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About The commoner. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-1923 | View Entire Issue (Feb. 28, 1908)
'4 1 WiH7WPr"TW' " FEBRUARY 28, 1908 5 Congressman The following report of a speech delivered by Congressman Gilbert M. Hitchcock of Ne braska in the house January 24 is taken from the Congressional Record: Mr. Hitchcock: Mr. Chairman, I shall not consume all the time that has been allotted to me, and I desire only to use so much of it as may be necessary to make some comment upon a recent unofficial prophecy of the late official prophet of the republican party, General Grosve nor of Ohio. "While in the city a few days ago he made an elaborate and carefully prepared statement in the nature of a prophecy to the effect that the prospective nominee of the demo cratic party could not by any possible computa tion be figured out as able to secure more than 166 of the electoral votes of the United States, and in making this prophecy this prophet, re cently out of a job, used this language: "Bryanism has been .the bane of the demo cratic party in the east and great middle west for all these years." Now, Mr. Chairman, some one has said that "the best of prophets of the future is the past," and the world's greatest poet has said that "one thorn of experience is worth a whole wilderness of warning." Therefore it happens, Mr. Chair man, that even if the democratic party were dis posed to take its warnings and its prophecies from high republican sources and from assistant republican newspapers, that party is much more likely to look to its experience of recent years and scan the statistics of recent elections than it is to heed the grave warnings' of eminent republicans who are very anxious to save the democratic party from a terrible mistake. What are those experiences? In the table prepared by the eminent gen tleman from Ohio, we find 166 electoral votes accorded to Bryan in the approaching election, as follows: Alabama 11 Arkansas 9 Florida 5 Georgia 13 Kentucky ' 13 Louisiana : . . . . 9 Maryland 9 Mississippi 10 Missouri 18 North Carolina 12 Oklahoma 7 South Carolina 9 Tennessee 12 Texas 18 Virginia 12 Total 166 After this concession to "Bryanism" the same prbphet proceeds to foretell which states will surely be republican. These so-called "safe republican states" embrace, among others, the states of Colorado, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Mon tana, Nebraska, Nevada, New York and Ohio. Now for a few moments, I desire to draw atten tion to these states, which cast in all 126 elec toral votes, and in which democracy is alleged by the prophet to have been so terribly dam aged by the "bane- of Bryanism." What do the figures of the elections show? Taking the first state, Colorado, we find that Mr. Bryan in the year 1900, in the last campaign in which he was a candidate, polled 122,000 votes, and that the democrat nominated by the democratic party in the last camr-aign as safe and sane, representing, as our republican friends tell us, the real, wise, and hopeful candidacy of the democratic party, polled only 101,000 votes four years later. Mr. Bonynge: May I ask the gentleman a question? Has he the figures of 1896, when Mr. Bryan carried the state by about 136,000 plurality, and in 1900 by 29,000 plurality? At the same rate of figures the republicans ought to carry the state next time by 100,000. (Ap plause on the republican side.) Mr. Hitchcock: I reply to the gentleman from Colorado (Mr. Bonynge) to this effect, that Mr. Bryan in both campaigns carried this republican state by large majorities, and that with the exception of Colorado every one of these states gave Mr. Bryan substantially the same vote in 1900 that it gave him in 1896. (Applause on the democratic side.) Mr. Bonynge: The gentleman was talking about Colorado. I wanted to give the facts. Mr. Hitchcock: I did so, Mr. Chairman. Moreover, in spite of the fact in 1900 that the republican candidate for president was running The Commoner. Hitchcock Produces the Record for re-election; in spite of the fact that ho had at that time, as the republicans have not now, the argument of the full dinner pail; in spito of the fact that the republicans at that time had, as they have not now. tho argument of a successful war, Bryan carried this republican state and can do so again. Colorado, moreover, is the only one of the debatable states in which Mr. Bryan's vote declined from 1896 to 1000, and even then, after that decline, he had enough to carry the state against McKinloy by nearly 30,000 majority. He had more than any other democrat ever received in Colorado before or since. (Applause on the democratic side.) Come, now, to tho state of Idaho. He car ried that state in 1896, and again in 1900. No other democratic candidate for president ever carried that state. When Judge Parker ran and in speaking of him I speak in no disparage ment, because his candidacy was not one in which his personal strength was the test. His weakness was tho weakness of the reactionary. It was the weakness of a general who was lead ing toward the rear and not toward the front. (Applause.) When Mr. Parker ran in Idaho he polled only two-thirds as many votes as Mr. Bryan had polled four years before. Coming now to the state of Hllnois, which General Grosvenor denominates as surely repub lican, because democracy there suffers from tho bane of Bryanism, what do wo find? Wo find that Mr. Bryan polled in that state 503,000 votes in spite of the Hood of money which was poured forth at tho last moment to purchase the elec torate. We find that Judge Parker four years later polled about 200,000 votes less. (Re newed applause.) Mr. Bryan polled In Illinois moro votes than any democratic candidate for president before or since. Running four years after Cleveland, he had 40,000 more votes, and running four years before Parker, he polled 175,000 more votes than Parker. (Applause.) -Does that look as though the democracy of Illi nois was suffering from the "bane of Bryanism?" Mr. Bryan did not carry the state then, al though I believe he will carry it this year. (Loud applause on the democratic side.) But he lost Illinois by a vote whi"h was 200,000 to the good, as compared with the reactionary can didate. Let us now look at the state of Indiana, which republican prophets warn us will surely, be republican, If Bryan runs. Here we can more emphatically repeat the statement made by me about the state of Illinois. No democrat who ever ran for president in Indiana, or for any other office in Indiana, ever polled as many votes as Bryan did in 1900 against Mr. McKin ley, the popular and militant president of a suc cessful war and the prophet of a full dinner pail. In 1896 Mr. Bryan polled 43,000 votes more than Cleveland had done four years be fore, and he polled in 1900 35,000 votes moro in Indiana than Judge Parker did four years later. Does that show weakness or strength in Bryanism? Now we come to the state of Montana, de nominated as safely republican. Mr. Bryan car ried that republican state both times; and in 1900 polled more votes than Parker did four years later. In Nebraska, my .own state and Mr. Bryan's state, he carried it in 1896, and in 1900 even though he lost it by a narrow margin ho polled more than twice as many votes us were given to Judge Parker four years later. (Renewed ap plause on the democratic side.) And It may be said, Mr. Chairman, that as a result of Bry anism, the republican majority in Nebraska, which had originally been nearly 28,000, has been reduced as to be less than half that size; and we feel confident In this year of grace, with Bryan as our leader and candidate, we will carry that state for him. (Loud applause on the dem ocratic side.) Mr. Keifer: I would like to ask the gentle man he may have stated it, although I failed to hear it what the vote for Bryan was in 1900 as compared with his vote in 1896 in Nebraska? Mr. Hitchcock: In Nebraska? Mr. Keifer: Yes. Mr, Hitchcock: I think I can furnish tho information. (Cries of "Go on.") I will reply to the distinguished gentleman from Ohio by a more comprehensive statement perhaps than he anticipates. The total popular vote of the United States for the democratic candidate in the year 1900, when Mr. Bryan ran, was 6,368,000. Four years later, when Judge Parker a man of unimpeachable charac ter, a man with a groat reputation as a lawyer, a man who stood high In the Emplro state and wherever lawyers are knownIn that campaign Judge Parker polled 5,077,000 votes. Mr. Keifer: A further question: Tho gen tleman did not answer tho other. Do you know whether Mr. Parker Is right in his statement of a day or two ago that Bryan did not act In good faith, and according to promise, or he would have got moro votes? Mr. Hitchcock: I think, Mr. Chairman, that Mr. Bryan Is entirely able to answer personal questions himself. My opinion is that ho acted In very good faith and that ho carried himself in a model way under tho circumstances. (Ap plause on tho democratic aide.) It will bo rorneinhercd In further answer to tho gentleman's question, that when tho great convention was hold in St. Louis a desperate fight occurred In tho committee on resolutions. Single handed and with a vigor and energy and ability unparalleled in struggles of that sort, Mr. Bryan for several dayB and several nights succeeded, by his work on tho committee on resolutions, in preventing that committee from reporting a platform which ho could not honest ly support and defend before tho people. After the resolutions had been adopted, after tho platform had been made, and after the candi date had been nominated, or about the tlmo ho was nominated, after tho books wore closed, that candidate by wire made, without authority, what ho called and his friends called "an addi tion to tho democratic platform." And yet Mr. Bryan wont forth in that campaign and mado the best fight that ho was capable of In support of that ticket. Mr. Gaines of Tennessee: And Judge Park er thanked him. Mr. Hitchcock: Ho fulfilled his pledge and received tho thanks of Judgo Parker during or near the close of that campaign. (Applauso on democratic side.) Mr. Keifer: I did not understand the gen tleman to answer my question about tho relative vote for Bryan in Nebraska In 1890 and 1900. Mr. Hitchcock: I assure the gentleman from Ohio that I am not afraid to answor tho question. Mr. Keifer: You can answer It In a word. Mr, Welsso: If tho gentleman wants those figures I will go Into the house library and get them in a minute and take that load off tho gentleman's hands. Mr. Hitchcock: Unfortunately I have not before me the figures for both years. I find that Bryan polled 114,000 votes In tho year 1900, which was the year of his second cam paign, and four years later Judge Parker polled 51,800 votes. Mr. Macon: Mr. Chairman, I desire to in terrupt the gentleman just a moment, in refer ence to Bryan's work for the ticket that was nominated in St. Louis. Mr. Hitchcock: Yes. Mr. Macon: I desire to state that he did noble work after that convention adjourned, not withstanding the fact that every little two-by-four would-be statesman in that convention had tried to drive him out of tho party. Mr. Hitchcock: Yes, I think the gentleman from Arkansas is eminently correct in that. And now, as I have been Interrupted by the dis tinguished ex-speaker and representative from Ohio (Mr. Keifer) I want to give him some moro figures from Ohio. Mr. Ollie M. James: Will tho gentleman from Nebraska permit me just a moment? The question asked by the gentleman from Ohio as to whether or not Judge Parker Impugned tho good faith of Bryan would seem to lead to the inference that Bryan did not support him loyally in tho campaign. Judge Parker did not intimate such a thing. Mr. Keifer: Oh, yes. Mr. Hitchcock: No; he did not. He simply said that Mr. Bryan before Parker's nomination had made speeches or statements which were used afterwards by Parker's enemies to hurt him, but he In no way implied that Bryan did not support him after he was nominated. Mr. Gaines of Tennessee: Is It not also a fact that while he was making his great cam paign for Parker in Indiana that Judge Parker wired him and thanked him for his brilliant and magnificent defense of him? Mr. Hitchcock: Yes. Mr. Gaines of Tennessee: I remember that distinctly. (Continued on Page 6) 1 timmifm'iiimMfCiM'3Ei: