The Laurens advertiser. (Laurens, S.C.) 1885-1973, 1896-07-28

alive, and that anything interfering
with 1t should berestrained.
He has constantly said that the fail
ure TO enforce the antitrust laws was
due To the apathy OF the Administra-
ton at Washington, and he looked
upon the selection OF Mr.. Olney for the
Office Of Attorney General as a part of
the general scheme for controlling the
government and rendering popular
opposition to unjust corporate power
futile.
He has said many times that the
Attorney General should zealously
press the anti-monopoly statutes, SO
that IL they should prove detective
Congress could promptly perfect them.
He holds that q rich mans property
is as sacred as q poor mans, but no
more so, and that the government
should be able to protect It's weakest
and poorest citizens against the OPP
pressions OF the most powerful corpor-
ations.
Whatever Mr.. Bryan may say now,
/ have authority for the statement
that up to the time the Chicago plat
form was adopted the only important
point on which he differed from Mr..
Cleveland was the question OF the free
coinage of silver.
When the President sent Federal
troops into Illinois to protect railway
property In the custody of the United
States Court against the Chicago mobs
Mr.. Bryan declared that it vas the
best act Of his official career.
His partner told me to-day that>Mr.
Bryan has always denounced and alb
horred socialism In every form. He
has insisted that the undue and dan
gerous power welded oy combinations
of capital Is the result of Republican
legislation, and the tendency to pro-
tect special interests by law at the
expense of the public welfare. AS a
lawyer, he insists that there can be no
difficulty in restraining or preventing
trusts by law.
paper mill near Lincoln which used to
buy all the straw raised in Lancaster
County at SO a ton. The paper trust
bought the mill and closed it. To-day
you may see great racks Of straw rot
tening in the fields. But the paper
trust has stiAed competition and &C.
complished its purpose OF raising the
price Of paper.
Mr.. Bryan tells pathetic stories of
how trusts in the East have closed
factories, blighted homes and ruined
families for no other purpose than to
limit production and increase profits.
In court Mr.. Bryan Is strong as q
pleader before juries. He deals fairly
with witnesses and gains thoir
confidence. He knows nothing Of har-
splitting t~echnicalities or trickeries,
and usually selects one or two points
upon which he will argue, ignoring or
spurning the rest.
His partner is q s~trategist, and Is
not averse to the use Of those subtle
and fnespun methods by which the
~,1 ,on,f,1 al -N,1 oa1-
his opponent. The two men could
never agree on q plea in any case.
When Talbot would suggest a willy
proposition in a case Mr.. Bryan would
always make the same reply, quoting
Blackstone's definition of the law "a
rule of civil conduct prescribed by
the supreme powor OF the land, COM
manding what is right, prohibiting
what is wrong"
"Now, there, Talbot" he would say,
there is tho law. What is right is
right, and what is wrong Is wrong"
1t can hardly be said that Mr.. Bry-
an has been o successful lawyer. He
has mover in his life tried u case in
which moro than $40, 600 was involved.
In Jacksonville he was little moro
than q collector of small dehts. In
Lincoln his cases have not boon i'm
portant, save in the few instances
where public policy was involved.
One day a poor man, who had been
arrested for violating a city ordinance
prohibiting the distribution Of business
circulars in the street, went to Mr..
Bryan's Office and declared he was
unable to get a fair trial because he
had no money, and the constable re-
fused to serve subpoenas on the wit
nesses for the defence unless he receiv-
ed bis fees in advance.
Mr.. Bryan at once applied for q man
damus to compel the constable to act.
He made IL ringing speech, in which
he declared that it was a denial of
justice to insist hat q defendant in a
criminal case should be deprived of
the right of subpoena service because
he could not pay the costs in advance.
ga constable may summon ~bystanders
to assist in an arrest, and they cannot
demand fees in advance before assist
ing him." he cried chow can he,
when elected by them, demand fees OF
them before serving papers in criminal
cases?" Mr.. Bryan o the case aud
established u precedent in the Nebras-
x Hura.
Ouu Of his most notable and charac-
t~eristic arguments was made in the suit
Of john Getchell against tho auditor
of public accounts of Nebraska, to
prevent the issue of public bonds to
aid a beet sugar factory near Neigh.
Mr.. Bryan fought the bounty idea fu-
riously. "The bounty given by the
State" he said, "cannot be considered
a magic wand by means of which a
private enterprise Is transferred into
an internal improvement-certainly
not until the court has held the giving
of the bounty itself constitutional"
Then he quoted a decision of a for
mer court and said sit will long
stand as a bulwark against those
abuses Of the taxing power which,
everywhere plentiful enough, are no
whore more abundant than in the
great West, where every means OF