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constitution, obviously framed by tho special
intorosts, douylng a sccrot ballot with Its safe
guard against corruption, Intimidation and
fraud; denying an Intelligence qualification, and
making such denial perpetual by making tho
constitution of Now Mexico practically incap
able of ameudmont, and on this issue Arizona
was preferably ontitlod to admission. To havo
doniod her on this ground would havo been
not only to rebuke Arizona but to robuko tho
sovoroign stato of Oklahoma whoso trusted
representative I am, and all tho other states
which havo adopted tho initiative and referen
dum, and all tho other states which are on tho
point of adopting the initiative and referendum.
Dut Arizona and Now Mexico both, on the broad
doctrine of tho right of self government, aro
ontitlod to admission. Let thorn enter together.
"Hall to Arizona! May she Hvo long and
prosper for her constitution shall stand. Ari
zona is like 'unto a wise man which built his
house upon a rock; and tho rain descended, and
tho floods came, and the winds blow, and beat
upon that house; and it fell not, for It was
founded upon a rock.' "
CHAMP CLARK'S SPEECH
Champ Clark said: "Wo havo met on this
auspicious occasion for purposes of personal
friendship to celobrato the birthday of one of
tho three most prominent contemporary Ameri
cans tho greatest living orator, perhaps tho
greatest that ever lived & man dear to the
hearts of millions of his countrymen and ad
mired by millions in foreign lands, who, by his
splendid bearing and lofty oloquenco, has ele
vated the American character and popularized
tho thoory of representative government in
every civilized country, whoso magnificent advo
cacy of right, justice and equal opportunities for
all our citizens with monopolistic privilege for
nono, has given him a high and secure place In
tho history of our times.
"We aro here to felicitate him upon tho anni
versary of his birth, '0 fortunate, 0 happy day
not ouly becauso wo admire him as an orator,
Btatesman, philosopher and humanitarian, but
because wo love the man, William Jennings
Bryan. From the bottom of our liearts wo
wIbIi him many happy returns.
"Shakespeare says:
" 'To gild reflnod gold; to paint tho Illy
To throw a perfume on tho violet;
To smooth tho ice; to add another hue
unto tho rainbow;
Or with taper light to Beek the beauteous
Eye of Heaven to garnish
Is wasteful and ridiculous excess.'
"To this category of tho superfluous might
woll bo added any attempt at eulogy upon the
great Amorlcan whom we have assembled hero
to honor. In his case the language of eulogy
has long since been exhausted and I shall not
ondeavor either to repeat or to add to It.
"Up to date Bryan's has been a strange fate:
To originate and advocate as a pioneer important
measures for tho amelioration of political and
social conditions and the perpetuation of the
republic with a force, fervor and eloquence
rarely equaled and never excelled: To be de
nounced blttorly, mercilessly, brutally for so
doing: To be thrice defeated for the presidency
for their advocacy, and then to see them adopted
bodily and enacted Into law by his political
opponents while he is still in the prime of life.
There la no tale out of the Arabian Nights
moro Incredible than that and that will be the
moat mystifying puzzle with which tho Tacitus,
the Sallust, the Sismondl or the Macauley who
eaBays to write the history of tho two last
decades will have to unravel and explain.
"Republicans have not adopted all measures
advocated by democrats In the last twenty years,
but they have adopted so many that it 1b
absolutely fair to say that certain things which
they denounced as anarchy when we first pro
posed them have now been adopted by them as
true political gospel. It 1b also true that In
sixteen years tho republicans havo enacted into
law no great remedial measure which was not
first proposed by democrats, and what is moro,
they could not have passed them through the
house of representatives without tho aid of
democratic votes. Almost every measure on
which the good fame of Theodore Roosevelt
rests was filched from democrats; while those
on which his bad fame will be bottomed, his
now nationalism and similar doctrines, wore
originated by republicans. Ho boldly borrowed,
seized, carried away and converted to his own
use and to the use of the republican pany any
democratic proposition which was becoming too
popular to be ignored or shunted out of tho
way, and then, though ho forced them upon
The Commoner.
the statute books by democratic votes, ho
claimed not only tho lion's sharo of tho glory,
but all tho glory for himself and the republi
cans. In all these matters tho democrats acted
on purely patriotic principles. Knowing full
well that ho and his would monopolize tho
honors we supported them becauso they would
benefit tho people.
"In proposing democratic measures and in
getting them passed by democratic votes and
then in claiming all tho honor for himself and
his party, his pupil and protege, President Taft,
follows his bad and selfish example.
"Tho first example in recent times of republi
cans seizing and appropriating to their own uses
a democratic principle was In the regulation of
railroads, a measure originated by that immortal
Texas democrat, Judge John H. Reagan. Demo
crats furnished Roosevelt and Taft the votes
to forco bills regulating railroad rates through
the house and received no thanks. True, the
roll calls showed a large republican vote for
them, but the republican votes for them would
have been few and far between had the demo
crats not stood there solid as a stone wall and
the republicans voted with us, thereby making
a virtue of necessity; but when the victories
were won the thanks of the administration and
tho honors were bestowed not upon the demo
crats to whom they properly belonged, but upon
tho republicans who were drafted into service.
Democrats acted from principle and patriotism.
"The latest example of a republican president
borrowing a democratic principle and getting
it through the house by democratic votes was
in the Canadian reciprocity matter. Democrats
endorsed It in caucus almost unanimously, and
In tho house all the democrats except five voted
for it. President Taft and his floor leader in
tho house, Hon Samuel Walker McCall, of
Massachusetts, could not muster even a ma
jority of house republicans for it; but the next
day after the house democrats pulled tho presi
dent out of a hole, he promptly wrote a letter
of thanks and congratulations to Brother McCall
and tho republicans, which was a direct slap in
faco of the democrats. His letter to McCall is
a document as full of ingratitude as has ap
peared in print Blnce Gutenberg invented mov
able types. But as democrats have- been advo
cating reciprocity for years and as President
Taft began advocating it only recently, we voted
for it as a matter of principle and patriotism,
ask ng no favors or thanks and we got none.
While, however, wo neither asked nor expected
thanks or favors and received none, a man can
not help philosophising on what a personal and
official humiliation democrats saved President
Taft and Representative McCall from when they
could not line up even a majority of house re
publicans. Democrats voted for it because it
is democratic and is therefore right and not
to pull the president out of a hole, though they
did pull him out of a hole and fair minded
men of all parties will declare with one accord
that he might have refrained from thanking
McCall and the republicans for a victory they
did not achieve, for a performance which but for
democratic votes would have been the greatest
humiliation inflicted upon a president since e
days of Rutherford B. Hayes
'Sn,vJolin Dalzell of Pittsburg, the ablest
n ?! SUSe "Pfcan chieftains denounced
it as a democratic measure and fought it Wh
and nail while a vote on It in the senate was
prevented by Senator Hale, of Maine, and othe?
republican reactionaries. 'These fac an, sub
mitted to a candid world to the end ttat peonle
may not be deceived by the glamor attochTng
to a pronunclamento issued from the white
HcanGpartPyroP ' f the
"Republican newspapers aro verv mnr -
cerned as to what the housedemolra ?if
at the extraordinary session and are fearful to
hear them tell it, that we will wreckSr fair
prospects If we do anything more S consider
SSfh11 ?clPrcIty Pa. They are in
state of chronic and amazing lachrymosencJJ
TWWefl mak a mlstake by attempt?nXng
They set up as our self-constituted truarnf
Apparently they are becoming 0;
by reason of their tender regard for us TW
has not been anything bo pathetic since Mak
Twain wept at the tomb of Adam as the hvSm
tude of republican papers for tt welfare of"
democrats. They are long on advice A fn
answer to all of which is the old saying ?
Kf ?G Qreel ring Bif ts!' St B"
Nobody commissioned mo to make un n
program for tho house democrats, but knowing
them like a book I make bold to predict w
we will do our full duty to tSe party andhe
country by entering at once upon th 'ulflUmont
VOLUME '11, NUMBER lj
.
of the promises which we made to carry tho
election. No other course of conduct will be
thought of for one moment. The republicans
wont to pieces because they failed utterly and
shamefully to redeem their promises and surely
democrats have too much sense to follow their
disastrous example. We will redeem our
promises as speedily and thoroughly as may be,
because such a course is both right and expe
dient. Duty is the sublimest word in our verna
cular and we will discharge our duty and our
whole duty. If the republicans do not like it
they can lump it. They would do well and be
acting a patriotic part by helping us, thereby
relieving themselves from a portion of the odium
attaching to their failure to keep their own
promises.
"No doubt tho house will pass the Canadian
reciprocity bill, either amended or unamended.
At tho same time we will begin the revision of
the tariff downward which we promised to do
and which on the eighth day of last November
the American people, by a large majority com
missioned us to do. Whether we will first
pass the reciprocity bill and then a tariff bill
or bills, or whether the passage of the recipro
city bill will follow the tariff bill or bills, or
whether the reciprocity bill shall be a part of
a tariff bill or bills is simply a matter of proce
dure to be thrashed out in the democratic
caucus. In addition to all this we may take a
turn at investigating the various departments
and In general legislation. President Taft had
fair warning that if he called an extra session
we would do as we pleased, for both Mr. Chair
man Underwood and myself told him so. There
is no sort of difference betwixt a regular and
extraordinary session except as to the time of
convening. Certain republican papers have be
gun an effort to coerce congress into acting on
reciprocity and that alone, by asserting that the
president has a right to adjourn congress if
the two houses cannot agree on a date for ad
journment. They seem to think they have dis
covered something new In the fact that the
president has that power, but they are mis
taken. It is so written in the constitution and
it is only reasonable to assume that all repre
sentatives and senators have read that venerable
document. But the president does not do every
thing he has a right to do. No president has
ever adjourned the congress, and the chances
are ten to one that if President Taft adjourns
congress to prevent our curing the outrages in
the Payne-Aldrich-Smoot tariff bill, he will not
be able to command one-third of the votes in
the electoral college, and there will hardly be
enough republicans In the house of the 63rd
congi-ess to call the ayes and noes. So, a presi
dential adjournment of congress in order to
make political capital for his party a thing
unprecedented in tho 122 years of our history
under tho constitution, is a game which may
work two very different ways. It might easily
become a boomerang to the president and his
party which 'was repudiated at the polls last
fall. Consequently we are not badly scared by
this truculent threat of republican editors. We
were elected to revise the tariff downward to
tZ?80!?1?10 bas.Is and we PPOse to religiously
Keep that promise and all other promises that
we made in order to win the election, so far as
nf Ji , pre?Id?nt Taft merely hastened the
t L thS!P fulflllraent by calling the congress
In extraordinary session.
MaTta!!d last. there has been much philoso
rJjfi ?g and lizing-as to the force of habit.
5J?Hnnr a JobBon. author of the English
ta i 7 " 0f Rasselas' is said to have gone
M w e uY every n,sht for twenty years.
An J mebay said, 'Doctor, why on earth
wSi R? y that woman and bo through
nomidiv Whereupon old Ursa Major pro
slr u ?t ?l8i aoundIHS Question: 'My dear
sir, ii i married her, where would I ro to sDend
Che tZTftZ mTVV8 the finest iLration of
reSiSShi nfbIJ ?now of' rhQ SGCond most
wMle on thi11Ufra.tIon of !t Is the fact that
wnno on the ninoteenth day of March 1910.
ahmaenmSf f 5 nouso togelhefwUhout
sine? ulu ng ?nd have been together ever
Stn511 republican newspapers con-
andllS n democratic factionalism utterly
democrat Z "? ,f?rIng the fact tbat wbIle
woe rama ft88110 the republican party is
such rfSLl Ctl0ttfl are flSQtlng each other In
cata o?KlInmanrr aa to Put tho far-famed
can nanS. Sf ny fv 8bame- Wlth the republi
and tMs ronh? WJBh ,iQ father to the thought,
eratii i StliIlt representation of demo
not h aiSf Sfva 8ystem- ' Democrats should
"DIviS r J? lt for ono moment
rolfi of pLI epubllca Papers play the gruesome
role of Cassandra day In and day out by predict-
