ABSTRACT
William Jennings Bryan understood national conventions and titular leadership. His aggressive assumption of the titular leadership gave him tenure in a phantom office in a minority party. The leaders who did not retire were titular leader Bryan and his national chairman, Senator Jones. The first organizational decision to test Bryan’s titular leadership involved the Harrity case. Factionalism and interparty problems produced a strong undercurrent at the otherwise colorless Democratic convention in Kansas City. Jones came out of the campaign irritated by his young leader and by the impossible duties that had been imposed upon him. Bryan’s efforts at strengthening grass-roots organization and raising funds soon ran up against the skepticism, inertia, and factional cross-currents of the Democratic leadership. A man of great tact and party regularity, Mack’s newspaper became the authentic voice of the Democratic leadership in western New York.
