'>'/ WILLIAM JENNINGS BRYAN 63 people and confirmed their faith in the principles for which he stood. The sources of leadership vary as widely as the form and spirit of governments. In a monarchy the authority of lead- ership is based upon the inherited prerogatives of birth and wealth. In a democracy this authority is granted by the people to those who have demonstrated their ability and who are able to offer a working program which seems to assure the realization of the public needs. It asks of its leader no badge of birth or wealth ; it only asks for a guarantee of faith in the people. The people have thrust upon Mr. Bryan the duties and hon- ors of leadership. His creed, like that of all great men, is simple. He believes in the people. He prefers to grapple with and to set aright the mistakes of democracy rather than to trust to the strong government of the few. He knows that either democracy must be rejected as an impossible ideal or the faults of democracy must be eliminated through experi- ence. While Mr. Bryan is a man of exceptional intellectual powers with a thorough understanding of the complex problems of modem life, he is in no sense academic either in his point of view or in his methods. He does not possess the scholarship of a Disraeli, a Burke, or a Gladstone. Men, rather than books, have been his teachers. Ideas rather than things have given to his leadership something of the authority of **thus saith the Lord.*^ He respects tradition only as it conserves the welfare and progress of mankind. Instinctively the people recognize the safety of his leader- ship. He possesses a sort of divine recklessness which the time-server cannot understand. The people, however, prefer the courage of such a leadership to the more conservative leadership which fears to enter the untrodden paths. They Imow that Mr. Bryan sees clearly the problems which they themselves see vaguely. They realize that while he may make mistakes he will never lose sight of the supreme end of dem- ocracy: the perfection of the institutions that exist for the prosperity and happiness of humanity.
