THE BATTLE OF THE STANDARDS 179 



nomination for lieutenant governor on the Demo- 

 cratic ticket. In 1890 he won election to Congress 

 by a majority of seven thousand in a district which 

 two years before had returned a Republican, and this 

 he accomplished in spite of the neglect of party 

 managers who regarded the district as hopeless. 

 In Congress he became a member of the Committee 

 on Ways and Means . On the floor of the House his 

 formal speeches on the tariff, a topic to which noth- 

 ing new could be brought, commanded the atten- 

 tion of one of the most critical and blase audiences 

 of the world. The silver question, which was the 

 principal topic before Congress at the following 

 session, afforded a fresher field for his oratory; in- 

 deed, Bryan was the principal aid to Bland both 

 as speaker and parliamentarian in the old lead- 

 er's monetary campaign. When Bryan sat down 

 after a three-hour speech in which he attacked 

 the gold standard, a colleague remarked, "It ex- 

 hausts the subject." In 1894 a tidal wave of Re- 

 publicanism destroyed Bryan's chances of being 

 elected United States Senator, a consummation for 

 which he had been laboring on the stump and, for a 

 brief period, as editor of the Omaha World-Herald. 

 He continued, however, to urge the silver cause in 

 preparation for the presidential campaign of 1896. 



