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AUGUST '26,1901.
The Commoner.
11
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Henry G. Davis is Notified
At White Sulphur Springs, W. Va.,
August 17, 1904, Henry G. Davis, was
formally notified of his nomination by
the democratic party to be vice presi
dent of the United States. The noti
fication speech was delivered by John
Sharp Williams', temporary chairman
of the democratic national conven
tion. 'Addressing Mr. Davis, Mr. Williams
said:
"As soon as I learned that I was to
be the mouthpiece of the committee
for the performance of this pleasant
task I began to look about me in or
der to see how the duty naa been per
formed by others. I found that for a
notification speech a Historical essay
is altogether the proper thing, abso
lutely necessary for' the emergency.
We shall therefore entitle our notifi
cation address, 'A Brief Historical
Disquisition Upon Some of the Blund
ers of Our Ancestors as Viewed From
the Standpoint of the Wisdom of Re
publican Statesmen Who Have Em
braced the Strenuous Life.'
"The first of these consisted in dis
criminating against tne recr man on
account of the race and color and pre
vious condition, supposed Incapacities,
of which his color was but the out
ward sign. Be that claim pretense or
sincerity, we found, to our astonish
ment, that 'the door of opportunity
and hope in the way or office-holding
and voting had been closed to, lo! the
poor Indian. This nrst violation in
America of the divine right of man
hood suffrage and of the cherished
fundamental dogma that all men of all
races, are equally capacitated to gov
ern themselves, and especially to gov
ern others, has doubtless been the
tillad of all t our woes.' Plainly, it
was what the Boston Transcript so
eloquently calls 'colorphpbia
' "The next great blunder in our early
history consisted in taking up arms'
against King George and his forces,
when the latter were actuated, as they
themselves confessed, only by the
kindest designs of 'benevolently as
similating' to themselves our resources
and our opportunities.
"Wo know, now, of course, that all
our ancestors' talk about 'inalienable
right' of self-government, 'no taxa
tion without representation,' habeas
corpus and right of trial by jury, free
dom of the press, freedom of speech
and freedom of assembly were only
a pretext resorted to by ranting 'in
surgents' in order to throw off the
'civilizing influences' of the best gov
ernment which the world had that
far-witnessed.
"Coming on down the current of
time we found another period of
popular hysterics that is incomprehen
sible to us of a wiser generation, in
view of some enlightening facts in
our recent history. Some men in the
troublesome little town of Boston,
masquerading as Indians, seized and
threw into the sea certain cases of tea
belonging to certain merchants of the
East Indian company. The conse
quence was that the entire population
of Boston, men, women and children
observers of the law as well as law
breakers, were punished and the Bos
ton port bill was passed, thus in a
fashion royally excommunicating the
little town, commercially and indus
trially. Our ancestors could not be
quieted, but got worse and worse, until
their misguided counsels led to the
foolish result of 'insurrection and a
free and independent American gov
ernment. "The next great historical blunder,
in spite of which, strange to say, we
have, as I can not too often repeat,
prospered right along In every step of
our history, with now and then a tem
porary drop-back, was the immolation
of our ancestors of the nation's indus
trialism upon the altar of free trade
within that common domain, notwith
standing already existing state lines
furnished convenient place, opportun
ity and temptation to establish custom-houses.
"Hold Up
Your Hands"
flflR affiM SK
1&?
says the highwayman to his victim. There is a safer
way to "make" money. Thomas W. Lawson explains
in the clearest, simplest manner the heretofore abstruse
subject of High Finance, in the September number of
)JFrgbodys
jflHfl M 4J$1
agazme
Last month thousands waited for 2d Edition
GET YOURS NOW
The edition of the July number, of Everybody's Magazine was 300,000 copies
and all sold out in a few days. For August, 350,000. We are printing 425,000
for September in the hope of supplying the demand. Sold on all news-stands-
"That reminds mo of another blun
der of our ancestors, both under tho
common law In Great Britain and In
the United States. Thoy seem to havo
entertained the notion that combina
tions in restraint of trade, seeking mo
nopoly and throttling competition, are
in some way adverse to tho develop
ment of Individuality and some how
poison the life of trnde.
"We know now that combinations of
corporations seeking with tho power
of monopoly tho resultant power of
robbing consumers by raising prices
to an extortionato figure, under tho
shelter of tariff laws, are, on tho
whole, beneficial institutions In n free
republic of self-governing men.
"Another error of our grandfathers
in connection with our foreign affairs
has come over me latelv with wolch-
ing-down emphasis. George Washing
ton thought that our wisest and best
and most patriotic foreign policy con
sisted in amicable relations with all
tho other nations of the world and
entangling alliances with none of
them.
"We know now, from our fellow citi
zen in the white house, that the peo
ples who may expect our tolerance and
friendship are 'those who maintain
order and prosperity,' those 'who gov
ern themselves well 'those who pay
their financial obligations, and that
it may become 'a duty which we can
not ignore, certainly in the western
hemisphere to 'intervene' in some
way, more or less Indefinite, In the do
mestic affairs of 'those who do not do
all these things' nor 'behave with de
cency in political and industrial mat
ters whatever in the world that may
mean, but who, by the omission of
the doing of all these things, do 'loos
en the ties which bind together civ
ilized society which ties, of course,
God has appointed us his mundane
vicegerent mechanics to tighten up
again.
"What a queer, old-time, childish
idea was that of our ancestors, that
the president of tho United States is
simply a chief cxecutivo and that his
duty consists in executing the laws as
they are written. I need not tell you,
sir, that if you should be elected vice
president it will be one of your duties
as a sort of heir apparent to the crown
to train yourself and influence your
chief Judge Parker in the way of
usurping the functions of the other
departments of the government. Your
opportunity will not be as great as
that of the president himself, but as
president of the senate you may have
some opportunity.
"In conclusion, sir, pray for war
nobody can tell what great things
war will end in when once begun. It
might result in making of your chief
the first 'emperor and lord protector
of tho western hemisphere.'
"Remember above all things that
our chief duty as citizens, but espe
cially as rulers, is not to be 'weak
lings' or 'cowards A weakling, sir,
is a strangely domesticated animal
who listens before he acts and who
weighs evidence before he decides,
who modestly venerates greatnessin
others, who actually prefers 'piping
times of peace' to the 'pomp and cir
cumstance of glorious war Weak
lings are 'men who fear the strenuous
life, the only national life that is
really worth the livins' the life of
crown-colony-conquest, the life mili
tant, in a word. We are getting to
be as a people, your committee is
glad to say, splendidly military. A
flag, brass band and a choice collec
tion of epaulets, escorting a secretary
of war to and from the depot in Wash
ington when he augustly leaves or
arrives, appeal to the higher lights
of our patriotic imagination as noth
ing else does or can.
"It has been a pleasure, to us to do
our duty, to notify you of your nomi
nation. This has been a pleasure, not-
QREAT SEPARATOR CQNTEsf
Held Doc 17, 1909. at Htnnet ota Dairymen
Convention
Our Claim
Wowlllnlace a HharDlea Tutmt.r huM
any other oeparator and guarantee lUeTu
liuUrtocutln ItJttr any record for clean
ftklmmlntf tlio oilier machine caa make.
The Challenge
Threo competitor, each tauten hundred
of timet singly, band together and enter
contest agamic mo
Hharplo Tubular. Pro
Tiding tho "comblne
oMIireo" are allowed
to furnish tho milt.
iTOTldlnir tho ''com
blno-oMhree" dlctati
temperature of milk.
I'roTldlnic the ''com-blno-oMhrno"
dlcteto
quantity of rnlllr. Pro
viaiRff mo "MtnwBO
oftfareo" run three m-.
chine, and If any ens
Icaveslcs. than double
the rat of tho Buarple
Tuuumriucy win. Tue
"comiiino-or-threa" select cold, hard-ekfrs
1 sting cow' iolllc(Ceato7eo)MQltM.atrua.
Bharplcs Tabular .85
'Tho Combine J AS.iftl1" "5
oxiuroo Knmra .,-,
The report ni eigned by Itotort Crick i
more, creamery Hrt.j A. W. Trow, IVe
Mina. Dairymen' Atrntui and K. J. Henry,
ally agreed anon, write for complete re
port and catalog 1&-M
withstanding tho fact that you had
already been in a manner notified by
Ellhu Root, who, whllo pretendedly
notifying Senator Fairbanks, 'couiu
not set his mind offn you as the
darkies say, and whoso speech con
sisted principally in saying, 'Go to,
thou art an old man and In bemoan
ing the fact that you might possibly
die before you got to bo president.
So might he for that matter.
"In further comment upon BHhu
Root's notification of your nomina
tion I will hazard the remark, In reply
to one of exceeding good taste on his
part, that it is better to run the risk
of incurring, as in due course of the
flesh we all must, physical 'inability
than to have been born with that pe
culiar mental 'Inability' for any pog
sible task In life which consists of tak
ing ourselves too seriously and no
body else with respect of reverence."
Mr, DaW' Reply
In replying to the notification ad
dress, Mr. Davis said:
"Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen of
the Committee: The official notifica
tion which you bring of my nomina
tion for the vice presidency of the
United States by the national democ
racy gives me a feeling of the sin
cercst gratitude to my party for the
honor conferred. At the same time it
brings to me a deep sense of my re
sponsibility to ray party as a candi
date and to my country in case of
my election.
"A spirit of deterrainatijn to suc
ceed in the campaign before us ap
pears to pervade the rank and file
of our party in all sections of tho
ecur try. Of that rank and file I have
for many years been a member and
have at all times devoted my humble
powers to party success, believing that
success to be fpr the country's good.
Unexpectedly called as I am now to
the forefront, I am impelled to an ac
ceptance of the obligation by a sense
cf jrratitude to my fellow workers
and tne hope that it may he able the
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