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The Commoner,
CHARLES W. BRYAN, PUBLISHER
.--v-'
VOL. 8, NO. 31
Lincoln, Nebraska, August 14, 1908
Whole Number 395
MUST FACE THE ISSUES THIS YEAR
"The campaign will be difficult It is absurd to talk f a walkover for Taft He
himself makes no secret of his belief that Bryan s chances of election are better than they
have ever been before. The republicans will knou) that they have been fighting before
the battle is over. They can not bring out their old bogeys. The country is not going
to be frightened into rejecting Bryan." From New York Evening Post, a Taft Organ.
MR. BRYAN'S SPEECH OF ACCEPTANCE
Mr. Clayton ahd Gentlemen of the Notification Committee: I
can not accept the nomination which you officially tender, without
first acknowledging my deep indebtedness to the democratic party
for the extraordinary honor which it has conferred upon me. Hav
ing twice before been a candidate for the presidency, in campaigns
which ended in defeat, a third nomination, the result of the free
and voluntary act of the voters of the party, can only pa explained
by a substantial and undisputed growth in the principles7an;drj5olicie
principles and policies have given me whatever political strength
I possess, the action of the convention not only renews my faith in
them, but strengthens my attachment to them.
A PLATFORM IS BINDING
I shall, in the near future, prepare a more formal reply to your
notification, and, in that letter of acceptance, will deal with the
platform in detail. It is sufficient, at this time, to assure you that
I am in hearty accord with both the letter and the spirit of the
platform. I endorse it in whole and in part, and shall, if elected,
regard its declarations as binding upon me. ,And, I may add, a
platform is binding as to what it omits as well as to what it contains,
According to the democratic idea, tt3 people think for themselves
and select officials to carry out their wishes. The voters are the
sovereigns ; the officials are the servants, employed for a fixed time
and at a stated salary to do what the sovereigns want done, and to
do it in the way the sovereigns want it done, Platforms are en
tirely in harmony with this democratic idea. A platform announces
the party's position on the questions which are at issue; and an
official is not at liberty to use the authority vested in him to urge
personal views which have not been submitted to the voters for
their approval. If one is nominated upon a platform which is not
satisfactory to him, he must, if candid, either decline. the nomina
tion, or, in accepting it, propose an amended platform in lieu of the
one adopted by the convention. No such situation, however, con
fronts your candidate, for the platform upon which I was nominat
ed not only contains nothing from which I dissent, but it specifi
cally outlines all the remedial legislation which we can hope to
secure during the next four years.
REPUBLICAN CHALLENGE ACCEPTED
The distinguished statesman who received the republican nom
ination for president said, in his notification speech: "The strength
of the republican cause in the campaign at hand is the fact that we
represent the policies essential to the reform of known abuses, to
the continuance of liberty and true prosperity, and that we are de
termined, as our platform unequivocally declares, to maintain them
and carry them on.''
In the name of the democratic party, I accept the challenge,
and charge that the republican party is responsible for all the abuses
which now exist in the federal government, and that it is impotent
to accomplish the reforms which are imperatively needed. Further,
I can not concur in the statement that the republican platform un
equivocally declares for the reforms that are necessary; on the con
trary, I affirm that it openly and notoriously disappoints the hopes
and expectations of reformers, whether those reformers be repub
licans or. democrats. So far did. the republican convention fall short
. ?df$Lts,tijty that the republican candidate felt it necessary to add to
iis "platform in several important particulars, 4hus rebuking the
leaders of the party, upon whose co-operation he must rely for the
enactment of remedial legislation.
As I shall, in separate speeches, discuss the leading questions
at issue, I shall at this time confine myself to the paramount ques
tion, and to the far-reaching purpose of our party, as that purpose
is set forth in the platform.
SHALL THE PEOPLE RULE?
Our platform declares that the overshadowing issue which
manifests itself in all the questions now under discussion, is ' ' Shall
the people rule? ' ' No matter widen way we turn ; no matter to what
subject we address ourselves, the same question confronts us: Shall
the people control their own government, and use that government
for the protection of their rights and for the promotion of their
welfare? or shall the representatives of predatory wealth prey upon
a defenseless public, while the offenders secure immunity from sub
servient officials whom they raise to power by unscrupulous
methods? This is the issue raised by the "known abuses' ' to which
Mr. Taft refers.
PRESIDENT'S INDICTMENT AGAINST THE PARTY
In a message sent to congress last January, President Roose
velt said: "The attacks by these great corporations on the admin
istration's actions have been given a wide circulation through
out the country, in the newspapers and otherwise, by those writers
and speakers who, consciously or unconsciously, act as the repre
sentatives of predatory wealth of the wealth accumulated on a
giant scale by all forms of iniquity, ranging from the oppression of
wage earners to unfair and unwholesome methods of crushing out
competition, and to defrauding the public by stock-jobbing and the
manipulation of securities. Certain wealthy men of this stamp,
whose conduct should be abhorrent to every man of ordinarily de
cent conscience, and who commit the hideous wrong of teaching our
young men that phenomenal business success must ordinarily be
based on dishonesty, have, during the last few months, made it
apparent that they have banded together to work for a re-action.
Their endeavor is to overthrow and discredit all who honestly ad
minister the law, to prevent any additional legislation which would
check and restrain them, and to secure, if possible, a freedom from
all restraint which will permit every unscrupulous wrong-doer to