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The Commoner
JUNE, 1922
11
Dr. Clark's Estimate
An annreciation of the man, the orator, the
, ifmS the Christian, by Rev. Francis B.
8i,atl nresident of the United Society of Chris
gjVdwvor and of the Worlds Christian En
deavor Union.)
a fuli-orbed man is William Jennings Bryan.
Tm doubtful if our country ever possessed a
irSt nolitical leader, unless it were Lincoln,
Sn had so few weaknesses and so-many ad
mirable qualities I am flaking- of character
7. "the boy orator of the Platte' now "the sage
S Miami." Even' the great- Washington,
ihouKh of late years ho has been made almost
a demigod, was by no means the warm, eager'
friend of all men, ever pulsating with life and
good cheer, that Mr. Bryan' is.
But comparisons o.f this, sort are odious.
There can be but one Washington, but one Lin
coln I doubt if there can be another Bryan.
I know that some of my Republican friends,
their minds still clouded by the slogans and the
prejudices of past campaigns will scoff and jeer
at such a classification as'T'have suggested. But,
brushing away the clouds 'of political prejudice,
consider for a little the jsubect of my sketch
from different angles.
I cannot be accused of partisanship, for I am,
always have been, a Republican (with scratch
ing reservations). :i
AS A MAN
Whatever you think of nis, politics, what flaw
can you find in Mr. Bryan's character? He has
been in the spotlight longer than any equally
prominent man in recent American history. Has
any meanness been proved' against him? Thou
sands and thousands of people, in and out of his
own party, whose political enmity he has in
curred or whose shady plans he has exposed,
would have been glad to' besmirch him, and
have not been able to do so.' Like Samuel Wil
berforco, who. when asked T)y an enfant terrible,
"Why do they call you .Soapy Sam?" replied,
"Because, my dear, I have been in hot water
so often and come out clean." Mr. Bryan has
been in hot water often enough; but no mud
thrown at him has ever struck.
His modesty and good nature have always
struck me as supremely admirable qualities. He
has been abused unmercifully, but he has never
been soured by calumny. He has been praised
inordinately as the savior of his party and his
country, but flattery has never made" him any
thing but the simple, kindly, Democratic gentle
man that ho is. His sense of humor has never
been corroded by failure. He jokes about his
defeats for the Presidency, and waxes merry
over his "sixteen-to-one" campaign. He is the
best loser the country has evpr known, and every
one loves a good loser after the dense fumes
of political prejudice have blown away.
Chief Justice Taft alone of our great men
shares this quality with him in its perfection.
No, Mr. Bryan's head has never been turned by
adulation, or his soul warped by unmerited
hatred. His every-day Democratic modesty is
shown in many ways. 'I remember when he
headed the procession o.f the St. Paul Christian
Endeavor Convention in an automobile he in
fisted on getting out that an older man might
Mae while he walked. And in outlast great gath
ering in New York he would have preferred to
walk rather than ride, as I 'also would, had it
not been that the leading automobile wooild then
nave looked strangely untenanted.
i recollect, after breakfasting with him and
wrs. Bryan at Washington when he was Secre
cy of State, I left behind me an old glove of
l"le worth. He took pains to send it to me by
iue next mail with a kindly note in his own
nana, which he is fond of using instead of dic
S"nS a letter when writing to his friends. "A
mtle thing," do you say? but it is suqh little
heart thoughtul kindness that show a big
failu 0t5er matters, which many consider venial
,.""'. Mr Bryan shines conspicuously' among
"r Public men.
attlX? yo,u evor hear a vulgar or shady story
"".riDuted to him? .Did you ever hear him in
intn a profano word or an irreverent remark
nnmS1? of llls speeches, or of his indorsing a
luuucal program of doubtful morality? He
of L VQ been mistaken in- his political views,
DoXr?ei but ovor and over he has risked his
litiini future, and wrecked his immediate po
in; "y Prospects, by advocating or not advocat
leaiW masures for which his party or its
the iwai00d Not his significant Silence in
A Tn ,Pi;e8lential -campaign.
Is un pltfon speaker Mr. Bryan's supremacy
"Questioned. Very few of tha great" orators
U natlonal hiBtry have reached his heights
as. a commander of the multitude. James Otis!
RuTus cloT' atrlck Henry, Daniel Webster
Tamp, rtt HenJ!7 9lay' Abraham Lincoln
James G. Blaine, Woodrow Wilson, have all
been men of tremendous oratorical ability; but
none of them has surpassed Mr. Bryan's nower
to move an audience.
Witness his great speech when as a reporter
for a daily paper he gained his first nomination
to the Presidency, a most surprising result
wmcli placed an unknown man, barely beyond
the legal Presidential age, at tho head of one
of the great political parties, and which almost
swept him into the Presidency.
His oratorical powers have never waned. His
recent speeches at the World's Christian En
deavor Convention were as finely phrased, as
eloquently delivered, as wittily pointed, as mov
ing in their appeal, as any in his long career.
Moreover, his speeches read well, a great test
of tho true orator. Many a man has stirred the
passions of a crowd by his personal magnetism
or his vituperative violence (something in
which Mr. Bryan never indulges; but, when ycu
come to read his speech, it is nothing but troth,
"a clanging gong," "a tinkling cymbal," "mere
sound and fury, signifying nothing." I have
read several of Mr. Bryan's speeches recently.
It would-be difficult to find a flaw in his argu
ment, if you accept his premises, or a misplaced
word in his fluent diction.
They all have the supreme virtue of simplicity
and lucidity. You know exactly what he means
and why he says it. He never utters a turgid
sentence, and he never blinks an unpopular
truth.
The popular estimate of Mr. Bryan's power
with an audience is found in the frequently
heard expression when other orators are alluded
to, ."Mr. So-and-So could hold his own on the
platform with Bryan." What other public speak
er is unconsciously honored by serving as the
standard for popular oratory against all comers?
In Vachel Lindsay's poem one can hear the
roar of the multitude as they call for "Bryan,
Bryan, Bryan, Bryan," and will be satisfied with
no one else. His poem refers to ope of Mr.
Bryan's early speeches, which he heard In
Springfield, Sangamon County, 111., where Lin
coln made some of his great speeches.
"When Bryan came to Springfield, and Altgeld
gave him greeting,
Rochester was deserted, Divernon was deserted,
Mechanicsburg, Riverton, Chickenbristle, Cotton
Hill,
Empty; for all Sangamon drove to the meet
ing In silver-decked racing-cart,
Buggy, buckboard, carryall,
Carriage, phaeton, whatever would haul,
And silver-decked farm-wagons gritted, banged,
and rolled
With the new tale of Bryan by the iron tires
told."
AS A STATESMAN
Here very likely some of my friends will dif
fer from me in my appraisal. I do not claim
that Mr. Bryan is infallible in his judgments.
But what statesman is? Who, judged in the
licht of after-events, has'made fewer mistakes?
He stood for prohibition when it had few
friends and a multitude of scoffers. The nation
has adopted his views and incorporated them
in the Constitution of the United States.
He stood for an income-tax and was abused
for his views as though he were a highwayman
robbing the poor rich people of their money.
The income-tax has been adopted by national
and state governments. Without it we would
never have stood the strain of the world war
During his brief term of office as Secretary
of State he concluded treaties of peace with
thirty nations; treaties which would have pre
vented the recent world war, had they been
nSvSrsally adopted; treaties that would have
Scented th T nations from ever declaring war
P r?T ? JnnnthB of delay and investigation had
until mo-aths of o:e
fflMnceMtoBSove by arbitration the
reSWmous'-sixteen-to-one" controversy,
TLtZt 7oikjeefLpoTkht-
as Washington once wrote opular ineas-
self when he undertooK son i m many
ure, does not look so crajr , t arG bo
twenty-five years ago Some econom
ginni if BrVan wafvery far wrong. Many
so rawch, It Bryan -wub has sponsored
of the policies 8fur0pUTar stage have been
jr of h,s old
Cl However his political opponents ipay deride
him as statesman, as they do overy opponent,
I do not believe any ono will over seriously dis
pute our claim that he is a Chrlfltion gentleman
of the very first order. Consider tho provoca
tions which red-hot political campaigns fur
nish. Mr. Bryan has a sharp tongue, but he has
never used it as a dagger to plunge Into tho
heart of his opponents to tho ruin of their ropu-
tations. Ho has never chgagod In unseemly
broils with words or fisticuffs, as have somo of
our politicians. When suffering under tho mis
understanding and reproach of tho nation as' in
his disagreement with President Wilson In 1915,
ho has borne it all in silence without striking
back as ho might have done. "'
His kindly interest m. every ono who has any
claim on his attention fs also a noticeable char-,
acteristic. Ho likes mon and women and Iittlo
children because they are human, and all arot
God's children, a sign that ho is a "great hu
man" himself.
Consideration, humanity, lack of self-assertion,
and genuine brothorlinoss are qualities that:
have endeared him to all who know him.
Whatever else Mr. Bryan is or is not, ho Is a
Christian, first and last and all tho time, week
days and Sundays. In many respects he is tho
greatest preacher in the country. His sermons
are as convincing as they are eloquent, and
there are no subjects Into which ho throws him
self more whole-heartedly than those which re
late to tho religious life, of Jesus Christ and
His great salvation. It is a wonderful thing for
America that a man as conspicuous In politics
should be no loss conspicuous as a Christian.
in confirmation of what he considers his
greatest mission let mo quote in closing what ho
himself says about his chief Interest In life. Tho
quotation is from an address on "Tho Bible and
Its Enemies." "I make a great many speeches
on many different subjects, but there is a same
ness about them all. I try to uso different illus
trations, and possibly if one has not analysed
them ho might think they wer;o quite unlike. I
have used this illustration: Every part of tho
rim of a wheel is supported by a spoke that
leads down to tho hub; the wheel would bo
nothing but for the hub. So with my speeches;
though they have touched the circumference of
the wheel at many points, there has always been
a spoke leading down to the hub; and that hub
is the creed of Christ. Whether I speak on poll
tics, on social questions, or on religion, I find
the foundation of my speech in tho philosophy
of Him who spake as never man spake; who
gave us a philosophy that fits into every human
need and furnishes" the solution for every prob
lem that can vex a human heart or perplex the'
world."
PUBLIC SPEAKING
To
, University of North Carolina,4
Chapel Hill, North Carolina. My dear Sir: An
swering your inquiry I beg to say that no ono
can select a subject for another unless tho speak
er has ample time to prepare himself on tho
subject selected. My plan is to find out what
the student is interested in and advise him to
use the most important of the subjects that are
on his heart. It takes longer to get up steam
in a man than it does in an engine and steam is
as necessary to him as to the engine.
Eloquence is tho speech of ono who knows .
what he is talking about and means what ho
says.
Of course you can prepare an essay on most'
any subject not so with an oration. You can
not feel deeply about trivial things. If you are
a student in the university you have doubtless
reached an age when there is something which
stands out in your thought as tho most import
ant thing to be done. It may affect the life of
individuals, like religion. It may affect the wel
fare of society, or it may pertain to government
and national or internatonal policy. Take some
thing that you can put your heart into, then
prepare yourself. Get all the information that
you can. Saturate yourself with a knowledge
of the subject, then put it in shape, going iogicalr
ly from the fundamental proposition to the vari
ous branches of the subject, closing with an ap
peal. The important thing Is to have something
to say. If you give information and give it in
such a way as to make people know that you
feel what you say, they will listen and they too
will feel, if yoi' are right and the subject is im
portant. ' Be careful about your delivery. -Commence In
a conversational tone and then you will have
room to rise when you want to increase the em
phasis. Talk tc tho audience as you. would talk
to a group of individuals, increasing the force,
not by loudness but by earnestness.
Very truly yours,
W. J. BRYAN.
a ill
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