The Alaska citizen., 1912-04-29

lively of who Will and who will not be the presidential nominees. Fig ures rise and dominate the throng. but they are as smoke columns that may be swept away by some morn- ings wind. He who Is a pawn today may be in the king row tomorrow and those whose savings and doings call for scare heads" this week may be given no more than an Item on the market page next week. Not in many years has public sentiment been less partisan or more fluent. and each days developments may have power to change public opinion and forecast a new result.
 Amid the rush of shadow-shapes. howeyer-the whirl of persona ties upon the national screen-three men persist in prominence. and such is their stature and abiding color that not even the mutations of success or failure will have power to affect their place in history. or fade them from public memory. William Jen. nings Bryan, Robert LaFollette and Theodore Roosevelt differing in- deed in details and every essential. but strangely alike in their compan. ionship with destiny.
 Sometime. somewhere, some writer will take his pen in hand, and set down the history of Bryan. It Is not task to be attempted by any small-bore person, for in the tale to be told there must be passages reson- ant with the whirring clang of tri. umphal chariots and the shoutings of a nation, others keenly psychological, and still others bubbling alive with humor CT gray with pathos.
 It is, in truth, mighty task for, if well done, the author will have written the Great American Nover' for which the world is waiting, be- cause the story of Bryan and Bryan ism Is typically American, and pos sible in no other country or among any other people. He must begin with the Bryan who practiced law in a small way, dabbled in politics quite a bit, and now and then turn ed somewhat longing eye upon the lure and color of the stage. There comes, as sort of prologue to his public career, a term In congress, marked by a flash of greatness here and there, but chiefly noticeable fer a certain flamboyant oratory.
 Then, the scene shifters working in the dark, the stage must show the Chicago convention of 1896. With powerful strokes the death grapple Of warning factions must be painted, in which the great political captains used states as chess experts use pawns. And out of the smoke and fury Bryan must burst upon the convention - head of the successful ly contesting Nebraska delegation - big, boyish grin on his rosy face, and ill-cut trousers Tapping noisily about his legs. And there is the strategy of captains 10 be consider. ed - the victory of the Silver forces, the elimination of Bland, the humli, ation of the granitefaced Cleveland and the sudden substitution of Bryan as saint and savior with his "cross Of gold and crown of thorns" speech.
 And then the writer must call upon the ancient gods for inspiration, fer his task grows increasingly difficult. No1 only does the path of Bryan lead him along dizzy heights, all the val. leys below white with the upturned faces of worshipping thousands, but the story commences to gather in psycholical interest
 Lines that mean things come into the face of the Nebraskan, his huge mouth quits its grin and settles into nrmer lines. and in his eyes there dawns a new light. Much the same change must have come to Joan of Are as she walked the orchard at Donremy, and saw the familiar land scape form into marvellous vistas q the ends of which were kings and crowns and adoring multitudes
 In that Campaign a new Bryan was born. Opportunity clothed him in impressiveness, his soul swelled with huger aspirations, and strange new words burst from his lips, ex pressions of strange, new thoughts AZ be journeyed from coast to coast and caught the cry of the oppressed there came to him exact and definite comprehension of the terrible in equalities and injustices in this sun ny world of ours, and realization oi the fact that election meant more than the mere question of which party was to have the distribution oi offices. In that wonderful campaign of 1896 the non-essentials of him were sloughed, and he came close to greatness.
 He lost-not by reason of votes but through the corrupting and be fuddling thousands poured into every s1ate by the financiers hack of Mo