Courier Democrat. (Langdon, N.D.) 1891-1920, 1908-09-10

~ VI WV ePSSSa
echo of that speech still lives. Why?
Like all true eloquence, like the Grafton
for the crown, and the Phllippics of
Demosthenes, it had IN it the ring OF
sincerity. Bryan rings true. In religion
in morals, in politics, in every pathway
of life, the great Nebraskan rings true.
This it is that gives him power. 1t is
this that has endeared him tothe hearts
of our people; and it is this that has
helped him to hold them, in spite of all
kinds of adverse efforts of his enemies
down to the present day. Never, in all
Jul history, has a party been so loyal to
a man as the Democratic party has been
to Bryan. Neither Webster, nor Clay,
Blaine nor Mckinley, could boast of
such loyalty and love. 1t is a mistake
to date the rise of Bryan from the Chi
cago convention of 90. He was in Con-
gress in 1892. He was active then,
energetic and aggressive. His work in
Congress gave great promise. No speech
on the tariff was as bold, clear, fearless
and far-reaching. 1t is to be regretted
that Mr.. Bryan did not remain in Con-
gress. That was the place for him. His
"cross of gold' speech was the worst
mistake he ever made. 1t was the mis-
take of his life. 1t led him from the
thorny path CT constructive statesman
ship to the fower-tilled path of the
popular crater. The nation had no great
need of C~hautauquans: it had them in
hundreds. 1t did need great construc-
tive statesmen. 1t hasn't had but one
or two in twenty-f five years, and not five
in fifty.
The first time | met Bryan he remind
| ed me of Cicero. l said, $50 must the
young Cicero have appeared" I did
not think of Caesar then; | never think
of Caesar now, when | see, hear of, or
read after, MIR. Bryan. Even the mature
man is suggestive, but no longer of
Cicero.
Is Bryan a radical? If so, is he
dangerous? The dangerous men in this
Republic are the men who think William
Jennings Bryan is dangerous, or that he
would be a dangerous President. Bryan
believes in law, he believes in order.
His whole life is full of facts. as we'll as
words, to prove it. He is no more a
dreamer than | am, than are hundreds
of his countrymen. ] hope, as ! would
to God that every man who ever knelt at
a mothers knee in this broad land, that
he is an idealist. that he has high ideals.
God only knows what the nation would
be now had it not had its idealists, its
Hancocks and Henrys, its Otises, and Its
Lincolns and Lees. But, say some,
"Bryan is to bringi in Government owner
ship of railroads. socialism, anarchy
Nobody is in any doubt about the
dangerous men in this Republic. Some
are even to be found in railroad offices.
They are the INSCRIPTIONS men who
would run up the freight rates or run
down the wage-scale to pay dividends for
subllmely watered stock. Against these
Bryan is iron or brass. No. MIR. Bryan
is not dangerous. That is the last thing
to think of in connection with his candi-
dacy for the Presidency.
Is be fit? Bryan, bred in the Drawn
and brain breeding West, will bring to
Washington not only what he went there
with, in the early ~nineties, but the ripen-
ed result of fifteen years of careful plow-
ing, hoelng, reaping and harvesting of
the golden grain fields of the world. No
man has had such a chance to study,
not even Taft. Noman ever made better
use OF his time. On the basis of his
college education, Bryan has been able
TO build up a superstructure surprising
anything of which we have knowledge.
In a day that is dawning, when we are
to be one of the worlds great powers
politically as we'll as commercially, his
knowledge of the worlds affairs, his
splendid share in the worlds work. will
tit him for just such work as he will
find on his desk at Washington, D. c..
every day, if he is elected President.
Our foreign affairs, not only because of
the Philippines, but because of our
Pacific coast and other Pacific posses.
slons, will take up much of his time.
Our rapidly increasing foreign commerce
will interest him. In extending it, he
may be able to direct it into new chan.
nels, and secure success for it in old ones.
When in London, on his way home
from a trip around the world, he attend
ed the Worlds Peace Congress. His
speech was the best delivered before
that body; his ideas, the noblest as we'll
as the most practical. Never was the
nation prouder OF it's Great Commoner
than 1T was that day; and never had the
Republic better reason to be proud than
when he, one of the kingliest of her
sons, set a pace in peace of royalty. Not
all our efforts at The Hague, Portsmouth
Tokyo or anywhere else, we're so fruitful
ds this mans one EARNEST honast aGo,4