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MARCH 29 1912
tbe people serve, them, Bryan served tho people.
I had rather have my name imperishably linked
as his is, with those great reforms in the in
terest of all the people than to have history tell
that I occupied the presidential chair. For
Jefferson stated it best of all when ho went to
write his own epitaph; he never told of what
mankind-had done for him, that they had elected
him president, vice president, member of con
gress, governor of Virginia, that was what they
had done for him:- He preferred that he should
leave upon the shaft above his grave those
things he had done for them, and he wrote:
"Author of the Declaration of Independence and
the statutes of Virginia for religious liberty,
and founder of the University of Virginia."
GEORGE FRED WILLIAMS' SPEECH
In his closing speech, Mr. Bryan made the
following reference to Mr. Williams: If Sena
tor Pettigrew has shown bravery in overcoming
tho conservatism of a New England birth and of
membership in the republican party, how much
more courage has it required for George Fred
"Williams to make the fight he has without leav
ing New England! For nearly sixteen years he
has defied an environment that has closed the
lips of a multitude of men less courageous and
had been the outspoken champion of the interests
of the -average man. He has stood resolute and
unafraid among a gain-saying people until there
are signs of wholesale advance in his section of
the land. His speech has been the treat of a
lifetime; he illustrates how learning can en
large one's capacity for service when inspired
by a heart that beats in sympathy with the
heart of mankind.
George Fred Williams, of Massachusetts,
spoke as follows:
All the deeds and words of men who have
stood for human liberty have been embalmed
in history; the descendants of these patriots
trace out with pride a glorious ancestry while
the bourbons and tories have bestowed no lega
cies of honor upon their progeny.
Yet in their day and generation, these
pioneers in human progress did not dream of
tho honors with which history would crown their
memories. We of tho present, moved hither
jnul thither by the perplexities, the doubts and
ie uncertainties of our daily efforts, do not
realize that we too are making history; yet jt
may be that in all the records of the human
struggle for justice and . liberty, no era will
hereafter be studied with more veneration than
the closing of the last century and the open
ing of tho new.
Our forefathers builded upon a single foun
dation on which alone the fabric of our republic
must stand or fall, the principle of popular
sovereignty. It is not surprising, amid the
doubts and fears of a new experiment, that the
framers of our government should have applied
this principle with caution. The most sagacious
were uncertain whether -the executive, judicial
or legislative power might, under the trials of
time, prove a menace to human freedom. They
hedged about the election of a president with
an electoral college let he might become a king.
Their fears of the full operation of the sovereign
will were reflected in tho appointment and life
tenure of judges and. in the selection of sena
tors by the legislatures of the respective states.
To the efforts of the fathers is due the highest
meed of praise, but it should be recorded as our
shame if in a century and a quarter of practical
experience we had .not discovered methods of
reconstruction by which our institutions may be
made stronger and more durable.
New problems have arisen with new condi
tions. The giant development of wealth is the
new menace to the welfare of mankind. In the
process of uncontrolled development of wealth,
it appears clear that its distribution has rested
upon a basis jiot only false but dangerous. Indi
vidual fortunes which have not been equalled
even in the dreams of the past, now rear them
selves above our people, while more and more
the masses of- men are feeling their terrible
drain upon human resources. The vastness of
wealth and the vastness of poverty yawn alike
before us.
This is the great problem of the day and
patriots are as much needed for its solution by
peaceable and lawful methods as they were
needed in arms to throw off the rule of a
despotic monarch.
This centralizing" wealth has, decade after de
cade, strengthened its hold upon our govern
ment, the politics of the people, the press, the
pulpit, the bar, industry, commerce, finance, and
regulates indeed all the currents of our civiliza
tion. For this condition individuals can not be
made-responsible. Nd one manlike an Alexan
der, ttXDaeSar )or a Napoleon, has lifted this
mighty n sceptre 6fk wealth above the republic.
The Commoner.
The responsibility lies with the system rather
than with men, and our institutions must bo
searched, rather than human motives, for tho
ascertainment of tho structural defect.
The first essential fact which has fixed itself
intke public mind is that any class or clement
which possesses tho governing power will inevit
ably govern in its own interest. Tho second
essential fact is that monopoly has seized upon
all the branches of our government and is
operating them relentlessly for its own ends.
It is in itself a vindication of popular
sovereignty that while statesmen halt appalled
at the impending danger, tho people aro already
applying a specific remedy. This remedy is the
final and unqualified application of popular
sovereignty td our political, social and economic
institutions.
The so-called checks and balances against the
exercise of the popular will aro now one and
all under attack. So tremendous is this move
ment in our politics that it has invaded and
threatens to pllt in twain the party through
which organized wealth has fastened itself upon
our government.
There came a day when the heartlessness of
plutocracy was bearing down with cruel force
upon the people. Through control over the
measure of values the creditor class threatened
to absorb in hopeless bankruptcy tho debtors of
the nation who were tho main producers of its
wealth. As elsewhere in human history, tho
agony of suffering opened the eyes of men to
the truth, and a despairing people cried out
painfully for help.
In a political convention, which for tho first
time in a generation could not be bought, sold,
terrified or cajoled one of the greatest rovoiii;
tions in the annals of human liberty was opened.
Tho new order demanded new men, and as
the despairing Elsa in face of death called from
the skies her mighty champion, so now a dis
tressed republic did not appeal in vain for a
leader. Here, upon the plains of Nebraska, the
'champion was found, the manner of man needed
for such leadership as if divinely ordained; pure
of heart, masterful in intellect, his words winged
with inspiration, possessed of devotion incar
nate, a consecrated faith in human destiny and
the justice of God, he placed himself at tho
battle's front, and at that hour the stone sank
into the forehead of the Philistine.
I venture the assertion that in the annals of
liberty the 19th day of July, 1896, will not stand
second even to the 4th day of July, 1776; and
upon a like plane of human gratitude shall rest
the names of Jefferson and Bryan.
It is true, the declarations of that platform
were but the shadow of the reality to come, but
four new ideas were born that day which have
now attained their youth and are ripening into
manhood. First, that the control of tho mone
tary supply may bo the instrument of terrible
oppression; second, that the avenues of com
merce belong to the people; third, that delegate
bodies should not be entrusted with the election
of public officers; and, fourth, that all the de
partments of government should bo responsive
to the popular will.
Never In the history of politics has an axiomatic
principle been more brazenly denied than was
our assertion that the quantity of money de
termines the price level of commodities. The
falsity of this denial is now admitted even by
the journals of Wall street which point to the
increasing price level as the reflection of an in
creasing monetary supply. So blind are the
masters of finance to the development of popu
lar opinion that they are now even spending
money by the hundreds of thousands dollars to
convince the people that the bankers of the
country and not the government should control
the money of the people. But out of the teach
ings of 1896 we confront the so-called Aldrich
currency measure with the assertion that the
people and tho people alone, through their gov
ernment, must control tho volume of money.
The convention of 1896 gave life to the inter
state commerce law, until then a dead letter,
and it has now become an accepted policy of all
political factions, that the people themselves
shall dominate the avenues of commerce.
The third article of faith expounded at Chi
cago was the popular election of United States
senators. The people had seen this august body
converted from an aristocracy of intellect into
a headquarters of plutocracy. The corruption
of legislatures became the rule rather than the
exception and the people have seen plainly how
the hand of wealth can be laid with irresistible
force upon delegate bodies.
But it is upon the fourth issue that public
sentiment has most marvelously developed in tho
last fifteen years. There is one lesson which,
above all others, plutocracy has taught in its
press, at Its bar, in its universities, and from
its bench, namely, that tho judiciary, one of tho
throe departments of government, should bo
independent of tho popular will. I need not
recall with what wrath aud foaming at Uiq
mouth that plank in tho Chicago platform was
denounced which criticised a decision of tho
supreme court and intimated that means must
bo found to chango tho decision; tho reason of
it was that plutocracy relied upon tho bench as
its final entrenchment against popular attack,
and it must at all hazards suppress this first
insurrectionary utterance. Like Jack's bean
stalk, this idea has grown until it has become
tho settled conviction of a majority of our people
that the judiciary should not, any more than
tho other departments of government, bo beyond
the reach of tho sovereign will.
Upon these four Chicago declarations has been
based tho great popular movement for tho asser
tion of tho people's sovereignty. Tho party
which has for a half century placed our govern
ment at tho service of monopoly has been ponc
trated by tho wedge of theso ideas and a contin
gent of thoughtful, courageous and patriotic re
publicans has demanded tho acceptance of that
party of tho inevitable popular verdict.
LaFolletto Is as much the birth of the Chi
cago convention as was Bryan himself, for with
out Bryan, La Follotto and his rank of in
surgents would have been impossible; wo wel
come them as our off-spring. Nor would I dis
courage any man who proclaims our principles
and seeks their leadership. Yet it belongs to
us, who have forged theso political weapons, to
sound the motives of those who seize upon them
at the eleventh hour, when ambition finds them
needful.
Tacitus remarked with keen satlro upon a
distinguished Roman, "he would have been re
garded by all as fit to be emperor, if he had not
been emperor;" and we may be pardoned If
for our own party and for tho progressive ranks
of our opponents wo insist upon leaders who
need no apology for tho failures and errors of
their past.
Fundamentally we may say that the institu
tion which has broken down under tho inlluonco
of wealth in our republic is tho delegate system, .
and the entire march of progress is toward its
correction. It is this institution of which wealth
has possessed itself from the earliest to tho
latest stages. First, it has taken control of tho
party organizations; it has .created tho boss and
his lobbies; he it is who has dominated tho
caucus, controlled convention delegates, buying,
selling, intimidating and cajoling, while he has"
manipulated tho party machinery ruthlessly to
his ends. It has proven impossible to drive out
the gray wolves from either organization; henco
tho determined popular movement to replace
delegate conventions with tho direct primary
through which tho people shall have full power
over their nominations and elections.
The recreancy of tho party organization to Its
promises has become too evident. A democratic
senator of the United States has sneered at tho
binding nature of platform pledges; in the last
year four governors have denounced their stato
legislatures for refusal to redeem party pledges.
In Maine tho democratic party refused to enact
a direct primary law, which the people forth
with adopted under the power of the initiativo
by a vote of more than three to one; twice in
eight years by advisory votes of five to one and
three to one the voters of Illinois have demanded
of their legislature the initiative and referen
dum, and successive legislatures have" defied the
popular will.
These breaches of party faith and legislative
honesty have demonstrated the necessity for
direct control by the people of their politics,
legislation und public servants. Tho tool of
wealth is money; and we must speedily follow
our statutes against corrupt practices with tho
payment of all election expenses by the state and
the disqualification of all candidates who violate
tho election laws.
When popular sovereignty shall be realized
no public functionary will be invested with irre
vocable power. Legislatures will proceed as be
fore with the enactment of laws but subject to
popular veto. If they fail to respond to tho
public demand, the people will enact their own
laws at tho polls. Executive, administrative,
and judicial officers will be subject to the popu
lar will through tho exercise of the recall.
It was a gain to tho people when in England
the law judges were relieved from the dominion
of the king who held sovereign power. But in
this country the sovereign and the people aro
the same, and any department .of government
which is not subject to the popular will is a
device for minority government, an -aristocratic
-feature which must be cautiously and judictdusly
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