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The Commoner.
AUGUST t, 1J1I
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Mr. Bryan's Baltimore Speeches
PROGRES&rVE DEMOCRACY
Tho People's Pillar of Fire hy Night; Their
Pillar of Cloud by Day
Mr. Bryan's speech at Baltimore, Juno 25,
1912, opposing the election of Alton B. Parker
as temporary chairman of tho democratic na
tional convention:
Mr. Chairman and gentlemen of tho conven
tion: I rise to place in nomination for the office
of temporary chairman of this convention Hon.
John W. Kern of Indiana. In thus dissent
ing from tho judgment of our national com
mittee, as expressed in its recommendation,
I recognize that the burden of proof Is upon me
to overthrow the presumption that the com
mittee is representing tho wishes of this con
vention and of the party of the nation.
I call your attention to the fact that our rules
declare that tho recommendation of tho com
mittee is not final. The very fact that this con
vention has the right to accept or reject that
recommendation is conclusive proof that the
presumption in favor of this convention is a
higher presumption than that in favor of the
"wisdom of tho committee.
If any of you ask mo for my credentials; if
any of you inquire why I, a mere delegate to this
convention from one of the smaller states,
should presume to present a name, and ask you
to accept it in place of the name it presented,
I beg to tell you, if it needs to be told, that in
three campaigns I have been the champion of
the democratic party's principles, and that in
three campaigns I have received the votes of six
millions and a half of democrats. If that is not
proof that I have the confidence of the party of
this nation I shall not attempt to furnish proof.
I remind you, also, that confidence reposed in
a human being carries with it certain responsi
bilities, and I would not be worthy of the confi
dence and the affection that- have been
showered upon me by the democrats of this na
tion if I wore not willing to risk humiliation in
their defense. .
I recognize that a man can not carry on a
political warfare in defense of the mass of the
. people for sixteen years without making ene
mies; I know full well that there has been no
day since the day I was nominated in Chicago
when these enemies have not been industrious in
their efforts to attack me from every stand
point. The fact that I have lived is proof that I have
not deserted the people. If for a moment I had
forgotten them, they would not have remem
bered me.
I take for my text the quotation that some
one has been kind enough to place upon the
walls for my use. "He never sold the truth to
serve the hour." That is the language of the
hero of New Orleans, and I would not deserve
the support I have received if 1 were willing to
sell the trujh to serve the present hour.
We are told by those who support the com
mittee's recommendation that it is disturbing
harmony to oppose their conclusions. Let me
free myself from any criticism that an7 one may
have made heretofore or may attempt here
after. Is there any delegate in this body of
more than ten hundred who tried earlier than I
to secure harmony in this convention?
I began several weeks ago. I announced to
the sub-committee that I would not be a candi
date for temporary chairman.
I might have asked, without presumption, that
at the end of sixteen years of battle when I find
the things I have fought for not only triumph
ant in my own party but even in the republican
party under these conditions I might have
asked, I repeat, the modest honor of stand
ing before this convention and voicing the re
joicing of my party. But I was more interested
in harmony than I was in speaking t tho con
vention. Not only that, but I advised this com
mittee to consult tho two leading candidates,
the men who together have nearly two-thirds of
this convention instructed for them I asked the
committee to consult these two men and get
their approval of a man for chairman that
there might be no contest in this convention.
What suggestion could I have then made
more in the interest of harmony than to ask
this committee to allow two-thirds of this con
vention a voice in the selection of its temporary
chairman?
In the1 discussion before the sub-committee,
t friends" 51 Mr. dark and' Mr. Wilson were
not ablo to agree; ono supported Mr. James
and the other supported Mr. Henry, but in' tho
full committee last night tho friends of Mr. Wil
son joinod with tho friends of Mr. Clark in the
support of Mr. James, Mr. Clark's choice, and
yet tho committee turned down tho joint re
quest thus made.
I submit to you that tho plan that I pre
sented the plan that I followed was a plan
for tho securing of harmony; and that tho plan
which the committee followed was not designed
to secure harmony.
Let mo for a moment present the qualifications
of ono fitted for this position. This is no ordi
nary occasion. This is an epoch-making con
vention. We have had such a struggle as was
never seen in politics before. I have been in the
center of this fight and I know something of tho
courage that it has brought forth, and some
thing of tho sacrifice that has been required.
I know men working upon the railroad for
small wages with but little laid up for their de
clining years who have disobeyed tho railroad
managers and helped us in this progressive fight
at the risk of having their bread and butter
taken from them.
I know men engaged in business and carry
ing loans at banks who have been threatened
with bankruptcy if they did not sell their
citizenship, and yet I have seen theso men defy
those who threatened them and walk up and
vote on tho Bide of tho struggling masses against
predatory wealth.
I havo seen lawyers risking their future, by
alionating men of largo business, in order to bo
the champions of the poor. I have seen men
who had never made a speech before go out and
devote weeks of time to public speaking bo
cause their hearts wore stirred.
It is only fair that now, when tho hour of
triumph has come, tho song of victory should bo
sung by one whose heart has been in the fight.
John W. Kern has been faithful every day in
these sixteen years. It has cost him time, it
has cost him money and it has cost him tho wear
of body and of mind. Ho has been giving
freely of all that ho had. Four years ago, when
tho foundation was laid for tho present victory,
it was John W. Kern who stood with me and
helped to bring into the campaign tho idea of
publicity before the election that has now swept
the country until even-the republican party was
compelled by public opinion to give it unani
mous indorsement only a few weeks ago.
It was John W. Kern 'who stood with me on
that Denver platform that demanded the elec
tion of senators by direct vote of tho people,
when a republican national convention had
turned it down by a vote of seven to one, and
now he is in tho United States senate, where
he is measuring up to the high expectations of
a great party.
He helped in the fight for the amendment
authorizing an income tax, and ho has lived to
see a president who was opposed to us take that
plank out of our platform and put it through
the senate and house and to see thirty-four
states of the union ratify it. And now he is
leading tho fight in the United States senate
to purge that body of Senator Lorimer, who
typifies the supremacy of corruption in politics.
What better man could we have to open a con
vention? What better man could wo have to represent
the spirit of progressive democracy?
Contrast the candidate presented by the com
mittee with the candidate whom I present, and
it can be done without impeaching his character
or his good Intent. Not every one of high char
acter and good Intent is a fit man to sound the
keynote of a progressive campaign.
There are seven millions of republicans in
this country, or were at the last election, and
I have never doubted that a largo majority of
them wero men of high character and good in
tent, but we would not invite one of them to be
temporary chairman of our convention. We
have a great many democrats who voto the
ticket after it is nominated, who are not in full
sympathy with the purposes of the party.
They emphasize the fact that Judge Parker
supported me In 1908, but I assume that no
friend of Judge Parker will contend that ho
was entirely satisfied with either the candidate
or the plans and purposes of our party.
I not only voted the ticket in 1904, but I made
speeches 'for the candidate when I was not at
all satisfied with either the candidate or the in
fluences that homlnate'd :hini arid' directed tfie
campaign, but tho reactionaries did not ask m
to act as tomporary chairman of the St. Louis
convention, although I had then bcon twice a
candldato for president.
This Is not a timo whon personal ambitions or
personal compliments should be considered. We
aro writing hiBtory today, and this convention
is to announco to tho country whether it will
tako up tho challengo thrown down at Chicago
by a convention controlled by predatory wealth,
or put ouraolves under tho same control and
glvo tho peoplo no party to roprcaont them.
Wo neod not docolvo ourselves with the
thought that that which is done in a national
convention is dono in secret.
If evory member of this convention entcrod
into an agreement of socrocy wo would still act
under tho eyes of those representatives of tho
press, who know not only what wo do, but why
wo do It.
Tho delegates of this convention must not
presume upon tho lgnoranco of thoso who did
not come, cither bocauso they had not influonco
enough to be elocted dolegates or monoy onough
to pay tho expenses of the trip, but who havo
as much Interest in tho party's welfaro as wo
who speak for them today.
Theso peoplo will know that the Influences
that dominated tho convention at Chicago and
made Its conclusions a farce are here and more
brazenly at work than they wore at Chicago.
I appeal to you; let the commencement of
this convention bo such that the democrats of
this country may raise their heads among their
fellows and say: Tho democratic party is truo
to tho pooplo. You can not frighten It with
your Ryans, nor buy It with your Bolmonts.
If tho candldato proposed by tho committee
were an unknown man wo would Judge him by
tho forces that aro back of him, and not by you,
gcntlomon, who may try to convlnco yourselves
that you owo It to tho cominltteo to sustain Its
action even though you believe it made a mis
take. But that Is not tho question. Wo know who
the candldato is, as well as the men behind
him. Wo know that ho is tho man who was
Bolected as the party candidate eight years ago
when tho democratic party, beaten in two cam
paigns, decided that it was worth while to try
to win a campaign under the leadership of thoso
who had defeated us in the campaigns before.
Tho democrats of tho country have not for
gotten that that convention was influenced by
tho promise of largo campaign funds from Wall
street, and they have not forgotten tho fact that
after corporation management had alienated
tho rank and file of tho party, Wall street
threw the party down and elected the republi
can candldato.
They have not forgotten that whon the voto
was counted wo had a million and a quarter less
votes than wo had in tho two campaigns before,
and a million and a quarter less than we had
four years afterward. They havo not forgotton
that it is the same man, backed by tho same in
fluence, who is to bo forced on this convention
to open a progressive campaign with a paralyz
ing speech that will dishearten the fighting
forco of tho party.
You ask me how I know, without reading It,
that that speech would not be satisfactory. A
speech is not so many words; it is the man and
not the words that make a speech.
Wo havo been passing through a groat edu
cational age; around the world tho democratic
movement has been sweeping all obstacles be
fore It, In Russia emancipated serfs have se
cured tho right to a voice in their government.
In Persia tho peoplo havo secured a constitution.
In Turkey the man who was in danger every
hour of being cast into prison without an in
dictment, or beheaded without a charge against
him, now has some influence In tho moulding
of the laws. China, the sleeping giant of tho
orient, has risen from a slumber of two thous
and years and today is a republic waiting for
recognition. And in Great Britain the peoplo
have asserted their independence of the house
of lords.
And while the outside world has been march
ing at doubo-quick in the direction of more com
plete freedom our nation has kept step; on no
other part of God's footstool has popular gov
ernment grown more rapidly than here. In
every state the fight has been waged. Tho man
whom I present has been the leader of tho pro
gressive cause in his state, and once joint leader
in tho nation.
I challenge you to find in sixteen years wher
the candidate presented by the committee has,
before a nomination1 watf. made, 'gone out and
rendered 'effective! dervT Inbefialf lof anjoma
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