JT - -Hjnf-vaf'rW' "
WW'
The Commoner.
WILLIAM J. BRYAN, EDITOR AND PROPRIETOR
VOL. 13, NO. 27
Lincoln, Nebraska, July 11, 1913
Whole Number 651
jimfmtmirmt
An Announcement to Commoner Readers
Beginning August 15, Tho Commoner will ap
pear as a monthly publication this issue, July
11, being the last weekly issue of tho paper.
Mr. Bryan will not only continue his editorial
work on The Commoner, but under tho new
arrangement will be able to give his personal
attention to the preparation of a larger part of
the paper than he has been able to do for tho
weekly. It is believed that through this change
The Commoner will be made stronger and more
effective as an active, vfgilant supporter of tho
great work to vhich the. democratic party is con
secrated. Tho administration of Woodrow
Wilson is making history very rapidly,, and
readers of The Commoner will be able to
keep in close touch with the public discussion
of affairs.
In every possible way, within the limits of a
publication of this sort, improvement will bo
made. Now departments, instructive and en
tertaining, will be introduced from time to time,
and the readers will be kept informed as to the
efforts being put forth in every section of the
country in behalf of progressive government
municipal, state and national.
In editorials written by Mr. Bryan himself,
Tho Commoner will moot tho attacks of thoso
who are opposed to democratic reforms, and the
clover misrepresentations made by tho organs
of special interests. It will give timoly discus
sion of tho great questions of tho day and will
provide the missionaries in tho democratic field
with arguments with which to confound those
who would mislead well meaning men of ther
political parties.
Agriculture has come to bo of such absorbing
interest to all sorts of men and Is of ouch special'
interest to a large number of Commonor readers
that an up-to-date agricultural department will
bo added to Tho Commonor. This will bo pro
pared under the immediate supervision of an
editor well informed in modern agricultural
methods and thoroughly appreciative of tho
printed things demanded in this line.
Under the new arrangement The Commonor
page will be the same size as at presont but tho
number of pages will be increased from sixteen
to thirty-two.
Charlos W. Bryan, who has boon In charge
of Tho Commonor slnco Its establishment, will
continuo in direct control of tho papor and will
devote his tlmo and energies to tho papor'n im
provement. In Its initial number Tho Commoner printed
an editorial which concluded with this sontonco:
"Tho Commonor will bo satisfied if, by fidolity
to the common peoplo, it proves its right to tho
nnmo which has boon chosen." Regularly at
tho beginning of each now yoar Tho Commoner
has reproduced that sentence and, leaving to Its
renders tho judgment as to tho manner in which
it had fulfilled its mission, has consecrated its
efforts for tho now year to tho sacred causo
which it has tho honor, in part, to roprosont.
In this beginning- of a new nnd greater effort
for tho defense of tho public wolfaro in tho
present generation and for tho advancement of
tho causo of popular government for tho beno
fit of generations yet to come, Tho Com
monor renews its simple pledge of fidelity
to tho public interests through loyalty to great
principles.
"ft i
.-
.
The President at Gettysburg
"r
President Wilson mingled with tho veterans
on the field of Gettysburg and delivered an
address that will go into history among tho in
spiring public papers. It was peculiarly appro
priate that tho president who in 1913 is grap
pling with the elements antagonistic to popular
government, should use Mr. Lincoln's reference
to the unfinished task, applying the pathetic
appeal of the immortal address to present condi
tions. President Wilson's Gettysburg speech
should be read by every lover of free govern
ment. The Commoner suggests that every
school teacher in America read to his or her
pupils first President Lincoln's Gettysburg ad
dress, following the same with the splendid 'de
liverance of our present chief executive.
Referring to the president at Gettysburg, the
United Press report says: The president made
the trip from Washington to this town by train.
As he stepped from his car ho was greeted by
a presidential salute from the regular army bat
tery parked on the battlefield, and mingled
cheers and rebel yells from tho blue and gray
garbed veterans who had thronged to tho sta
tion to greet him. An escort of cavalry was
waiting to convey tho car with the president and
his party to tho big tent just off the Emmetts
burg road on tho battlefield where tho formal
exercises were scheduled to commence at 11
o'clock.
Many of the old soldiers had planned to leave
yesterday but remained over to greet the na
tion's head, and the reception accorded Presi
dent Wilson was a fitting climax to a week of
tears and cheers. The southern soldiers ac
cepted him him as one of tho family and tho
northern veterans outdid themselves in an effort
to demonstrate how deeply they appreciated the
end of sectionalism as typified by a native Vir
ginian at tho helm of tho ship of state. From
the moment the executive alighted from the train
he was tho center of wild enthusiasm.
Today's event was really in the nature of an
added attraction. So far as the regular pro
gram was concerned it ended last night and the
only set fixture today was the president's ad
dress. The camp was opened today at daylight
when the veterans were routed from their cots
by the stirring strains of Dixie, Yankee Doodle,
and other war-time tunes played by tho mili
tary band which traversed tho various company
streets. There was a quick turning out of. all
hands. There were farewells to be said and a
last exchange of greetings and shaking of hands
at the big point of interest on tho battlefield.
The band concert was followed by the shrill
notes of the fife and tho roll of drums as tho
veterans brought their old-time instruments into
play, and for three hours there was general jubi
lation. Then all hands started for tho big tent
to greet tho president.
The president's address:
"Friends and fellow citizens: I need not toll
you what the battle of Gettysburg meant. Theso
gallant men in blue and gray sit all about us
here. Many of them met here upon this ground
in grim and deadly struggle. Upon theso famous
fields and hillsides their comrades died about
them. In their presence it were an impertinence
to discourse upon how tho battle went, how it
ended, what it signified! But fifty years have
gono since then, and I crave tho privilege of
speaking to you for a few minutes of what
thoso fifty years havo meant.
"What have they meant? They havo meant
peace and union and vigor, and tho maturity
and might of a great nation. How wholesome
and healing the peace has been! Wo have found
one another again as brothers and comrades In
arms, enemies no longer, generous friends
rather, our battles long past, tho quarrel forgot
ten except that we shall not forget the splendid
valor, tho manly devotion of tho men then ar
rayed against ono another, now grasping hands
and smiling Into each other's eyes. How com
plete tho union has becomo and how dear to ull
of us, how unquestioned, how benign and ma
jestic, as state after state has been added to
this our great family of free men! How hand
some the vigor, the maturity, the might of tho
great nation we love with undivided hearts;
how full of large and confident promise that
a life be wrought out that will crown its
strength with gracious justice and with a happy
welfare that will touch all alike with deep con
tentment! Wo aro debtors to . those fifty
crowded years; they have made us heirs to a
mighty heritage,
"But do we deem tho nation complete and
finished? Thea,e vonorablo men crowding bora
to this famous field havo Bet us a groat oxample
of devotion and utter sacrifice. They wore will
ing to die that the people might livo. But their
task Is done. Their day is turned into evening.
They look to us to perfect what they established.
Their work Is handed on to us, to bo done in
another way but not in another spirit. Our day
is not over; it is upon us in full tide.
"Havo affairs paused? Does the nation stand
still? Is what tho fifty, years havo wrought since
those days of battlo finished, rounded out, and
completed? Hero is a great people, great with
every force that has ever beaten in tho llfeblood
of mankind. And it Is secure. There is no one
within Its borders, there is no power among the
nations of the earth, to mako It afraid. But has
it yet squared Itself with Its own great stand
ards set up at Its birth, when it made that first
noble, naive appeal to the moral judgment of
mankind to tako notice that a government had
now at last boon established which was to servo
men, not masters? Is It secure In everything
except tho satisfaction that its Ufo Is right, ad
justed to the uttermost to tho standards of
righteousness and humanity. Tho days of sac
rifice and cleansing aro not closed. Wo havo
harder things to do than were done In tho heroic
days of war, because harder to see clearly, rti
qulrlng more vision, more calm balance of Judg
ment, a more candid searching of tho very
springs of right.
"Look around you upon tho field of Gettys
burg! Picture the array, the fierce heats and
agony of battlo, column hurled against column,
battery bellowing to battery! Valor? Yes!
Greater no man shall see In war; and self-sacrifice,
and loss to the uttermost; tho high reck
lessness of exalted devotion which does not
count the cost. We aro made by these tragic,
epic things to know what it costs to mako a na
tion tho blood and sacrifice of multitudes of
unknown men lifted to a great stature In the
view of all generations by knowing no limit to
their manly willingness to servo. In armies thus
marshaled from tho ranks of free men you will
see, as it were, a nation embattled, tho leaders
and the led, and may know, If you will, how little
k
m
i
ti
1
II
XI
l
1
jii&!BLsiM,' wa-jd v?
