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The Commoner
VOL., 22, NO. 6
The Commoner
ISSUED MONTIILY
Entered at tho Pofitomce at Llndoln, Nebraska,
as flccond-claaa matter. '
WILLIAM J. BRYAN, CHARLP3S W. BRYAN,
Editor aild Proprietor Asflociato ISd. and PubliMior
Edit. Itmn and Business Office, Suite 207 Press Bldg.
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THE COMMONER, LINCOLN, NED.
Speaking of tho efforts of the administration
to prevent the price of coal being increased, have
you noticed what lias happened to gasoline
prices sinco the Senate decided to investigate
them?
Tho averago law-abiding citizen finds it diffi
cult to grow very indignant when he reads in
tho newspapers that some rich man's cellar has
been robbed of many thousand dollar's worth of
liquor.
High schools find it comparatively inexpen
sive to hold commencements during the year in
which the biennial election falls. It is a poor
school indeeed that cannot get a senatorial, con
gressional or gubernatorial candidate to deliver
the annual address free of all expenses.
Sometimes events occur that se,em to have di
rect connection. Tho report that Henry Ford
for president clubs wore being organized in
many parts of the country is followed by the an
nouncement from "Washington that the house
committee has changed its mind and has decided
that Ford's Muscle Shoals proposition is the best
one after all. This is likely, however, to alien
ate the affections of the fertilizer trust from the
Republican party.
On the eve of his retirement from congress,
Uncle Joe Gannon says that ho is not in sym
pathy with -those people who are backing move
ments to restrict and restrain personal privileges
in various directions. While in congress Gannon
lived up to this notiou.of the duties of the rep
resentative of a people, in spite of' the fact that
tho chief function of government always has
been to do just that very thing. Uncle Joe may
point -with whatever of pride ho possesses to the
trusts as monuments of his adheronce to the
policy ho enunciates.
The metropolitan newspapers say that the pri
mary system of making .nominations and the
popular election of senators has greatly lowered
the level intellectually among members of con
gress. What they really mean is that it has con
siderably lessened the number of members who
take their orders from political machines and the
big interests that finance them. Tho quality of
a congress is determined by the character of tho
legislation it enacts, and since the primary sys
tem has been in effect the people secured a great
mass of progressive legislation that was never
before possible.
Western farmers, millors, grain dealers and
town merchants have, found a common cause
and a common interest in the movement started
to increase the wheat yields in the winter wheat
belt. They propose to secure intelligent selec
tion of seed and develop better harvesting and
storing methods, the object being to increase the
not return from the high-priced land of this sec
tion. The merchants, millers and' grain dealers
will find it more profitable in the end to assist
in movements that aid agricultural prosneritv
than to pursue the old methods of trying to keen
the farmer poor by taking too heavy a toil of his
produce.
Fairview a Hospital
The readers of The Commoner may be inter
ested 1n the conversion of Fairview, Mr. and Mrs.
Bryan's Nebraska homo, into a hospital. The fol
lowing address, delivered by Mr. Bryan on May
twenty-seventh, to the Methodist Committee and
its guests at a luncheon, sets forth the facts:
"Mr. Chairman, Members o.f the Committee
and Guests: I appreciate the opportunity which
you havo given me to formally present to the
Methodist Hospital Association a deed to our
homo at Fairview. The place is sacred to us
and will ever recall delightful memories.
"The ground upon which the house stands was
selected and purchased in 1893. During the
vacation between the adjournment of the first
Congress in which I served and the special ses
sion of the second Congress, convened in Au
gust, I spent the time at home in the study of
the money question which was then growing in
importance. My exercise was horse-back riding
and I found myself unconsciously turning - to
ward the top Oif the little knoll upon which the
house now stands. It was then in an unfenced
field and I was attracted to it by the fact that it
gave mo a splendid view of the agricultural lands
in that section.
"After my visits to the spot had become
habitual, Mrs. Bryan and I decided to buy it for
the site of the country home which we contem
plated building. I went to the county records to
find the o.wner and soon became the happy
possessor of the title to the five acres. From
time to time I added to it as adjacent owners
wanted to sell until I owned the forty acres upon
which the house stands. Afterwards the farm
was enlarged until it covered nearly a quarter
of a section.
"About fivo years after we purchased the first
fivo acres we built a little cottage upon the knoll
and set out trees about the place where the farm
home was to stand. After that our visits to the
'farm' became more frequent and I often went
out there to write, Mrs. Bryan bringing out a
lunch for us both at meal time. In the summer
of 1901 we arranged for the building of our
country home and broke ground for the same on
tho first day of October, that being the seven
teenth anniversary of our marriage and the
fourteenth anniversary of our removal to Lin
coln. Tho foundation was laid and the brick
barn erected that fall.
"On March 19, 1902, we celebrated another
anniversary (the forty-second anniversary of my
birth) by moving into the barn whore we lived
during that summer, supervising the construc
tion of the house. We observed two anniver
saries again on the first of October following by
moving into the house which was then near
enough to completion to occupy.
"I will digress a moment here to explain that
a house of brick and stone had been, in my mind
from youth, I having inherited it, as it wore
from my father. When he was an orphan boy'
working on a farm for money with which to pur
sue his studies in college, he chanced to be em
ployed by a farmer who lived in a substantial
brick house While there my father conS e
an. ambition to live in a similar home and this
ambition was realized in 1866 when he built a
brick house about a mile from Salem, Illinois
This was my home from the age of six to the aLe
of twenty-three, when I removed from Salem to
Jacksonville, in the same state. ' tD
"I had now realized my ambition, but I must
confess that I was som vhat embarrased by the
unexpected cost of the house. When Mrs Brvan
and I planned the home we hoped to buHd ittoJ
about ten thousand dollars but, as is not unusual
with home builders, we made change after
change, enlarging one room, adding another im
proving finishings, etc., until the estimates ran
considerably above that. I remember that about
this time a friend told mo of overhearing T
publican, riding-on a street car that runs n'
the place, say that I was building a 'twentv thm,
sand dollar home.' It made me indignantha? a
man, merely because ho was politically opposed
to me, would so exaggerate the cost of my house
It seemed offensive partizanship to say the least
But as time went on I began to wish that I could
find a Republican who would guarantee thnfX
cost would not run OVER twfy thoU8ana I?
went higher than that; in fact it Zf , w u
fused to examine the totals. I luat Si if
checks and put the receipts away I do Sn the
today what the place Jh'JStTt
was a much more costly home than I ever 0x
pocted to live in. .So much for the location imi
the building. u
"Wo had quite a time selecting a name. A mul
titude of suggestions, were considered and
turned down. Finally we hit upon 'Fairview' as
being expressive and yet modest. I know of no
spot from which one can obtain a more beautiful
agricultural view. A mountin top gives a wider
oxpanse, but from Fairview we could see for sev
eral miles and were near enough to enjoy to the
full tho colors that come with the seasons. 1 haVe
stood on the front' porch and counted twenty-five
wheat fields and fifty corn, fields, besides groves
and pasture lands. -
"I need hardly add that .we expected to make
it Our permanent home. Our children were
raised there and it 1s hallowed' by the memories
of family life. When Mrs. Bryan found that the
winters were too severe for her we selected a
winter home, first in Texas and then in Miami
Florida, expecting to' occupy Fairview during the
summer months.
"When, later, Mrs. 'Bryan became tho victim
of arthritis, which, while causing no organic
break-down, brought suffering and impairment of
locomotion, it became evident that we could
have only ONE home and Miami was chosen as
the place where she could be most comfortable.
When this change was decided upon we were
brought face to. face with a serious problem:
What should we do with Fairview? The chil
dren were married and settled in other parts of
the country. We could not resign ourselves to
the thought of turning our home over to private
owners, with the-chances and changes that are
involved in it; so we decided to devote it to some
public purpose.
"Just about this time the Methodists were
planning for a hospital. While I am a Presbyteri
an, I am almost as intimately connected with the
Methodists as with my own denomination. At the
time of my birth my mother was a Methodist, al
though she afterward joined the Baptist church
with my father. My wife was raised a Methodist
but afterward joined the Presbyterian church
with me. While at Fairview we attended tho
little Methodistchurch at Normal in order to ho
more closely, associated with our neighbors. Our
only son, who united with the church while we
lived at Fairview, is a member of tho Methodist
church. For many years I. have had delightful
association with the leadership of the church in
Nebraska and elsewhere and appreciate the very
large part that this denomination had had in se
curing two amendments in which I have been
deeply interested, namely, prohibition and wom
. an suffrage. I may add, too, that my law part
ner's connection with the Methodist church has
had no little weight to the attractiveness of the
proposition. Talbot is one of the dearest men I
have ever known. We became acquainted when
at law school together forty years ago. My lo
cation in Nebraska, with all that has followed, is
due to tho fact that he lived here. For more
than four decades our lives have been entwined
and the remaining years are enlivened by the
hope that we may frequently have opportunity to
commune with each other and to review the days
that are past.
"A Christian school is the only institution that
equalled a hospital in attractiveness, and even a
school does not appeal to our sympathies so
strongly as do the sick. Affliction is tho key that
opens our hearts and makes an irresistible call
upon our affections. The knowledge that suffer
ing will be relieved here long after we are dead
will yield more satisfaction than could be de
rived from dividends from a similar amount
otherwise invested.
"To this great branch of the Christian church
we gladly entrust this building which has meant
so much to us. We are,-blessed with children and
grandchildren and havo no reason to doubt that
wo shall find a home with them, but if the time
ever comes when either of us needs the care that
yill be provided here it will be pleasant to know
that such a haven of refuge is open to us. At
.least, we shall have the pleasure of knowing that
the building will shelter many who will find in
it Christian benevolence applied.
"Our prayer's anI blessings accompany the gift
and we thank the members of your Hosptial As
sociation for the opportunity you have given us
to. give it." .
It developed at a New York legislative investi
gation of a proposed merger of independent
steel plants that Kuhn, Loeb & Co., Wall street
brokers, were to get 15 per cent for floating
the stock and a present o half a million dollars
worth of stock. People who demand to know
what is this Wall, street that public defenders
criticise are respectfully invited to step up and
take a. look. Here it is in concrete form.
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