Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 40, Number 22, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 November 1907 — THE LAFAYETTE BRYAN MEETING [ARTICLE]

THE LAFAYETTE BRYAN MEETING

Outline of Party Platform As Set Down By Him Has Strong Socialistic Leaning. The much talked of democratic Jackson banquet and Bryan meeting has taken place and the worshiped apostle ot the social inclined branch of distracted democracy has “spake” and the hordes of issue hungering souls who gathered to hear him have enjoyed a few good laughs at the funny things he has said about the republican party. It was a Bryan-mad meeting. Everyone wanted to hear Bryan, and some very able and quite sound principled speakers who had been planning for weeks to respond effectively to the invitation to address the meetin t, were insulted while trying to deliver their speeches Everyone wanted to hear “Bill.” They wanted government theorizing from the fountain of inexhaustible supply, and they were wild to know on what the man that had stolen the party from its old traditions would have to say to give them hope for the future. Some how the tip had gone around that he was going to unloose the basic plan of his claim to become the standard bearer of the various fragments of a once stable theoried party. But the speaker dissapointed them in this respect. He worked off parts of three old Chautauqua adresses on them, giving all a political tinge, and skimmed over the issues of the Bryanesque democracy of the past eleven years, putting, up a little Socialistic talk for government ownership ot railroads, advocating a system of greater protection for the laboring maa, alleging dis honesty in the U. 8. Senate, criticising the increased expense of the army and aa?y, charging Roosevelt with being democratic in spots, and claiming that democratic party success was the only panacea for the trusts. .

Bat fee dida’fc flaring anything new and the boats of hope had to cheer hie old theories. It was a very different meeting from the kind he addressed in 1896, when with the enthusiasm of his 16 to 1 silver coinage theory he was so intent oa saving the country from the cross ot gold that he could not master a laugh. Most everyone heard Bryan in 1896, and his eloqnent pleadings will be remembered as very sincere, bat the'election of a republican president, the adoption of an industry protecting tariff and the consequent employment of labor restored the country to a condition of health and disprovedthe alleged heaven-born parity between silver and the pro duct of the farm and the speech he made that captivated the democratic convention at Chicago would fall as flat now as would the patriotic utterances of Patrick Henry delivered afethishonr. The recent visit of Secretary Talt to the Philippines and the utterences of the onqp recalcitrant but now paeified Aguinaldo furnish excellent proof that the affairs in those islands are progressing satisfactorily, and that the government retention of them and the policy of their control was an act of civilization never before equaled by the act of any government And this disproves the imperialistic dangers portrayed by the wonderful William in 1900, and the contemporaneous claim of appfr»aohing milltiarism went; down with it. As regards the existing money stingency we can point with pride to the 636,000,000 in gold that have oome to ns from foreign shores, based on the honor of the country and its sound dollar laws, and then to revert back to that period of threatened repudiation that caused every foreign town to question oar financial sanity. The republican party has pursued the trusts vigorously, taking

cautiOtronlytiotfeoiQjare theem; ploy ment of labor on which our prosperity is based. It has prevented many dangerous combine tions of capital, it has /ined the Standard Oil Co. $29,000,000, it has broken np the rebate system, it has caused railroad magnates to respect and and obey the law, and it is doing more every day. But the wild theory of government ownership of railroads and all the dangers of socialistic control is left for Bryan, and, should he sue ceed in getting a democratic convention to adopt these principles, which by his failure to set out new issues at this Lafayette meeting would indicate he will do, he will see the party shunned by the sane voters of the country irrespective of political offiliation in the past. Several Bryanesqae propositions have already boon disposed of and voters are quite certain to recognize the menacing dangers of his more recent suggestions.