MR. BRYAN -- A TRIBUTE.
Wayne C. Williams.
("The Outlook," August 19, 1925.)
If a man admire Roosevelt, shall he hate Wilson; if he follow Bryan, shall he close his eyes to the great deeds of Roosevelt? There is much to admire in the lives, policies and careers of Roosevelt, Wilson, Bryan, Taft, Hughes, Harding and Coolidge. Why not seek it?
What gave Mr. Bryan the title of the greatest liberal and progressive leader in America? What made him the unmatched popular orator, the refuge and champion of the oppressed? Great as was his eloquence -- and it was unsurpassed in this or probably in any generation -- yet this did not account for the Bryan who has just left us. It was his deep sincerity of conviction and his courageous, constructive advocacy of great principles that made him the real leader of progressivism in this generation.
Look at the record: Began his fight for popular election of Senators in 1890, when he stood almost alone. Kept it up until he wrote it into all his party platforms and saw two amendments to the Constitution of the United States ratified. The first leader of national prominence to come out for national prohibition and stuck to it, even when it was unpopular, until he saw the Eighteenth Amendment written into the Constitution; fought for woman's suffrage until he saw it, too, written into the Constitution. Here is achievement enough for one life. But this is not the whole record by any means.
Bryan's thirty peace treaties negotiated while he was Secretary of State are a powerful factor in the peace of the world. His work for peace has counted in every land on the globe. He was a champion of democracy, of the plain people, of their right to determine their own policies. He spoke for democracy in Russia and India and under nearly every flag. He took up the cause of the Filipinos when the whole country was wild for annexation and imperialism. He lived to see his party [endorse] his principles and his pledge of free government for the islands translated into law.
But the record is not yet complete. Bryan championed the right of labor. He fought for the toiling masses against every species of injustice and wrong. He stood for shorter hours, the right of trial by jury in contempt cases (indeed, he was the real author of that reform); he was the sole author of the law compelling publicity of campaign expenditures. To him alone belongs the credit for that great reform. Without him the Federal Reserve Act could not have been passed in the Wilson Administration. He fought to lower the tariff, to make wealth pay its share of the burdens of government. He proclaimed the only constructive anti-trust law remedy ever proposed -- a remedy that is fast coming to receive universal approval in America.
He alone made the first nomination of Woodrow Wilson possible. He stood like a rock for prohibition when the wet Democratic leaders at New York would have repudiated the Eighteenth Amendment.
And even this is only a partial list of the Bryan achievements. It is wonderful to see how his views have been vindicated by the passing of time. Abused and reviled as no public man has been in our time, he smilingly waved it all aside and triumphed over every bitter foe. He kept sweet in spirit to the end. What more can be said of any public man?
Bryan was the John Bright and the Gladstone of American politics.
Comments