MR W. J. BRYAN

Evening Star, Issue 19003, 27 July 1925, Page 8

MR W. J. BRYAN

DEATH ANNOUNCED AT DAYTON POLITICIAN AND PREACHER Press Association—By Telegraph—Copyright. NEW YORK, July 26. (Received July 27, at 12.15 p.m.) A message from Dayton states tlnifc Mr William Jennings Bryan is dead.Renter. HIS CAREER. William Jennings Rryan mas horn at Salem (111.) on March 19, 1860. Ho studied for the Bar, and was admitted in 1883. He practised at Jacksonville from 1883 to 1887, then at Lincoln. Ho was a member of tho Nebraska Congress from 1891 to 1895, and received tho Democratic vote for senator in the Nebraska Legislature in 1893. Ho was nominated'in the Democratic Convention for United States senator in 1891, but was defeated in tho Legislature by Mr John M. Thurston. He was editor of tho Omaha ‘World .Herald’ from 1894 to 1896, and during the latter year _was delegate to the Democratic National Convention. He wrote tho “ silver plank” in its platform, made a notable speech, and was nominated for President of the United States. He travelled over 18.000 miles during the campaign, speaking at almost every stopping place. He received 176 electoral votes, against 271 tor Mr William M'Kinley. Mr Bryan was again nominated for President in 1900 by tho Democratic, Populist, and Silver Republican Conventions. “ Imperialism ” was declared by tho platform to bo the paramount issue. He made an active canvass, but was again defeated, receiving in the electoral college 155 votes, against 292 for Mr William M'Kinley. After the election ho established a political magazine, ‘The Commoner,’ at Lincoln. Ho made a tour of the worlcf in 1906. In 1908 he was once again nominated for President, but was defeated by Mr William H. Taft. He was Secretary of State iu the Cabinet of President Wilson from March 4, 1913, to June 7, 1915, during which time he negotiated thirty treaties with various Governments of the world. Ho was tho anther of several books, including ‘ The, Menace of Darwinism ’ and ‘ The Bible and Its Enemies.’ He was president of the National Dry Federation in 1918. BRYAN AS FUNDAMENTALIST.

Mr Bryan led the attack on behalf of tho anti-evolutionists at the recent trial of Professor John Scopes on a charge of teaching the Darwinian theory of evolution in violation of a State statute. In a recent address at Westchester, Pennsylvania, Mr Bryan accused tho scientists of being “dishonest scoundrels, afraid to tell their beliefs—burrowing in tho ground and stealing away tho faith of the children. But we’ve got them now where they’ve got to come up and light,” said Mr Bryan, as ho is quoted iu the Press;—

This is a matter for the nation. It is one of the greatest questions ever raised—tho question of the right of the people, wiio created and support the schools, to control them. If not they, then who? Tho Fundamentalists arc trying to establish tho doctrine that the taxpayer lias a right to say what shall be taught the taxpayers, and not tho scientists. There arc only 11,000 members of the American Association for tho Advancement of Science. I don’t believe one in ten thousand should dictate to the rest of ns. Can a handful of scientists rob your children of religion and turn them out Atheists? We’ll find 109,000,000 Americans on the other side. For the first time in my life I’m on the side of the majority. MR BRYAN’S CHARACTERISTICS In the course of an article recently in tho Now York ‘ Outlook,’ Mr Dixon Merritt wrote thus on the occasion ol Mr Bryan’s first nomination as the Democratic candidate in 1896:—_ As I came to school one day in tho county in which I lived the master said:— “Did you hoar anything at the store about the Democratic Convention?”

I told him I had road something about it in a paper. Ho demanded to know if - they had made a nomination, and I told him they had. He asked for tho name. I had forgotten it. “"Was it Bland?” “ No,” 1 said, “ it wasn’t Bland.” “Was it Boise?” “No, it wasn’t Boise, hut it begins with B.”

“Oh, pshaw!” said the master; “there is no other candidate whoso name begins with B.” “ What,” I asked, “ was the name of that old preacher who came down hero from De Kalb County and hold a revival two or three years ago?” The seeming irrelevancy of the question clearly annoyed the master, but he answered “ William James Bryan.” “Well,” I said, “this fellow’s name is William Jennings Bryan.” I could see that the master did not put much faith in what I said, and I hurried on up the road offended. It was the first time either of ns had ever heard the name. The master did not‘live to get through hearing it, and I probably shall' not cither. It is a persistent name. The slang-makers had not then fallen upon the term, “ butting in,” but it was by viruo of that act that the name of the Democratic nominee in 1896 began with B and was neither Bland nor Boise. It has been the habit of Mr Bryan’s life. It has paid-in coin, to be sure, that many men would not accept as legal tender, but it has paid. For many years after the incident here related I could not see that Mr Bryan’s stock in trade was obtruding himself.’ I was fired by the speeches he made in that campaign, being old enough to catch the glitter of doquencc, but not old enough to analyse the logic. Many people older than I were not old enough to do that, and some who were then grown are not old enough vet. When election day came in 1896 I drove a little chestnut maro over the countryside and carried to the polls old men who otherwise would nob have voted. When ho pas again the nominee in 1900 T was in college, but I beard him speak . in a great open square, and carried a torchlight in a procession in his honor. When ho was nominated in 1908 I was in the employ of the man who became secretary of the National Committee for tho campaign. When he “ butted in ” at tho Baltimore Convention of 1912 and forced the nomination of Wilson I wrote an editorial applauding him. It was'nob until he became Secretary of State following tho election of that year that I understood Mr Bryan. Until then I was usually opposed to him between campaigns, but he frequently hutted me off ray feet in the crises.' The butting strength of Bryan has been as the strength of ten, not so much Because his heart is pure as because his neck is stiff. Bryan at sixty-five—no longer tho hoy "orator of the Platte, but the chronic scold of the Suwance—maintains hardly dimiuised powers as a. “butter-in.” If his neck is somewhat less stiff than once it was, his head is harder and he uses it more indiscriminately. Then his insistence was merely on ruling or wrecking his political party. Now he asserts his right to rule the church and the school—and goes las full length towards ruining them. Those who look lightly upon Bryan’s interference in religion and education are not wise. His “ hutting

in M will not carry him to tho goal. It never has. But it will enable him to muss things up mightily. It always has.

At tho time of tho Democratic National Convention last summer William Allen White said to a little group at a luncheon table, “William Jennings Bryan, without thinking himself, has influenced the thinking of ,the American people more profoundly than any other man of this generation” In tho long run Bryan influences people to think the way he does not think. Liberalism in religion and education will gain by tho trouble ho makes for it.