The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1899-03-31

Topeka, Kan, March 30.-The Demo-
cratic conference and banquet under
the auspices of the Democratic state
central committee was held in this city
this evening. Prominent speakers, in
Guiding Colonel William ]. Bryan of
Nebraska, Champ Clark of Missouri.
Allen o. Myers of Ohio and Sidney
Clark of Omaha. were present.
Covers were laid for more than a
thousand guests. The new library hall.
where the banquet was held, presented
a brilliant scene. with thousands of in
candescent lights and decorations of
natural roses, flags and bright-colored
bunting
The meeting was in the nature of a.
conference Of the Democratic leaders.
the policy Of the party in the campaign
Of 1900 being touched upon. Mr. Bryan
himself was given the most prominent
place, his subject being Democracy"
Mr.. Bryan stood out squarely for the
Chicago platform, and said that there
had been no retreat from the positions
taken in 1896.
We are not only holding our own
he declared, but we are gaining back
those Democrats who left us without
fully understanding the nature of the
struggle.
Sometimes we hear pleas for har-
mOnny from those who opposed the
party in 1896" continued Mr.. Brvan
but harmony, instead of being a thing
hoped for. is at last q thing realized:
not a pretended harmony between those
estertaininS antagOnistic principles, but
an actual harmony between those who
are united in a common purpose against
common enemy. The Democratic
party was never more harmonious. and
r. hcrsr -,
admitting within the folds those who
are at variance with it's principles and
aspirations.
The Democratic platform of 1900 Will
be written by those who stood upon
the platform of 1896, not by those Nho
tried to overthrow the Democratic
party in that campaign.
THE failure which attended those
who organized the gold party and wrote
the Indianapolis platform ought to re-
strain them from proffering their SER
vices as platform makers for some
years to come
Mr.. Bryan declared that events have
been vindieatinS the policies proposed
by the Democratic party in 1896.
OPPOSITION TO TRUSTS.
He then passed on to the subject of
trusts. and characterized them as the
products of Republican methods. He
gave this warning:
IF the Republican party goes into
the next campaign upon a platform de-
Tending the trusts, it will antagonize
sentiments which are rapidly growing
against them, even in the ranks of that
party"
Mr.. Bryan closed with a denunciation
of miIitarism and what he termed the
tendency of the present administration
toward imperialism. He said: THE
Republican party came into existence
in an attempt to apply the declaration
of independence to the black man; 1t
seems likely to go out of existence for
it's refusal to apply the same principles
to brown Inan-Only half black"
Champ Clark of Bowling Green, Mo
had for his subject, Prosperity; Past,
Present and Future"
Said he: Printing flaming advertise
ments in metropolitan papers, even IN
the guise of editorials. announcing that
prosperity has arrived, fails to prove
the truth o: the statement to the men
who, though tCiling induStr1Ously in
summers heat and winters cold. ecOno-
I1fZfug TO the utmost, still to find them
selves sinking deeper and deeper itnO
debt as the years go by
I wish to heaven prosperity, univer-
sal and abiding. would come. l care
not who brings it. so it comes. | would
gratefully if brought about by William
Mckinley and a Republican congress
as 1 would if produced by William
Jennings Bryan and Democratic con-
gress.
From the bottom Of my heart wish
President Mckinley well. He is a
most gracious. tactful and pleasant
gentleman. but unless he and the Fifty
sixth congress do more to fulfill the
multifarious and gorgeous promises of
1896 than he and the F'ifty-fifth con-
gress have done. it will become the
agreeable and patriotic duty of Presi-
dent Bryan and the Fifty-seventh and
Fifty-eighth congresses to induct the
country into an era of general and
lasting prosperity.
He was followed by Allen o. Myers
of Columbus, o., whose toast was THE
East and the West
The toast responded to by Sidney
Clark of Oklahoma City was okla
homa. the Next star in the Flag of the
Union"