Amador ledger., 1900-09-07
THE PfTH OF POLITICS.
(By ARTHUR j. PrLLsBuHY)

(By ARTHUR J. PrLLsBURY)
Mr.. William J. Bryan has unwilling.
~ opened before himself the way to
useful future. When the overwhelming
defeat in store for him in November
shall have made it finally evident that
ne has no divine call to the practice of
polltlcs, as his want of success in the
legal profession must have made it evil
dent to him that he had no call to the
practice of the law, it will be perfectly
natural for him to drop into the service
OF humanity in the capacity of an ex-
horter to repC nance. Indeed he has
taken to sermonizing at the outset of
his presidential campaign and with a
success that is full of promise for a
useful career as an evangelist if not so
satisfying when viewed from the stand.
point of practical craftsmanship.
Dwight Moody is dead, B. Fay Mills
has gone over to the Unitarians and the
home missionary field is white for the
harvest. Mr.. Bryan is eloquent, rug
ged, full of zeal. His theology is all
right, and by temperament he is emo
tional in high degree. Being ruled
by his sympathies he would sway 9TH
ers, as he himself is swayed, through
the electrical intensity of his feelings.
Such a man would be power in the
pulpit, but corflagration in the presi-
dental office. Let him therefore seek
his, proper sphere of utility.
Mr.. Bryan reasons with true woaan-
iness of feeling in all that he writes or
utters from the platform. In his most
recent sermon, published in full in the
Examiner, he took his text from John
I. chapter ID, verses 10 and 20, which
declare unequivocally that man is a
liar who says that he loves God and yet
does not love his fellowman. The con-
tention of John the Apostle can not be
gainsaid, but some of the contentious
Of William the politician are not in
vulnerable. Like many other gentle
men of his cloth the Rev. Mr.. Bryan
brings to the consideration of poltitico-
moral questions warm sympathy and
hot temper but a very Indifferent store
OF knowledge and scarcity of common
sense, Among the conclusions connoted
in Mr.. Bryan's Sunday sermon above
cited may be mentioned one to the eff
feet that, as no consistent Christian can
willingly be tax shirker, all who love
the Lord should favor an income tax
and vote for Mr.. Bryan for president.
AS Mr.. Bryan's platform contains not a
word in relation to any income tax the
eloquent parsons conclusion is evident
ly not warranted by his text. Another
connoted conclusion drawn by the gift
ed exhorter is that, inasmuch as every
fuctuation i'll the purchasing power of
the dollar works injustice to someone.
the Christian world should unite with
Mr.. Bryan and his party in wrenching
the national standard from the COM
paratively stable yellow metal and
transferring it to the incomparably un-
stable metallic fetch worshiped by the
new Democracy. Having graphically
hmned that bull necked and bullet headed
Goliath which the Bryanistic cartoon
lists love to depict as the personification
OF the trust evil the future Nebraska
circuit rider skillfully signifies, between
the lines, his desire for commission
at the hands Of the American people to
be the bright, particular David to ham,
mer that Goliath on the head with
vocabulary until ne will be glad to be
dead, forgetting that the party behind
him defeated in congress constitution
al amendment calculated to give the
general government plenary power to
deal as summarily with unlawful COM
binations of capital as with interstate
commerce. The writer will confess
that there is lacking in this resume of q
notable discourse that seductive quality
of verisimilitude to truth which char
aeterized the sermon itself, but he pro-
tests that, judged by prepense and pur-
port. the rectitude of this review need
not blush when put in comparison with
the pioUs and pretentious effort under
consideration. That w. J. Bryan has
call to preach will be evident enough
to every Investigator, but every we'll
wisher will advise him to confine him.
self strictly to the evangel lest, in tack
ling political subjects, his tangled logic
and exuberant feeling should make his
feet to stumble,
Four years ago when the BRYAN comet
was hurled into our political armament
he so sparkled with defamation dog
matically declared that prudent men
quickly set him down as a raving dema-
gogue, thereby misjudging Mr.. Bryan's
true character and undertaking his
power for harm. For demagogue.
once he has acquired Office by the use of
the instrumentalities of the fakir. NAV
sober up and manifest many of the
qualities of prudent craftsmanship. He
may, for prudential reasons, refuse to
do any of the crazy things he promised
his constituents that he would do. but
no such comforting assurance is to be
cherished ill regard to the enthusiast
and Mr.. Bryan is an enthusiast. Mr..
Bryan is demagogue only i'll SO far as
his oratorical temperament tempts him
to be, and not through malicious pre-
meditation. He plays upon the pas
sions and prejudices of the people be.
cause such passions and prejudices con-
stitute the raw material with which the
popular orator loves to work. He has,
too, at his finger tips, all the little tricks |