agreement upon any of those now
being balloted for it ought to be easy to compromise on a man like
Senator Kern.”
Then the drift toward Wilson began with the action of Bryan in
withdrawing his vote from Clark because of the action of Tammany in
throwing him its support and casting it for the New Jersey governor. It
was the beginning of the end. On the day following the action of Bryan
Senator Kern in a statement given to _The Indianapolis News_
correspondent declared that the Indiana delegation was “first, last and
all the time for Governor Marshall and had no second choice,” but added
that the second choice of the people of Indiana was probably Wilson.
From this time on the probability of a “dark horse” dwindled and the
convention hurried to the conclusion of its work with the nomination of
the ticket of Wilson and Marshall.
No single man with the probable exception of Bryan was more instrumental
in the general result of the Baltimore convention than John W. Kern.
His dramatic action in the chairmanship fight had done more than any
other one thing could to throw the burden of responsibility for the
contest upon the reactionaries; his work on the committee on Resolutions
made for progressivism; and his refusal under great pressure to permit
the use of his name in the convention for the purpose of breaking away
from the avowed candidates probably made the nomination of Wilson
possible; and the support given the candidacy of Governor Marshall by
the delegation of a doubtful state like Indiana no doubt made his
selection for the vice-presidency logical and inevitable.
But the emotional conflicts through which he passed during those
steaming days left him in a state of physical exhaustion from which he
did not recover during the summer.