Aberdeen herald. [volume] (Aberdeen, Chehalis County, W.T.) 1886-1917, 1900-08-02
DEMOCRACY'S CANDIDATE.
A Conservative View by the
Springfield Republican.
A REPUBLIC OR AN EMPIRE?
TO That Choice Have We Come. 1t Dwarfs
All other Issues. As in Cuba,
So IN LuzOn.

| In the four years that have interviewed
since William Jennings Bryan was put
forward at Chicago the American people
| have come to know the young man who
secured his nomination to the presidency
by speech. The outcome of the demc-
cratic national convention of 1896 YVES
dramatic and Il surprise to the country.
The relegation of the eastern men to the
rear, and the triumph of western finan-
cial theories caused shock to the con-
sentative elements OF this section that
was the parent of much bitter and resent
! full comment and attack. 1t is not to be
wondered at that there was unfairness in
the general onslaught which followed.
Honest fear and interested partisanship
magnitied the raw radicalism into anar-
chism, the most was made of the posi-
bic menace to our financial stability, and
it was even asserted and believed that
the supreme court would be in danger in
the event of democratic success. 1t was
against such great odds that the compar-
atively unknown young man ut the head
of the democratic ticket made his fight
in 1896. He was ridiculed misunder-
stood and misrcpresented. That he bore
himself well and strongly is now adj
mtted by the candid historians of that
campaign.
1t should be possible for even the most
intolerant partisan to estimate Mr.. Bryan
with greater justice and truth in 1900.
He has covered the country in his speech
making tours until the people know him
by personal contact. He has been sharp
ly criticised for his much speaking, but
only so was it possible to reach the voters.
Surely it is a remarkable personal tri-
umph that Mr.. Bryan has talked so much
and damaged himself So little. He has
won and will hold very high place in
the story of American politics as an ora
tor, able to meet and to interest the mass
of voters. There is no one his superior
in this. Back of this art and power is
the personality of the speaker. This
helps to account for his strength. He is
thoroughly sincere. None can doubt this
who see and know and study the man.
He has come out OF the loins of God
fearing, upright and intellectual Ameri-
can ancestry. His father was an Illinois
Judge, the magnate of his region, a stanch
Presbyterian, whose house was the stop
ping-place of men of prominence who
came that way, as we'll as the center OF
the best there was in the local life. The
boy has never departed from the high
standing that environed his youth. He
is deeply religious man. Into his col
lege course and beyond to his services in
congress was carried the fear of God, a
spotless life and absolute personal in
tcgrity.
Much has been said in praise of Presi-
dent McKinley's home life, and in this
respect Mr.. Bryan also offers shining
example of American manhood. He is
filled with patriotism and love of all that
is most worthy in the nations past. The
conviction that he had part to play in
, serving his country has possessed Mr.
, Bryan for many years, and led him early
to the thought OF a public career. II
this belief he has never wavered. He il
in close touch with the plain people
The opportunity to run for congress in {
; contest of doubtful issue came to hin
. before he considered himself ready fol
, the work, but he accepted it as call. IT
due time he was brought to the front as
the leader of the new democracy. This
) seemed to deepen his own certainty o
the call to leadership, and to assure hi
mastership of the party. Here, then, il
, the man-serious-minded, believing him
/ self to have the cause of the masses il
his keeping, holding manhood to b'
t greater than dollars, a fanatic along thes'
lines, honest, resolutc and wholly faith
full to his lights. This is a personalit,
to be reckoned with.
But always at the front in any consid
q Grafton Of Mr.. Bryan must be placed tin
money question. There is no doubt o
y double dealing in the position which h
$ takes. As practical matter of publ
l policy, the theory OF 1G to belongs t.
the past. Not so does Mr.. Bryan see ii
s He holds this economic theory as trutl
and the first weapon he would us
against those plutocratic influences whicl
=. today menace the republic more openl