The daily morning journal and courier., 1907-11-16
saturday, November 1e, 1907.
MIR. BRYAN'S ATTITUDE.

William J. Bryan is receptlVe cah- didate for the presidency as the nom- inee of the Democratic party. In an announcement printed in the newspa- pers of the country yesterday morn ing and speaking in the third person he admits his readiness to make the run. if his party wishes it, but that un- der no circumstances will he go gum ming for delegates; that the conven- ton which nominates him, if it sees fit to do so, must be free to act in it's own behalf He assumes, however, that if he is to be the nominee the plat form will contain the ideas of Demo- cratic government in which he be- believes.
 There is no element of surprise in this attitude which MT. Bryan has taken. It has been foreshadowed for some time that unless change of heart should overtake the great American electorate the next presi- dential contest would be fought along radical lines of reform. This has meant that the two candidates would repre- sent the progressive ideas of MT. Bryan and MT. Roosevelt and possibly be those two gentlemen themselves. Of Mir. Bryan it may be said that he is no longer dreaded as man of dan gerously reactionary ideas and policies. He has had abundant opportunities to educate himself in the great universi- ty of the world by placing himself in- to intimate personal contact with all countries and with their rulers. With the possible exception of Secretary Taft, when that gentleman will have returned from, his tour about the world, MT. Bryan will have been the one American citizen of the present generation to have had this education al experience. Personally he stands higher in the estimation of the people of the country than ever before. His purity of character and clean emo- tions have attached to him fascina- ton which few have been able to re- sist when they contemplate him as the citizen. There will be found, too among men who distrust his political Judgment and dread the test of his po- litical philosophy a feeling of confi- dence in the motives of the man; the average man believes that his aim is to serve beneficially the American peo- pie.
 From strictly political point of view Mr Bryan's position is unique among men who have become nation- al figures He has lived to see many of the ideas which he advocated as a candidate for the presidency enforced by a President of tho United States Where the ideas referred to have not been enforced as he formulated them been seized upon and utilized. It may be asserted without fear of contradic- tion that President Roosevelt's popu- larity to-day may in part be traced to the influence of Mir Bryan's instruc- ton. So the popularity of MT. Bryan after two defeats at the polls may be in part ascribed to the use President Roosevelt has made of his views. It is not easy to say which is the more popular man with the masses of the people were they both private citizens. Neither can be classed as a conserva- tive, though strangely enough the more demonstrative nature of Mir. Roosevelt has made MT. Bryan appear so, in the estimation of men who would be com pelled to make a choice if one ran against the other. It is by no means an uncommon experience to hear a capitalist assert that while MT. Bryan had he been elected president, would have been equally relentless with sim ming business men he would have pro- ceeded in more orderly manner. Nor is it an uncommon experience to hear men who live by the sweat of the brow declare that of the two methods the belligerent method of President Roosevelt is more to be desired. In fact these two men are to a consider able extent patterned in like mould and they appeal to similar emotions. Upon more than one occasion MT. Bryan has commended President Roosevelt for his brave confiscation of his ideas and instead of criticising him for it has commended him. At a dinner last year in the South we'll known Georgian editor, John Temple Graves, publicly counselled MT. Bryan that it was his duty to nominate Pres ident Roosevelt in the Democratic