Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1908-07-16
Y ONCE MORE.

T ONOE mOnG.
The Philadelphia Public Ledger un-
earths a statement made by William
Jennings Bryan following the defeat
Of eight years ago.
On the day after the November
election in 1900 William Jennings
Bryan replied to an admirer who had
suggested that he might try a third
time:
Thanks for your telegram Of condo
lence. The defeat was a sever one;
you all did nobly. I cannot conscien-
tiously ask the party to consider me
again for the presidency. led them
to defeat four years ago, and that
ought to be enough for any one nan
It ought to be, but 1t was not. Mr.
Bryan is once more in the field.
In 1904 he was apparently rejected
and disregarded, but he was not dis
couraged. He allowed others to lead
the party to defeat on that occasion.
while he laid his plans for his third
attempt four years later. His ideas OF
what he might "conscientiously" do
changed as he advanced till he reach
ed a point where it was not necessary
to ask" the party to consider" him
again. He took it by the throat and
commanded 1t. And the party was too
decrepit to resist.
It may be just as well that the on
vention at Denver which has placed
Mr.. Bryan in nomination a third time
was so little representative of the
Democratic party, so completely repre-
Sentative of the sentiments and influ-
ences of which he has assumed the
leadership. Nothing could have ex-
pressed the character of the gathering
more significantly than the demon
.stration' at the first mention of the
candidates name. which had been
carefully arranged to exceed in dura-
ton the equally artificial demonstra-
a the convention itself, with the
sober responsibility of an organized
party, was unmoved by noise. At Den
yer the noise and the shouting were
typical of the whole Bryan move
ment." Its spirit is that Of the MOB
that has no well defined purpose Of Its
own, but noisily follows the leader
who best expresses its discomfort and
makes it the most g%littering prom
!ses.
To this spirit Mr.. Bryan has per.
s%istently appealed from the moment
Of his first theatrical entrance upon
the public stage. We have recently
been asked, by one of his authorized
spokesman, to believe that this is not
the Bryan Of 1896, but a new Bryan"
greatly revised, enlarged and improv-
ed. This is true as regards his &C.
qua!ntance with the world, mis- conf
dence in himself and especially his
acquired knowledge Of practical poll.
tics; In fundamental character there
is no evidence of change.
Mr.. Bryan remains, as he was then,
essentially a rhetorician, an actor,
ripened in skill and power but with
even less suggestion Of sincerity than
might have been attributed to the i'm.
passioned young declaimer of twelve
years ago. All this time he has de-.
voted necessarily to talking. He is
himself authority for the estimate that
he "has Travelled 300,0 900 miles since
his first defeat for president, has ad,
dressed 100000 people, has spoken
5000 times and has talked 1900
hours" And in all this he has ex
pressed no new or useful thought, has
developed no constructive idea, has
shown no elementary convictions up
on any subject whatever, though he
has touched superf1cially upon every
topic OF suggestion that has arisen
dropping 1t again as readily as he had
taken 1t up. Without experience or
responsibility In public affairs, he has
remained a disconnected critic, a forid
elocutionist addressing rural audi
ences, an actor continually playing to
the galleries and assuming for the
moment any part that was most like.
ly to gain applause.
He made his first entrance upon the
silver craze; he has abandoned that
He made some effective though super.
fetal speeches on the tariff; the tariff
no longer interests him. He tried an,
ti-imperialism; that, too, has been for
gotten. When the Populists were for
tearing up the railroads, he became
the most ferocious Of corporation
crushers, and at once time suggested
government ownership of railroads;
he now rejects that as an issue but
Is for physical va.,lation,' whatever
hat may imply. He has been various
ly for the guarantee Of bank deposits
for greenbacks, for federal licenses fol-
corporations, for any sort of quacl
remedy that has come within his Wis
lon, but he has pursued any sub
Ject, to a basic understanding or a log
1cal conclusion, nor developed 4 CO