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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
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