The Commoner.
WILLIAM J. BRYAN, EDITOR AND PROPRIETOR
VOL. 8, NO. 8
CONTENTS
MR. BRYAN'S SPRINGFIELD SPEECH
WILL THE BANKS ANSWER THIS?
SENATOR GORE'S RESOLUTIONS
THE WORLD-HERALD'S MAPS
OUR PLUTOCRATIC RULERS
TWO BANKERS ON THE GUARANTEED
DEPOSIT PLAN
ILLINOIS DEMOCRATS IN SESSION
CIRCULATE THE COMMONER IN EVERY
WARD AND PRECINCT
WASHINGTON LETTER
COMMENT ON CURRENT TOPICS
HOME DEPARTMENT
WHETHER COMMON OR NOT
NEWS OF THE WEEK
WHOSE JUDGE?
The pictorial paper, "Judge," has a well
defined political policy and this policy is clearly
plutocratic. The paper attacks remedial legis
lation and those who favor it, and uses the' power
of the picture to libel its political opponents
and misrepresent the issues.
Whose Judge?
Who owns the paper?
What will controls the policy?
Would it not be a good thing for Judge
to give its readers a picture representing the
men in the oflice as Punch and Judy, picturing
in the background the ventriloquist who fur
nishes the voice and utters the utterances?
Whose Judge and what is he using Judge
for?
fc ty fcy Cv
JIMIXY! AND HE'S GONE!
To Chairman Fowler of the house commit
tee on currency the New York Sun attributes this
remarkable language:
"What happened in New York? The people
of this country never will know what might
have happened in this country. This man Mor
gan, a giant of giants, the Hercules of finance,
a banker statesman, a banker patriot, a man
with a great heart as well as a great intellect,
stood like a Gibraltar protecting the nineteen
billions resources of our banks, protecting the
occupations of twenty-five million American
men and women, protecting the national wel
fare against the consequences of a more destruc
tive, terrifying and appalling cataclysm than has
ever swept over the commerce of our country."
Mr. Morgan sailed for Europe yesterday.
All in one ship. Kansas City Star.
v
; ; ; .; ; ; .; ; ;
VIGILANCE!
Watch the personnel of the delega
tions to Denver. Money is being used
in some of the states of the Mississippi
valley to secure delegations who will be
obedient to the predatory interests. Vig
ilance is necessary. Put none but the
trustworthy on guard. The democratic
masses are aroused and they must not be
betrayed by representatives of "The
System."
;
V
Lincoln, Nebraska, March 6, 1908
Whole Number 372
l
"ROCK ME TO SLEEP, MOTHER, ROCK ME TO SU-iK!!"
MR. BRYAN'S SPRINGFIELD SPEECH
At Springfield, 111., February 21, the demo
crats held a great state rally, an account of
which will be found on another page of this
issue. Mr. Bryan was invited to address the
meeting and spoke as follows:
Mr. President and Gentlemen:
I appreciate the honor Mr. Stevenson does
me and the sacrifice he makes in r.cepting the
position of president of the Federation f Bryan
clubs, and I am touched by the good will and
confidence which you manifest in assembling at
this season of the year to prepare for the com
ing campaign. This is a remarkable gathering,
considering that the convention is still nearly
five months off and the election is nine
months away. As you have declared your
selves in favor of my nomination I can speak to
you frankly and in a personal way. I have been
called a dictator and yet you can testify that
no one has been less a dictator. I have no in
clination to dictate and no power to dictate,
even if I wished to do so. I have had no pat
ronage with which to bribe you, no money with
which to hire you and no corporate power, be
lieve me, with which to terrorize you. I was
nominated at Chicago in 189 G without any
organizatipn.or literary bureau to bring me
to the attention of the delegates. I was re
nominated by unanimous vote in 1900, after
those who had helped to defeat mo In I8&0
had spent four years in trying to drive me out
of politics. Immediately after the election cf
1900 I announced that I would not be a can
didate in 1904. I made this announcement then
so that the party might test the truth of the
charge that my radicalism had defeated the
party. I did not try to pick out a candidate or
force" any man on the party. I opposed Mr.
Parker's nomination because he refused to dis
cuss the issues and concealed ills views on pub
lic questions. I went to the St. Louis conven
tion from a sense of duty, feeling that I owed
it to those who had voted for me to do what
I could to secure a platform that would not
sacrifice the principles for which the party had
been fighting. I fared better than I expected
and we do not have to apologize for the plat
form of that year. When Mr. Parker was nomi
nated I went out and did what I could for him.
His platform committed him to several im
portant reforms while the republican platform
did not promise anything. I worked for him
as hard as I could have worked for myself, and
plead for him as earnestly as I could have plead
for a candidate of my choice.
All those who were prominent In support
of me supported him, but when the vote was
counted it was found that his vote was about
a million and a quarter uhort of that of 1900.
His vote fell off in the east and south as well as
in the west in only two states, I believe, did
his vote exceed the vote of 1900.
It was evident the day after the election
that the democratic party would be again a
positive, aggressive, reform force. The reaction
immediately brought my name before the coun
try again and my renomination was predicted.
In 190C when I was out of the country
and not in correspondence with any one, about
half the state conventions endorsed me. I
appreciated the compliment, but I waited more
than a year to see if anyone would appear upon
whom the party could center with better pros
pects of success. Finally, last November, in
order to put an end to misconstructions of my
silence and misrepresentations of my Intention,
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