The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1908-07-10
WILLIAM JENNINGS BRYAN.

William Jennings Bryan, of Nebraska,
has been nominated again by the Dem
ocrats as their candidate for the presf-
dency- This gives to him the unique
distinction of having been thrice
named for the highest office in the land
by one of the two prominent political
parties in it. Only one other man, the
late Grover Cleveland, was ever so sig
nally honored. But Mr.. Bryan's case
in this respect and Mr.. Cleyeland's are
not analogous. Mr.. Cleveland had been
a winning candidate as well as a de-
feated one when his third nomination
came to him. Mr.. Bryan has been
nominated for the third time after he
has enjoyed the peculiar distinction Of
having been defeated on both the other
occasions that nominations were given
to him. And this third nomination Of
Mr.. Bryan's is sufficient testimony that
the Democrats of the country believe
him to be. beyond peradventure. the
strongest man in their party for presi-
Dental preferment at this time and a
man on whom every faction of the
party can now practically unite and
support at the polls.
There can be no doubt that this is
so. Mr.. Bryan is a stronger man po-
litically today than he was at either of
the other times he ran for the presi-
dency. He is a larger man in every
particular than he ever was before.
With maturer years, through extensive
travel to the four corners Of the earth.
because of the wonderful familiarity
he has gained with the people of his
Of tc and1QcQ
travels at home on lecture and speech
making tours, he has broadened in
viewpoint. as would naturally be ex-
pected under the circumstances, of any
man, especially one of Mr.. Bryan's in
tellectual attachments, until he has de-
veloped into a man of broad proper
tions-a man whom many besides the
delegates to the Denver convention be-
lieve is an ideal candidate for the
presidential office.
Because Mr.. Bryan has called free
silver, the bugaboo of his first cam
paign, a dead issue; because he does
not consider the time ripe for the agi-
tation of the question of the govern
ment ownership of railroads which he
has gone on record as believing in;
because he has forsaken or is not
bringing to the front a few other pol
icies that the conservative elements
in the country were wont to look upon
as vagaries; and because he has modi-
fled his views on other matters of pub
lie moment, he is being called by many
New Bryan" AS such he is being
extended support and endorse
ment from sources he never had much
reason to suspect would ever be favor
able to him.
But to those who know the man in
timately he is not much of a changed
man, with the exception of his expan-
sion in thought and vision. His car
dinal beliefs on the essential principles
of the government of a republic of the
years when he first attained prom
inence are as strong in him today as
they ever were. 1t is not so much that
he is a New Bryan as it is that the
rank and file of the people of the coun-
try have come around, long since, to
his way of thinking on many things.
AS a matter of fact Theodore Roosevelt
has been properly accused of taking up
and forcing to adoption many of the
policies that have always been as
With MI. DTydu, anu MI .
Roosevelt has been advocating many
more of Bryan's policies which he has
been unable to have his Republican
colleagues endorse.
A most potent example of this
changed condition of the peoples
thoughts is found in the fact that the
very men who most strongly opposed
his theory of the free and unlimited
coinage of silver for the purpose Of
increasing the volume of the country's
currency-the making of money out of
a metal that has some real intrinsic
vaIue-have given their support to the
currency legislation enacted by the re-
cent Republican congress which pro-
vides for the expansion of the currency
in times of emergency by the issuance
of paper money guaranteed by such
stocks and bonds as any acting secre-
tary of the treasury may approve.
other examples along the same line
might be cited to prove that the Demo-
cratic presidential nominee is not so
much a New Bryan" as that the peo-
pie have accepted with time as mat
ter of course many of the things he
has advocated and on which he has no
longer any need to harp or to keep din
ming into the peoples ears. So while
his present candidacy on a remarkably
conservative platform. that is, con-
servative to come from Democratic
convention, is something decidedly
new in politics, it is not so much SO
because of a change in the beliefs Of
Mr.. Bryan as it Is in change of the
thoughts of the people and the condi-
tons because of these changes on the
peoples part that confront Bryan
and the Democrats at the threshold of
this campaign.
Mr.. Bryan is new in being a larger.
broader minded man than ever be-
fore and as such he will receive sup
MORT this time from people he proha hly