The herald., 1897-07-06
BRYAN AT CLEVELAND

OF William ]. Bryan'e greatness as an
orator no one who heard him at Music
hall on Wednesday night can entertain
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 called "oratory." Every
climax seemed to have grown sponta-
neously out of the main thought. Every
story came as a pat illustration. Every
burst of eloquence might have been de-
livered and every gesture made in draw
| ing room conversation without offense
to good taste. Mr.. Bryan is not an ora
tor of the type indicated by his brilliant
peroration at Chicago. His power lies
in his easy but earnest manner, his evil
dent candor, his manifest good feeling,
his clear reasoning and vivid suggestion
and his simple but elegant diction.
| In spite of it's matter Mr.. Bryan's
lecture was as admirable as its delivery.
1t was so well arranged that each sue
ceeding point of his argument seemed to
evolve itself out of the preceding one,
while the lecture as whole left upon
the sympathetic auditors an impression
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 conven-
tional goldbug arguments are unan-
swerable. His indictment of the gold
bugs as false prophets he proves to the
point of conviction. And his reasons for
giving to the debtor instead of the cred
itor, the option of determining whether
debts shall be paid in gold or silver are
unassailable. Upon that point he ar
gued that neither should have the op-
tion as a matter of justice, but that in
the public interest it should be given to
the debtor, because, whereas, the cred
itor 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 Bath at parity and so to
maintain a double supply. Upon the
assumption that large volume of mon
ey is important, and that cost of pro-
duction is not the determining factor in
the value of gold and silver-proposi-
tions which are accepted and argued
from by most goldbugs-that argument
is impregnable alike from economic, po-
litical and clinical points of view.
Mr.. Bryan's great value, however, as
a leader-for such he unquestionably
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-
ileves it to be the remedy for plutoc-
racy, and against plutocracy he has de-
clared relentless political war. Such a
man appeals to far wider circle at this
juncture in our country's history than
that which responds to his financial doc
trines. He may be right as to those
doctrines, or he may be wrong; but his
reasons for advocating them place him
in an attitude of irreconcilable hostility
to the plutocratic forces which are ar
rayed against the great producing in
terests of the country and stamp him as
the natural leader of true democracy
Cleveland Recorder.