Great Falls weekly tribune., 1896-09-25
Candidate Bryan Discussed the Sub
ject at the National Capital
Yesterday.
REMARKABLE RECEPTION
Storm Cannot Dispense the Crowd
Nor Interfere With the
Enthusiasm.

park this afternoon. The crowd ex-
ceeded expectations and there was great
enthusiasm. When Mr.. Bryan appeared
he was received with such demonstra-
tion as is rarely accorded public speak
or. For fully five minutes the cheering
continued, Mr. Bryan standing bare
headed and evidently much gratified at
receiving such unmistakable evidence Of
approval of himself and his cause.
For some time before his arrival the
wind and rain laden clouds gave certain
promise of a downpour, and he
had not spoken more than 40 minutes
when the rain came down in torrents,
drenching everyone exposed to it. Still
the great crowd kept their places and
cheered and called to the speaker to go
on. The scene was remarkable one
After waiting some time, however, Mr..
Bryan left the platform and drove to his
hotel Almost every sentence in the
speakers brief address was wildly
cheered.
The nominee opened his speech by a
reference to his four years of official life
in Washington, which provoked the cry,
1--WE will make it four more
He strongly indorsed the home rule
plank in the Chicago platform, and the
audience became especially yociferous,
but there was still greater applause
when he said the democracy stood OPP
posed to life tenure in the public service
and in favor of appointments based on
merit, and in favor of such an admin
istration of the civil service laws as will
afford the equal opportunity to all citi-
zens of ascertained fitness.
"My friends, we are in favor of civil
service reform that means some
thing, and not civil service
law that permits the president to
suspend the civil law until he can get
his friends into Office and permit an
other president to extend the service
just as he is going out, to keep his
friends in.
''We are in favor of fixed terms of
Office in the civil department OF the gov
ernment. We want il 80 that when be
goes in, be will know how long he is 60
ing to stay and when he is going out.
We do not want to build up an Office
holding class and fill our offices for life.
A man when he gets an appointment will
then have no more concern about his
country, except to draw his salary when
due. We believe the life tenure, which
relieves man from all further care,
is destructive to the highest forms OF
citizenship and should not be tolerated
in a country like ours. | want to
call your attention to one other sub
ject, Our opponents are doing as
much for us in this campaign as
we are able to do for ourselves,
and of all the public documents recently
iesued the most important one is letter
given to the public, written by the secre-
tary OF the treasury, from which | de.
sire to quote one sentence: IT is the
duty Of the secretary of the treasury and
all other public officials to execute in
good faith the policy declared by con-
grees. Mark these words, but when
ever we shall be satisfied that silver
dollars cannot be kept equal iu pur,
chasing power with gold dollar except
by receiving it in exchange for a gold
dollar, when such exchange is demand
ed, it will be his duty to adopt that
course
81 want you to mark theee words, be,
cause in these words the secretary oi
the treasury tells you that when the sec.
rotary is satisfied it is necessary he will
commence redeeming silver dollars in
gold. | call your attention to it, my
friends, because want to emphasize the
deception that has been practiced by
this administration on the money ques
ton. When the administration advieec
the repeal Of the Sherman law you were
told the repeal of the Sherman law woulo
remedy the difficulty, and as soon al
that was done the same authority
which promised relief as soon as tina
law WAS repealed, came to congress will
a demand that the greenbacks and treas
ury notes must be retired by the issue o
gold bonds in order to stop the drain OF
the treasury gold, and the secretary in
forms you that even il the greenback
and the treasury notes we're all retired
it would be his duty, whenever in hi
opinion 1t became necessary, to redeem
silver dollars in gold and start anothe
endless chain that would drain tn
treasury.
"Does the administration know tina
when it start to redeem silver dollar
in gold that it will start another endles
chain that will drain the treasury in
definitely and increase the bonded deb
without limit unless they retire all tn
silver dollars and substitute bonds II
their plsceY