Birmingham state herald., 1896-09-08
MIR. BRYAN'S SPEECH
Pitched on the Lofty Plane of American
 Patriotism and Manhood.

fatr1Otlsm ana MannOOd.
 Ladies and Gentlemen:
 I desire to thank the Building and Trades council for this opportunity which they have extended me of speak ing to the people assembled on Labor Day. Labor Day has become fixed event among our institutions, and it is well that 1t is so, because on this day all over this nation those who are engaged in the production of wealth meet in order that they may commune with each other, discuss those questions in which they are especially interested and emphasize be- fore the world that there is nothing dis honorable in the fact that one earns his bread in the sweat of his face. I am glad to stand on this day in the presence of those to whom this nation is so largely indebted for all that it has had, for all that it has now and for all that it can hope to have.
 am not indulgin g in idle fiattery when I say to you that no part of the people of the world are so important to the welfare of mankind as those whose labor and brains convert the natural resources of the world into material wealth.
 I might quote to you what Mr. Carlisle said to these people in 1878 when he de- scribed them as the struggling masses who produced the wealth and who paid the taxes of the country. He did not masses not only produce the wealth and pay the taxes in times of peace, but the struggling maSses have ever been and must ever be the nations
 Surest Protection in Time of Peril.
 The speaker then took from his pocket a copy of an address by Abraham Lincoln, delivered in congress, from which he quoted certain paragraphs, one of which called attention to an effort made to place capital on an equality with. if not above, labor m the structure of government, and following with the assertion that capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed without it.. Labor" sa i'd Lincoln, "is superior to capital, and deserves rauch higher consideration
 MT. Bryan followed with a quota ton from Solomon and continued: Solomon favored neither poverty nor riches. He regarded that condition as best which was at neither extreme, but which lies be- tween the extremes. Neither great riches nor abject poverty furnish us the soil in which grows the best civilization Those who are pressed by poverty lose the ann bitiun the inspiration, the lofty purposes that are necessary to lead one on to the greatest achievements, and those who posseas too great wealth lose the neces- sity for labor that la bor which is abso- Iutely essential to the development Of that which is best in human nature. Solomon was right, therefore, when he praised this intermediate condition, for the great mid- dIe classes are the bulwark of society and from the middle classes has come almost ali the good that has come to
 Bless the Human Race.
 Let me call your attention to the fact thst when the meek and lowly Nazarene came upon men and preached peace on earth and good will towards men He was not welcomed by fhose who are described as people who devour widows houses and under pcetenses make long prayers; but when He gave that great commandment, Love thy neighbor as thyself,' who lis- tened to Him? The scriptures tell US it was tine common people who listened to His cohfna ndments and who welcomed Him It is the greatest compliment ever paid to the Master. The scriptures say fhe common people heard Him gladly and the common people are the only peo- ple who have ever heard gladly any man who preached humanlty and equal rights. tProlnnged applahse.)
 q don't mean to say that there are no exceptions to the general rule. There have always been found among the richer classes those who are filled with the spir- 1t of philanthropy. There have always been round among them those who were willing to spend their lives in the uplift- ing of .f1eir fellows: but I am speaking of the rule-tbat reforms do not come which are not supported by those who consider themselves lifted above the common peo-