Evening star., 1925-07-27
By the Associated Press.

| III all the history or American poll
| tics there are few names which carry
| that brilliant luster of spectacular eff
| fort which has become a part of the
| memory of William Jennings Bryan.
His life for almost 80 years was a
! panorama of national sensations. piled
| one upon the other. At 80 he be-
came, almost overnight, not only the
| leader of his party, but the idol of
! millions. Three times he carried the
| party standard as it's choice for the
| highest Office of the land; in another
presidential year, 1922. he reaped
| much of the credit for placing Wood
row Wilson in the White House; and
in almost every other Democratic ma
tfonsl convention in a generation he
was In the very center of every storm
that came.
Espoused Big Causes.
! AS recognition, many said, of his
long leadership, President Wilson
made him Secretary of State-a post
from which he resigned two years
later under the most sational of
circumstances, because he felt the Ma
ton was verging toward participation
IN the European war. World peace al
ways had been his passion in his ear
ller years, just as in his later days he
made the eSpousal of religion his all
absorbing concern, and turned his
talents to an attack on evolution.
Throughout all his active years his
followers clung to his standard in un-
SWerVlng devotion for the man and his
Ideals, while his enemies reviled and
hated him, calling him ignorant and
misguided in both his economics and
his religion. His great power of elo-
quence, which first brought him to
place of national prominence, remain
ed unimpaired for many years, but
toward the last his old-time brilliance
on the platform and the stump began
TO dim perceptibly.
known in his youth as ''the silver
tongued boy orator of the Platte" it
was Mr.. Bryan's eloquence in his
famous cross of gold" speech at the
Democratic national convention in
Chicago in 1896 that made him the
choice of his party. He polled more
than 6,5O0,000 votes in his first cam
pafgn.
Likened to Clay.
His career has been likened to that
of Henry Clay, who also was three
times nominated for the presidency
and as many times defeated Clay
too, became a Secretary of State
Friends of Bryan insisted that, like
Clay, he was too conscientious, con-
sistent and scrupulous for a politi-
clan and that the famous Wings
declaration, Il would rather be right
than be President" well described the
man from Nebraska.
The former Secretary of State was
born in Salem, ILL.,, March 10. 1860
His father was Silas Lillard Bryan,
native of Culpeper County, Va, a
lawyer and judge. The son, after
graduating from Illinois College in
1881 and Union College of Law, Chi
cago, in 1888, entered the law office
of Lyman Trumbull. former United
States Senator. Subsequently he re-
moved to Jacksonville, ILL.,, where he
practiced law until 1887, when he set
tied in Lincoln, Nebr.
During the presidential campaign
of 1888 young Bryan's speeches in
behalf of the Democratic ticket at
tracted attention, and in 1890 he ac-
cepted a nomination for Congress in
the first Nebraska district, a Republt-
con stronghold, because no one else
would have it," he said, since it was
believed no Democrat could win. He
was elected and served from 1891
until 1895. He was made a member
Of the important ways and means
committee in his first term.
Speeches Won Fame.
Two speeches in this period gave
Mr.. Bryan nationwide prominence,
one against the policy of protection,
delivered on March Is, 1892, and the
other against the repeal of the silver
purchase clause of the Sherman act,
on August 16, 1893. In the latter he
advocated "the free and unlimited
coinage of silver. irrespective of in
ternational agreement, at a ratio of
Is to l." the policy with which his
name was afterward most prominent
ly associated until he entered the cab
met of President Wilson.
The first nomination of Mr.. Bryan
for the presidency at the Democrat tic
national convention in Chicago on
July 10, 1896, has since been charac-
terized as one of the miracles" of
American politics. The nominee, after
serving in Congress, had run for the
United States Senate and been de-
feated by Senator John NJ. Thurston
of Nebraska. Abandoning the law,
Mr.. Bryan became editor of the
Omaha World Herald and cham
pioned the cause of bimetalism as
vigorously with the pen as he had
upon the forum. He had been beaten
for a third term in Congress on the
issue of sound money" and when
the time came for the national con-
vention this question was rending
both big political parties. There were
free silver Republicans as well as
Democrats, but the nominee of the
former, Henry NJ. Teller of Colorado
threw his support to Bryan when the
Nebraskan won the nomination at
Chicago.
Youth Faced Politicians.
The "crosS of gold" speech by
Bryan, which has been quoted often
er, perhaps, than any other of his
words, and which made him a rival
of William Mckinley for the presi-
dency, came at the close of a debate
on the floor of the convention in ad-
vocacy of a free silver plank Men
nationally prominent in the party had
preceded him, and opposed the plank
unless it should provide for bimetal-
ism by international agreement. The
situation was tense when the Ne
braskan, then only 36 years old-one
year more than the constitutional
requirement for a President-arose to
speak. Everybody was tired; every
body seemed ready for compromise.
Not so the delegate from Nebraska.
There was fire in his eyes when he
began to speak:
II would be presumptuous, indeed,
to present myself against the distin-
guished gentlemen to whom you have
listened" he said, "if this were a
mere measuring of abilities; but this
is not a contest between persons. The
humblest citizen in all the land, when
clad in the armor of a righteous
cause, is stronger than all the hosts
of error. 1 come to speak to you in
defense of a cause as holy as the
cause of liberty-the cause of hu-
manity"
Then charging the evils of the day
the idle mills, the social unrest and