Educated, progressive, God-fearing Missouri!
Where millions are spent for the human mind
And scholars become ripe as fame can find;
Where science carries her effulgent lamp
And progress follows with his iron tramp;
Where religion, that purer, greater light,
Illumines the way to the regions bright;
Where happy thousands are at altars kneeling
While Heaven draws near, its love revealing;
Where the highest honor beneath the sun
Is to love and fear the Almighty One.

Sacred, tender, hallowed old Missouri soil!
Thou catchest the tears when our loved ones weep,
In thy great black arms our ancestors sleep.
Under thy willows sainted mothers rest,

Angel children on thy silent breast.
Cold and unnatural thy son must be
Who turns in his hate and abuses thee.
As for me, wherever my lot is cast,
In honor's glare or disappointment's blast,
I'll defend thy name, thy praises repeat,
Till this loyal heart shall cease to beat.

THE N 10. $ PUBLIC LIBRARY

ASTOR, LENOX

TILDEN FOUNDATIONS

WM. J. BRYAN

AN ILLUSTRIOUS AMERICAN COMMONER.

(Editorial in THE CITIZEN, just after the Democratic Convention at Baltimore in 1912.)

NE OF the foremost characters in history is William Jennings Bryan. This is now the verdict of America and of the world.

Mr. Bryan is a typical commoner. His devotion to the common people has never been surpassed. The love of Daniel O'Connell for the down-trodden Irish was not stronger than that of Bryan for the people of America. His courage is intrepid, and if occasion required it, he would die for liberty as bravely as did Robert Emmett.

Mr. Bryan is a wonderful orator, and never was this gift more thoroughly appreciated. We have seen stalwart Republicans standing in line at the close of one of his great addresses eager to grasp his hand. He has probably spoken to more persons than any other orator the world has produced. An examination of history will prove that in this respect he leads Demosthenes or Cicero or Burke or Gladstone or Webster or Phillips or Clay. We claim that history will show, too, that he is the only political orator whose eloquence has thundered around the world.

Mr. Bryan has probably exerted a greater influence for liberty and humanity than any other unofficed statesman the world has known. Cicero and Cato were for years Roman senators. Burke and Gladstone and the Pitts spent most of their lives in powerful offices. Jefferson, Hamilton, Webster, Clay, Calhoun and Lincoln were all assisted by the prestige and power of the great offices which they held. Mr. Bryan stands second today to no man on earth, and he has risen to this eminence simply as a private citizen. We do not call to mind a political character who unaided by official power has risen to such a commanding position. As a product of the power of one splendid unsullied personality, Mr. Bryan's victory at Baltimore is without a parallel in the annals of political conventions.

But above and beyond all else, Mr. Byan is a good man. There is now no more splendid example among men of the maxim that "goodness is greatness." All men now admit that his life is pure. For sixteen years he has been a prominent political figure in America. He has attacked wickedness in high places without fear or favor. Millions have been spent to destroy him. His whole life has been under the microscope. Yet they have found no blur upon his character. His faults are like those of Marcus Aurelius or Gustavus Adolphus. They are like spots upon the sun. He has been abused and vilified as no other good man has been in our republic except George Washington. Yet, like Washington, the calumny of his enemies has simply aided in adding luster to his

name.

Professional politicians may proceed with their venom. Belmont and Murphy and Ryan may expend their thousands, but all combined will not destroy Bryan. He is entrenched forever in the hearts of the American people.