'''(llPWf!''
The Commoner
VOL. 16, NO. 6
16
u.
Mr. Bryan's St. Louis Speech
From tho St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Juno 10.
Tho nppsarnr.co of William J. Drynn in the
hall at tho national convention last night was
tho signal for a spontaneous a:ul hearty greet
ing from tho democrats that did" not subside
until tho Ncbraslcan had been escorted to tho
platform for a speech. Bryan was late getting
Into tho hall because of tho congestion at tho
doors, but scarcely had ho appeared at the back
of tho press box when the demonstration began.
As his familiar flguro moved forward, the
cheers redoubled. Tho galleries began to cry,
"Bryan! Bryan!" and tho delegates and alter
nates took it up, many springing to their feet
and waving hats and canes as they yelled.
From all parts of tho hall came cries of
"speech!" Chairman James restored order for
tho opening prayor but scarcely had tho amen
boon uttor,ed when there were ronewod cries of
"Bryan." Chairman James recognized Senator
Thompson of Kansas, who moved that the rules
bo suspended and Mr. Bryan bo invited to speak.
Tho motion was wildly cheered and a roar of
"ayo!" signified that it was carried, although
thoro woro scattering "noes."
Tho crowd continued cheering as a special
committeo, headod by Senator Kern of Indiana,
oscorted tho Nebraskan to tho stand. It was
fiovoral minutes boforo tho clamor could be quiet
ed. His speech lasted forty-five minutes.
Text of Mr. Bryan's Address
Mr. Bryan spoke as follows:
Delogatos of tho convention, ladies and gen
tlemen: I approciato tho honor that this convention
does mo in pormitting mo to say a word to the
delegates and guests assembled. Every demo
cratic national convention is to me a lovo feast.
It gives mo an opportunity to meet and renew
acquaintance with tho mon with whom I have
boon intimately associated In politics for now
more than twenty years. And appearing before
you tonight, my mind runs back to tho campaign
of 189G, and to tho faces indelibly impressed
upon my memory in thoso trying times. It was
then that I became acquainted with the leaders
of that mighty host of democracy, whose sup
port in throo compaigns I value more than I
could valuo any ofllce in the world.
It was thon that I learned to know the dis
tinguished gentleman who presided as tempor
ary chairman of this convention. Ho gave to
that campaign tho youthful vigor of a man of
promise, and it has been a joy to mo to con
tinuo that acquaintance so happily begun.
I learned to know twenty years ago the dis
tinguished gentleman who presides as the per
manent chairman of tho convention. He was
thon entering public life as a young man, and
ms is ono of tho faces I shall nover forget as
I saw it in that convention at Chicago.
It was twenty years ago that I learned to ap
prociato tho wisdom and the statesmanship of
tho distinguished senator from Missouri who is
tho chairman of your resolutions committee.
And so I might go on enumerating tho names
of theso mon with whom I was then associated,
whoso acquaintance I have prized, and whoso
confidence has awakened a sense of deepest grat
itude in my heart.
After sixteen years of struggle together wo
won a notable victory. After sixteen years of
waiting our party entered the White house and
fortunately, we won the senate and tho house at
tho samo time. Our party became responsible
for the administration of tho national govern
ment. It was in solo control of executive and
legislative departments, and now wo come af
ter throe years of labor, to take account of' our
Hock, tp make our plans for the future and to
iubmlt to tho American people the claims of
our party to continued confidence.
If I havo not mistaken tho sentiment of this
conTention it is different from tho convention
that I recently attfitiflofl in n T,ti.vi :zr
Our people meet today feeling that they havo
arned and should havo tho continued confidence
of the American people.
Whatever differences of opinion may exist, or
SSiiSK f?Sted' RS ? PartIcu1 measures or
?K JE51 woar.e hero t0 begin tn0 fieht of
s& rrnbauirty In every stat in the on
The democratic party encourages independent
thought among its members. If they all thought
alike it would be proof conclusive that they did
not think at all.
Parties exist becauso parties emphasize the
points of difference. Harmony exists in parties
because tho members emphasize tho points of
agreement rather than tho points of difference.
And, as in this nation, the things that the whole
people hold in common are more numerous and
more important than tho things on which they
differ, so in parties men act together when the
things upon which they agree are more numer
ous or more important than the things upon
which they differ. Today thoso who stand for
the democratic party are able to go before this
nation and not only give a reason for the faith
that is in them, but they can defend the admin
istration's claims to the confidence of the people.
In dealing with tho domestic problems, our
President, our senate and our house have joined
together in giving tho country a program of
constructive legislation that has no parallel in
all the history of this country.
You may take all the administration from the
beginning of our history as a republic to the
beginning of the present one, and you will not
find as many laws written upon the statute
' books, of great importance to the people as you
will find written in the last three years by
Woodrow Wilson and a democratic congress.
Wo found the republican party in power, with
a tariff law written by tho beneficiaries of pro
tection. The President called congress together
as soon as it could be assembled. He presented
tho pledge of our platform to reduce the tariff,
and the members of our party, co-operatiijg as
the President and congress have seldom co-op-orated
before, redeemed the pledge and wrote
upon the statute books the best tariff law that
we have had in this country in 60 years.
It has taken away tho power of the trusts to
exploit the American people. It. has done jus
tice to the consumers of the country, without
doing injustice to any of the producers who havo
relied upon the favors granted by tho republican
party. And, as a part of that tariff law, the
country now enjoys an income tax that has re
lieved those who have borne an unfair share
of tho burden and placed it upon those whose
incomes properly justified it, and who have
heretofore escaped their share of the expense of
tho government.
As soon as the tariff question had been set
tled the President asked congress to give con
sideration to the question of currency reform
For twenty years tho republican party had ad
vocated currency reform. It had admitted tho
need of currency reform, but it never had the
courage to undertake currency reform
itnTiiLdemCratIc larty' true t0 lts Promise and
1 m d5e ?rG?arld a M11 and that bill is now
inVw ? k?,to the courage of a President who
was not afraid of Wall street.
No president since Jackson has had to meet
such an unholy combination of the power? of
S51 traii?e' J nd GVen Jacks himselT never
has met 1 1 wTf ?an Woodrow w
S.n ! . We have just commenced to learn
Tnrln1 1aW me,ans for thls tion. Even b
to Sav th? ? la7 We learnea what meaS
tohave the White house on the side of the peo-
of this proposed leSff5 wLnTi'
dence, as it came in from different serHnm f of I
country, was sufficient, the secretarv nf
treasury went to the White hoSe-in t th!
to call your attention to the facTnfi, Want
to the WHITE HOUSE and I not to S J1? Went
Wall street as republican secretaries W! i"8 ?f
the habit of AoMnhZ?em !n
with the Executive he gave fa sto temSS f e?.Ce
public announcing that i : fti?v n J the
where needed moley to t L ?t ove??Ity any"
embarrassmont, it need not tn W
but could come to Washingtof thatTh?,8'
ZtX a11 the "Eys
folded its tent like the Arab and aiwlfr I
ESTtf sInce that -" JS5SS Zl
tion, has not only broken tho hold of Wall strnnt
upon the business of tho nation, hut it h
broken tho grip of Wall street upon the doHHpS
of the United States. For twenty years E
had not been an election but what a hundrori
men in Wall street could, by the coercion thev
had in their power, change the result of the
election. And, ono who, like myself has felt
their power, must be pardoned if he rejoices
that we have an administration that has broken
that power and set a nation free.
That currency law restored to the government
the sovereign right to issue the paper money of
the country. Tho banking institutions had
filched that power from the government, and
having learned the value of its use they claimed
it as a vested privilege. But the democratic
party, acting through a democratic President, a
democratic senate and a democratic house, has
restored to the government the power that had
been taken from it. It is one of the victories
of this administration.
When the work was completed along this
line the President invited congress to a third
task, the task of putting the ax to the root of
the tree of private monopoly. The republican
party and the progressive party had talked of
regulating monopolies, but instead of regulating
them they allowed the men who furnished their
campaign funds to regulate the regulators of
monopoly, and the trusts grew, and grew and
grew.
But, when President Wilson sent his message
to congress he planted himself upon the demo
cratic doctrine, proclaimed in four campaigns,
that a private monopoly is indefensible and in
tolerable. Here are three great measures, measures car
rying out the promises of a democratic platform,
and these three great measures constitute a
record of achievement which the republican party
dare not attack.
In their indictment of our party they did not
dare to mention three of the four measures that
characterize the economic policy of this" admin
istration. Did you see in their platform any
denunciation of the currency law? No. They
have not the courage to either admit its value
or condemn the law. They cowardly evade the
issue, but what they can do at Chicago is one
thing; what they can do before the country is
an entirely different thing.
The electorate before which, the republican
party must now go is not controlled as the con
vention at Chicago was by the expert represent
atives of the favor-seeking corporations. They
must meet the issue, and if they can not find
fault with our currency law they must admit
that the democratic party that they used to rid
icule has both the intelligence and the courage
to do what they, either from lack of knowledge
. or lack of courage, failed to do.
Did they condentn the income tax at Chicago?
No; and they will have the people to settle with
if they dare go before them and propose to undo
what the democratic party has done, and put
back upon their bended backs the load they car
ried, and would carry still, if the republican
party had remained in power. It never would
have broken their bondage, but now they are
free. They dare not put it back. We dare them
to propose to put it back!
They either did not know how to rid the
country of the burden of private monopoly, or,
if they knew, they did not dare to put their
knowledge into effect. Why don't they de
nounce our anti-trust legislation? They must
either go before the country and point out the
defects of these anti-trust laws, or they must
admit before the voters that our party dared
to do what they did not dare to undertake.
These' are some of the things that they have
not challenged and that they, will not challenge.
They talk about the tariff. Yes, but it is a
matter of habit. It is momentum that keeps
high tariff going. The astronomers tell us that
some stars are so far away that iMhey ceased to
shine the world would not find it out for cen
turies afterwards; so the republicans-had given
to the advocacy of a high tariff a momentum
that will carry the doctrine on after it is dead as
an issue. What we now see is not new power
that is added, it is the dying power that was put
into it before the people secured tariff reform.
But there is one argument that they used to
make that they can make no longer. Banking
upon lack of information among their voters,
they used to accuse the democrats of bringing
panics when they were in power. They over
looked the fact that of the three panics that
have come since the republican party came into
'h,