The Washington herald., 1911-04-02
By JAMES q. MORROW.

To the word strategist-though in Mis-
souri, custom has sanctioned the use of
several rugged substitutes-can now be
added the word prophet, when one begins
to think, speak, or write of William Joel
Stone, who has recently come to leader
ship in the Senate with a rush.
Like the Unconditional Hebrew after
whom he was piously named, Senator
Stone calls a nation to the mourner's
bench and promises many blessings and
reforms. = Democrat can be elected Pres
ident next year. he says Moreover. he can
put his revealing finger on the man. But
Folk and Champ Clark. prospective can
didates both live in his State It would
be unseemly, not to say ungracious. there
fore, to make his knowledge known.
Yet he is not disinclined to generalize
about the campaign. Indeed, he would
wrestie with the tariff by a plan Of his
own, thought out and elucidated stand
ing up. with choppy motions of his long
arms and pleasant grtmaces Of his
shrewd, dark face. Coincidentally. he
would experiment with the Republican
insurgents in Congress by giving them
a tariff bill that is in artistic and mathe-
NAUTICAL conformity with their pleadings
of the past
Whatever else may happen, before or
after, Senator Stone will sit among the
dignitaries at the Democratic headquar-
tiers in 1872 He has been sitting there
right along. Missouri is still a border
State, and good fighting ground. Stone.
however, overf1ows geography and lives
politically by his talents alone William
sucks eggs" his rural admirers declare,
lnFr - a. +hn
shells" 1t is an old word picture. and
inelegant- even tiresome, perhaps, but IL
is the portrait of unique and circum-
spect character and a sagaciouS veteran
of many wars.
AS he walks about his sitting-roorn in
the Washington hotel where he lives,
screwing his mouth, cheeks, and eyelids
into queer wrinkles and strange shapes,
and nervoUsly chewing gum, I note that
he is six feet tall, that ne is as slender
and Unbent as a boy, and that he wears
q spruce suit of gray, purple neck
tie. patent leather shoes, and purplsh
hose He talks slowly, but there are
wrinkles in his brown eyes, and now and
then there is a flash of humor in his
words. When anger, emotion, or COM
bat stirs his mind. however, language
then flows with the dash and sudden
ness of a torrential hill stream fighting
its way around rocks and trees to the
grassy levels below
HurLs Verbal Thunderbo1ts.
The metropolitan papers of Missouri
he shouted at a Kansas City audience
several years ago, have waged a furious
war against me. I laugh in their faces
and l spit upon them Thus he thun-
Gers amid the clouds of his passion. while
his forked Ightnings terrify and testify
against his silenced foes. Il hope God
will wither my hands," he declared a
moment later. and burn my heart in
the flames of hell, before 1 dishonor any
post to which my people may call me-"
Thus he consecrates himself with a ire
mendous oath and seals himself to Mis-
souri, and the nation.
Such a man is William Joel Stone
when the frenzy of eloquence possesses
him. at other times he is as calculating,
watchful and technical as an attorney
trying a case in ccC-tt. a lawyer. riding
a pony at night across the trackless
prairies of the West, he became the gov
ernOr Of his State, Senator in Con-
Sress, and a politician of skill and i'm
portance. His life is touched with anec-
dotes. He has a philosophy and style
OF his own.
You managed MIR. Bryan's campaign
in 1900 l said, as a wedge with which
TO open our conversation.
Il looked after his interests in the
East, responsibility l did not want.
but assumed at his request, Senator
Stone answered 1t was soon apparent
that his defeat was certain. In 1896. how
ever. was sure that he would be elected.
He would have been elected, 1 think. if
the voting had been done in October
instead of November. But business men
talked panic. and the tide of sentiment
turned Labor was coerced into believ-
ing it would lose all employment.
Whether Mr.. Bryan will be a candidate
again no one but Mr.. Bryan himself can
say. He is an arbitrary person and can
not be stopped If he thinks he ought
to run. Still. he will gain nothing by