Sorry, my friend, but Woodrow Wilson, Charles & William Bryan, and John Peter Altgeld were not "conservative". The "leaders" of the Democratic Party were socialist and so was their platform (as is today). In fact, a major arguement of the McKinley campaign in 1896 was that Bryan's positions were a duplicate of the Socialist Party platform (back in those days, the GOP could expose the Dems as "socialist" without being called "mean-sprited angry right wingers". Instead, Bryan screamed that McKinley was a "cold-hearted capitalist" and a "tool of the rich and elite" Sound familar?)
True, some SOUTHERN Democrats were conservative (and probably roughly a 1/3rd of party), but the fact that they were in denial about their party's "leaders" didn't change the fact that conservatives NEVER had control of the Democrat Party in ANY part of the 20th century. Speaking of which, Franklin Roosevelt was the Dem nominee for V.P. in 1920 and he was just as liberal then as he was in 1932. Luckily, most "conservative" Democrats realized trying to get their party to support their views was a lost cause-- the bad part was it took the "conservative" Dems until the 1960s and 70s to finally REALIZE this and quit the scumbag party.
Here's your "pre New Deal" Democrat platforms. Conservative? HA!
"Woodrow Wilson hails with patriotic pride the great achievements for country and the world wrought by a Democratic administration under his leadership... adherence to the fundamental progressive principles of social, economic and industrial justice and advance"
"The Democratic party favors the league of nations as the surest if not the only practicable means of maintaining the permanent peace of the world and terminating the insufferable burden of great military and naval establishments. It was for this that America broke away from traditional isolation...we commend the president for his courage and his high conception of good faith in steadfastly standing for the covenant agreed to by all the associated and allied nations at war with Germany and we condemn the Republican senate for its refusal to ratify the treaty merely because it was the product of Democratic statesmanship thus interposing partisan envy and personal hatred in the way of the peace and renewed prosperity of the world."
"We reject as utterly vain, if not vicious, the Republican assumption that ratification of the treaty and membership in the league of nations would in any wise impair the integrity or independence of our country. The fact that the covenant has been entered into by twenty-nine nations, all as jealous of their independence as we of ours, is a sufficient refutation of such a charge"
"During the war president Wilson exhibited the very broadest conception of liberal Americanism. In his conduct of the war...America constituted a decisive factor in the victory and brought new lustre to the flag".
"A review of the record of the Democratic party during the administration of Woodrow Wilson presents a chapter of substantial achievements...by the enactment of the Federal Reserve Act, the old system, which bred panics, was replaced by a new system, which insured confidence....we wisely insisted during the war upon meeting an adequate portion of the war expenditure from current taxes and the bulk of the balance from popular loans, and, during the first full fiscal year after the fighting stopped....We condemn the attempt of the Republican party to deprive the American people of their legitimate pride in the financing of the war, an achievement without parallel in the financial history of this or any other country, in this or any other war. And in particular we condemn the pernicious attempt of the republican party to create discontent among the holders of the bonds of the government of the United States and to drag our public finance and our banking and currency system back into the area of party politics".
"The simple truth is that the high cost of living can only be remedied by increased production, strict governmental economy and a relentless pursuit of those who take advantage of post-war conditions and are demanding and receiving outrageous profits. ...we pledge the democratic party to.... economy in government expenditures, and to the enactment and enforcement of such legislation as may be required to bring profiteers before the bar of criminal justice."
"The Democratic party is now as ever the firm friend of honest labor and the promoter of progressive industry. It established the Department of Labor at Washington and a Democratic president called to his official council board the first practical workingman who ever held a cabinet portfolio. Under this administration have been established employment bureaus to bring the man and the job together, have been peaceably determined many bitter disputes between capital and labor, were passed the child-labor act, the workingman's compensation act (the extension of which we advocate so as to include laborers engaged in loading and unloading ships and in interstate commerce), the eight-hour law the act for vocational training, and a code of other wholesome laws affecting the liberties and bettering the conditions of the laboring classes. In the Department of labor the Democratic administration established a woman's bureau which a Republican congress destroyed by withholding appropriations. Labor is not a commodity; it is human. Those who labor have rights, and the national security and safety depend upon a just recognition of those rights and the conservation of the strength of the workers and their families in the interest of sound-hearted and sound-headed men, women and children. Laws regulating hours of labor and conditions under which labor is performed, when passed in recognition of the conditions under which life must be lived to attain the highest development and happiness, are just assertions of the national interest in the welfare of the people."
-- 1920 Democratic Party Platform
And that's only a FEW paragraphs from the FIRST five pages of their little opus. This thing is Clintonesque before Clinton existed! 26 pages of government regulations, tax-and-spend, buruecratic ideas, and condemning traditional values. Any "conservative" Democrat who pledged allegance to those "old" Democrat platforms was a fool!
"The greedy commercialism which dictated the Philippine policy of the Republican administration attempts to justify it with the plea that it willpay, but even this sordid and unworthy plea fails when brought to the test of facts. The war of criminal aggression against the Filipinos,entailing an annual expense of many millions"
"Private monopolies are indefensible and intolerable. They destroy competition,control the price of all material, and of the finished product, thus robbing both producer and consumer. They lessen the employment of labor, and arbitrarily fix the terms and conditions thereof; and deprive individual energy and small capital of their opportunity of betterment...They are the most efficient means yet devised for appropriating the fruits of industry to the benefit of the few at the expense of the many, and unless their insatiate greed is checked, all wealth will be aggregated in a few hands and the Republic destroyed. The dishonest paltering with the trust evil by the Republican party in State and national platforms is conclusive proof of the truth of the charge that trusts are the legitimate product of Republican policies, that they are fostered by Republican laws, and that they are protected by the Republican administration, in return for campaign subscriptions and political support."
"We pledge the Democratic party to an unceasing warfare in nation.... against private monopoly in every form. Existing laws against trusts must be enforced and more stringent ones must be enacted providing for publicityas to the affairs of corporations engaged in interstate commerce requiring all corporations to show, before doing business outside the state of their origin, that they have no water in their stock, and that they have not attempted,and are not attempting, to monopolize any branch of business or the production of any articles of merchandise; and the whole constitutional power of Congressover interstate commerce"
"We favor such an enlargement of the scope of the interstate commerce law as will enable the commission to protect individuals and communities from discrimination, and the public from unjust and unfair transportation rates."
"In the interest of American labor and the uplifting of the workingman,as the cornerstone of the prosperity of our country, we recommend that Congresscreate a Department of Labor, in charge of a secretary, with a seat in the Cabinet, believing that the elevation of the American laborer will bring with it increased production and increased prosperity to our country athome and to our commerce abroad."
--1900 Democratic Party Platform