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About The Conservative (Nebraska City, Neb.) 1898-1902 | View Entire Issue (July 12, 1900)
His broad , studded , antebellum shirt bosom shows this a9 clearly as does his childlike faith in the integrity and om niscience of the people. With him vex populi is always vex Dai. And this , too , in the face of the fact that in modern politics men who affect solicitude for the people are called demagogues. Now the truth of the matter is that Mr. Bryan is not a demagogue. He is absolutely honest , which a demagogue is not. He is absolutely brave , which a demagogue is not. He is passionately sincere , which a demagogue is not. When Bryan came to Nebraska , a dozen years ago , his town , his Congressional district , and his state were overwhelm ingly republican. A demagogue would have joined the majority party. Bryan took up the cause of tariff reform and fought a losing fight. When he became convinced that free silver was right , he preached it in his Congressional district with his party organization and the odds of battle against him. He ran for the United States Senate in ' 94 with his party's State convention indorsement. If he had trimmed a little on free silver the Cleveland gold democrats might have turned the scales in his favor. But he didn't trim ; he lost. When Bryan left the voluntary army of the United States in ' 98 his party had been oppos ing the ratification of the peace treaty with Spain. Bryan opposed his party and favored the ratification of the treaty. A dishonest man would have gloried in fighting the treaty. Today silver sentiment is dying in the West. Bryan would not lose an electoral vote by abandoning silver. He would gain thousands of franchises in the East by tuch a course. But because he believes that the free coinage of silver is righ wild horses cannot drag him from his stand. Bryan shows his greatest personal strength in the fact that he is today , and has ever been , utterly without a politi cal machine. Bryan is machineless , not because he abhors the machine , but because he ignores it. He would not know whatt to do with captains and lieutenants. If his party should begin to turn from him , Bryan could not call , "What ho , warder , let the portcullis fall , " in a score of states and check the stampede. If oratory would not stop the panic the multitude would have to leave him as it came to him. After which he would go on lecturing till that gave out , and running for the senate till that gave out , and for congress till that gave out , when he would return to his law office and continue as he was in the beginning , an honest , hard-working , ordinary country lawyer , with an extra ordinary voice and a forceful , direct , plausible way of putting short Anglo- Saxon words that often move juries , but are not so thrilling in briefs. Bat if , on the other hand , Bryan's presidential ambition should be gratified , , t y Conservative * the country would have a startling spectacle. It would be like that of a southern gentleman in swallow-tails and a choker , but one generation removed from his periwig , suddenly shunted half a century ahead and jammed into the oak-bottomed chair of a railroad presi dent. The gentleman of the old school would try honestly to do his duty. But he would have such difficult things to .earn , and such an incapacity of learn- ng them , that he would out many a antastio caper and in the end make a mess of it as bad as a thorough-going rascal would. Mr. Bryan , trying to run ; he presidential office as Jackson ran it , might make many important and ex pensive personal discoveries. He might discover that the world has moved since Jackson's day ; that the present phase of udustrial evolution is not a conspiracy against God and man ; and that an in telligent conscience is a surer guide than an ear trained to catch the voice of the people. At the bottom of the magnetism which pulls men toward Bryan is the growth in the popular mind of a faith in social ism and a hope to see the state lay hold of the industrial system and untangle its many snarls. During this century of mechanical progress the economic world has liberally jumped a cog in the pro cess of its evolution. Many people believe that society is not properly adjusted , that the machinery of indns try is not in gear , and too many people are being ground by it. There is a wide spread belief that repairs are needed and because Bryan gets out with his oratorical hammer and knocks upon the industrial system and the existing order , unthinking people have hailed him as the master mechanic. But Bryan is not a builder. Oratory is rarely construc tive. It is an illusion , a legerdemain , and the world is learning to disassociate oratory from statesmanship. William Allen White , in McOlure's Magazine. SECRETARY GRESHAM'S PORTRAIT GOES TO JAPAN. A life-long friend of the late Walter Q. Gresham contributes the following tribute to the memory of the late Secre tary of State , to the Chicago Legal News : During the early part of 1895 , artist Prank M. Pebbles , of this city , made a portrait of the late Secretary of State Walter Q. Gresham. The last sittings for this portrait were given by the secre tary during the few days immediately preceding the beginning of the illness which resulted in his death in the early morning of May 28th , five years ago. This portrait now hangs in the diplo matic room of the State Department at Washington , with portraits of all the other distinguished men who have had charge of the nation's foreign affairs since the foundation of the government. By reason of the conspicuous part Secretary Gresham had in the official recognition by the world's great powers of the modern Japan , the Japanese gov ernment signified a desire to place a portrait of Judge Gresham in the Impe rial Gallery at Tokio , In fulfillment of this purpose a replica of the State De- mrtment picture above referred to has eeu. forwarded to Japan , and the Chi- iago Legal News places before its eaders with this issue a reproduction of B striking likeness. President Cleveland's Tribute. In his proclamation announcing the death of Secretary Gresham , President Cleveland "speaking from the depths of personal affliction , " reminded his countrymen that they had lost a pure and able public servant , ' a wise and patriotic guardian of all their rights and nterests , a manly and loyal American , and a generous and lovable man. " It is doubtful if the distinguishing charac teristics of any individual were ever summed up with clearer accuracy. The rare qualities that combined to intrench him in the affections of his countrymen never ceased to dominate his actionsand although he was made the target for the most acrimonious criticism for some official acts during his incumbency of the State Department secretaryship , it * i is significant that the policy which I brought about these attacks was in strict accord with his frequently expressed - pressed conviction that a spirit of abso lute justice should at all times charac terize the attitude of the United States with respect to foreign questions. He felt that-one and the code - same of mor als should rule the conduct , not only of individuals , but of nations as well , and he was never able to bring himself to see that the mere fact that one party tea a controversy was weak and the other strong , should put that controversy into a class by itself , where the fundamentals of right and wrong should be inappli cable. He was jealous of the honor of his country. He believed that there were some things which an imperial govern ment might do ( considering its own safety ) that a republic could not do. He had no kind of doubt that the acquisi tion of distant islands by the United States was forbidden by all consider ations , "both of high morality and sound policy. " He viewed with horror the proposition to forcibly annex the domain of an alien people , and he did not believe that the real glory of this government demanded that we should be perpetually running the flag up on something new. Annexation of Hawaii. His views in this respect found ex pression early in his career in the State Department. When the second Cleve land administration came into power , the treaty for the annexation of the Sandwich Islands had been negotiated
