The Yakima herald. [volume] (North Yakima, W.T. [Wash.]) 1889-1914, 1897-09-09
Mr. Bryan,s Position To-day.

John Aubrey Jones in recent number
OF the Examiner, very pertinently defines
Mr.. Bryan's position before the American
people. lie says: zone cannot but be
forcbly struck by the unanimity with
which the administration press tso-called
republican and gold.democratic) refrain
from commenting upon or criticising the
latter day public utterances of William
J. Bryan. Why this silence? 1t is be-
cause they fear to do anything that they
believe might aid to keep Mr.. Bryan
prominently before the people, that no
comments are made? Aud is it because
they can find nothing in what he says to
criticise without laying the critic open to
the charge OF hypercriticism, that they
do not criticise? While they speak Of
Mr.. Bryan only in sneering tone, yet If
they did not fear him as the invincible
champion of the great common people
and their rights before the law in matters
governmental, assuming that they (the
editors of the administration press) are
possessed of becoming degree OF fair
ness and candor, would concede him to
be man of rare and exceptional equi-
poise in bis mentality and in his DISPOSE
ton, and man who has thorough grasp
| and apprehension of all public ques.
tons Of national scope. II these editors
-adherents of the Cleveland Mckinley
| political iaith-never before recognized in
Mr.. Bryan an exalted degree OF magnani-
nifty, gentleness of spirit, kindliness of
feeling and, withal, controversial ability
Of the highest order, surely they must
If they would be fair, admit that in all
these respects he has proven himself to
be the peer Of any living man. and with
out superior. Most notably was this
evidenced by that masterful rejoinder he
made through the columns of the New
York Journal and the San Francisco Ex-
aminer to that patchwork OF platitudes
put together by ex President Cleveland
on the occasion of the so-cslled REFORM
Club" at the Waldorf Hotel in New
York City. That clean, clear cut, manly
answer by Mr.. Bryan put quetus to
the attempt on the part of few super
serviceable ex office holders to laud
Cleveland, with hopes of regainng some
of his lost prestige.
II ever light that once shown with
dazzling brightness was efectually paled
into darkness by more brilliant light
flashing up before il, Cleveland is to be
compared to that light as he stands be-
fore the American people today by the
side of Mr.. Bryan. The ex president, in
all his rotund ponderosity, has gone into
total eclipse politically.
Viewed from an unparalleled, unpar.
tisan standpoint, the public utterances of
Mr.. Bryan since as we'll as before his de-
feat bear the imprint of true statesman
ship, and are as devoid OF demagogic
clap trap and political thunder as those OF
the ex-president and may others who are
would-be beIttlers OF Mr.. Bryan, are
characterized by such repulsive elements.
In no fnlsome sense. but speaking my
earnest belief lin which | am not alone
by many tens OF thousands) there is no
man today before the American people
who SO fully combines all the elements of
true greatness as does William jennings
Bryan, measure him by the most exact
ing standard one may. He is not only
great in his mental attainments. his po-
litical genius. his grasp Of statecraft, his
unsullied patriotism, but he is equally
great in the attributes of his moral ma
ture. His is nobility of soul found only
in finite creatures whose daily lie is in
consonance with the ,allwise purpose of
the infinite. In word, he is grand.
living attestatiou of the truth that man
evolutes toward perfection, mentally,
morally and physically accordingly as
he keeps in subsection the baser part of
his finite nature"