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The Commoner
Put Where Are the Nine?
(Locturo delivered by Mr. W. J Bryan at
Chautauquas during the season of 1920.)
Ladies and 'Gentlemen:
You may not understand how difficult U is for
one with a message to find a hearing. If he de
sires to make a political speech ho can do so
at meetings arranged by the party committee,
but these meetings usually cover only about two
months' time every two years, or, atmost, about
three months' time in presidential campaigns.
Outside of these periods, opportunities for the
discussion of political questions are rare.
If one deBires io Bpeak on religious subjects,
he can usually find an opportunity in his own
church, but there are so many different denomi
nations that the opportunity thus afforded is
necessarily limited and there are many subjects
not entirely .appropriate for a campaign meet
ing, nor yet entirely religious, but vitally con
nected with thepublic welfare. The Chautauqua
platform is broad enough for the consideration
of any question affecting human welfare, and
the progress of. civilization.
For a little more than twenty-five years I
have been using the Chautauqua platform as a
means of reaching the public In the discussion
of questions, which I deemed worth while.
f The Chautauqua audience is the best that as
sembles in the United States, and that means the
best in the world. It differs from the political
audience in several respects. Those who gather
to listen tb a political speech may be divided
generally into three groups: Friends, who are
predisposed to accept What the speaker says,
opponents who. are inclined to reject what he
says, and the curious, who retire when their
curiosity is satisfied. Those who attend a
Chautauqua are there to hear- if anything is
said worth remembering, they remember it; if
worth repeating, they repeat it. If, therefore,
one has a message to deliver and desires that
message widely disseminated, there is no. better
audience to which to present 4t than-.that which
asseinblesunfler-the Chautauqua tent.
A Speech, tb he timely, must fit into the pres
ent situation, and a speech made by a public
man during a presidential campaign can hardly
avoid referring to the problems with which the
voters are dealing. I shall, therefore, illustrate
my theme by reference to a few of these prob
lems. But let v no Republican be alarmed I
shall not deal With, them in a partisan spirit.
I am not foolish enough to make a Democratic
appeal to a Chautauqua audience. It is hard
enough for Republicans to listen to a Democratic
speech at a public meeting; it would be cjuel
and unusual punishment to make them pay for
hearing such a speech I shall attempt to treat
these politicaj subjects on their merits, and yet,
I can hardly hope to escape misinterpretation.
I have tried as hard as onyone ever has to k6ep
my speeches , separate and distinct, but not al
ways with success. When I make a purely re
ligious speech, I am sometimes accused -of talk
ing politics; and when I make a Democratic
speech it Is often called a sermon the ex
planation , being that a good Democratic speech
and a good sermon are so much alike that one
will get them mixed.
I am not content, however, to spend the entire
hour on political .questions. At my age one can
not know how much longer it will be possible
to make such tours of the country as I have
been making since 1895, and 1 am pot willing to
discuss merely the ephemeral things that en
gage our attention in campaigns. Looking back
over thirty years of active participation in poll-,
tics I note. ,that each campaign has had its
Paramount issue an isgue that absorbed atten
tion for a time, and then disappears. I shall be
disappointed" if I am not able to so burn into
our minds arid hearts a great moral principle
that you cannot forget it while you live. I de
sire to begin my address with a principle so im
portant and so permanent that the discussion of
it will be as appropriate two thousand years
from now,' as now. If you ask why I am so
sure of its enduring interest, my answer is that
II is as important today as when Christ laid
emphasis -upon it nineteen hundred years ago.
A you may suspect', this truth is taken from
tlle Bible, and I digresa a moment to add that
the Bible djffers from all other books in that it
never wears put. Other books are read? and laid
jside, but no matter how familiar you are with
the Bible, some new truth is likely to spring out
at you fromita jmges whenever you open it
dVEre!d tnitU WH1 imr,rcB0 you a "
turSnecrbvcZyntlleme- A ew moth S I
t m Tnn t Q nco t0 a vorse trom the story of
' makeo?thi??rBMail.d,th0 aPPtlons which I
S to my S tod mediately suggested
vm ibl, 8ays aB Chrl8t entd a certain
jiaSSiw-IePe,r8 mot h,1' d, called out;
them lr'f hn Ve mer,cy on U8 n aled
hlTL.? u ,thxem' when he found that ho
ra hi S,r0a,e?,Tittrnfd back' and' CallInS "P
ifs,acff0 ai tJe8US . Poured forth his
S, In iratotful thank but the other nine,
although they had received as much, passed on
n in f aild j0?ins b Biving expression to
no word of thanks. Christ, noticing this, in
quired: . Wore there not ten cleansed,
but where are the nine? This simple question
has come echoing down through nineteen cen
turies, the most stinging rebuke over uttored
against Ingratitude. If the lepers had been af
flicted with a disease easily cured, vthoy might
have said, anyone could have healed us, but
only Christ could restore them to health, and
yet when they had received of his cleansing
power, they apparently felt no sense of obliga
tion; at least, they manifested no gratitude.
Someone has described ingratitude as a
meaner sjn than revengethe explanation be
ing that revenge is repayment of evil with evil,
while ingratitude is . repayment of good with
evil. If you visit revenge upon one, it is be
cause he has injured you first, and the law takes
notice of provocation. Ingratitude is lack of
appreciation of a favor shown; it is indifference
to a kindness done, and ingratitude is so com
mon a sin among men that -.few have occupied
the pulpit for a year without using the story of
the Ten-Lepers, as the basis of a sermon, and
one could speak upon this theme evory Sunday in
the" year without being compelled to repeat
himself, so infinite in number, are the illustra
tions. Nearly all who speak of ingratitude be-
gin with a child. A child is born into the world
the -most helpless of all creatures; for years
it could not live but for the affection and de
voted care of parents, or of those who stand in
the place of parents. If, when it grows up, it
becomes indifferent; if Its heart grows cold, and
it is ungrateful, it arouses universal indignation.
Poets and writers of prose have exhausted
epithet in their effort to condemn an ungrateful
child. Shakespeare's reference to it is probably
the one most quoted. He says, "How sharper
than a serpent's tooth is a thankless child."
But it is not my purpose to speak today of
thankless children; I shall rather make applica
tion of "the rebuke to the line of work in which
I have been engaged. For some thirty years
my time has been devoted largely to the study
and discussion of the problems of government,
and I have had occasion to note the apathy and
indifference of citizens. I have seen reforms
delayed, and the suffering of the people pro
longed by lack of vigilance. Let us, therefore,
consider together for. a little while some of the
priceless gifts that come to us because Ve live
under the Stars and Stripes gifts so valuable
that they cannot 'be estimated in figures, or
described in language gifts which arc received
and enjoyed by many without any sense- of
obligation, and without any resolve to repay the
debt due to society.
These gifts are many, but we shall only have
time for. three. The first is education; it is a
gift rather than an acquirement. It comes into
our lives when we are too young to decide such
questions for ourselves. I sometimes, meet a
man who calls himself "self-made," and I al
ways feel like cross-examining him. I would
ask him when he began to make himself, and
how he laid the foundations of his greatness.
As matter of fact, we inherit more than we
ourselves can add. It means more to be born
of a race with centuries of civilization back of
it' than anything that we ourselves can contri
bute Andrnext to that which we inherit, comes
that which enters our lives through the environ
ment of youth. In this country the child is ,so
surrounded by opportunities, and by the coer
cions that compel it to take advantage of
these opportunities, that it enters school as
early as the law will permit. It does not GO
' to school, it is SENT toschpol, and we are so
anxious that it shall lose no time that if there
s ever a period in the child's-life when the
XSrniL1- uTn?rtan ?8 to, i ct age, tklg !
the tlimv I heard of a littl boy who, when
?ri?a 5?JLOIf he 71 ro,,!,e1 " m K
tra n, sovon in sohool and six at bora' Th
child Is pushed through grade after grade, and,
Sv'"f t0 th? "" "We mora than
ninety per cent of the children drop out of
educational questions.
Taking the country over, a little less than one
m ten of the children who enter our graded
schools ever enter high school, and not quit
one In fifty enter college or university. An
many who eritor college drop out before the
course is completed, I am not far from th
truth whon I aay that only about one young
man in one hundred contlnuos his education un
til he roaches the ago 21 when the law a
Btimos that his reason Is mature. I am emphasisi
ng those statistics In order to show that we ar
indobtod to othors moro than to ourselves for
our education; oven those who secure an educa
tion in spite of difficulties have received from
someone the idea that makes them appreciate
the value of an education.
Whon wo aro born we find an educational
system hero; wo do not devise it, it was de
vised by a generation long singe dead. When
wo aro ready to attend school wo find a schooj
house already built; wo do not build it, it wan
orocted by the taxpayers, many of whom aro
dead. When we are ready for Instruction wo
find toachors prepared; they wore proparod by
others, many of whom havo passed to their re
ward. How do wo feel whon we complete our edu
cation? Do wo count the cost to others and
think of the sacrifices they have made for out
benefit? Do we estimato the strength that edu
cation has brought to us and feel that wo should
put that strength under heavier loads? Wo are
raised by our study to an Intellectual eminence
from which we can secure a clearer viow of tho
future, do we feel under obligation to act like
watchmen upon tho tower and warn othors of tht
dangers ihat they do not yet discern? W
should, but do wo? I venture to assert that .more
than nine out of ten of those who receive into
their lives, and prolit by, tho gift of education
are as ungrateful as the nlno lepers, of whom
the Bible lolls us thoy receive, they enjoy, but
they give no thanks.
But, it Is even worse than this; the Biblo
doeB not say that any ono of the nine leper
used for the injury of his fellows the strength
that Christ gave back to him. All that is said
Is tha they were ungrateful, but how about
those who go out from our colleges and uni
versities are not many of those worse than un
grateful? Whon President Roosevelt was In the
White House he went down to Harvard to speak
to a 4lass of law students. In the course of his
remarks he told the students that tifere was
scarcely a great conspiracy against the public
welfare that did not have Harvard brains behind
It. He need not have gone to Harvard to utter
this indictment against college graduates; he
might have gone to Yale, or Columbia, or
Princeton, or to any other great university, or
even to smaller colleges. It would not take long
to correct tho abuses of which the popple
complain .but for the fact thatback of every
abuse are the hired brains (ft scholara who
turn .vjainst society and use for society's harm
tho very strength that society has bestowed up
on them."
Let me give you an illustration in point, and
so recent that one will be sufficient. A few
weeks ago the Supreme Court at Washington
handed down a decision overturning every argu
ment made against the Eighteenth amendment
and thcrenforcement law. Who represented the
liquor traffic in that august tribunal? Not
brewery workers, employees in distilleries, or
bartenders. These could not speak for the
liquor traffic in the Supremo Court. No!
Lawyers must be employed, and they wore
easily found, big lawyerss who attempted to
overthrow the bulwark that society has erected
for the protection of the homes of the country.
Every reform has to bo fought through all the
courts until it is finally settled by tho highest
court in our land, and there, vanquished wrong
expires in the arms of learned lawyers who ell
their souls to do evil who attempt to rend
society with the very power that our institutions
of learning have conferred upon themv
My second illustration is even more Important
for it deals with the heart. I am interested
in education; if I had my way every child in
all the world would be educated. God forbid that
I draw a line through sooiety and say that the
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