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About Medford mail tribune. (Medford, Or.) 1909-1989 | View Entire Issue (Aug. 26, 1916)
t should rule- themselves. The day when they rule themselves war will disappear. The hand of Divinity has bo written it In the needs and necessities of humanity made in Its own Image. America, prosperous, peaceful, blessed, Is bo because the Inscrutable purposes of Ood Intended it. The contrast between Europe In flames and suffering and the United States peaceful and prosperous is the di vine contrast Ry saving the American system civilization Is saved. The peace of (From the St. LouW Post-Dispatch, June lfi.) The Appearance of William J. Bryan In the hall at the national convention last night was the signal for a spontaneous and hearty greeting from the Democrats that did not subside until the Nebraskan had been escorted to the platform for a speech. Bryan was late getting into the hall because of the congestion a-t the doors, but scarce ly had he appeared at the back of the press box when the dem nstratlon began. As his familiar figure moved forward, the cheers redoifbled. The galleries began to cry, "Bryan! Rryan!" and the delegates and alternates took it uy, many springing to their feet and waving hats and canes as they yelled. From all parts of the hall came cries of "speech!" Chairman James restored order for the opening prayer, but scarcely bad the amen been uttered when there were re newed cries of "Hryan." Chairman James recognized Senator Thompson of Kan sub, who moved that the rules be suspended and Mr. Bryan be invited to speak. The motion was wildly cheered and a roar of "aye!" signified that it was carried, al though there were scattering "noes." - The crowd continued cheering as a spe cial committee, headed by Senator Kern of Indiana, escorted the Neb rank an to the stand. It was several minutes before the clamor could be quieted. His speech lasted 45 minutes. Text of Mr, Bryan's Address, Mr. Bryan spoke as follows: Mr. Chairman, delegates, ladies and gentlemen: I appreciate the honor that this conven tion does me in permitting me to say a word to the delegates and guests assem bled. Every Democtatic national conven tion la to mc a love feast. It gives me an opportunity to meet and renew acquaint ance with the men with whom I have been intimately associated In politics for now more than 20 years. And appearing be fore you tonight, my mind runs back to the cartipaign of 1896, and to the faces In delibly impressed upon my memory in those trying times. It was then that I beenme acquainted with the leaders of that mighty host of Democracy, whose support in three campaigns I value more than 1 could vaiue any office In the world. - It was then that I learned to know the distinguished gentleman who presided as temporary chairman of this convention. He gave to that campaign the youthful vigor of a man of promise, and it has been a joy to me to continue that acquaintance so happily begun. i learned to know twenty years ago the distinguished gentleman who presides oa the permanent chairman of the conven tion. He was then entering public life as a young man, and, and his Is one of the faces I shall never forget as I saw it in that convention at Chicago. It was twenty years ago that I learned to appreciate the wisdom and the states manship of the distinguished Senator from Missouri who is the chairman of your res olutions committee. And so I might go on enumerating the names of these men with whom 1 was then associated, whose acquaintance I have prized, and whose confidence has awakened a sense of deepest gratitude in my heart. Party Won a Notable Victory, After sixteen years of struggle' together we won a notable victory. After sixteen yeirs of waiting our party entered the White House and. fortunately, we won the Senate and the House at the same time, Our party became lesponsible for the ad ministration of the national government. It was in sole control of executive and legis lative departments, and now we come, aft er three years of labor, to take account of our stock, to make our plans for the future and to submit to the American people the claims of our party to continued confidence. If 1 have not mistaken ' the sentiment of this convention It is different from the convention that I recently attended in a neighboring city. - Our people meet today feeling that they have earned and should have the approval of the voters. Whatever difference of opinion may ex- i 1st, cr may have existed, as to particular j measures or particular acts, we are here to begin the fight of 1916, a united party in every State in the Union, ready for battle. The Democratic party encourages in dependent thought among its members. If they ail thought alike it would be proof conclusive that they did not think at all. Parties exist becaus parties emphasize the points of difference. Harmony exists In parties because the members emphasize the points of agreement rather than the points of difference. And. as in this na tion, the things that the whole people hold in common are more numerous and more important than the .things on which they differ, so In parties men act together because the things upon which they agree are more numerous or more important than the i things upon which they differ. Today those j Who stand for the Democratic party axe I America, demonstrates the folly of war. The principles of democracy furniHh the means of uvoiding and preventing-war. I The universal Intelligence of men decrees that the war now devastating Europe shall be the last war. Sons of America, keep unsullied the sa cred shrine of peace, through whose por tals will yet pass arm in arm the crowned head and the humble peasant In silent wor ship of God. Out of the ruins and sufferings of the 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 the domestic problems, our President, our Senate and our House hovo joined together in giving the country a program of constructive legislation that has no parallel in all the history oClils country. : You may take all the administrations from the beginning of our republic to the beginning of this administration and you will not find as many laws writ ten upon the statute books, of great im portance to the people as you will find written in the last three years by Wood row Wilson and a Democratic CongreM. We found the Republican party in power, with a tariff law written by the beneficiar ies of protection. The President called Congress together as soon as it could be assembled. He presented the pledge of our platform, to reduce the tariff, and the members of our party, co-operating as the President" and Congress have seldom co-operated before, rsdeemed the pledge and wrote upon the statute books the best tarr Iff law we have had In this country in 60 years. It has taken away the power of the trusts to exploit the American people. It has done justice to tho consumers of the coun try, without doing injustice to any of the producers who have relied upon the favors granted by the Republican party. And, as a part of that tariff, law, the country now enjoys an income tax that has relieved those who have borne an unfair share of the burden and placed it upon those whose incomes properly justified it, and who have heretofore escaped their share of the ex pense of the government. As soon as the tariff question had been settled the President asked Congress to give consideration to the question of cur rency reform. For twenty years the Re publican party had advocated currency re form. It had admitted the need of cur rency reform, but it never had the courage to undertake currency reform. The Democratic "party, true to its prom ise and its pledge, prepared a bill, and that bill is now a law, thanks to the courage of a President who was not afraid of Wall Street. The White House on the Side of the People. No president since Jackson has had to meet such an unholy combination of the powers of high finance, and even Jackson himself never met the situation better than Woodrow Wilson has met it We have just commenced to learn what that law means for this nation. Even before It be came a law we learned what it meant to have the' White House on the. side of the people. An attempt was being made to create a panic for the purpose of compelling the abandonment of this proposed legislation. When the evidence, as it came in from dif ferent sections of the country, was suffi cient, the secretary of the treasury went to the White House and I want to call your attention to the 'fact that he went to the WHITE HOUSE and not to the klnga of Wall Street as Republican secretaries had been In the habit of doing and after a brief conference with the Executive he gave a statement to the public announcing that, if any community anywhere needed money to tide it over a temporary em barrassment, it need not go to Wall Street, but could come to Washington, that the government stod for all the people and was ready to protect them. What was the result? The result was that that proposed panic was nipped In the bud. "It folded its tent like the Arab and silently stole away," and since, that time no new panics have been born. This great piece of legislation, the great est piece of constructive statesmanship In j ju generation, has not only broken the hold of Wall Street upon the business of the na tion, but it has broken the grip of Wall Street upon the politics of the United States. I For twenty years there had not been an I election but what a hundred men In Wall : Street could, by the coercion they had in their power, change the result of the elec tion. And one who, like myself, has felt their power, must be pardoned if he re joices that we have an administration that has broken that power and set a nation free. , That currency law restored to the gov ernment the sovereign right Jo Issue the p.aper money of the country. The banking Institutions had filched that power from the government, and having learned the value of its use thy claimed It as a vested privilege. But the Democratic party, acting through a Democratic President, a Demo cratic 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 toot of the tree of private monopoly. The- Republican parly and the Progressive party bad talked of regulating monopolies, present conflict will arise a temple of jus tice whose dome will be the blue vault of I heaven; Its llluminants the eternal stars; its pillars the everlasting hills; its orna ments the woods and bountiful fields; its musio the rippling rills, the song of birds, the laughter of happy childhood; Its diap ason the roar of mills and the hum of in dustry; its votaries the peoples of the earth; I its creed, on which hangs all the law and the prophets, "Love thy neighbor as thy self." Above Its altars in effaceable color but instead of regulating them they allowed the men who furnished their campaign funds to regulate the regulators of monop oly, and the trusts grew, and grew and grew. But, when President Wilson sent his mes sage to Congress he planted himself upon the Democratic doctrine, proclaimed in four campaigns, that a private monopoly is in defensible and Intolerable. . ... Thro Great Measures Carrying Out Platform iyomlses, . Here are three great measures, measutes carrying out the promises of a Democratic platform, and these three great measures constitute a record of achievement which the Republican party dare not attnek. In their indictment of our party ftiey did not dare to mention three of the four measures that embody the economic policy of this administration. Did you see in their platform any denunciation of tho currency law? No. They have not the courage to either admit its value or con demn 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 Repub lican party must now go is net controlled as the convention at Chicago was by the expert representatives 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 ridicule 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 condemn the Income tax nt. Chicago? No; ana they will have the people to settle with if they dare go before them and propose to undo what the Demo cratic party has done, .and put back upon their bended backs the load they carried, 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 challenge 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 denounce 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 nt 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 if they ceased to shine the world would not find It out for centuries after wards; so the Republicans had given to the advocacy of a high tariff a momentum thut 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 se cured tariff reform. But there is one argument that they used to make that thfy can make no longer. Banking upon lack of information among their voters, they used to accuse the Dem ocrats of bringing panics when they ere In power. They overlooked the fact that of the three panics that have come since the Republican party came Into existence, two came under Republican administra tions, and under circumstances where the Democrats could not possibly be to blame. But, banking on theii voters' lack of infor mation, they continued to repent that Male falsehood year after year. They cannot do It any more, for the Democratic party came into power and all their dismal proph ecies have failed. Why, they said that the Democrats could not devise a low tariff law that would stand in time of peace. (3od gave us enough time of peace to dem oust rnte that they were wrong, and then a war came that has demonstrated that even a war can not shade the foundations of the Democratic tariff sys tem. , . While our President and our Congress were at work constructing this splendid pyramid of performance, a war came that threw upon this administration such bur dens as no President hos hud to bear with in the Inst fifty years'; and the Democratic pariy, aside from deserving ihe gratitude ulso for the manner in which it has dealt with (lollcate International problems. We Inherited from a Republican admin istration an insurrection In Mexico. Jt did not arise under Ibis administration. Von will find in the State Department a tele pram sent by Huerta to-thc preceding Pres ident: "I vhave overthrown the govern ment.' Yes, the government w-as overthrown, and this administration has dealt with that situation and the Republican parly dare not challenge a verdict before the country on the Mexican question. Your great chairman today pointed out that our policy had followed the precedent set by one of the most Illustrious of our 'Will live eternally the vision of Its artificer. Therefore, my fellow countrymen, not I, but his deeds and achievements not I, but the spirit and purposes of America; jot I, but the prayers of Just men; not T, but civilization Itself, nominates to succeed him self to the Presidency of the United States, to the Presidency of a hundred million free people, bound in Impregnable union, tho scholar, the Btatesmun, the financier, the emancipator, the pacificator, the moral leader of Democracy, Woodrow Wilson. Bryan Presidents, the greatest Republican Presi dent, Abraham Lincoln; and he Bhowed also what would have been the result had we yielded to the importunities of Interest ed parties, or to the threats of Republican politicians, and invaded Mexico for the purpose of intervention. The President will not lack those who will defend his conduct. Aye, in every home you will find a mother who will thank the President that her boy has not -been sent to Mexico to die In the trenches. We have a few men Interested In ranches, and a few interested In mines, who would use the blood of American soldiers to guar antee profits on their investments in a foreign land. But that is not the senti ment of the American people. The people of this country slund back of Woodrow Wilson in his determination not to inter vene in the affairs of Mexico. Why, my friends, if President Wilson had yielded to the demand of those who clamor for intervention in Mexico, we would no sooner have crossed the line than the same men would have demanded that the soldiers must never come out; for, my friends, annexation Is the next step after in tervention has been undertaken. If we Invade Mexico, these same men will say, "On to Panama." The men who would seek to make this government a conquering nation would destroy all tho advantages gained In the half century dur ing which we have striven to cultivate the confidence of countries in Central and South America. President Trying to Keep Us Out of War. But, my friends, the President not only has had to deal with war to the south of us, but war to the east of us. The. whole world Is in tho throes of a war without a precedent and without a parallel. Three million men have .already died more than the population of one State, If our 48 Stales were equal in populationand more men have been wounded than there are people living In any State in this Union. Tho new debts that have been contracted during this war now amount to as much as all the debts that have como down from all the wars of all past history to the beginning of the present conflict. Five hundred years from now little chil dren will be born into tho world, their necks under a yoke of debt placed upon pos terity by this generation. There have been meetings held In this country at which men of prominenco hnve urged this government to participate in this war. My friends, I have differed from our President as to some methods employed by him to prevent war, but I join the rest of fhe natron in gratitude that at a time like this we have a President who is trying to keep us out of this war. If this convention had done nothing more, It has justified Its assembling by the speech made in the presence of this audience yes terday by the distinguished gentleman from New York who presided as your temporary chairman. He has piled up precedent upon precedent, and all the Democrats of the nation have to do now In order to answer nny criticism of the President's refusal to go to war, Is to take the precedents cited by him and ask, as he did, what did the former chief executivo do In the present crisis. My friends, we do not know when It will be possible to bring this war to a close, but we do know that ours, the greatest neutral nation, Is the one to which the world is looking to act as mediator when the time for mediation comes. I appeal to the sense of justice of the American people; when In God's time, tho honor of mediating shall full to Hub na tion, Is it fair that the honor shall fall to one who has not borne the burden In the heat of the day? Is not the President of tho United States, who for two years has borne a burden such us few men on earth have ever been called upon to carry If he had been able to protect tho neutrality of this nation and to save It from participation In this nwfiil war should not the honor of beiiiK peacemaker come to him, and to the party thnt selected him? Why does the Republican party, some of whose leaders have tried to force th ri dent Into this war, come now, when t .eir efforts have failed, and nsk the honrf of ; being mediator between the contending na tions? A Record lKn Which to Appeal to the People, We hove a recorn upon which we con appeal to the people for thel support, wi'h out ffar and without blush. I believe the American people, grateful for what this administration has done, grateful that we have peace In this country while war stalks throunhout the world, will not bo unmind ful of the fact ..that It was a Democratic President supported by a Democratic Senate and House who has thus saved the coun try from the horrors of war. Who can say what part this nation is destined to play in the future history of the world ? I love my party, not only for what It has done In the past, but for what it must do in the future, as the people's in- "JUDGE PARTY BY ITS RECORD"- Convention Speech of the Great Nebraskan Applauding Work of Wilson. .
