The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1896-11-15
STILL BELIEVES IN SILVER,
BUT WILL GLADLY SHARE IN ANY
FRUITS OF SOUND MONEYS
VICTORY,
HIS EVENING TALK VERY BRIEF.
Effect of His Hard Campaigning
Shown in Almost Complete
Failure of Voice.

| Jennings Bryan delivered two speeches
in Lincoln this afternoon and evening,
which had previously been announced
as the opening guns Of the political
campaign of 1900 Mr.. Bryan this af
| ternoon talked to an audience at the
| Funke theater, composed Of 1850 mem
bers Of the Mary Bryan club Qadies).
| Mr.. and Mrs. Bryan reached the the
| ater shortly before 8 o'clock in the
carriage of a friend, and were escorted
to the place of honor upon the stage.
| President Mrs. William Morning, of the
Bryan club, introduced the defeated
candidate. The pronunciation of the
eX-candidate's name was the signal for
continued applause from forest of
gloved hands. Mr.. Bryan smilingly
acknowledged the ovation, and, when
quiet was restored, said:
Allow me to thank you in behalf of myself
and wife for the interest you have taken
| in the recent campaign, and still further for
! the kind reception rendered upon
turn from Washington.
We initiate what we admire. The child's
life tells what the man will be. l am glad
to see the wives and mothers at last deeply
and fully interested in the great political is
sues Of the day. And if there is motto
| | should wish to impress upon their minds
and to have them carry away in their hearts
to thedir home, that motto is this: That
through and by the people, should be founded
upon this one principle, equal rights to all.
and special privileges to none.'
The common peOple-the masses-those who
are sometimes slightingly alluded to as the
| riff-raf Qaughter), are the very people who
fail to profit by special legislation We do
| not mean to say that perfect equality can
| ever exist among the people, for that, my
| friends, depends largely upon character,
| ergy, frugality and those distinguishing traits
| in human beings which tend by natural agen-
| cies to raise one man above the head of
| other. But what do mean Is that the COM
| mon people, every Of them, shall enjoy
the same legal privileges those of greater
| financial power. That is why we enjoy our
| form of government, because there is justice
| to be had as between man and man, when
! the right 1aw-m makers are elected to serve the
| interests of the people.
In this late campaign 1 advocated the
restoration of bimetallism. Doubtless | had
read more works against free silver than
any speaker who opposed me on the stump.
| When see the great money classes combine
! together to make money dearer, [ know it is
because they mean to profit by it, and not
because they love the people. And when l
find that these are the ones who desire to
continue the system under which we
! have fallen upon these hard times, l want to
| do all in my power to Illustrate their de-
/ signs.
Even my enemies have conceded my physi-
cal endurance, and yet 1 want to say that
my efforts were meager compared with those
| of the people-the common people of this
country. If experience teaches us that our
opponents are right, we shall be able to enjoy
and acquiesce in their victory and It's fruits
| If on the contrary they fail, and we are left
to prove them wrong, we shall at last con-
vince them that our principle was the right
one, and shall ask them to join US hon
estly.
In conclusion. allow me to thank you most
| heartily for the courtesy extended to my
wife and myself. 1t will be forever one of
| the brightest memories of lives, and I
would add that l earnestly hope that those
ladies who are interested in questions of
government and worked faithfully
| fhrO11 OH nj hpir
studies, but will continue to gain an insight
into practical politics, which will prove of
inestimable value in the training OF the COM
| ing generation of voters.
The closing sentences of Mr.. Bryans
speech were well nigh inaudible, his voice
| falling him utterly at times. In this connec-
ton, he said laughingly, that he was glad
that it had not given out during the cam
| paign:
Mr.. Bryan tonight delivered a brief
address to the Travelling Mems Bryan
club, the veterans and Bryan Home
Guards at the Funke opera house and
later spoke a few minutes at an over
flow meeting at Bohannan's hall. His
voice had practically failed him at the
afternoon meeting, and he had not
sufficiently regained the use Of his Vo-
cal chords to speak long. He received
a warm welcome and spoke very
briefly and in general terms of the ne
cessity of carrying on the work of free
silver education and of maintaining
tion this evening came when Gov. Hol-
comb and suite entered the left pros
cenium box. There were wild yells
for Holcomb. But when Mr.. Bryan
was seen treading his way through
the crowd cheers went up which al
most shook the chandeliers and dis
closed very lively bimetallic senti-
ment. Mr.. Bryan said:
Now, have passed the stage of argu-
ment in the silver battle When you discuss
mt IN
the people. They ask you why you believe
in bmetallism or in the gold standard. You
tell them You explain to them; you tell
them what you believe each policy will do.
They say that is prophecy. They may re-
fuse to believe you, but when the time comes
for action, then the successful party must
put its policy into operation, and when those
policies are in operation, then you judge the
effect which they produce. If the Republican
party can make this country prosperous un-
der the gold standard 1t will have to reverse
the laws of nature.
, The test of policy is it's operation. We
have tried to point out what the gold stand
ard has done; what the gold standard was
doing but the fault laid on the tariff
law If we talk about what legislation could
do for silver these men told us law could
not do anything. AS soon as they convince
the public that legislation was powerless to
accomplish anything, they then convinced the
people that little law respecting the tariff
: would accomplish everything. daughter and
. applause) Legislation-important on the
money question and omnipotent on the tariff
question-that has been the logic in this
campaign; that you could not raise the value
of silver by law, but yet, when they came
to discuss the tariff question they have as
: serted that you could raise the price of wages
by law; that you could raise the price of the
farmers products by protective law
We will have a chance to see them as thew
} carry these theories into practice. We have
said that those who had the support of the
great corporations of this country would moi
be in position after election to enforce the
laws against corporations and make them
respect the rights of the people. We shall
I see, now that success has been secured
Now l want to suggest to those who are
going to continue the organizations of their
clubs that they meet at stated times say
once month. or at such times as the mem
bers of the club may decide, and that at these
l meetings they discuss public questions. l be-
Eeve, my friends that the public servant
ought to live continually under the eye of the
master whom he serves. | believe that the
people when they elect man to office should
watch his every act and discuss his every
, vote and speech in order that they may know
YhAther he is a man to be employed in that
+ business or not (Applause) And therefore
7 saw to YOU that these clubs can find ampff
| employment of their time If they will discuss
| from month to month, from meeting to meet
e ing the various questions which arise to in
| terest the American people You tell mt
that is agitation. / say to you, my friends
: that when you go into nation where there
o is no agitation of public questions among the
| can prey undsturbed upon all the rest of the
K people. (Applause.)
v I understand from the papers that the chair
= | man of the Republican national committee
= has suggested that they will also keep VI
their organization. / am glad Of it. havt