Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1925-08-05

single gold standard, was named for
| Vice-President.
The POpulists also nominated Bryan
for President with Thomas E. Watson
of Georgia for Vice-President A con-
siderable faction Of "Gold Democrats"
! bolted and nominated John NJ Palmer
! for President and s. B. Buckner fof
Vice-President. The Republicans on
gold standard platform, nominated
William Mckinley and Garrett A. Ho-
| bart.
Defeated by Mckinley
The campaign which followed was
one of the most exciting in American
history. Mr.. Bryan made whirlwind
campaign speaking in as many places
as possible and rousing much enthusi-
asm by his remarkable oratorical pow
ers.
The election. of 1896 resulted in Mr..
Bryan's defeat, but it did not destroy
his political ambition; rather it slim
ulated it. In December, 1897, he visited
Mexico, returning home before the out
break of the war with Spain.
Although pronounced pacifst, he
entered the army and was commits
stoned as colonel of the Third Nebras-
ka infantry but had no active service
at the front.
Nominated Again in 1900.
In December, 1898, he resigned his
commission and resumed his campaign
ing, making not free silver but "anti-
Imperialism" his leading issue.
On that issue, which principally
meant American abandonment of the
Philippines he secured the Presiden-
| tial nomination in 1900 from the Dem
ocratic, Populist and Silver Republican
| parties. After another exciting cam
paign he was again defeated by Will
liam Mckinley.
He then re-eatered Journalism,
founding at Lincoln, Neb., a weekly
political paper called The Commoner.
The Democratic convention Of 1904
passed him by and nominated for the
Presidency, Judge Alton B. Parker.
Judge Parker was defeated by Theo-
dore Roosevelt. Mr.. Bryan's return
to party leadership was effected in
1908 after he had made tour around
of newspaper writing.
Defeated for Third Time.
He had his third Presidential nom
ination in 1908 and suffered at the
hands of William III. Taft, his third
and worst defeat.
In 1912 when the convention met
at Baltimore, he was its dominant fig
ure. He bitterly opposed Champ
Clark, the leading candidate and it
was probably because of his course
that Woodrow Wilson was finally NOM
mated Because of the schism in the
Republican party, Mr.. Wilson was
elected and in recognition of his work
at the convention and in the cam
paign and of his undoubted popular
following in the Democratic party he
made Mr.. Bryan his secretary of state.
In that Office one of Mr. Bryan's ac-
complishments was the negotiation Of
treaties with 30 countries providing
going to war.
The World war began in 1914. Mr..
Bryan's pacifist views were well
known. On numerous occasions his
views and those of President Wilson
did not coincide. On June 8, 1915, he
felt constrained to resign his office
Active in Later Years.
In 1928 he became deeply inter-
ested in evolution, the theories of
which he discredited. He delivered
many lectures and addresses against
"Darwinism' and published a book on
the subSA,t, entitled I'm His Image" in
which he argued for a literal interpre-
tation of the Biblical cosmogony. If
man must choose, he said, between be-
ing descended from a monkey and be-
| ing made out of mud, he preferred
| the mud
He had already published several
volumes: THE First Battle" 1897, a
review of the campaign of the preced-
ing year; Under Other Flags" 1904,
and "The Old World and It's Ways"
1907, based on his foreign travels, and
''Heart-tO-Heart Appeals" 1917.
He received the degree of LID.
from the Universities of Nebraska and
Arizona.
In 1925 he was the leading figure in
world-famous trial in which he de-
Tended the Bible against the theory of
evolution Of man.