The Commoner
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VOL. 16, ,0 u
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that can sco. Illicit sales in dark alloy, if
thero bo somo under prohibition, aro not as
great a menace as the open saloon which, plant
ing itself on a principal street arid boasting that
it is a legitimate business, sends out its agents
to bring in now recruits to take the place of the
drunkards it kills off.
(From Prohibition Campaign Speech, 1916.)
EQUAL SUFFRAGE
THE MOTHER ARGUMENT
The strongest argument In favor of woman
suffrage is the mother argument. I lovo my
children as much, I think, as a father can; but
I am not in the same class with my wife. I do
not put any father in the same class with the
mother in lovo for the child. If you would know
why the mother's lovo for a child is .the sweetest,
tondorest, most lasting thing in the world, you
will find the explanation in the Bible: "Where
your treasures aro there will your heart be also."
The child is the treasure of the mother; she
Invests her life in her child. When the mother
of tho Grace! was asked: "Where are your
jewels?" she pointed to her sons. The mother's
life trembles in tho balance at the child's birth,
and, for years it Is the object of her constant
care. She expends' upon it her nervous force
and energy; she endows it, with the wealth of
her love. She dreams of what it is to. do and
be and, 0, If H mothers dreams only came
true, what a different world this world would
bo. The most pathetic struggle that this earth
knows is not tho struggle between armed men
upon tho battlefield; it 1s tho struggle of a
mother to save her child when wicked men set
traps for it and lay snares for it. And as long
as tho ballot is given to thosd who conspire to
rob tho homo of a child it is not fair no one
can believe it fair to tie a mother's hands
while she is: trying to protect her home and save
her child. It there is such a thing as justice,
surely -a mother has a just claim to a Voice in
shaping tho environment that may determine
whother her child will realize her hopes or
bring hor gray hairs in sorrow to the grave.
Because God has planted In very human
heart a sense of justice, and because the mother
argument makes an irresistible appeal to this
universal sense, it will finally batter down all
opposition and open woman's pathway to the
polls.
AT CONVENTIONS
CHICAGO CONVENTION
: . ; fri
THE ARMOR OF RIGHTEOUSNESS
I would be presumptuous, indeed, to present
myself against the distinguished gentlemen to
, whom you have listened if this were a mere
measuring of abilities; but this is not a contest
between persons. The humblest citizen in all
the land, when clad in the armor pf a righteous
, cause, Is stronger than all the hosts of error. , I
. come to speak to you in defense of i a cause.as
holy as the cause of liberty the cause of hu-
' ,. inanity.
.(From Chicago Convention Speech, 189U.,)
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DEFINITION OF A BUSINESS ,.-MAN
tho few financial magnate who, in a back room,
corner the money of tho world. We come to
speak for this larger class of business men.
(From Chicago Convention Speech, 1896.)
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THE PIONEERS OF THE WEST
Ah, my friends, we say not one word against
those who live upon the Atlantic coast, but "tho
hardy pioneers who have braved all the dangers
of tho wilderness, who have made the desert to
blossom as the rose the pioneers away out
there (pointing to the west), who rear then
children near to Nature's heart, where they can
mingle their voices with the voices of the birds
out there where they have erected school
houses for tho education of their young,
churches where they praise their Creator, and
cemeteries whero rest the ashes of their dead
these people, we say, are as deserving of the
consideration of our party as any people in this
country. It is for these that we speak.
(From Chicago Convention Speech, 1896.)
THE CHALLENGE
We dp not come as aggressors. Our. war is
not a war of conquest; we'are fighting in" the
defense of our homes, our families, and jjoster
ity. We have petitioned, and our petitions have
been scorned; we have entreated, and our en
treaties have been disregarded; we have begged,
and they have mocked when our calamity came.
We: beg no longer; we entreat no mqr6; we pe
tition no more. We defy them. "
. (From Chicago Convention Speech, 1896.)..
CROWN OF THORNS; CROSS OF GOLD
My friends, we declare that this nation is able
to legislate for its own people on every question,
without waiting for the aid or consent of any
other nation on earth; and upon that issue we
expect to carry every state in the Union. I shall
not slander the inhabitants of the fair state of
Massachusetts nor the inhabitants of the state
of New York by saying that, when they are con
fronted with the proposition, they will declare
that, this nation is not able to attend to its own
business. It is the issue of 177.6 over again.
Our ancestors, when but three millions in num
ber, had the courage to declare their political
independence of every other nation; shall we,
their descendants, when we have grown to sev
enty millions, declare that we are less independ
ent than our forefathers? No, my friends, that
Will never be the verdict of our people. There
fore, we care not upon what lines the. battle is
fought. If they say bimetalism is good, but
that we can not have it until other nations help
us, we reply that, instead of having a gold
standard because England has, we will restore
bimetalism, and then let England have bimetal
ism because the United States has it. If they
dare to come out into the open Held and defend
,th,e gold standard as a good thing, we will fight
them to the uttermost. Having behind us the
producing -masses of this nation and the world,
supported by the commercial interests, the la
boring interests, and the toilers everywhere,
we will, answer their demand for a gold stand
ard by saying to them; You shall not press
down upon the brow of labor this crown of
thorns, you shall hot crucify mankind upon a
cross of gold." . . :
(From the Chicago Convention Speech)"1
-ST. LOUIS CONVENTION
We say to you that you have made the. defin
ition of a business man too .limited" in its. appli
1 cation. The man who is employed for ' 'wages' is
as much a business man as his omp'lbyer, the' at
torney in a country town Ib as much a business
w map as the corporation counsel In a great me
; trqpolis; tho merchant at the cross-roada store
' is, as much a business man as the merchant of
New York; tho farmer "who goes forth In the
morning and toils all day- wh begins In the
spring and toils all summer and who by the
'application of brain and. muscle to the natural
resources of tho country creates wealth, is as
much a business man as the man who goes Upon
the board of trade and bets upon the price of
' grain; the miners, whq go" down a'thousattd. feet
into tho earth, or climb two thousand feet upon
'. th i cliff,, and bring forth from their hiding
hyce the precious metals' to be poured into the
vcMnnhr of. trade tare as much business men as
I HAVE KEPT THE FAITH
4 ',.
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.-. Eight years ago a democratic national , con-
vention placed in my hand the standard q&the
. party and commissioned me as its candidate.
Four years later that commission was Tenewed.
I come tonight to this democratic national- con
vention, to returji the qommission. You may
dispute whether I have fought a good fight, you
may dispute whether I have finished my course
but you can not deny that -1 have kept the
faith. f.
(Extract from St. Louis Convention Speech,
".'.: 19Q4.) '
MILITARISM
. : Governor Black, of New York, Jn presenting
theame of President Roosevelt, to tbSh.
M9J8, .contention,, used these words: m
, , Thejfato of .nations is.itlii decided . bythelr
the gentle praises of the quiet life; you T8
strike from your books tho last note nf?y
martial anthem, and yet out in th sUlfS
war. You may talk of orderly trihnn,
learned referees; you may sing in yu ? . Vnd
thunder will always be tho tm . lW0Ke aQd
the silent, rigid, upturned face. Men
prophesy and women pray, but peace win ay
here to, abide forever on this ear?h only IT
the dreams of childhood are accepted charl .
guide tho destinies of men. arts to
"Events are numberless and mighty nmi
man can tell which wire runs around The Itu
The nation basking today in the quTe anTZ'
tentment of repose may still be on the deadly
circuit and tomorrow writhing in the toii I,
war. This is the time when great figures 1
be kept in front. If the pressure is great th
material to resist it must be granite and iron
whll u 6UiF f War This is a declaration
that the hoped for, prayed for, era of perpetual
peace will never come. This is an exalting o
the doctrine of brute force: it darkens the hones
of the race.
This republican president, a candidate for re
election, is presented as the embodiment of the
war-like spirit as "the granite and iron" that
represent modern militarism.
Do you, men of the east, desire to defeat the
military idea? Friends of the south, are you
anxious to defeat the military idea? Let me as
sure you that not one of you, north, east, or
south, fears more than 1 do the triumph of that
idea. If this is the doctrine that our nation is
to stand for, it is retrogression, not progress.
It is a lowering of the ideals of the nation. It
is a turning backward to. the age- of violence.
More than that, it is nothing less than a cbaU
lenge to the Christian civilization of the world.
(From St. Louis Convention Speech, 1904.)
APPEAL FOR DEMOCRACY
And I close with an appeal from my heart tc
the hearts of those who hear me: Give us a pilot
who. will guide the democratic ship away from
the Scylla of militarism without wrecking her
upon. the Charybdis of commercialism.
- (From St. Louis Convention Speech, 1904.)
BALTIMORE CONVENTION
DEMOCRACY PILLAR OF FIRE AND CLOUD
The democratic party has led this fight until
it has stimulated a host of republicans to action.
I will not say they have acted as they have be
cause we acted first; I will say that at a later
hour than we, they caught the spirit of tho
times and. are now willing to trust tho people
with the control of their awn government.
We have been traveling in the wilderness; we
now come in sight of the promised land. Dur
ing all the weary hours of darkness progressive
democracy has been tho people's pillar of fire
by night; I pray you, delegates, now that the
dawn has come, do not rob it of its well earned
, right. to,be the people's pillar of cloud by day.
i( Baltimore Convention Speech on Chairman-
v ; - ship.)
7e;vi ri fTHE -MORGAN BESOLUTION
Mr. Chairman: I have liere a resolution which
should, in my Judgment, be acted upon before a
candidate- or president is nominated, and I ask
unanimous consent for its immediate consider
ation: v -- ''' :
'"' '"Resolved, That in. this Crisis in our party's
'-;c$rectf jetnd in. our country's fMstbry this conven
'tfVfti sends greetings to the .people and assures
them that the party of Jefferson and Jackson
" is kill the champion of popular government ana
equality before the law. As proof of our fidelity
' to the people we hereby declare ourselves op
: "posed to. the nomination of any candidate for
President who is a representative of, or under
' any obllgatibn to, J. Pierppnt Morgan, Thomas
F. Hyatt, .August Belmont, o pny other member
of the privilege-hunting and favor-seeking class.
"Be it further resolved, Tjist we demand tn8
IvithdraVal from this convention of any dele
gate or .delegates constituting; or represents
'' the above-named interests." ,0 x
... Thls Isv.faji extraordinary .resolution, but ex
. trabrdinary conditions require, extraordinary
remedies.. W are now. .engaged in the contu
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