Rock Island Argus

Bryan a Factor Still.

Boston Herald - anti-Bryan - ind. dem.: That William J. Bryan will return from the tour of the world a potent political force, and one to be reckoned with in the presidential election of 1908, is a fact which the other leaders of the democratic party do not seem fully to realize.

His absence from the country has caused his name to drop from the news, until his appearance in the Philippines brought him again to mind, and in a very suggestive way. From the meager cablegrams it appears, first, that he is making a very careful study of "world politics" and conditions, and, second, that he is conducting himself in a manner to avoid even carping criticism. If any opponent of Mr. Bryan has been asked to define in advance the line of his public addresses in the Philippines, the probability is that he would have been credited with a design to improve the opportunity by haranguing the natives upon his favorite themes of "freedom and independence."

But Mr. Bryan gave his enemies no excuse for saying that he was preaching "sedition," or setting off oratorical fireworks in the vicinity of a powder magazine. On the contrary, he gave to his Filipino hearers a historical sketch of the two parties in this country, and advised them to respect "the powers that be" and continue to seek education and industrial improvement.

When Mr. Bryan comes to discuss the Philippine problem at home it will no doubt be found that he has not changed his convictions as to the justice or the policy of "imperial expansion."

But whatever modification of his views on this or other questions may result from his tour of the world, it is certain that he will come back not only better equipped with first-hand knowledge than any other political leader on either side, but presumably with broader views and soberer judgment on many of these questions than he had before his departure.

It must be remembered that Mr. Bryan is quite as much "a sublime opportunist" as is Theodore Roosevelt. When he took up the silver question there is reason for believing that it was not so much that he was "crazy" on this subject as that he thought he saw in it an issue with which to split the republican party and win the presidency. It was more a political miscalculation than a fanatical crusade. His fatal obstinacy in sticking to the cheap dollar in 1900 was perhaps more due to pride of opinion than to any faith in the discredited nostrum. So much credit is due to his intelligence - and as for his obstinacy, was he any more "set" than Mr. Cleveland was, or than Mr. Roosevelt is?

Upon the reasonable assumption that the world tour has taken some of the radical Bourbonism out of Mr. Bryan - that he has learned something and forgotten much - he will have an influence in the next presidential contest that neither party can afford to ignore.

He has qualities of leadership which no other democrat has yet revealed.

He will say, as he has said, that the "conservative" democrats, represented by Judge Parker and his backers, had their chance in 1904 and were worse beaten than he was. President Roosevelt has been and is inculcating by word and example certain principles and policies of radicalism that a leader like Mr. Bryan can utilize to his own advantage against the conservative republican candidate for president. The issues which Mr. Roosevelt is shaping will furnish campaign material ready made to Mr. Bryan's hand. If he does not "better the instruction" it will be because he has lost his adroitness, boldness and hypnotizing power. He may not seek nor get the nomination for president himself, but his course since the election of 1904, coupled with Mr. Roosevelt's powerful assistance, points to him as a potential factor in the next national campaign.