The Butler County press. [volume] (Hamilton, Ohio) 1900-1946, 1925-08-07
The Cherry
" Where with our
we tell the truth
about many things, sometimes pro-
foundly, sometimes flippantly,
sometimes recklessly. /.

Just little time has passed since
this column devoted itself to Will
liam Jennings Bryan, now dead. That
comment was upon Mr.. Bryan's re-
markable hold upon the press of the
country. Just when he was thought
most in retirement he was likely to
burst forth over the front pages in
a burst fo publicity.
Mr.. Bryan's first great appeal was
to the masses of the people "You
shall not press down upon the brow
of labor this crown of thorns," he pro-
claimed in his "Cross of Gold" speech
in Chicago in 1896.
So he regarded every fight in which
he engaged. SO he regarded his
battle in Dayton, Tenn. There is
none who doubts that Mr. Bryan felt
himself to be the defender of the peo-
pies faith.
The Dayton case was one in which
emotions and passions ran high. 1t
was case in which prejudice also ran
high. Few subjects arouse such deep
seated bitterness as religious contro-
versies.
Mr. Bryan arrayed himself on the
side of faith, while against him were
pitted men who stood for what ap-
peared to them to be the right to
have faith or not to have faith, ac-
| cording to the individual desire
The contention of the forces led by
Mr.. Darrow was that truth has q
| right to be heral, that ideas have a
right to be heard, that even error has
a right to come into the open and be
discussed.
| How strange it is that while there
were many who expected the intrepic
| lawyers for the defense in Dayton tt
be stricken down for their temerity
and infdelity, it was Mr.. Bryan who
was called to sleep at the conclusion
of the case There will be many 9
comment about this in Dayton, We
may be sure.
He was planning great national
crusade against the teaching of evolu.
ton in the public schools. He was
| planning to go once more before the
/ NJ hn hoI fn ho q
great cause.
That crusade will not be made, and
it is just as we'll After all, the
course of our public school life could
not have been materially altered and
| the net result would inevitably have
been more bitterness, more hostility
between neighbors, keener rivalry
between puritanism and liberalism OF
thought.
We can afford to examine all
thought. We can afford to look upon
truth and upon falsehood. The race
will find its way through. We do not
need to shorud the mind in blanket
of prohibition against inquiry.
Mr.. Bryan thought there should be
closed door, but how much better it
is to keep the door open and frankly
probe into the recesses until we learn
whether truth or falsehood lies be-
yond. We shall know, and knowing
we shall cling more nightly to
whichever is found to be true.
None will dispute that a great fig
ure has passed He was a great
challenger He captured the public
mind in fight to strike away
| shackles. Whatever may have been
| the merit of demerit of his early
thought, it was in the direction of
freedom 1t appealed to the yearn-
ings Of the masses.
But all through his life his strug-
giles have been shaped by his emo
tions. He has felt that he was right
while others knew that he was wrong
He had the spirit of the presiding
elder in much of his work. He was
| the converter. the eXhorter The