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
