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About The commoner. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-1923 | View Entire Issue (March 28, 1913)
i Wr 1 MARCH 28, 1913 is a source of great embarrassment to me that I am not able to return what they have given. "I am not hounded by fear of impending issues, but by the fear that I can not give every deserving man an ofllce. If all of you could be cabinet officers It would be none too much. The number of recent applications for positions has shown me how willing the democrats are to make whatever sacrifice is necessary in order that they may serve their country. If any of you think that I am disappointed by the elec tion of another to the White House, let me tell you that I am glad to give him the opportunity to disappoint so many friends in dealing out the offices. I hope you will be as generous when you get left as when you had no chance to get loft. If you were cheerful in the hour of de feat, let no gloom settle upon you in the hour of victory. The administration of Wilson will bo so satisfactory that you won't miss such a little thing as an office. "I am not here to mako a speech My thoughts turn not to the future but to the past. In the aUdience before me I see faces that greeted me whenever I returned from other lands or other states I am so filled with ap preciation of my affection for theso long-standing friends that I can not make an address to night. All I can say is that I thank you. You have made life a pleasant dream to me, so pleasant and delightful that I-look forward to the future with the belief that my happiness will be all the greater as the years roll by. "It took a good while here In Lincoln. For years I was twitted by the fact that while I could win other cities I couldn't carry my own. Now I can challenge any other man to equal my record in my home town. You have made resi dence here pleasant to my partner in life as well as to me. For this I thank you. "As far as we have gone the new administra tion has measured up to expectations. The new president seeks light from every source, and having received that light he dares to tako a sand. He follows a philosophy that is bound to act for the welfare of his nation and for all mankind. The cabinet is a most harmonious body. It is not only congenial but delightful and inspiring to commune together with our chief executive. His purpose has grown as de mocracy has led the progressive thought of the nation. " He is 'consecrated to restore the gov ernment to the people, to bring back the spirit of our forefathers. He can not fail. The senti ment of the nation is behind him; the sentiment of the world is with him. Democracy's tri umph is a part of the world's forward move ment. It wasn't by accident that Dunne was victorious in Illinois. It wasn't by chance that Hodges carried Kansas. It wasn't by mere good fortune that Sulzer was triumphant in New York. The people chose these men because of a quickened conscience everywhere, of a moral awakening on every hand. They are the crea tures of a great uprising. "I thank God that He has given me the chance to live in such a time. Some look back to other eras and wish that they might have existed then. But no age in all history is as golden as this. "I believe the mission of Woodrow Wilson's administration is to call this nation back and start it again along new and permanent lines. Before his coming the plutocrats and selfish Interests had secured possession of the instru mentalities of government. The people were mocked when they cried out for Telief. But the people called for a man who could lead them out of this oppression; Standing before the Ameri can people, Woodtow Wilson called them as did Jeans Christ call Lazarus, 'Come forth from this grave! "It is a privilege to be associated with him. I will bo content if when his work is done he will be able to say that he had on near him, one who stood by him and one who was ready at all times to go and meet his foes. There will be glory enough for all. "I do not know what my placo in history will be. But I want it said when I am gone that in whatever opportunity I had I tried to make the government a people's government, responsive to the people's will and guardian of the people's welfare. If these good people of Lincoln and Nebraska will just think that from their closo observation they can testify that I never lowered the flag, that I never counseled surrender, that .will be enough." IN THE COMMONER OFFICE While Mr. Bryan was in Lincoln ho greeted the employes of The Commoner whom he had not had a chance to meet since last November. 'After expressing his gratification that the bust- The Commoner. Hess in the office had been running along so smoothly during his absence, he said: "You may note a change in the tone of the paper since your connection with it . It has been Us duty to comment on the administration and often that comment has boon unfavorable. I am sure that the change is pleasing to you, and I can assure you that as far as I have boon able to understand the purposes of the adminis tration they are entirely deserving of commendation." JUIYAX IN NEBRASKA Columbia (S. C.) State: William Jennings Bryan will bo fifty-three years old next Wednes day and he is today traveling from Washington to Lincoln, whero his fellow citizens of his homo town will celebrate that event by giving a ban quet in his honor. It must be a bitter opponent who can con template this return of Mr. Bryan to Nebraska without some sense of his right to well-earned gratification. For sixteen and a half years Mb career has been most remarkable; his experi ences in. success and in defeats and in unofficial public sorvico, have been unique in Amorican higtory. In those years he has been target for tho bitterest assaults from within and without the party; from within and without his own state the most misjudged and misrepresented man In America. That he has lived through that long period of injustices and disappoint ments and become more mellow, more tolerant, more just and oven-tempered is due, perhaps, chiefly to two causes, one being that he was constantly a volunteer In tho peoples' service, and the other helng his con sciousness that despito the burden of assault from ono side ho was the most beloved man in the country. Because a prophet is not without honor save In his own country it Is doubly gratifying to feel the warmth of the estedm of the folk at home, and so we may Imagine Mr. Bryan, hold ing the highest office in the administration next to the president, and holding it because of In herent strength and with the hearty indorse ment of millions of people, finds pleasure in golhg to Nebraska on this festive occasion. Ne braska has not always supported him, and yet tho world has come to be familiar with Ne braska through the Nebraskan. A great state in material things, doubtless, but in the east, in the south, in the 'far west, and across tho seas, when Nebraska is named it but takos the mind toBryan. Nebraska can not do him too much honor, and ho may bo assured that on Wednesday a multitude of South Carolinians will join in wishing him a long life for continued and great service to his people. SULZER IS THE GOVERNOR The Associated Press dispatches declare that there has been an open break between Governor Sulzor and Charles F. Murphy, leader of Tam many Hall "A close adviser" of thp governor - has given to the Associated Press the following statement: "Why is all the governor's legislation being held up? Bills which were advancing rapidly early In February are now weeks behind. Hero is the answer: The Tammany leader has given specific instructions to every legislator he con trols. Ho may use all the instruments In his power, but ho will not be able to dictate to the governor. Mr. Sulzer is determined to get his program of constructive legislation through, even- if It is necessary to call an extraordinary session of the legislature." The friends of William Sulzer expect him to be the governor of New York. Governor Sulzer need not fear tho results of breaking with any influence with which or whom the pub lic welfare is not the first consideration. There is no power among men sufficient to do Injury to the public servant who stands at all times for the public interests and defies the enemies of the public welfare. GENERAL CONGRATULATIONS Champ Clark is sixty-three years old. Sup pose we intrude upon a minute of his solitude and look back over it all as candidly as the man himself. So near we are to a black shaft of disappointment that its shadow darkens our re viewing post But elsewiso the retrospect is fair. It runs back, a straight white road, through teeming spaces and crowded events; back through the press of personages and con spicuous occasions; back through tumultuous applause and gales of laughter; back through minor periods less vivid in tone but rich in promise; back, further back, through the start ing days and tho closer friendships of tho real beginnings; back yet back to tho cap and gowA, of academic authority and, beyond, tho class room victories won by studious hours that sweat the soul; and still further back the days of burn ing labor in tho fields, the dreams and tho sot purposo and denial which made tho dreams come true. For the dreams have come true. Placo has beon won and power has boon earnestly wielded. Tho respoct, confldenro and affection of a nation thoso are the gifts with which the sovereign sentiment of tho people dower Champ Clark at .the sixty-third milestone of tho straight white road. Tho Republic is proud to congratulato him. St. Louis Ropublic. INDISCRETIONS "BLAZING" AND OTHER In its issuo of Tuesday, March 18th, tho Now York Evening Post prints, undor the headline "Indiscrotions, 'Blazing and Other," the fol lowing editorial: The Comic Spirit, wo think, must find ma terial in tho outcry of tho tory press In London over Mr. Bryan's "indiscreet" speech on St. Patrick's day. He congratulated his hearers on tho bright prospects of home rule for Ireland, and made some remarks about tho speedy disap pearance of "the hereditary prlnclplo" in gov ernment. For this he is severely takon to task by the Morning Post. It declares that his speech will bo regarded with "keen resentment" In England, and accuses him of want both of tact and propriety as a responsible cabinet member. To clinch tills, point, the Morning Post says: "We should very much like to know what Mr. Bryan would havo said If at tho time of his last defeat for the presidency the English secretary of state for foreign affairs had publicly ex pressed his gratification that the people of the United States had crushed tho pretensions of a dangerous demagogue." Well, the joko of this is that an English foreign minister onco did precisely that ex cept that It was on the occasion of Bryan's first defeat. Ho was beaten for tho presidency on November 3, 189C. On November 9, following, Lord Salisbury made a speech at tho Guildhall, in which, after referring to the presence of Am bassador Bayard, he said: "Though contrary to practice ,to remark upon the Internal politics of other states, J may bo permitted without im pertinence to congratulato him upon tho splen did pronouncement tho great people he repre sents have made in behalf of the principles which lie at the base of all human society." Not simply, observe, that Bryan had advocated financial whimsies; ho had attacked tho basal principles of society. Yet the Morning Post, so soon forgetting its former political chief, puts It as the extreme of impossibility that an English foreign minister should have spoken of Bryan as "a dangerous demagogue." But Lord Salis bury did Just that. Rebukes from Englishmen on the score of un tactful utterances by foreign ministers are, lu fact, enough to make laughter hold both his sides. The very term "blazing Indiscretion" was "Invented to apply to Lord Salisbury's mal adroit deliverances. He once spoke publicly of Spain as a "dying" nation. This, however, was before an English princess had married tho Spanish king! But long before Salisbury, the tradition of Imprudence, not to say insolence, on tho part of foreign secretaries and other re sponsible statesmen In England, in their public allusions to tho affairs of other nations, had become well established. Canning, Palinerston, Russell, Disraeli why, If Mr. Bryan were look ing for precedents, he could find them by the score in English annals. Even Gladstone onco made an attack upon the government of Austria, for which he had afterwards to apologize. In deed, this readiness of English statesmen to lecture other countries, and the public men of other nations, has been commented upon by one of themselves. "England," wroto Lord Rose bery, "has always assumed the possession of a European censorship, which impels her to ad minister exhortation and rebuke to the states of tho continent." Mr. Bryant Selected Speeches. Revised and arranged in a convenient two-volume edition. These books present Mr. Bryan's' most notable addresses and orations, and cover tho chief important phases and features of his career as an orator and advocate. A familiarly Intimate and interesting biographical introduction by Mary Balrd Bryan, his wife, opens Volume I. Tho two volumes, bound in cloth, sent to any address prepaid on receipt of price, $2.00. The .half leather edition, 2 vols., sent for $3.00, prepaid. Address The Commoner, Lincoln, Neb, rtl I ? W j Jt . t -r -i . '
