The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1897-07-01
WILLIAM J. BRYAN.

Cleveland Recorder: OF William ].
Bryan's greatness as an orator, no one
who heard him at Music hall on Wed
nesday night can entertain a doubt.
For more than two hours he held an
( immense audience of men and women
/ with a clean cut argument on one of
/ the driest of subjects-held them as
only a great play would be expected to
! hold such an audience. Yet never once
did he indulge in a flight of what is
/ commonly termed ''oratory.v Every
climax seemed to grow spontaneously
out Of the main thought Every story
came as pat illustration Every
burst of eloquence might have been de-
livered and every gesture made in
drawingroom conversation without Of
Tense to good taste. Mr.. Bryan is not
I an orator of the type indicated by his
brilliant peroration at Chicago. His
power lies in his earnest but easy man
ner, his evident candOr, his manifest
good feeling, his clear reasoning and
vivid suggestion, and his simple but
elegant diction.
In spite of its matter, Mr.. Bryan's
lecture was as admirable as its de-
livery 1t was so well arrapged.-that
each succeeding point of his argument
seemed to evolve itself out of the pre-
ceding one, while the lecture as whole
left upon sympathetic auditors an i'm
preston Of having listened to their
own thought. SO perfect was the art
OF construction that no appearance of
art remained
Whoever holds William ]. Bryan in
light esteem, either as thinker or speak
er. reflects upon his own intelligence.
Mr.. Bryan's replies to the convention
al Soldbug arguments are unanswer-
able. His indictment of the goldbugs
as false prophets he proves to the
point of conviction. And his reasons
for giving to the debtor instead of the
creditor, the option of determining
whether debts shall be paid in gold or
silver are unassailable. Upon that
point he argued that neither should
have the option as a matter of Justice
but that in the public interest il should
be given TO the debtor, because. where
as the creditor would choose the dearer
money, thus tending constantly TO
lessen the volume by ruling out the
cheaper, the debtor would choose the
cheaper. thus tending to maintain both
at parity and so to maintain a
double supply. Upon the assumption
that large volume of money is i'm
portant. and that cost of production is !
not the determining factor. in the value |
of gold and silver-proposition which |
are accepted and argued from by most 4
soldbugs-that argument is impregna-
bic alike from economic, political and |
ethical points of view
Mr.. Bryan's great value. however. as
a leader-for such he unGuestionably |
isis related less to his financial doc
trines than to the spirit of democracy
which, irrespective of particular doc
trines, animates the man himself He
believes in bimetallism because he be-
ieves it to be the remedy for plu-
tocracy. and against plutocracy he has
declared relentless political war Such
a man appeals TO a far wider circle a
this juncture in our country's history
-han that which responds to his finan-
eial doctrines. He may be right as to
hose doctrines. or he may be wrong:
out his reasons for advocating them
place him in an attitude of irreconcil-
able hostility to the yiutocratic forces
which are arrayed against the great
producing interests of the country. and
stamp him as the natural leader of
rue democracy. +