r .'' : "n The Commoner WILLIAM J. BRYAN, EDITOR AND PROPRIETOR ' ' -- -- ----- , , ,,!,,, linn b.wwiiiiiiiii riiir-irt-nrrmn ,"'IBEB'llaaai,Hi VOL 16,SN0. 9 Lincoln, Nebraska, September, 1916 Whole Number 689 President Wilson Reviews His Administration Full Text of President Wilson's Speech of Acceptance, Shadow Lawn, Long Branch, N. J., Saturday, Sept. 2, 1916 Senator James, Gentlemen of the Notification Committee, Fellow Citizens: I can not accept the leadership and responsibility which the na tional democratic convention has again, in such generous fashion, asked me to accept without first expressing my profound gratitude to the party for the trust it reposes in me after four years of fiery trial in the midst of affairs of unprecedented diiliculty, and the keen sense of added responsibility with which this honor fills (I had almost said burdens) me as I think of the great issues of national life and policy in volved in the present and immediate future con duct of our government. I shall seek, as I have always sought, to justify the extraordinary con fidence thus reposed in met by striving to purge my .hear fc and ufcppse.'pf every, pergonal" and to f every misleading party mfottVe-a'n'd" devoting every energyhypthe service of the. nation as a whole, priiyTng'that'l may continue to liave the counsel and support of all forward-looking men at every turn of. the difficult business. For I do not doubt that the people of the United States will wish the democratic party to continue. in control of the government. They are not in the habit of rejecting those who have actually served them for those who are making doubtful and .conjectural promises of service. Least of all are they likely to substitute those who promised to'rendejf them particular services and proved false to that promise for "those who have actually rendered those very services. ' 0 DEMOCRATIC: PARTY HAS FULFILLED ITS EXPLICIT PROMISES Boasting is always an empty business, which pleases nobody but the boaster, and I have no disposition to boast of what the democratic party has accomplished. It has merely done its duty. It has merely fulfilled its explicit prom ises. But there can be no violation of good taste in calling attention to the manner in which those promises have been carried out Or in ad verting to the interesting fact that many of the things accomplished-were what tlfte opposition party had again and again promised to do but had left undone. Indeed that is manifestly part of the business of this year of reckoning and assessment. There is no means of judging the future except by assessing the past. Construc tive action must be weighed against destructive comment and reaction. The democrats 'either have or have not understoddthe varied inter ests of the country. The tes&ifeicontained in the .t ', record. V 10 PRESIDENT WILSON OFFICIALLY NOTIFIED a Woodrow Wilson received official notl- fication of his renomination by the dem- ocratic party for the presidency of the United States at his summer home, "Shadow Lawn," Long Branch, N. J., Saturday, September 2. The ceremonies attending the notifica- tion were witnessed by a crowd that numbered not less than 20,000 and rep- resented every state in the union. President Wilson was conducted to the speaker's stand by Vance C. Mc- Cprmick, chairman of the national demo- cratic committee; Senator Ollie James and Governor Fielder of New Jersey. , Senator Ollie 'James made the speech ' of rinHflpntlnn niitHnintr the flClliOVO- fments of the administration and ending . .with the words, "and may God" who;; CD hlesRGH the neacemakor KUide you to a w glorious victory in November." President Wilson's speech of accept ance, will be found in fiill bh this and pages 10 and 11.' 0 0 0 0 ) 0(2) ' ' kinds, but consistent in principle throughout and susceptible of Tirlef recital. The republican party was put out of power because of failure, practical failure and moral failure; because it had served special interests and not the country at large; because, under the leadership of its preferred and established guides, of those who still make its choices, it had lost touch with the thoughts and the needs of the nation and was living in a past age and under a fixed illusion, the illusion of greatness. It had framed tariff laws based upon a fear of foreign trade, a fundamental doubt as to Amer ican skill, enterprise, and capacity, and a very CONTENTS r What is that record? Vtfaf. ' were the demo crats called into power tofvVhat things had long waited to be done, !amffo?yf(did the demo-'i crats do them? -.It is a ?lcVdofextraordinary ' length and variety, rich in elements of many PRESIDENT WILSON REVIEWS HIS ADMINISTRATION A RECORD WITHOUT A PARALLEL BRING OUT THE RURAL VOTE LIBELLING THE PRINCE OF PEACE PRESIDENT SCORES REACTIONARY REPUBLICANS THE DIXON LIBEL ALL THE PRESUMPTIONS FAVOR WOMAN' SUFFRAGE PRESIDENT DEFENDS MEXICAN POLICY -MR BRYAN AND THE PROMISE OF ' PHILIPPINE INDEPENDENCE LWHAT THE ADMINISTRATION HAS... i; DONE FOR THtf FARMER . . tender regard for the profitable privileges oC those who had gained control of domestic mark ets and domestic credits; and yet had enacted anti-trust laws which hampered the very things they meant to foster, which were stilt and in elastic, and in part, unintelligible. It had per mitted tho country throughout tho long pe riod of its control to stagger from ono financial crisis to another under the operation of a na tional banking law of its own framing which made stringency and panic certain and the con trol of the larger business operations of tho country by the bankers of a few reservo centres inevitable; had made as If it meant to reform, tho law but had faint-heartedly failed in tho attempt, becauso it could not bring itself to do the one tiling necessary to make tho reform genuine and effectual, namely, break litf the con trol of small groups of bankers. It had been oblivious, or indifferent, to the fact that the. farmers, upon whom the country, depends for its food and in tho last analysis for ite prosperity, were without standing in the matter of coramerr cial credit, without tho protection of standards in their market transactions, aud without sys tematic knowledge of the markets themselves; that the laborers of tho country, the great army of men who man the industries it was professing to father and promote, carried their labors as a mere commodity to market, were subject to re straint by novel and drastic process In tho courts, were without assurance of compensation for industrial accidents, without federal assist ance In accommodating labor disputes, and with out national aid or advice In finding tho places and the industries in which their labor wag mpst needed. The country had no national sys tem of road construction and development. Lit tle intelligent attention was paid to the army, and not onough to the navy. Tho other repub lics of America distrusted us, because they found that we thought ' first of the profits of AmericAn investors and only as an afterthought of impartial justice and helpful friendship. Its policy was provincial in all things; its purposes were out of harmony with the temper and pur pose of the people and the timely development of the nation's Interests. AMERICAN BUSINESS, LIFE AND INDUSTRY HAVE BEEN SET FREE So things stood when the democratic party came Into power. How do they stand now? Alike in the domestic field and in the wife field of the commerce of the world, American busi ness and life and industry have been set free to move as they never moved before. The tariff has been revised, not on tlfe prin ciple of repelling foreign trade, but ujym the principle of encouraging it, upon something Uk: (Continued on Page Ten.) - ', - i i , . A. .' , ! s ? L ft f?m i