Los Angeles herald., 1908-03-19

OF the rank and file of his party in a
way that is comparable only to the
loyalty which the triumphant Roose-
welt commands from his followers
Nothing holds men in political bonds
so well as the cohesive power of pub
lie patronage" and usually men leave
defeated leader. But in spite of his
lack of those things which are usually
necessary to a leader for holding men
together, Mr.. Bryan has as firm a
hold on his followers as he ever had.
The secret of it all is his personality.
AS Roosevelt is the ideal leader of the
masses of his own party, so Mr.. Bryan
is the Peerless One" to the great body
OF the Democracy. 1t is perhaps not
telling tales out of school to say that
both of them are disliked today by
the politicians of their respective par
ties.
A single speech lifted Mr.. Bryan into
the limelight of country wide fame. 1t
gave him the presidential nomination
and laid the foundation for one OF the
most remarkable political careers the
country has ever seen. Never but
once before has single speech landed
presidential nomination. That one,
however, won more. 1t won the presi-
Cency itself. 1t was when the Repub-
lican convention was deadlocl<ed be-
tween James G.. Blaine and John Sher-
man. Ballot after ballot had been cast
without a choice. Then a teacher
preacher-lawyer made a speech. 1t
was an old-fashioned call to arms, and
the man who made Thames A. Gar
field-was in short order the nominee
OF his party. The speech of Mr.. Bryan
was. not argumentative. Even his par
tisans concede that. David I. Hill had
made speech for the gold standard.
and it was bristling with arguments.
But Mr.. Bryan ignored them ali In
stead he delivered a speech of asser-
tions rather than of supported argu-
ments. 1t had the ring of oratory
about ii, and was just suited to the
mood of the convention And the man
whose presidential boom had only a
day before been laughed at had talked
himself into the nomination. David b.
Hill said of that convention that it
was the most emotional political body
he had ever seen.
Someone recently told Mr.. Bryan
that he was the only man in this
country who could make money hon.
cstly out of politics. The statement is
sbout true. Before he was nominated
the first time he had but a modest
income. Today he makes enough to
make him man of independent means.
His First Battle" which, by the way,
is the most marked-up book in the
library of congress at Washington.
made him a good deal of money. Es-
Inmates vary as to what he makes out
Of his Commoner but conservative men
place it at at least $4,000 year. He
is the greatest drawing card on the
lecture platform today. and that nets
him perhaps as much. Then he has
printed several other books. among
them a summed-up and boiled down
work which he calls "The Commoner
Condensed" These probably bring
him in a good living in themselves.
His Commoner has been a political
asset to him. A constantly published
appeal to precinct workers to send him
data about the individual voters at
each precinct has brought results, and
he now has card index system which
puts him in touch with a large per-
centage of the voters of his own party.
He maintains press bureau in WASH
ington, another in New York and heads
one himself in Lincoln.
Mr.. Bryan is a man of intense re-
ligious convictions. He is the son of
Silas Lillard Bryan, who prayed three
times day. no matter what was on
hand to engross his attention. It is
said that as judge he was known to
adjourn court until he could have his
noontide prayer. Silas Bryan was born
in Culpepper county. Virginia, and as
might be expected from that fact he
was a Baptist. How William came to
be Presbyterian does not seem to
have been told by any of his biosraph-
ers 1t is said that the father. who
was something of politician and was
once a Democratic candidate for con-
gress, upon one occasion placed Will
liam on a table, at the age of 12. to
make a speech before a political con-
vention. At first the audience laughed,
but later applauded, when they saw
that he had in him the real germ of
an orator.
Mrs. Bryan, in a sketch she wrote
of him. says that the pockets of his