The herald., 1897-07-04
HE WILL BE ALIVE

IL w ILL DE- ALL
Tomorrow Hon w. j. Bryan will be
in Los Angeles. If one were to read the
Republican papers of last fall the ques-
ton would not appear to be lacking in
pertinency when We ask, "Will he be
alive?" Those papers loudly and often
proclaimed that after the November
election Mr. Bryan would be politically
dead, beyond the power of any influence
to resurrect him.
Monday he will be here, and he will
be very much alive. That magnetic per-
sonality will stand out resplendent in
the perfect possession of all faculties
of body and intellect.
Mr.. Bryan went through the cam
paign in a manner never matched by
any candidate in the political history
of the United States. He won his nom
ination in a way that was dramatic in
the best sense of the word. He stood be-
fore the convention as the embodiment
of the American sentiment. With a
soul aglow with popular sympathy, he
swayed with his fervid eloquence and
clear-cut thought the minds of that au-
gust body and brought them all to act
as one man. For months he stood be-
fore the American people, a man of the
people, and spoke to them on the issues
of the day in sentences that still ring
in the ears of all the country. Twice
four times and ten times day he
taught the doctrines of necessary reform
and poured the hot shot of his burning
words into the camps of the monopolists
whose rapacity threatens the deepest
foundations of popular rights. He trav-
eled night and day thousands and tens
of thousands of miles to look his coun-
trymen in the face and counsel with
them on the welfare of the country
No mobs Of hirelings in palace cars came
to hear him speak. But the plain peo-
pie from the farms, from the factories
and the shops came in country wagons,
in second class cars and on foot to learn
from the lips of their friend, the COM
mon man, the highest duties of citizen
ship.
He won at the polls a vote of almost
one-half the enfranchised citizens of the
country. He was beaten by narrow
of the monopolists and the money of the
un-American crowd of millionaires who
flock to Europe every year and whisper
in shame that they are Americans.
These un-American influences did their
perfect work on the floating vote, with
neither brains nor soul behind it.
At the end Mr. Bryan met his defeat
with the resolution of the hero that he
is, and with the calmness of a philoso-
pher.
Then his enemies (and they are the
enemies of the people) told us he was
dead and his cause with him. Well, they
are beginning to find out that he is
alive. In 1896 these oligarchsi of Amer
lea, who think their money entities them
to thrones, got the worst fright they ever
suffered in their lives, but not the worst
they will suffer. The fright of 1900 will
be so severe that they will find out who
is dead, and whose cause is dead. They
know this. Never have they been SO
busy as they are today marshaling their
cohorts for the struggle they know will
be final. All over the United States
they are organized, a year and half in
advance of the congressional election.
They are reading the handwriting on the
wall against them in the delayed
prosperity they promised and failed
to deliver. Their one hope is to divide
the reform forces, and so win. They
will not divide them. From Maine to
California all who deeply love their
country and understand her needs in
this hour of peril will rally around the
standard of reform borne by William
Jennings Bryan, and he will lead them
to great though partial victory in 1898,
to be followed by the final contest and
decisive victory of 1900.
Bryan is most emphatically alive to-
day. and he will live to triumph over his
enemies and the enemies of the plain
people Of his country-yes, the enemies
of popular rights-in 1900. The monopo-
lists feel it in their bones today, and it
will reach the marrow in those bones
at the next election.
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