The herald., 1896-11-01

| in politics was no less striking than his
antagonism to him on the subject of cor
| porate power.
When Mr. Bryan was in congress he
| was urged to vote against the antitrust
| bill kilograms were sent from the east
| to Mr.. Talbot asking him to urge his
| partner to vote against the bill. Mr..
| Talbot promptly telegraphed to Mr..
| Bryan on the subject. and the young
congressman replied that the interests
! of the common people demanded law
protecting them from the encroachments
| and combinations of corporate power.
| He told his partner that it was neces-
| sary for the life and prosperity of the
nation that the competitive principle
should be kept alive. And that anything
| interfering with it should be restrained.
AN ENEMY OF TRUSTS.
He has constantly said that the failure
/ to enforce the antitrust laws was due
to the apathy of the administration at
| Washington, and he looked upon the
selection of Mr.. Olney for the office of
| attorney-general as part of the gen.
eral scheme for controlling the govern
ment and rendering popular opposition
to unjust corporate power futile.
| He has said many times that the at
| torney- general should zealously press
| the anti-monopoly statutes, SO that II
they should prove defective congress
could promptly perfect them.
He holds that a rich mans property
is as sacred as a poor mans but no more
so, and that the government should be
able to protect its weakest and poorest
citizen against the expressions of the
! most powerful corporations.
Whatever Mr.. Bryan may say now,
have authority for the statement that
up to the time the Chicago platform
was adopted the only important point
| on which he differed from Mr.. Cleveland
was the question of the free coinage of
silver.
APPLAUDED USE OF TROOPS.
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 was the best act of his
| official career
| His partner told me today that Mr..
J Bryan was always denounced and alb
| hored socialism in every form. He has
| insisted that the undue and dangerous
! power welded by combinations of capt.
| tai is the result of Republican legisla-
| ton and the tendency to protect spec
| cial interests by law at the expense of
| the public welfare. As lawyer he in
sists that there can be no difficulty in
restraining or preventing trusts by law.
| He is fond of referring to large
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. Today
! you may see great racks of straw rotting
in the fields. But the paper trust has
stihed competition and accomplished
its purpose of raising the price of paper
Mr. Bryan tells pathetic stories of
how trusts in the east have closed fac
tories. blighted homes and ruined fam
lilies for no other purpose than to limit
production and increase profits.
A GOOD JURY LAWYER.
In court Mr.. Bryan is strong as a
pleader before juries. He deals fairly
with witnesses and gains their conf
dence. He knows nothing of Hiirsplit-
ting technicalities, trickeries and usu-
ally selects one or two points upon
which he will argue, ignoring or spurn-
ing the rest.
(, His partner is a strategist and is not
averse to the use of those subtle and
fine-spun methods by which the ordi-
nary successful advocate attacks his
opponent. The two men could never
agree on plea in any case When Mr..
! Talbot would suggest 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 pow
| er of the land, commanding what IS
right, and prohibiting what is wrong
Now, therefore, Talbot" he would
| say, there is the law. What is right is
right and what is wrong is wrong"
| 1t can hardly be said that Mr.. Bryan
has been a successful lawyer He has
never in his life tried a case in which
| more than S20,C00 was involved. In jack
| sonville he was little more than col
| lector of small debts In Lincoln his
cases have not been important save in
| the few instances where public policy
| was involved.
A KINDNESS TO A POOR MAN.
One day a poor man, who had been
arrested for violating city ordinance
prohibiting the distribution of business
| circulars In the street. went to Mr.. Bry-
ans office and declared that he was
unable to get fair trial because he
| had no money and the constable re-
| fused to serve subpoenas on the wit
| nesses for the defense unless he received
| his fees in advance.
| Mr. Bryan at once applied for man
| damus to compel the constable to act.
| He made ringing speech, In which he
| declared that it was denial of justice
| to insist that a defendant in a criminal
| case should be deprived of the right of
| subpoena service because he could not
pay the costs in advance. "A constable
| may summon bystanders to assist in an
| arrest, ana tney cannot QeInaNu lees Ill
| advance before assisting him." he cried;
| how can he, when elected by them, de-
mand fees of them before serving papers
| in criminal cases?" Mr.. Bryan won the
case and established precedent in the
| Nebraska courts.
| One of his most notable and character
| istic arguments was made in the suit
of John Getchell against the 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 furiously. 1.-The
bounty given by the state" he said,
| Cannot be considered magic wand by
| means of which private enterprise is
| transferred into an internal improve
ment-certainly not until the court has
! held the giving of the bounty itself con-
| stitutional."
Then he quoted a decision of former
| court and said: 1T will long stand as
| bulwark against those abuses of the
| taxing power, which. everywhere plenti-
| full enough, are nowhere more abundant
than in the great west, where every
means of booming a town is anxiously
| sought after and eagerly accepted"
| THE BOUNTY THEORY SCORED.
"If this is public enterprise or an
| internal Improvement then any one
| who employs labor or owns capital and
whose business is supposed to bring in
| creased population to a community and
| higher value to land-as every new en-
| terprise, however small, tends to do
can burden the people with his support.
THE capitalist who, in consideration